CHARLES H. JOLLY

Sacramento County

Biographies

CHARLES H. JOLLY

A venerable and highly esteemed pioneer, whose recollections of early days are of never failing interest to all who treasure the history of the Golden State, is Charles H. Jolly, a retired merchant of Folsom City, who has been a state guard at the Folsom Prison since December 18, 1893. He was born at Jollytown, Greene County, Pa., June 18, 1837, and is now the only surviving son of Titus and Rachael (Powndston) Jolly, both natives of Old Virginia, who pioneered together in clearing the forests in Pennsylvania for the townsite of Jollytown, named for Titus Jolly. Few men excelled him in that day of hard struggle, against great and heavy odds, when as a farmer, blacksmith and wagon-maker, he helped to blaze the way in the march of civilization for others.

Charles left home at the age of thirteen, and drifted about at common labor, making his way through West Virginia; and when sixteen years old, he started West with his brother Samuel. They crossed the plains by way of the North Platte River, and he arrived on November 28, 1858, at Hangtown, now Placerville, his brother having lain over in Virginia City, where he remained. For about three years Charles prospected, in placer mining, with pick and shovel, and in 1861 he located at Folsom, then a lively center and the railroad terminus. He conducted a store for six years, and on January 11, 1862, with a partner, Mr. Berry, built over night a boat, on which they made a trip the next day to Sacramento City, twenty-two miles away, on the high waters of the memorable flood of that year. While en route to Sacramento, they saved a valuable dog which had taken refuge on a haystack on a neighboring farm and brought it to Sacramento, for which, when they returned the faithful animal to its appreciative master, they were amply rewarded. They spent one day in the capital city on their boat, conveying people through the Venice-like streets from place to place, and when evening came sold their boat for $75, and returned to Folsom City by means of the steam railway. This adventure was typical of the spirit of the time in which they lived, and is one of the best of Mr. Jolly’s stories.

As a merchant, Mr. Jolly made an enviable reputation for progressive methods and ideals, and after burning out in 1867, he went to Washoe City, Nev., and for five years followed placer-mining with fairly good results. In 1873, he removed to San Francisco, and there for seven years he was an employee of large wholesale establishments. In 1880, he returned to Folsom, and with two partners conducted a general store, until he sold out, in December 1893, as the result of a thrilling event at the near-by state prison, leading to a shake-up and reform. After the famous Sontag break in that year, Warden McCombs solicited Mr. Jolly to become a guard at the prison, and from a sense of duty, he responded to the call and disposed of such private interests as would otherwise have stood in his way. Since then Mr. Jolly’s record as a guard and officer in every department of the prison has been and is above reproach, and he has the distinct honor of being the eldest of any of the state prison guards in California, and the one who has longest been in office. He is known as both a fearless and thoroughly capable man, and his experiences have been sent abroad throughout the country many times by newspaper syndicates.

Some of these experiences, in which other brave officers besides Charles H. Jolly participated, are full of the romance and high-lights found in fiction founded upon real life. On July 27, 1903, for example thirteen desperate convicts in Folsom Prison assailed the guards, captured the prison armory, and escaped, carrying with them Warden Wilkinson and Captain R. J. Murphy. They had armed themselves with “file” knives and razors. Two of them turned on W. A. Chalmers, the outer gatekeeper, and stabbed him in the arm while the others rushed into the captain’s office, captured the warden, captain and other officials and taking them as shields, demanded that the armory be opened to them, or they would slaughter all the officials. The armory was opened and they supplied themselves with rifles, revolvers and ammunition, and still holding their prisoners to shield them, demanded that the main gate be opened, under the same threat, and it was done. To the lasting honor of two prisoners, be it said, Joseph Casey, a life-termer, slammed the inner door, preventing a general escape. O. C. Clark, another convict, doing twenty years for forgery, dropped down in the office, and going to the warden’s office, gave the alarm, which was telephoned to Folsom, and the big siren was sounded. The warden and officers were released and returned to the prison, their captors having exchanged clothes with them. Chief Turnkey Joseph Cochrane had been badly stabbed, and Guard William Cotter was dead and others wounded. At Pilot Hill the convicts were overtaken by posses, and J. J. Allison, a convict, was killed. On August 1, as a militia company from Placerville was trailing the convicts on a hill near that place, they were fired on from ambush, and two of them, Festus Rutherford and Charles Jones, were killed, and William Gill wounded. The convicts split into two bands, and posses hunted the foothills and mountains for them. Roberts was captured in a grain-field near Davisville, on August 5, by Deputy Sheriff John J. Hinters of this county. Roberts and Howard had come to Sacramento, and passed the night at Agricultural Park, separating afterwards. Seavis, the negro convict, was captured on August 6 at Auburn, the Sheriff Keene and Deputy Coan. Fahey had a battle on the night of August 7 with Detective Max Fisher and Deputy Sheriff Wittenbrock, but got away in the dark. On August 23, Murphy was captured by officers at Reno, and Woods was captured in the same city the next day. Roy Fahey, “Red Shirt” Gordon and some of the others have never been captured.

On December 30, 1904, a desperate attempt was made by seven convicts engaged on the rock-crushing plant in the prison grounds, to duplicate the break of 1903, but it was a disastrous failure. Warden Yell, anticipating that such an attempt was contemplated, had given strict orders to the guards to fire on the convicts, no matter who might be killed, if such an attempt were made. The convicts were aware of the order, but did not believe that it would be carried out. They stopped the machinery by throwing a sledge hammer into the rock crusher, and when Captain Murphy went to see what was the matter, they seized him and also Charles Jolly, using them as shields. The convicts had cached a number of knives made from pieces of steel, with which they threatened to kill their prisoners. The convicts were Charles Carson, W. J. Finley and F. Quijada, all life-termers, and D. Kelly, W. Morales, J. Quinlan and H. C. Hill. The guards began firing, and in less time than it takes to tell it, Morales, Quinlan and Hill were lying dead, and the others badly wounded. Captain Murphy and Charles Jolly, whom they had used as shields, were both wounded by bullets; Finley and Carson, being life-termers, were convicted after their recovery from their wounds, and sentenced to hang, but stayed their execution for a while by an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Jolly, to the satisfaction of a wide circle of friends, survived a situation such as few would care to face, for the mere sake of a thrill.

At Folsom, and on May 17, 1867, Mr. Jolly was married to Miss Evelyn Heaton, a native of Peoria, Ill., where she was born on January 11, 1844, the daughter of James and Carolyn (Jacobs) Heaton, the former a native of New York, where he was born in 1821, and the latter a native of Connecticut, where she first saw light in 1816. In 1834, they migrated to Illinois, and after living there for eighteen years, they crossed the great plains to California in 1852. Mrs. Jolly has a most remarkable memory, and she is able also to delight her admirers with reminiscences of her trip, as one of a party traveling in forty-two covered wagons. They arrived on August 16, 1852, making the record trip for the shortest time, so it is said, ever taken by an immigrant train to cross the plains from Illinois to California. The family stopped a short time at the Beckley Hotel,

Sacramento, and later Mr. Heaton became prominent as a farmer, although he was really a veterinary surgeon; he had

returned East for study, and was duly graduated, in 1868, from the State Veterinary College in New York. He was scientific

in his methods of agriculture, and contributed something definite to the advancement of the farmer in California. Before his

death he had owned a rich farm on Auburn Boulevard, northeast of Sacramento. Mrs. Jolly’s mother died on April 22, 1900,

and a year later, on December 29, her father passed away.

Mrs. Jolly recalls vividly the time when she and her sister rode horseback from the ranch to Folsom City, in 1856, to witness the arrival of the first steam-cars in California, on the line which was newly completed from Sacramento City to Folsom City, the year before she graduated from the Presbyterian Academy at Folsom. Fifteen years ago Mr. and Mrs. Jolly removed to Represa, arriving in September, and now they have a comfortable home just outside the gray walls of Folsom Prison, on a sightly hill, next to the beautiful gardens and home of the warden.

Mr. and Mrs. Jolly are rightfully the holders of a very honorable and a unique position among the residents of this county; and in May 1918, the whole countryside turned out to help them celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. The I.O.O.F. hall at Folsom was crowded to overflowing, although it is one of the largest halls in the county. The happy couple have served the community faithfully, and deserve to enjoy, as they certainly do, the esteem of all who know them. They contribute as liberally as they can to public and private charities, and seek to be of service at all times to those less fortunate than themselves.

Transcribed Joyce Rugeroni.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 334-335. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.