1906 quake helped Petaluma business community

Locals came to aid of San Francisco and Santa Rosa, then lured San Francisco manufacturers

April 12, 2006

By DANE GOLDEN
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Right after the 1906 earthquake, Petaluma businesses and service organizations rushed to the aid of those suffering in San Francisco and Santa Rosa.

Later, Petaluma tried to steal their businesses.

On the evening of the quake, the Argus reported, Petalumans met en masse at City Hall to "make arrangements for the immediate assistance and relief for our sister city, Santa Rosa." By Thursday morning, "City Hall looked like a big grocery story and bakery combined."

Businesses, service groups and churches joined to help the neighboring cities of Santa Rosa and San Francisco. Petaluma also helped by supplying its fire brigade, National Guard contingent and local doctors, as well as through donations of food, clothing and money. Petaluma also housed thousands of refugees that evacuated to Petaluma for several weeks. The Chamber of Commerce, founded on Feb. 6 of that year, offered to suspend operations and donate its funds to the relief effort.

Although no one in Petaluma was killed the day of the earthquake, local citizens were worried about friends and relatives, neighboring towns, refugees, preventing local fires, aftershocks, smallpox, and the safety of their homes, businesses and schools.

Banks were closed for two weeks, and could not access their deposits in San Francisco. And a number of businesses were damaged, including parts of the Johnson, Miller, Brown, Lynch, Conway and Del Monte buildings, the National and Wickersham banks, the American Hotel, the Carlson-Currier silk mill (later Sunset Line & Twine), and a couple of smaller buildings of Golden Eagle Mills. The McNear hay barn was completely destroyed. And, notably, more than half the residentsÕ chimneys fell over.

But the town got back on its feet quickly, and had a high demand for its food supply and services.

Golden Eagle Mills began running "night and day to furnish flour for the suffering," and the town received an order from the government for 100 cases of eggs for San Francisco. The silk mill was back in business a week later.

And the local business community saw an opportunity to capitalize on the fact that it was not hit as hard by the earthquake as the surrounding cities. Although Petaluma already had a $1.5 million poultry industry and a $1 million dairy industry, the town aspired to acquire some of San Francisco's decimated manufacturing sector.

"The chamber is making a systematic and strenuous effort to personally invite every eligible factory to locate in Petaluma," the Chamber of Commerce wrote in a letter to the Argus, dated May 14. "To that end, advertisements have been inserted in the San Francisco papers, and Mr. Smith goes daily to the city to interview likely parties. In addition to this, the following letter is being mailed to several hundred burnt out factories."

"Petaluma was only incidentally damaged in the recent earthquake," the letter read. "Though it was in the line of territory most affected, yet the natural rocky foundation preserved us from the devastation which was visited upon places not similarly circumstanced. Petaluma certainly escaped with less damage than any other point within a radius of fifty miles from San Francisco."

And at least two publications that year heralded Petaluma as a place where manufacturers could relocate. One pamphlet was put out by the Chamber, called "Petaluma, Lowell of the West," (after Lowell, Massachusetts, where the American Industrial Revolution had begun several decades before). Another pamphlet was "Sonoma County Real Estate Bargains No. 10," put out by Petaluma real estate company J.W. Horn. Horn published and distributed 15,000 of these in San Francisco and perhaps elsewhere. It said, "Attention should be called to the fact that the real damage was not due to the earthquake, but to the fire following, which swept across the cityÉ Petaluma escaped fire altogether and was practically unharmed by the earthquake as the solid rock foundation underneath a rich surface soil make the city practically earthquake proof."

The groundwork paid off. By June 6, construction began on the enormous wine vaults of San Francisco transplant Lachman & Jacobi Winery on the corner of East Washington and Hopper. The company would build the largest brick building in Sonoma County at an expense of $500,000. The facilities would eventually hold five million gallons of wine and half a million gallons of brandy. The company maintained their headquarters in San Francisco, but shipped to Europe, Hawaii, China, and Central and South America.

Also in 1906, Petaluma attracted the Heynemann & Co., makers of "Can't Bust 'Em" Overalls from San Francisco, and added another business called the Petaluma Macaroni and Paste Factory.

(Contact Dane Golden at dgolden@arguscourier.com)