The Mather Mystery: California
My husband’s family had a bit of family lore about their Great Grandfather Charles R. Mather. It was said that he died in a shootout at a brothel in San Francisco. There was an argument over a lady there. Perhaps he had been trying to help her. Perhaps he was an innocent bystander and was shot in the crossfire. Perhaps he was not so innocent and refusing to pay the lady for services rendered. It was a terrible scandal. Of course, this all happened so long ago. It was thought that this was how Grandma Maria Santini Mather became a widow.
My husband was told this story when he was around 40 by his Cousin Cheryl. He asked how long she had known this. She said she had heard it when she was little. He asked why she had not told him. Cheryl said that Don was too young to hear such scandalous stories. Don reminded her that he was only one year younger than her.
I was curious about this story. Surely it was to be found in a San Francisco newspaper somewhere. Through the magic of archives and the World Wide Web perhaps I could find an article or two. I looked up many articles about violence in and around brothels in San Francisco.
I actually did find the trail of Charles R. Mather and Maria Santini. Their lives were full of adventure in the 1800’s and early 1900’s.
Charles Romain Mather was born in New York. He was the son of a “gentleman”. Maria Santini met Charles in New Orleans. (Maria seems to have been a maid or domestic in New Orleans. She would tell her children that her father was a lawyer. She was a lady with dreams and ambition. You have to admire that.) After marrying, the two went west to California together. It was a land of opportunities and adventure.
In San Francisco, Charles advertised for a job. His honesty and excellent penmanship were listed as his qualifications.
He and Maria (She went by the more anglicized name of Mary later in life when anti-immigrant sentiments were becoming more prevalent.) were off to Tombstone Arizona for a time with baby George C. Mather in tow. Charles R. Mather appears in the Great Register of Cochise County in 1882. It seems they missed the shootout at the O.K. Corral by a year. That had happened in 1881. But, they shared the streets and shops with Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and that bunch. They took the train back West to San Francisco, California.
Charles and Maria Mather and their son George would welcome a daughter, Rose, in 1886.
Maria Santini Mather’s mother was Catherine Santini Brown. She had married a dentist, Dr. Gideon H. Brown, after her first marriage. She lived in San Francisco and owned a home. She became ill for a time and, convinced that she was dying, signed her house over to Charles and Maria Mather. When she got well again; she had to sue to reclaim her property. This was splashed all over the newspapers.
I rather doubt that Charles and Maria Mather were trying to rob Mrs. Catherine Brown. She did think she was dying, after all. This family spat likely precipitated the move North to Sacramento, California. These towns up North were booming, even though the 1849 Gold Rush was long over, there was money to be made for a salesman. If you have burned or singed a bridge with your in-laws; moving away is probably a more comfortable situation.
In 1891, Charles R. Mather was doing well in Sacramento. He was doing very well indeed. He sported a gold pocket watch. Business was good. July 4th in Sacramento was approaching. The mood in the city was one of revelry and celebration. Charles liked a party just as much as anyone else and perhaps even a little more.
In a July 6th 1891 article in Sacramento’s newspaper The Evening Bee, titled “Men and Women Scamps” it was said that Charles R. Mather was robbed of a gold watch and $25 dollars in coin. (I imagine that the coins were gold or silver.) That’s an absolute fortune to be carrying around then. He was said to be “Another victim of the nimble- fingered siren of the cribs of lower L street.”
The “nimble-fingered siren” was Miss Sarah Nathan. She was often in the sections of the newspapers that covered court proceedings and often charged with theft or vagrancy. She first appeared in the Sacramento papers in 1890 and by 1899 there’s no more mention of her. (I will do a post on Sarah Nathan as well. She was a tough lady who I admire very much. She had gumption.)
So there was an incident at a brothel but it wasn’t a shootout. But did it force an ultimatum on Maria Santini Mather’s part? Was this when Charles and Maria part ways? No.
Charles R. Mather, the scamp, cleaned up his act, it seems, and he and Maria Santini Mather remained in Sacramento with their daughter, Rose and son George. He keeps his name out of the police blotters. In the 1900 census, Charles was working as a “travel agent”. I believe this is the person who sells the tickets at the train station. In 1900 Maria and Rose did well in the Railway Employees Picnic races. The family appears in the City Directory in the following years together at 1218 I Street.
In 1907, 21 year old Rose, a graduate of Mills College, wed Hayward Reed. Charles R. Mather is conspicuously absent in the article about the wedding. Rose is “given away” by her brother George. I can’t imagine the distress this must have caused Rose. Her father did not make it to her wedding. This seems to be just about the last straw for Maria Santini Mather.
I am going to guess that poor Charles had a drinking problem. It must have been a terrible struggle and shame. We don’t know what demons he was fighting. Anxiety, depression or addiction? All we can do is extend a bit of grace and kindness.
The 1909 City Directory indicates very clearly that Charles R. Mather has moved to Napa. Mrs. Mary Mather is still at 1218 I Street. After this, Charles ceases to be part of the family.
George C. Mather also went to Napa as a young man. I wonder if his father was still there. I wonder if they had meals together and looked out for one another.
George met the lovely Mamie Heflin while he worked at The Gifford Department Store there in Napa. The two wed April 24th 1911.
George and Mamie settled in Marysville, California and George continued his career in business. He opened a store with a partner in 1912. The Mather and Stewart Department Store was fairly successful in Marysville. Mamie and George had four daughters in the next decade and life revolved around family events. Daughter Mary was born in 1915 in Napa as Mamie had gone to stay with her family for the birth. Barbara was born in 1918. Rose and Marjorie came along in the following years.
But what became of the “scamp” Charles R. Mather? A C. R. Mather was robbed in 1932 in Sacramento near O street and N street, when he was 64. That’s ten years too young to be our Charles R. Mather. Could he have shaved 10 years off his age in order to get a much needed janitor’s job? Perhaps.
No gold watch was taken this time as he had very little to take. C.R. Mather was beaten during the robbery that took place in an alleyway. He suffered head injuries and a possible skull fracture. The robbers got away with $3.50. That might have been his wages for the week. Now he would have hospital bills on top of this loss. Is this Charles R. Mather? Perhaps. I have not found a record of his death. If he was working as a janitor to eke out a living in Sacramento in his old age he can’t have lasted too much longer. I haven’t found his grave anywhere either. He may have been buried in a pauper’s grave and the location is lost to history.
That robbery may or may not have been known to the family in Sacramento and Marysville. Charles R. Mather was only whispered about and his name was not mentioned aloud. Maria Santini Mather had gone by the name Mrs. C.R. Mather in her younger married days. She goes by Mrs. Mary S. Mather as she ages and her children and grandchildren grow and enter the world. She did not want the scandal of Charles Mather to harm their chances for success it seems. California has always been a place to reinvent yourself and get a fresh start. Hollywood did not invent that.
George and Mamie Mather watched their daughters Mary, Barbara, Rose (nicknamed Pobie), and Marjorie (Mimi) grow and mature into kind young ladies. What do the daughters of a local merchant do with their days besides school?
They threw lots of little home parties. (The newspaper sold more copies of the townspeople could see their own names in it. So, every little get together was reported.) These were not the kind of parties that Charles R. Mather might have enjoyed. They celebrated birthdays and the accomplishments of their friends. They played games like Bridge, and made conversation. They decided on decorations and baked the treats and made the punch. Mamie and George’s daughters learned how to make others feel welcome and honed the art of conversation.
They later taught their own children these wonderful social skills that served these young generations very well. (My husband was a grandchild of Mamie and George. When I met him he was described by a mutual friend as someone who could really hold up his end of a conversation. I have found that to be true of him and all of his very outgoing and successful cousins.)
George Mather sadly began experiencing heart trouble as he entered middle age. He collapsed at work in early November of 1933. He was taken home from the Mather and Stewart Department Store. He recuperated at home, under a doctor’s care, but continued to have difficulty. (My husband inherited a fear of passing out in a locked bathroom from his mother, Barbara Mather. He would warn our children not to lock the bathroom at home in case they passed out and no one could easily get in to help them. I have always wondered if Barbara had witnessed an experience like that with her own father. Had he collapsed in the bathroom at home once and his family was unable to reach him to help? It’s hard to say but it seems possible.)
On the 12th of October 1935, George Caleb Mather passed away in the hospital. He had been very ill for a week and finally his heart gave out. Mamie Heflin Mather was left widowed and with four daughters. As they grieved the loss of their beloved father they began to take stock of the family finances. Of course things would be okay. They owned half of the Mather and Stewart Department Store in Marysville, after all. Surely Mr. Stewart would buy their half and help them out financially now that George had passed away. There was a bit of a legal battle. George had been a dutiful man but had neglected to make out a will. Mr. Stewart was not financially flush as the Great Depression was ongoing. He also had a legal right to hang onto his store. Mamie had no legal claim to half of “Mather and Stewart”. There would be no payout from the store.
Mamie’s girls were no shrinking violets though. They had been brought up comfortably. They had been well educated in California public schools. But they also had hardworking parents who did not shrink from the challenges of life. The movies of the twenties were full of spunky working women making a living as secretaries and clerks. The girls went to work. They helped their family financially. As they got older, one by one, they got married and looked after their mother still.
Mamie was no wallflower either. She became a probation officer for Yuba County. (Decades later, her daughter Marjorie would follow her in to working for the county as County Conservator.)
What happened to Charles R. Mather? We don’t know yet. But, his and Maria Santini’s children and grandchildren and all the generations after have survived and thrived.
Timeline:
Catherine Santini Brown died December 30th 1911 (Mother of Maria Santini Mather. Wife of A. Santini and later of Dr. Gideon H. Brown.)
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