Blog # 8

IN SETTING UP A DISLAY OR A EXHIBIT FOR MY RESEARCH??


In researching the history of Danville and the roles that the radicals played, the ideal way to really express my research would be to have a museum setting in Downtown Danville.The first option would be in the San Ramon Historical Building at the old Danville Railroad Depot. This would give the viewers, a clear idea of Radical history in Danville, first to view the artifacts and exhibits showing the various type of radicalism found in Danville, then a walk through downtown Danville. The exhibit itself inside the Danville Railroad Depot would be split into three different
groups, The Danville Grangers, the Radical writers in Bret Harte and then finally the Copperheads, the Southern sympathizers during the Civil War.


The Danville Grangers part of the exhibit would includes pictures of the old Granger hall, any pictures of Grangers and ofcourse pictures of the San RamonBranch Line Railroad which would included a 3 dimensional overview of the line and where each of the Railroad depots were plus pictures inside and out of the Railroad depots then and even now. I would also have a brief history of the Grangers as many just like to gaze or do a quick look before moving on, so the less writing and more visual is better. The history of the Grangers and the railroad are very well documented as being intertwined and an example of some of my exhibit information on the Grangers detailing the railroad involvement are as following...........

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The Danville Grangers were instrumental in the San Ramon Railroad Branch Line being built and run so that Agriculture and people could travel up and down the San Ramon Valley without anty types of interruptions due to weather, flooding or any other natural occurances. The Danville Grangers were well known for their support and aiding local San Ramon Valley farmers, thus this railroad line dramatically aided the local Central Contra Costa farmers.

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In 1891, after years of planning and dreaming,Centra Contra Costa farmers welcomed the San Ramon Branch Line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Branch line enabled agricultural products and passengers to move in and out of the valley in all kinds of weather(Flooding and other blockades of transportation was common during that time).

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Southern Pacific built handsome two-story combination depots in Concord, Walnut Creek, Alamo, Danville, San Ramon and all the way out to Livermore, that became the center of life for railroad activities. The rails carried new people and mail into town and in the early years of
Danville's Railroad Depot, it employed a freight agent, telegraph operator and also a Wells Fargo
agent.
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This would be an example of each card below an exhibit and it would be brief so one could read it in as few minutes and then move on, alot being more visual viewers in museums than actually
literal lookers in museums.


The Bret Harte part of the exhibit would be also mostly visual with personal items from when he was in Danville, also copies of his books and pictures of him throughout his life including when he was in Danville. The exhibit would also includes the layout of the ranch he was on taking care and educating the children of a local rancher, with many pieces and material from that time. There would be ofcourse brief information cards also with an bio of Bret Havre, the area he lived in when he was in Danville and his contributions to this area's history in his romantic but realistic writings about the area.


The last part of the exhibit would be the Copperheads exhibit which would include various odd pictures, flyers and literature of the Copperhead of those times. The exhibit would also have to show how these radicals had influence on the Democratic political structure of California as a whole and especially in the S.F Bay Area and also this includes socially. It would finally have brief but detailed information on the Danvile Copperheads themesleves in both pictures and bios of David Inman, Andrew Inman, John Syndor, Jesse Bowles, Charles Woods, Aj Young and then the most famous Danville Copperhead of them all, Lansford Hasting.

I think to top this exhibit, the best ideas to show a visual display of history, would be walks around historical Danville. This would include with walks to the Danville Hotel, old 1890 Front Building, Granger Hall, Veteran's Hall, Old Danville Playhouse along others and there are within a few blocks, some 15 buildings with historical markers on them which information would be given and then questions would be answered. This tour by the way is currently happening during the week but would be attached to my exhibit. I think people who visited the exhibit would be able to get a real good idea how people lived during that time if they saw the buildings themselves, with alot of them still almost the same as when they were back then.

Blog #7

So What!!??

So what does the Radicals in Danville mean to history in the S.F Bay Area?


The radicals were instrumental in getting the railroad==== down the San Ramon Valley and this thus get produce and crops to market all over the world which also included the now Livermore Valley wine/grape crops. This agriculture area which may of not been as important as maybe the Central Valley but it did play a part in the overall agricultural and economic growth of the S.F. Bay Area and that of Contra Costa County. The Danville depot was the center Depot of a train line that went pretty much down the center part of the valley which it included Walnut Creek, Alamo, Danville, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasonton and Livermore. The San Ramon Branch Line Southern Pacific Railroad also carried not only agriculture products but mail, other goods and people up and down the valley. The Danville Granges were that impotant to the valley and to the S.F. Bay Area, in that their ideas and motivation to have a railroad go down the San Ramon Valley brought historical change, in the way of social, political and economic to the San Ramon Valley and beyond.



The other types of Radicals included the Copperheads, as we learned were the Southern sympathizers living within California, which Danville was a hotspot within the whole S.F. Bay Area....SO WHAT? The Copperheads in Danville along with scattered Copperheads in the S.F. Bay Area, brought a democratic base to California not seen before and even today, this same democratic base is seen in the senate in DIANE FEINSTEIN, BARBARA BOXER and also THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, NANCY PELOSI. This is not only history but also Political history and social history of the South being imbedded into the lifestyle of California. The idealogy of Liberalism was also embedded in not only local politics, state but also in the city politics and this is best seen in the extreme Liberalism of San Francisco and Berkeley even today, as the best examples. This type of influence by these liberal and Southern sympathizers have had, shows a big hand in many of the social, political and decisions made due to both their liberal ideology and their democratic party values. These Copperhead Radicals finally, were radical in name but only in their views, social influences and politics but most of them were the plain,the shakers and the movers of the S.F Bay Area during that time.

The last group of Radicals were the writers and their views were Radical in their view of the West and how they saw the West as being romantic, or how it it was so fierce and dangerous to all the travelers who came or wanted to come out to the West. So what?, they wrote about the West and so did many others but it was these writers who wrote about the S.F. Bay Area and it was through their writings that people came to the S.F Bay Area and it was settled. If these writers had not written such romantic and tales of the area around Danville, many of the settlers would not of come, the Grangers and Copperheads would not of made their contributions to Danville, the San Francisco Bay Area, California and the world! Each of these Radicals added to each others radicals, in contributions to the area, California and United States history, if not World history.

So what remains of this Radical story, maybe more and even more Radical research to uncover other aspects of Radicalism in Danville or Contra Costa County, say Lafayette where Radicals were located or other parts of the county. There were several forms of Radicalism found in Danville and Contra Costa County but I am sure through research that many others could be found and discovered, who would think there was Radicalism in Danville in the first place?

ASSIGNMENT #6 Radicals Part 3-The CopperHeads

The only poisonous snakes found both in the S.F Bay Area and Contra Costa County are the rattlesnakes found there but the Anti-war democrats and Southern sympathizers labeled by the Republican press were called Copperheads.The overall picture in California, including Contra Costa County, was the 1860 presidential campaign had split the dominant Democratic Party into two factions, the Southern Democrats who wanted succession and supported Breckenridge and those who had supported Douglas and the Union. The Democrats up to that point had been dominating in the politics of California since before 1850. The Southern Democrats in 1861 had hoped to continue that success and capture the governership and the California legislature, but failed on both accounts. Leland Stanford(Stanford University and one of the "Big Four" of the Continental Railroad) was the first Republican elected Governer of California in 1861. The Southern Democrats had failed to get the governership and legislature, thus failed in trying to have California succeed from the Union.

Copperheads were common throughout the Bay Area but were out numbered by the Union loyalists during the Civil War. Copperheads were those living in the North or Union States who planned or did anything they could to aid the Confederacy. A story that I read and the actual spot in Oakland I went to, showed where a small cannon sat during the Civil War on 12th and Fallon Street and after each Union victory had reach the West Coast, the cannon was fired to the annoyance of the Copperheads living within ear shot of the cannon. The little cannon had just disappeared after one Union victory, which an Copperhead named Jack Cohane was the one responsible for it's disappearance. The story goes that Union Loyalists, went out and captured Jack Cohane and some Copperheads, marching them to the end of Broadway St and threw them into the Bay. They would not let them out of the Bay until they told them where the cannon was. Jack Cohane and his Confederate sympathizers did not want to drown so they told them that they had dumped the cannon in the bay, off where Jack London square is now. The cannon was retrieved and several of the Copperheads were sent to Alcatraz, which was then used then as a military prison during the Civil War.

Copperheads or Confederate Sympathizers had often went by the names of " Knights of the Golden Circle or "Knights of the Columbian Star", and they were real underground Confederate groups and were active in planning and executing plans to weaken the Union Army in the Bay Area. The Union loyalists had their own group called the Union League",which really counter- acted those Confederate groups and and actually formed Militia's to just do that. One of the S.F Bay Area Confederate groups, "The Knights of the Golden Circle had planned out an all out like attack on Navy boats in the bay, but the plan had failed because the navy and Union League, under Harry Morse became aware of this attack and then stopped them. The end result was that several more Copperheads ended up at Alcatraz for the remaining of the war and a little longer actually.There were other plotsttoo, like their was plans to seize the San Francisco Mint, The Presidio,The Customs House and the Arsenal in Benecia. To note, several of the Contra Costa County Copperheads were part of these planned and failed raids and ended up at the Alcatraz military prison, including two Danville Copperheads.

The most famous of all the Contra Costa County Coppeheads was Lansford Hastings, who was the one who had discovered Quicksilver Ore on Mount Diablo/Danville in 1859. He was also the same Hastings for which the Donner party made the fatal mistake in taking the now famous "Hasting's Cutoff", freezing to death and eating each other in a cannibalism way to survive the harshest Sierra winter in decades. Mr Lansford Hastings was authorized by the Confederate government in Virginia, as a major in the Confederate Army, with the task of raising an army, then going and seizing Arizonia for the Confederacy.The Confederate government soon got wary of Hastings and his lack of being able to raise an army and concerns over his leadership qualities and soon dropped the idea of taking Arizonia for the Confederacy.

Danville meanwhile, was the hotbed of Confederate Copperheads activity in Contra Costa County with such Copperheads in Danville,as founders Daniel and Andrew Inman, John Syndor, Jesse Bowles,Charles woods, A.J. Young and many others. Danville and San Ramon Valley was not only a Copperhead nest but also was the center of Southern Democratic politics in Contra Costa County and other types of Confederates Sympathizer activities. They worked with other groups of Confederacy Sympathizers and Copperhead in Contra Costa County and the S.F. Bay Area to disrupt, destroy or simply irrate Union forces, shipping or whatever would hurt the Union as a whole.