San Francisco County
Biographies
FRANCIS KITTRIDGE SHATTUCK
FRANCIS KITTRIDGE SHATTUCK .--Among those who were participants in
the early settlement of Oakland, this gentleman is one of a firm surviving who
has retained a continuous residence here, and been a prominent factor in the
building up of the city. In public and private enterprises, in civil and
political life, he has been a leading, moving spirit from the day when Oakland
commenced her life as a village until the present, when she begins to give
promise of a future for which her founders could scarcely have dared hope. A more than passing notice of him therefore becomes a
valuable and indeed essential feature of a volume of this nature, and a brief
sketch of his career, giving some of the salient features, is herewith
presented.
He
is a native of New York, born on the banks of Lake
Champlain, at Crown Point, Essex county, March 6, 1825, his parents being Weston and
Elizabeth (Mather) Shattuck. Both parents were
natives of Massachusetts, and of old New
England families, and the father was a farmer by occupation. The
subject of this sketch was reared to farm life at his native place, and his
education meantime had received such attention that at the age of eighteen years he was competent to teach a common school.
This vocation he followed for four years during the winter months, and spent
his summers during that period in attendance at a seminary. Having thus rounded
out a very good education by his own endeavors, he gave up teaching, and, going
to Vermont, entered the mercantile business as a clerk
in a store at Pittsford, at which place and at Bridgeport
he was thus engaged for two years. The discovery of gold in California,
and the consequent excitement throughout the world, caused his mind to turn in
this direction, and he decided to take the chances of making his fortune in
this far-away land. In company with three other young men, Messrs. Mitchell,
George M. Blake and William Wadhans—all of whom are
now deceased—he went to New York city,
and there took passage on the steamer Cherokee, which left there January 14,
1849, for Chagres. Arriving
there they proceeded by boat to Gorgona, and thence
to Panama on foot; from that point
they became passengers on the steamer Oregon, and,
continuing their journey without unusual incident, landed at San
Francisco February 22, 1850. They started without
delay for the mines, going to Sacramento by steamer,
thence in a Whitehall boat to
Marysville, and from there afoot to Rose’s Bar, to which point they hired their
belongings transported.
Their
first mining experiences were not very successful, and after
a month or two they proceeded to Nye’s Crossing, on the Middle Yuba,
where, after looking over the ground, they commenced the work of turning the
river from its channel. This they accomplished, but were not so successful in
their search for gold, no metal of consequence being taken out. The party broke
up after this failure, some of its members going to Nevada
City, where Messrs. Shattuck,
Blake, Kleinfelter and William Hillegas
operated as partners. While the other members of the company sank a deep shaft,
Mr. Shattuck hauled gravel from the hills down to Deer creek for washing. They
were fairly successful in their work there, which continued from August until
the setting in of the rainy season, which commenced that December. They then
went to Goodyear’s Bar, on the North Yuba, and there and
at Downieville they mined until January, 1852. Then
they left the mines and proceeded down to the region
surrounding they bay of San
Francisco. Messrs. Shattuck, Hillegas,
Blake and Leonard took up 640 acres of land, a portion of which is now included
in the university grounds. Messrs. Shattuck and Hillegas
farmed in partnership, and also established themselves jointly in the livery
business in Oakland They also embarked in stock-raising, and in 1860 opened up
the Mount Diablo Coal Mines. They built the Shattuck & Hillegas
Hall, which was the recognized place of public gatherings, and many stirring
meetings were held within its walls, notably those having something to do with
the entrance of the overland railroad into the city. In 1869 this hall was
converted into a theater, which retained the name of the proprietors, and which
was opened as a place of entertainment January 25, 1869. In all these varied
business enterprises these gentlemen remained associated until 1876, in which
year Mr. Shattuck closed out his mining, livery and stock interests. He has
ever since been connected with the movement of real estate in this vicinity as
an investor, and for a portion of the time as a builder. In fact his principal
business interests may be said to be in real estate, of which he has large
holdings in Oakland and Berkeley.
In the latter place he has 120 acres platted in town lots.
With
most of the measures which have been from time to time adopted for the
improvement of Oakland, he has been
more or less closely identified. Among the first railroad enterprises with
which he has been connected was the Oakland Railroad Company, which, on
December 27, 1864, petitioned the city council for the privilege of building
and maintaining a railroad from a point at or near Broadway wharf to a point in
Oakland township, at or near the lands belonging to the College of California,
through Broadway and Telegraph road. This company obtained its franchise from
the Legislature, May 3, 1866, the original incorporators names being F. K.
Shattuck, F. Delger, C. B. Wadsworth, Israel W. Knox,
A. Hersey, S. E. Alden, I. H. Brayton,
F. E. Weston, B. F. Ferris, S. H. Willey, George Goss and George H. Fogg, March 15, 1866, the Amador Water Company was
incorporated by F. K. Shattuck, J. West Martin, J. S. Emery and J. W. Dwinelle, with a capital of $1,000.000, its object being to
supply Oakland and the town of Alameda with fresh water from springs, wells,
the laguna in the valley of Amador, and the laguna from Las Positas in
Livermore valley, and from all other available sources. February 13, 1871, the
Home Gas Light Company, incorporated by F. K. Shattuck, Charles Webb Howard, Sextus Shearer, C. T. N. Palmer, A. C. Henry and J. West
Martin, obtained from the City Council of Oakland a franchise for the purpose
of establishing a gas manufacturing plant, laying mains throughout the city
streets, etc.
In
1870 Mr. Shattuck petitioned the council for the privilege of building a wharf
on the Oakland water front, and on the 2d of May of the same year he, with
Hiram Tubbs, J. West Martin, W A. Bray, W. Van Voorhies,
T. LeRoy, A. J. Snyder, George M. Blake, Harry Linden
and Allen J. Gladding, was granted the right of way to lay down and operate for
twenty-five years a railroad from Fruitvale to and upon Twelfth-street bridge,
Oakland, and one on Adeline street to University avenue. These were all bona
fide enterprises, originated from the idea of improvement and profit, and,
while they can not all be classed as successful, all
had their bearing on the general advancement of the city’s prosperity. In 1866
Mr. Shattuck erected one of the finest brick buildings in the city, a
substantial business structure on the corner of Broadway and Eighth streets.
He
has been President of the Mutual Endowment Association since its organization,
and was one of the organizers of the Oakland Home Insurance Company, of which
he is a director. He has also been director of the First National Bank for some
twelve years previous to this writing. He is also one of the originators and
the prime movers in the Oakland and
Berkeley Rapid Transit Company, for the purpose of building electric roads, and
is president of the company, which is rapidly pushing its work.
In
public affairs Mr. Shattuck has taken an active and prominent part. He was Town
and City Clerk under the first organized government for Oakland,
and was Clerk of her first Board of Trustees, being elected May 17, 1852, and
serving until his resignation in January, 1853. March 3, 1856, he was elected a
member of the City Council, and served during the year 1856-7. March 3, 1858,
he was again elected to the Council, and was chosen President of that body on
the 8th of the same month. March 7, 1859, he was elected Mayor of
Oakland, and served in that capacity one year. Upon the election of the new
corporative officers March 7, 1859, it was resolved by the outgoing council
“that the thanks of his body be extended to F. K. Shattuck for the able and
impartial manner in which he has discharged his duties, and that our
congratulations be offered him upon his unsought elevation to the Mayorality of this city.”
March 5,
1862, he was again elected to the City Council, and by virtue of successive
re-elections, held a seat in that body until 1867. He was chosen President of
the Council March 14, 1864. While in that position, at a special meeting of the
City Council held April 18, 1865, consequent upon the news of President
Lincoln’s death, Mr. Shattuck offered the following resolution, which was
unanimously adopted:
Resolved,
That the untimely death of the Chief Magistrate of the Nation at this
particular crisis is a calamity that must be deplored by every good citizen,
coming as it does at the very commencement of the fruition of the great and
patriotic measures which he virtually maintained and vigorously upheld during
the long and trying period of his public career. We confess that our grief is
mingled with the fear that no living man can accomplish all that his patriotic
devotion could have achieved. In view of the great loss which the people of the
American continent and of the whole civilized world have sustained in the
catastrophe, we recommend that all places of business be closed on the 19th
day of April, 1865, and that our citizens generally participate with the people
of the United States on that day in rendering homage to the history and memory
of the great departed.
During
much of the time of his connection with the City Council, Mr. Shattuck was also
a member of the County Board
of Supervisors. He was first chosen by the people to that position September 2,
1857, and re-elected September 1, 1858. September 7, 1859, he was elected to
the Legislature of California, and served in the ensuing session. November 6,
1860, he was again elected to membership in the Board of Supervisors, and
served continuously until 1869. November 3, 1862, he was chosen Chairman of the
Board, and held that position during the remainder of his connection with that
body. He was also chosen as one of the managers of the county hospital in 1864.
During his incumbency of the Chairmanship he was again elected to membership in
the Board, September 3, 1873, and remained in that position until 1876.
November 11, 1872, the Board of Supervisors passed the following resolution,
which speaks for itself:
“WHEREAS,
Mr. F. K. Shattuck, now and for many years a member and Chairman of this Board,
is now about to retire from the duties in this Board;
“Resolved,
That we do now extend to Mr. Shattuck the thanks of the board for the able,
untiring and energetic manner in which he has for so long a time discharged his
duties among us, and the cordial and uniform kindness and correctness which has
always characterized his conduct as a Supervisor and Chairman of this Board.”
During Mr.
Shattuck’s incumbency of the Chairmanship of the Board Supervisors, the county
seat was removed to Oakland, and
the present court-house was built, and in both these matters, as well as in the
selection of the site, Mr. Shattuck took an active and prominent part. He was
one of the committee of prominent citizens which guaranteed a site for the
county buildings. February 3, 1868, he was appointed by the Board a member of a
committee of three to draft a bill to be submitted to the Legislature,
authorizing the Board of Supervisors of the county to issue bonds for the
purpose of erecting buildings for the State as an inducement for the removal of
the State capital to Alameda county. Mr. Shattuck is a prominent and influential member
of the Republican party, and has served on the State
Central Committee of the party, and was a delegate to the National Convention
of 1872. During the war, his sympathies were strongly with the Union cause, and
his voice and most earnest endeavors were given to the support of the National
Government. At the County Convention of the Union party, held at San Leandro, June 14, 1862, he was chosen a delegate to the
State Convention, and October 29, 1864, acted in the capacity of Marshal of the
Northern Alameda county division of the great Union parade held at Oakland on
that day, which was one of the greatest political outpourings in the history of
this community. Mr. Shattuck has passed the chairs in Live Oak Lodge, No. 61,
F. & A. M.; is a member of Oakland Chapter, R. A. M., and a charter member
of Oakland Commandery, No. 11, K. T., organized
January 18, 1876. He has held the Presidency of the Masonic Temple Association
since its incorporation. June 25, 1878, and took an active part in the erection
of the building belonging to the association.
He was married in New York
State, December 30, 1855, to Miss Rosa M. Morse, a native of
that State. Mr. Shattuck is a man of strong individuality, yet entirely
unobtrusive in manner. He has been intimately associated with the history of Oakland, and takes deep interest and commendable pride in her
progress. Occupying as he does today a position in the foremost rank of her
most solid and substantial citizens, he can reflect that his success in life
has been due entirely to his own exertions, and in no small degree to his
steadfastness in adhering to purpose. He had but a meagre
start in life when he came to the present site of this city, and though he has
produced splendid financial results the citizens of Oakland universally conceded to him the merit of having well
deserved his properity.
Transcribed by Donna L. Becker.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages
441-445, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Donna L.
Becker.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library