CAPT. ISAAC BLUXOME

 

Capt. Isaac Bluxome.  For all time must the great State of California pay honor to those sterling and resourceful men who constituted the vanguard of the great army of immigration that swept foreward into this commonwealth in the historic year of 1849, which marked the discovery of gold and ushered in the year of development and progress in the state.  He to whom this memoir is dedicated was one of the gallant '49ers of California, played well his part in the stirring events of the pioneer days, marked the later years with excellent achievement, and lived to see California become one of the foremost commonwealths of the Union.  This honored pioneer passed the closing period of his long and useful life in his pleasant home at 1422 Hyde Street, San Francisco, and was sixty-four years of age at the time of his death, November 9, 1890.

 

     Of staunch English and French ancestry, Captain Bluxome was born in New York City, in the year 1826, his father having been an Englishman of sterling lineage and his mother having been a daughter of Gen. John DeCamp, who served as an aide-de-camp on the staff of General Washington in the War of the Revolution.  Mr. Bluxome gained his early education in a school conducted by a clergyman, Rev. Francis Hawkes, at Flushing, Long island. At the age of sixteen years he found employment in a hardware establishment in the national metropolis.  He continued to be thus engaged until he was about twenty years of age, at which time his great love for soldiery had gained him notable prominence as a member of the Seventh Regiment of New York, better known as the "Kid Glove Regiment."

 

     In January, 1849, he took passage on the bark Madona and sailed around the horn for California.  He arrived in San Francisco in June of that memorable year of gold and attendant excitement.  Within a month he was engaged in the mercantile business and his establishment, along with hundreds of others, was destroyed in the great fire that swept the city at that time. As soon as conditions permitted he resumed business and gained secure place as one of the substantial and representative business men of San Francisco.  The following record of his life in California is well worthy of presentation:

     "When Isaac Bluxome arrived in San Francisco the city was under a reign of terror, by reason of the activities of the 'Hounds,' and organization of thieves and ruffians to which, it is said, many young men whose families in the East were respectable had been attracted.  Captain Bluxome took a prominent part in ridding the city of this dangerous element, as he became a member of the Citizens Bank of Safety in 1949-51.  He took the lead in forming a citizen soldierly, and was the founder of the First California Guard and captain of Light Battery A.  Isaac Bluxome is better known as 'No. 33' to those citizens of San Francisco who know of the early day of the city only through history.  The birth of the 'Committee of Safety,' better known as the Vigilance Committee, was caused by the necessity for the protection of the interests of the citizen owning property.  Criminals and ballot-box stuffers had made it impossible to have an honest election, and the courts were suspected, in many instances, of favoring the criminals at the expense of justice.  That William T. Coleman was the president and Isaac Bluxome the secretary was not known to the public while the committee was in power.  Everything was done with a secrecy and effectiveness that were a cause of dread to the persons against whom the committtee's work was directed, and the action of the organization was resolute and fearless.  All published notices concerning the meetings and activities of the committee was simply '33 Sec.' The orders of the committee were signed in the same way, and the mysterious person designated at 'No. 33' was one whom the criminals swore to kill. Undoubtedly Captain Bluxome would have been killed had his identity been discovered."

 

     In noting the death of this honored pioneer the same newspaper article refers to him as "one of the most noted of the men who built up San Francisco in the days of the '50s."

 

     The funeral of Capt. Isaac Bluxome was held from his home, 1422 Hyde Street, and surviving pioneers, representative men of affairs and other friends in all stations of life, assembled to pay a last tribute to his memory.

 

     In the year 1864 was solemnized the marriage of Captain Bluxome and Miss Gertrude T. Truett, daughter of Miers F. Truett and granddaughter of Gen. Henry Dodge, a distinguished officer of the War of 1812, who served as governor and also as United States senator from Wisconsin.  Mrs. Bluxome survived her husband several years and was one of the loved and revered pioneer women of San Francisco at the time of her death.  Mr. and Mrs. Bluxome became the parents of nine children, all of whom are living at the time of this writing, in 1923, and the most of whom reside in California.

 

 

 

Transcribed 6-10-04  Marilyn R. Pankey