Day # 156 The Swift Hand

This weekend, whist wandering the streets of San Francisco, I came upon one of the oddest historical plaques I have seen.  And this is what it looked like:

Landmark 90 

Site of Fort Gunnybags 

243 Sacramento Street 

Built 1856 -- 

Destroyed 1906

Who were the Vigilance Committee and why did they have such a crappy name for their fort?  I built lots of forts as a kid and my tribe of hooligans and I would never stoop so low.  From the saddles of various motos, I have stopped to survey many an old fort site, reproduced, tumbled down or nothing more than a historical marker on a dusty pull out.  Regardless, none of these were stuck with such a poor appellation as "Fort Gunnybags".  I had to know more.

The gold rush of '49 brought the population of San Francisco from a few hundred flea-bitten souls to over 20,000 with more coming all the time.  As fast as they could, the newcomers were off to the gold country, including most of the law enforcement staff, the newspapermen and almost everyone else.  A great percentage of the population who remained in the growing city were employed in fleecing the soon-to-be miners on their way to the gold fields and re-fleecing the soon-to-be-poor miners returning from the gold fields.

Those amongst the denizens of the Barbary Coast who were tolerated included prostitutes, opium den hosts, mercantile suppliers, gamblers and even bankers.  Who were intolerable, it seems, were Australians.  A South African could appear in The City, lose his fortune, disappear and then reappear to appoint himself Emperor Norton, but not so if you were from the penal colonies down under.

In 1851 the first Vigilance Committee, fed up with the rampant crime and particularly that of the Sydney Rabbits, hung four of the poor bastards.  First to swing was John Jenkens, then James Stuart.  Not content, the fine folks besieged the jail and during Sunday services, dragged Samuel Whittaker and Robert McKenzie from their cells.  Their trial was speedy and so was their hanging.  I'm not saying that these men were saints.  I'm just saying they were hung.

Well, I guess they had been warned.  But the folks that manned the Vigilance Committee still didn't have a Fort, crappy name or no.  

It took political rivalry and pesky charges of corruption before the newly constituted San Francisco Vigilance Committee would, in 1856, utilize a warehouse on Sacramento Street.  

Tomorrow, killing off your rivals and more.