CAPTAIN JOSEPH GALLOWAY
Among the pioneers who came to California in the first rush of the gold
excitement was one distinguished by his energy and enterprise in the upbuilding
and development of San Francisco as a port of the Pacific Coast, was Captain
Joseph Galloway, who was master of the ship Othello in 1849. He had not been
here long before he decided to abandon the sea and make his permanent home in
California. The pioneer spirit was strong within him, the will to dare and
achieve great things in business and colonization. Like many others of his
fibre and initiative, he succeeded in whatever he undertook. Subsequently he
became a leading figure in the lumber industry, an industry essential in the
foundation of a new state and the opening up of commerce in a great natural
seaport. Thirty years of various work and enterprise made Captain Galloway
easily one of the outstanding figures in early California history.
He was born of Revolutionary stock in 1811 at Watertown, Jefferson
County, New York, and was left an orphan when quite young. Living near Lake
Ontario and seeing the shipping on the lake implanted in him a desire to sail
the seas. When fifteen years of age he interviewed a sea captain to ship him as
cabin boy, and from that he worked his way up to a master mariner and
eventually captain and owner of his own ship. He sailed principally between New
York City and the coast cities of the South. He was fortunate on his first
venture to have as guide and teacher, a finely educated man, who gave young Galloway
such a love for Shakespeare and the finest of literature that during all his
life his hobby was education and books.
Captain Galloway married Jane Tyrell Wood, a
young widow of Rahway, New Jersey, who belonged to one of the oldest families
of that state. Their only child and son, Joseph Warren Galloway, was born in
New York City in 1842, in the family home on Water Street.
In 1848 Captain Galloway, master of his own
ship, “Othello,” left Charleston, South Carolina, one Sunday morning with many
passengers and a large cargo, the brother of Washington Bartlett, Columbus
Bartlett sailing with them. So wonderful and serious an adventure was this
considered by the people of Charleston that on the morning of the sailing the
whole city assembled on the wharf where religious services were held. The
voyage was without great hardship, though the “Othello” put into Rio de
Janeiro, where she remained for three months for repairs. The ship sailed into
San Francisco Bay on November 18, 1849, with all its passengers happy and well,
including Mrs. Galloway and her seven year old son Joseph, all of whom endured
the experience of weathering the Straits of Magellan and rounding the Horn. The
first man to speak to Captain Galloway was Don Victor Castro, who rowed to the ship
with a boat load of farm products. This was the beginning of the life long
friendship between the Castro and the Galloway families. From the day of
landing Captain Galloway became a consistent and enthusiastic builder of San
Francisco and the state, both physically and in the higher realm of moral and
spiritual building. His love for California he left as a wonderful heritage to
his descendants.
Living quarters were not to be had, so the
Captain and his family lived on board their ship. “In the Winter of 1850.” To
quote Captain Galloway. “Mr. Pelton commenced keeping a public school. As early
as February of that year I commenced sending my son Joseph to school to Mr.
Pelton, carrying him from the ship in a boat every day and returning at night.”
From that on the public schools of San Francisco were always of vast interest
to the Captain and his son, who died while a member of the Board of
Education.
As soon as possible Captain Galloway, who felt the lure of this Western
Empire went into business in the city. His interests were many and varied
during the years. He ran the first regular line of vessels to leave San
Francisco harbor ---The R. &. G. Line----as it was known, and which went
north as far as Washington. The northern country at that time was more or less
wild and savage, and on more than one occasion a vessel entering a harbor to
trade was captured by Indians, who killed the crew and sacked the ship, causing
losses amounting to $100,000.
Captain Galloway was in the pile driving
business, was a contractor for wharf and bridge building and lastly in the
lumber business. The firm of Galloway and Boobar had large yards in San
Francisco, Antioch, Pittsburgh and Nortonville in the early '70s.
Of actual physical city building may be mentioned the Washington Street
wharf, the first pile driven wharf in the city and built in 1853. So important
was this to the city that the Harbor Commissioners sent Captain Galloway a
letter under date of November 25, 1853, containing the following:
“Dear Friend: You will receive with this a
gold watch and chain for yourself and a diamond ring for Mrs. Galloway, which
please accept as a token of regard from your friends for the very great benefit
they have received by your enterprise and perseverance in carrying out and completing
so promptly the Washington Street wharf.” The commissioners signing this letter
were: H. A. Breed, P. Frotheringham and Charles O. Welk.
The southwest corner of East and Market
streets was made solid by being driven with piles and having the Russian ship
Rome driven in and sunk there, thus reclaiming this corner for the captain.
This is but one instance of Captain Galloway’s activities in making solid
ground for the city below Montgomery Street.
Before a regular government was established Captain Galloway was a member
of the Amphictonies (League of Neighbors). In 1851-1852 he was assistant
alderman. Until his death Captain Galloway was engaged actively with his
lumbering interests concentrated at Antioch and San Francisco. Like most
pioneers he did not go to a place save to benefit it, and as in San Francisco
so in Antioch was Captain Galloway’s interest and generosity shown, and with
his partner he helped to build up this town. Both the Congregational and the
Catholic churches and public school were able to become established through
their generosity. To two of these institutions blocks of land were given to the
other a large money contribution.
Captain Galloway died at the family home
1409 Powell Street, in 1877, at the age of sixty-six years. His wife had died
in 1865, leaving the only son, Joseph Warren, at that time one of the youngest
pioneers of the state, and who married Anna Barbara Morrison in 1867, of an old
family of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, who came to California across the Isthmus
in 1862. Joseph Warren Galloway retired from business in the '70s devoting
himself to the management of his properties and interesting himself in civic
affairs. Both Captain Galloway and his son were life members of the Pioneer
Society.
Joseph Warren Galloway was educated in the
public schools of San Francisco and also attended the school at Oakland
conducted by Mr. Durant, a school that became the nucleus for the University of
California. He studied law in the office of Mr. Holliday, one of the early
pioneers celebrities, and was admitted as an attorney and counsellor of the
Supreme Court of California on the seventh day of April, 1863.
When but twenty-eight years of age Joseph W.
Galloway was assemblyman from Contra Costa County. In 1879 he was elected a member
of the Board of Education of San Francisco and was chairman of school houses
and sites. He contracted pneumonia while in office and died May 10,1880, in
this thirty-eighth year, leaving a wife and five young daughters, now all grown
with children of their own. Mrs. Joseph W. Galloway died in 1919.
The five daughters who survive her are
Josephine Belle, wife of George Edwin Peoples: Mai Mead, wife of Robert Austin
Morrissey; Sonia, widow of the late Murray F. Vandall, Genevieve Gertrude, wife
of Thomas R. Macom; and Anita Warren, wife of Henry de Haan. There are now in
California Great-great-grandchildren of Captain Galloway, the latest child
being Curtis Hall Montgomery, grandson of Mrs. George Peoples.
Louise E. Shoemaker Transcriber February 25, 2004
Source: "The San
Francisco Bay Region" by Bailey Millard Vol. 3 page 107. Published by The
American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.
© 2004 Louise Shoemaker