Situated under a large oak tree in
the Rocklin cemetery sits the Chateau family plot. The little obelisk which
marks the spot where many of the Chateaus are buried does not have any marker
or engraving other than their last name, leaving no trace of the terrible
scandal that rocked many of the communities in Placer County the Spring of
1910.
John M. Chateau, an employee of the
Southern Pacific Railroad, met a tragic ending on May 19, 1910 after he was
unable to recover from a gunshot wound inflicted nine days earlier. As it
turned out, Chateau’s wife, Mary Ann, had reportedly been carrying on an
improper relationship with one of her husband’s co-workers — a brakeman known
as Michael Leahy — who became infatuated to the point of begging Mary Anne to
run away with him and elope. Although there is no way to know how far Mary Ann
allowed the affair to go, it seemed to go far enough to morph into a dangerous
fatal attraction. After Mary Ann refused Leahy’s proposal, the jilted man
threatened to kill her, giving her one more day to change her mind.
MaryAnn went to her husband to admit
the affair and Leahy’s threats, prompting John Chateau to turn to the police.
Records indicate a warrant was sworn out for Leahy’s arrest on charges of
disturbing the peace. It was believed that Leahy left Roseville and that would
be the end of it.
This was not to be.
In the early hours of May 10, Leahy
sneaked onto the Chateau property and hid in the woodshed outside. When John
Chateau strolled out in the morning to retrieve firewood, Leahy took aim and
shot him. While John Chateau lay there bleeding, Leahy went over and picked up
an axe, intending to finish the job. Yet several neighbors had heard the shot
and quickly got involved — tackling Leahy to the ground and holding him until authorities
arrived.
Leahy remained jailed in Roseville
for several days until the news came that John Chateau passed away from his
injuries. The San Francisco Call newspaper mentioned that anger towards Leahy
in the Roseville community was so intense that a lynching was feared. Sheriff
McAuley moved Leahy to Placer County’s seat in Auburn and announced that he
would “use every possible means to protect his prisoner.”
When the charge of murder was added
to Leahy’s case, the suspect was quoted as saying, “I blame the woman for this
trouble. I asked her to elope with me and when she refused I found it necessary
to kill her husband. I would have killed any other man just the same.”
Such words didn’t help his case. Leahy tried to claim self-defense,
saying that John Chateau shot first at him when he saw Leahy stooping down in
the back of the woodshed. Witnesses to the event claimed the only shot that was
fired was the fatal one that ended Chateau’s life.
The expeditious murder trial was
held in Auburn, lasting only about six hours. It took less than 30 minutes of
deliberations before the jury came back with a verdict. On November 23, 1910,
Michael Leahy was convicted for the murder of Chateau. In court, before he was
sentenced to die at Folsom prison, Leahy declared, “If I am hung, I’ll come
back after I am dead and get even with some of these people who have been
prosecuting me.”
In the book, “Folsom’s 93,” author
and historian April Moore sheds light on Leahy’s story and his last days
leading up to his execution. Moore’s book delves deep into Leahy’s saga. Moore writes in “Folsom’s 93” that
during the time Leahy was awaiting trial, he refused to sleep or eat, paced in
his cell and cried himself into exhaustion, leading others to believe that he
was insane. However, by the time the moment came
for his execution on Feb. 8, 1911, Leahy’s attitude had changed significantly.
It appeared he had accepted his fate.
“He spent his last evening telling
stories to the evening watchmen about his time as a brakeman for the railroad,”
explained Moore. “The papers even mentioned that he woke in good spirits and
even joked with the Warden for a while.”
The San Francisco Call said that
when it came time to take his long walk to the gallows Leahy met it with a
“cool indifference that had marked his actions since his arrest.” He did not
wish to speak to the reporters, nor did he have anything last words to say or
requests to make to the staff at Folsom Prison.
At exactly 10:30 p.m., the trap was
sprung and nine minutes later Leahy was dead. According to records, it was the
quickest execution on the gallows at Folsom during Warden John Reilly’s term.
After Leahy’s body was released to his family, it was brought to the cemetery
in Rocklin and interred in the Leahy family plot.
In an ironic twist of fate, just as
Leahy had vowed to haunt those who prosecuted him when he was alive, it turned
out that Leahy’s final resting place is within eyes view of his victim John
Chateau’s grave. In the end, Leahy didn’t get the
last laugh, in life or the afterlife. Instead he’s been doomed to spend
eternity buried next to the man he murdered — an eternal reminder of why he
lost his own life.
Previously published in the Roseville Press-Tribune in 2014, written by: J'aime Rubio
(Copyright 2014- www.jaimerubiowriter.com)
--
Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them. According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too.
Everyone loves a good scary story, especially if it is said to be based on a true story. Unfortunately, nowadays it appears that with all of the "paranormal" programs on television, books, and even movies, people will do anything to make a buck, even going so far to sensationalize or literally make up false history to profit off of it. When these sorts of stories pick up steam and start to be spread, there are some people out there who are lurking in the background, watching, listening and waiting. Waiting for a chance when they can expose these charlatans, these false stories and debunk the lore surrounding it, to give the public the factual story. One of these people is Shannon Bradley-Byers, and her book is "Paranormal Fakelore, Nevermore."
I met Shannon a few years back, after finding out that she had written an in-depth investigation about the story of Bathsheba Sherman. If anyone knows my writings, they would know that I debunked the false story that had been unfairly spread about Bathsheba Sherman, no thanks to Andrea Perron and Lorraine Warren who started the whole "Conjuring" mess to begin with. You see, it only takes a person ready and willing to search the records and get to the facts, to find the truth. Sadly though most people today are too lazy and unwilling to do the legwork to get to the truth, so it remains buried alongside the very dead they are writing about. That goes against everything that both Shannon and I stand for as historians.
Once I read Shannon's chapter on Bathsheba, and found that she had uncovered the same information that I had, I realized that she was a kindred spirit and that she was a truth seeker. Not only does Shannon cover Bathsheba Sherman's story in her book, she also covers and debunks many stories that anyone intrigued with urban legends or paranormal lore would be interested in reading. By scouring the old archives, public records and newspaper microfische of the time period, Shannon unveils hidden facts and documentation that exposes the hallowness of many myths, urban legends and local folklore that had been taken as gospel for far too long.
Let's take the Myrtles Plantation as one prime example of her expert sleuthing skills. Not only does Shannon give you a break down of the history of the property, she also skillfully and with such precision dissects the ghost stories that have been promoted or spread over the years, by comparing the facts to the "fakelore," as she puts it. After reading this one chapter, you will never again believe the stories you may have heard about the Myrtles Plantation before.
Besides the Myrtles Plantation, she also successfully debunks the story of Pearl Bryan and the alleged connection to Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder, Kentucky. Then she takes you down to Louisville, to the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, again using facts over fantasy, and giving her readers the truth behind this massive hospital's history. Shannon also covers the story of Lavinia Fisher & the real history behind the movie "Cold Mountain," as well as several other legends and tales that she has investigated over the years.
Shannon Bradley-Byers' work shows her commitment to searching for and shining a light on the truth. That is a quality in a journalist that is often rare to find these days, as so many have proven themselves to be more interested in fabricating or embellishing a story, just to make their work more entertaining. Shannon needs no sensationalism in her tome, as she proves with her veracity that fact is always stranger than fiction. Another thing Shannon does without even meaning to, is she deflates all the paranormal television shows' investigations and exposes them for their (a) lack of real research, or (b) intent to over-embellish a story for higher ratings. You see, once you know the facts to a story, you can no longer un-see it, or un-read it and that is a good thing.
So, folks, if you want to read a book with substance and truth, one that not only opens your eyes but pushes you to question things moving forward, a book that not only provides answers to some of the most interesting stories of places and people but also a book that is concise enough to read in one sitting, I strongly suggest you order a copy of Shannon's book today. You won't be disappointed! I wasn't.
Perched on top of the hillside of Jackson on Church Street rests the home of Armstead C. Brown. Constructed for one of Amador County's oldest and important early pioneers, the home itself was built in 1859. It survived the great fire of 1862, which burned many of the buildings in Jackson, including the National Hotel and the old Hangman's tree on Main Street, but A.C. Brown's home, being situated on top of the great hill near the cemetery was saved. It has stood there now for over 160 years, and it is still just as beautiful as ever. I just didn't realize until recently, that property has a history that is older than the home that sits on it.
I have been visiting this home off and on for many years, ever since I was a child, since it has been the Amador County Museum for many, many years. I had always been drawn to it, but I didn't realize until years later, as an adult, that there was a lonesome grave on the north side of the property. When I inquired about it inside the museum, the docent explained that the wife of a friend of A.C. Brown was staying there, and the young woman had died in childbirth, so the family buried her in their yard.
I visited the grave with sad thoughts in my mind, imagining how her last moments must have been, in agony giving birth and then passing on along with her child at such a young age. Given the fact I hadn't been told a lot about the circumstances of this young woman's death, I simply assumed she had died in the house, since the story told to me was vague.
Well, I was just up there this weekend again, and while Roland was visiting Hein's estate sale down the hill, I ventured up to the museum all by my lonesome to visit Eliza. While I was there, I took in the beautiful atmosphere all around me: the breeze, the cool shade of the trees and the fragrance of the plants in the air. I felt safe, secure and at peace.
As I was walking back towards my car, I thought to myself, "this is such a beautiful spot, like going back to a simpler place in time." Within moments Roland surprised me walking up the cement staircase to the property and we sat there at a picnic table under the shade of the tall trees. I told him that this property is "one of my favorite places in Jackson." I also mentioned that if it were just a regular home, and if I was rich, I would want to buy it and live in it because I love the feeling I get on the property itself! (It's funny that I said that and I will get to that reason in a moment.)
So I went home and uploaded my photos, got busy with researching Eliza's story further. Well, just as I had stated before, the house on that property was built in 1859. I didn't know that initially, it wasn't until digging deeper into my research. That was when it dawned on me, "Eliza died in 1856!"
That was three years before the home was built.
According to the Amador Dispatch, Eliza did in fact die during childbirth, but apparently she didn't die on the property itself. It says she was buried on the Brown's property on a "small knoll."
Eliza was the wife of Leon Sompayrac, a native of France, who was not only a jeweler by trade, but also one of the original Trustees of Jackson when the town was first established, as well as a founding member of the Grand Jury. Not much is known about Eliza except that her maiden name was Hart, and she was born July 25, 1835. I could not find a marriage record, nor could I find any record of where Eliza was born or who her parents were.
Eliza's grave itself was constructed by brick and covered with iron doors from her husband's jewelry shop. If you visit Eliza's grave (or above-ground crypt) now, you will see there are no iron doors, so either they were removed later or stolen. All that is left is the brick structure and an ornamental iron fencing around part of it, where wandering vines of ivy have crept through and grown quite beautifully around it.
Her marker is a little confusing, because the top part reads: "Eliza Hart, Born July 25, 1835"
While the bottom part reads: "Eliza Sompayrac, Died May 31, 1856." (both of which are two separate pieces of stone attached to the above-ground crypt).
I searched the only newspaper of the time, the Volcano Weekly Ledger for an obituary or death notice but I found no mention of Eliza's passing. Sadly, it appears that it didn't make the newspapers back then. In newer archived articles of the Amador Ledger Dispatch, there are mentions of Eliza's passing, and the "Friends of the Amador County Museum" sponsored an annual Memorial Day Celebration at Eliza's grave back in 1986. The ceremony took place at 11 a.m. on Sunday, May 25. The article also stated that the group decided to honor Eliza on her 130th anniversary of her death, and that Eliza died "close to what would later become Memorial Day"and she "was buried on a spot she had loved in life, which was near the site on which A.C. Brown would later build his house."
So, Eliza wasn't buried there because of dying on the property. In fact, there is no documentation that I am aware of that states where she died, although we know it was somewhere in Jackson. However, it was noted that A.C. Brown had her buried on the spot that she "had loved in life." This obviously means she loved and appreciated that beautiful hillside, just as I do, and it must have been so apparent that she loved that spot so much, that her husband and his best friend A.C. Brown, picked the very best spot that she would want to be buried: right there on that hillside.
Unfortunately, there have been sheds and structures built around her grave over the years, so the view she once saw is not the view we see today. But if you visit the Amador County Museum and you walk that property, you will feel what Eliza felt. The same feeling that I get when I visit, too. It is a sort of soothing calmness that sets over you, and you feel at peace.
After Eliza and her baby passed away, her husband eventually moved back to France. There are news advertisements for Leon Sompayrac's business "Fixury & Company" which he co-owned with Mr. Fixury, closing by mutual consent, and a notice in August of 1857, stating that he would be moving out of the country by August 20, 1857 and any debts owed to him that were not paid by that date would be cause for him to sue. It appears that Leon never came back to the states.
And so, Eliza and her baby rest peacefully in one of the most serene spots in all of Jackson while the world has continued to go on for the past 163 years, mostly forgetting that she is even there. With that, let's remember Eliza (and her unborn child) and their final resting place, so they will be forgotten no more.
The city of Jackson, located in Amador County is one of the most beautiful and historic areas in the gold country of the Sierra Nevada mountains. A place where history can be found literally everywhere you look, and step. It's no wonder then that even the simplest places could hide a story, and a history, time itself has forgotten. Located just outside of town sits an old, abandoned cemetery. A sad and lonely space of land, bedraggled and overgrown with weeds, rocks, dirt and debris, this cemetery is truly an archaic reminder of those departed souls who pioneered this land long before us.
Memorial Plaque
The cemetery, so small if you blink you will literally pass it, has proven to elude many citizens in this county for years. Honestly, I didn't even realize the cemetery was there at all, until recently when I spoke with my friend Amy Doran. It was then that I learned of this very unique and special place. You see, Amy drives down Jackson Gate road every day to and from work, and she contacted me to ask if I knew anything about the small cemetery on the side of the road with one lone grave. She wanted to know who was buried there, and why was it so neglected? It seemed abandoned and very gloomy, and immediately I was intrigued. I didn't know of a separate cemetery on Jackson Gate Road, so I did some digging and came up with some very interesting history.
First off, before Amador County was established in 1854 it once was considered a part of Calaveras County. So I am assuming that the burials on this plot of land were considered residents of Calaveras when they died, because this cemetery appears to pre-date Amador County itself. From what I could find, there aren't a lot of records, if any, that tell us who might be buried under that hallowed ground except for one burial, Thomas Tormey.
Thomas Tormey's lone marker
The lone standing marker, which is said to be the oldest burial marker in all of Amador County, sits weather beaten and worn by time and the elements. It once read: "Thomas Tormey, native of Ireland, died October 9, 1850." Thomas was about 29 years old, so his year of birth should be about 1821. Not much more is known about Thomas, such as how he died and if he had any family in the area. Unfortunately, there were no local newspapers that I can find in circulation in the area back then, thus no obituaries available since the Volcano Weekly Ledger (Amador County's first newspaper) didn't even begin until October of 1855, and the Calaveras Chronicle started a year after Tormey's death in 1851.
After making a small post on my Facebook, several friends wanted to get involved in the hunt to find out who Thomas was, and where he came from.
Friend and fellow genealogist, Debbie Lowe Myers found an immigration record for a "Thomas Tormey" from Ireland, born in 1821, who landed in New York on July 18, 1849. He also came with a Mary Tormey, age 21. Could this be our Thomas? It is possible, but there really is no way to tell for sure.
I did find a notice in the Daily Crescent newspaper in New Orleans dated January 4, 1850 noting that there was a letter for Thomas Tormey waiting at the post office for him to pick up. Could Thomas Tormey have traveled from New York to New Orleans in order to take a steamer to Panama, via the Isthmus and traveled to California? Well, we know he had to have come one way or another, and at that time period, you usually crossed the Isthmus or took a ship around the Horn. But again, since I couldn't locate his name on any of the ships manifests to San Francisco, I cannot confirm how he got to California. He could have came over the mountain range via a wagon train, which was also another way settlers managed their way to the west.
Then another Facebook friend and fellow genealogist, Sharon Healey Bartholomew found a Thomas Tormey born in 1818 in Westmeath, Ireland, the son of Bridget and Edward. Who died on October 11, 1850 in California at the age of 32. Could this be our Thomas?
Besides Thomas being buried at the cemetery, past archived records of the Ledger Dispatch state that in all there are about 30 burials on that piece of land. Again, there is no mention on the plaque outside of the cemetery of who is buried there or how they died; however, the fact that the land belongs or belonged to the Perano family, and being that there are numerous amounts of Perano's buried at other cemeteries in the area, it leads me to believe other earlier members of the Perano family were more than likely buried here in their own family cemetery.
Again, as I mentioned before, back in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2004 there were articles in the Ledger Dispatch that mentioned an effort to restore and preserve the cemetery.
The Jackson Cemetery Committee along with the Perano family and others such as:
Jackson's Womens Club, Stan Lukowicz, Margaret Dalton, Ralph Merzlak, H. Gordon Miller, Al Nunes, Brian Drake, Terry Watson, Les Miller, Roark Weber and Warden Mike Knowles and his work crew at Mule Creek Prison all got involved to make this happen.
Sadly, time went on, and with it went the drive to keep this cemetery maintained. Since then, people have passed on, others became busy with their own businesses and lives, and little by little the cemetery became forgotten once again. My hope is that this time the community will work together to not only restore the cemetery once and for all, but keep it preserved.
Thomas Tormey deserves a proper headstone marking his grave and all the other forgotten ones buried within the property should be mentioned on some sort of memorial marker as well. It is my hope that we can make this happen somehow, some way.
I have recently contacted several people at the Ledger Dispatch as well as a reporter at the Sierra Lodestar. I am waiting to hear back from them, and maybe we can get the ball rolling with some attention being brought back to the cemetery again. I also plan on contacting the City Cemetery Committee at City Hall as well as the local Boy Scouts, Masons, Odd Fellows and the local VFW Hall to see if any of these groups would be willing to join in on the effort to preserve what should be known as Amador County's oldest cemetery. Hopefully this idea will get the community's attention and action can be taken to move forward and honor these forgotten ones buried and abandoned for far too long.
What happens to a glass of Coca-Cola when it is put under a
faucet and the water is then turned on? The Coca-Cola then becomes displaced,
and while water dilutes it and continues to dilute it, eventually the glass of Coke is no longer there, but only water in its place.
Well, that is what happens when people decide that the true
history of a person, place or even an object is not enough as it is, that they
need to add more and more to it until the real history becomes invisible, or
almost untraceable, and the fabricated legends and folklore take on a life of
its own, often times becoming accepted as fact.
One such example of this is the Ione Hotel. Over the years a
lot of misinformation has spread in regards to the hotel’s true history and now
it seems almost impossible to find any accurate information about it to date.
That will change starting with today.
If you look up the history of this hotel online or in recent books, you will find a plethora of information. Unfortunately, most of the information is incorrect. So that was why I decided to dig through the archived newspapers, old history books and records to find the real history behind this hotel so that I could share it once and for all with you!
The Ione Hotel has been called the Metropolitan, The Union Hotel, The
Haller Hotel, The Golden Star Hotel, and even The Bedbug Inn,
but the history of this hotel is much more interesting than even its various
names over the years.
This blog took a while for me to research, and it is going
to be long, but trust me, it will be worth the read. In this article I will go
through not only the history of the hotel, backed up with factual information
and documentation, but I will also address the local legends and lore.
To start off, I have always loved this hotel. I used to roam
the halls on summer days when I was staying up at my dad’s on Sutter Lane back
in the 1990’s. A friend and I would often
wander around Ione during the summer, and sometimes for kicks we would ask the
owners of the hotel to let us explore the so-called “haunted” hotel.Of course as teenagers, we would scare
ourselves, which made it all the more fun! Afterwards we would head over and
get a slice of pizza at Loretta’s or over to the diner to get a soft serve
cone. This was the time of my teenage years I found interest in Preston Castle
and its history as well.It shouldn’t
surprise anyone that I would eventually research Ione Hotel’s history, too.
Ione’s Early
History
To begin with, Ione was not the typical town or city during
the Gold Rush. In fact, Ione’s Main Street was not built up until the mid to
late 1850’s to begin with. Yes, some people moved there around 1848 and 1849,
but it was only a handful of miners and settlers who built their homes. Ione
itself did not become a bustling place until at it’s earliest the mid 1850’s. You
can verify this by reading The History of
Amador County by Jesse D. Mason which is available on Google Play to read
for FREE. So for the record, this
particular hotel could not have existed in 1849 as some other articles have
suggested.
The earliest hotels that I found in Ione were the Irena
House, owned by Thomas Rickey, and the Ione Valley Hotel. Again, this was
during the 1850’s. The Irena house was next door to where the City Hall sits
today, and the Ione Valley Hotel’s location is unknown. I could find no records
that state where it was located in town at all, but we know it existed and the book
The History of Amador County mentions
it to have been one of the oldest buildings erected in town. It also mentions
that it burned during the Great Fire of Ione on October 8, 1865.Could it have been at the location where the
present day Ione Hotel sits? Possibly, but unlikely. Why?
Well, the late, great Amador County Historian Larry Cenotto pointed
out in a fantastically written article back in 1995 that deed records indicated
the original two lots (a small one and a larger one) where the hotel sits today
were originally a butcher shop and a saddlery shop. Per Larry Cenotto’s
research it wasn’t until later on in the 1870’s, (on the small lot), that the
first hotel was erected and named the Metropolitan. It had only five rooms, a
saloon and a dining area. The man who operated that hotel was Frederick Haas.
In 1876, there are only two hotels in Ione by this point,
one of which was the Veranda Hotel and of course the Metropolitan. By the
1880’s the Glaze brothers owned the property. In 1880, Ione was flooded when
the creek overflowed and backed up into Main Street. It was such a bad flood,
that 1,300 feet of railroad track was washed away. No doubt all the businesses
on Main Street suffered some serious water damage from this flood.
After a fire at the Veranda Hotel (just down the street) on
January 26, 1884, the Eaton family who had been running the Veranda Hotel, went
over to work for the Glaze brothers. The Metropolitan Hotel was then renamed the Union Hotel.
Veranda Hotel
History (Location: City Hall)
The Daily Alta California dated January 27, 1884 mentions
the fire at the Veranda Hotel. It also notes that a gentleman named Thomas
Bennett lost his life in the fire. This is important to remember as we go
further into this blog, because this
is the ONLY hotel fire in Ione during that time period in which a death
occurred.
It is noted in the Volcano Weekly Ledger that the Veranda
House was built on the lot next door to where the Irena House once stood, which
indicates or insinuates the latter was destroyed. I found an ad for the Veranda
Hotel in the Volcano Weekly Ledger dating back to 1857. When the Veranda burned down in 1884, Mr. McCauley
eventually purchased the land from Mrs. Kingsley and built his Commercial Hotel
there. Of course later on it became the spot where City Hall is now situated.
Another Flood
The March 24, 1893 edition of the Amador Ledger tells of the
creek once again backing up, which overflowed into businesses. The water caused
damage to the lower level of the Union Hotel again, along with their stage barn. At this time period, the hotel had a stage stop there for passengers to rest in between stages and to obtain transportation to the railroad.
Renovations to the
Hotel
“The old Union Hotel has
been refitted and renovated throughout by its new proprietor J.S. Amick. The
house is well known for its clean, sunny rooms, white (as distinguished from
Chinese) cooking and well set table.The
hotel has no bar, is situated in the central part of town and caters especially
to families and ladies.”— Amador Record (April 1897) c/o Larry Cenotto’s
research in the Amador Ledger 6/26/1995
By 1900, Joseph and Rosa Tonzi, natives of Switzerland,
purchased the Union Hotel.Sadly though,
the hotel didn’t last very long.
Fire of 1900
“Disastrous Fire in Ione –
About 12 o’clock last Monday night the denizens of our sister town were aroused
by the dread alarm of fire. The fire started in the Union Hotel’s bakery in the
rear of the Union Hotel. It was soon fanned by the breeze into a devastating
blaze. The Union Hotel and Robert Mayes’ saloon were soon in a blaze and for
other food the fire fiend hit upon the old stage stables, devouring that also.
Hopper’s General
merchandise store, a fireproof building, sustained a loss of $1,000. The loss
to the hotel and saloon is estimated at $9,000, besides private losses to
inmates, and the insurance amounts to $3200, $600 of which is on the saloon. The
inmates of the hotel succeeded in escaping, though none of them were able to
save anything beyond what they wore, and that was very little in most cases. No
one was seriously injured, but several narrow escapes were reported. This is
the most disastrous conflagration Ione has had in some years.”--- Amador
Ledger, January 19, 1900.
After this fire, the Tonzi family chose to erect another
hotel in its place, but their first one was poorly made and only lasted nine
years before burning up in another fire in 1909.
Fire of 1909
“Fire in Ione– Of the fire which destroyed Haller’s Hotel
in Ione last Thursday, the Echo says:
“Soon after the fire
broke out Superintendent Randall of the Preston School, dispatched a number of
his boys who have been drilled in the method of fighting fires, and they
mounted to the roofs and handled the hose and fire axes in true fireman
fashion, aiding very materially in saving George Woolsey’s building, and
thereby the whole north side of Main Street, and they are deserving a great
deal of credit.
The hotel was a flimsy
constructed two-story frame building, owned by Mrs. Tonzi of Mt. Echo, and J.M.
Haller the lessee. The building was insured in the Orient Insurance Company,
J.W. Surface agent, for $1,000 which will go a long way toward covering the
loss. Mr. Haller, the lessee, estimates his loss at $1,600 with $450 of
insurance. Mr. Haller’s loss is nearly total, as much of the stuff moved out of
the hotel was either destroyed or so badly damaged as to be worthless.
The loss to Sibole
& Gillum was by water and smoke and is fully covered by insurance, as is,
also the damage to the building. Hammer’s store, a flimsy frame structure a few
feet west of the hotel, was saved only by the greatest exertion, and that, in
large part, by some of our women, who formed a bucket brigade and kept the
premises thoroughly wet, at the expense of disheveled hair and bedraggled
wearing apparel. Prominent among them was noticed Ida Williams, Mrs. Maddux,
Mrs. Nichols, Mrs. Hammer, Mrs. Cotto, Mrs. Fissier, Mrs. Browning, Alice
Greenhaigh, and Ethel Mack and there might have been others.
Soon after the fire
started somebody telephoned the fact to Jackson and at once John Gabarini, Chief
of the Fire Department there, hitched up a team, loaded in two fire extinguishers
and 150 feet of fire hose, took in D.S. Mason, and made the drive twelve miles
in forty-five minutes. He arrived too late to be of any assistance, but the
neighborly act was highly appreciated by everybody in Ione.”----Amador
Ledger, June 4, 1909
The Golden Star Hotel
At this point the Tonzi family was through with wooden
structures, so they bought the larger lot next door and decided to expand and erect
a much larger, beautiful stone hotel instead and renamed it the Golden Star
Hotel. The Tonzi's would have different people run the hotel for them, such as Mrs. M.C. Jarvis, or E.F. Mueller, but the hotel always belonged to the Tonzi family.
The old well that once sat at the back of the lot obviously couldn’t be
moved, so during the construction of their grand stone hotel, the Tonzi’s decided to build around the well, which in later years would stir
up some controversy and superstitions about the well's origins. (We will discuss
the well later on in this article.)
The property remained in the Tonzi family up until Dorothy
Stacey purchased the hotel in 1971. It was during Dorothy’s ownership that she
briefly named the hotel the Bedbug Inn. It didn’t stay that way for long and it
eventually became the Ione Hotel (or Hotel Ione).
New History at the
Hotel (1977- 1988)
In April of 1977, Bill and Milly Jones, of Walnut Creek
purchased the hotel and dove headfirst into the hospitality industry. I was able to speak to Milly Jones over the phone and ask
her some questions about what she remembered when she owned the hotel with her
husband, as well as clearing up some misinformation about some of the legends
and lore at the hotel. At 90 years old,
she is still very much a lively, kind and quick-witted gal and it was such a
pleasure to speak with her.
According to Milly’s book "The Hotel Ione," and other various news clippings
of the time, the hotel catered to the working man. Most of their residents
worked all week in labor jobs and went home to their families on the weekends.
Many of the men who worked on Rancho Seco, stayed at their hotel during the
week as well.
It was around the time that Milly and Bill bought the hotel
that the rumors of the hotel being haunted started to make their rounds about
Amador County.My parents lived on
Marlette in town, and my mother remembers when the ghost stories started to
pick up steam in the late 1970s.A funny
tidbit to add to this story is that while I spoke to Milly on the phone, I
learned that it was my father (who owned a carpet store in Jackson) who laid
the carpet at their hotel in the late 1970s. So I guess in a way I have some
family history at this hotel, too!
It was while Milly and her husband were running the hotel
that they discovered the covered well in the middle of the building. According
to Milly, her husband was the first to inspect it, and discovered a very
well-made stone well going all the way down. There is also a drain at the bottom
that goes to the creek.Bill noticed something was stuck at the bottom, so they called the Fire Department
to come out. With the use of a grappling hook they were able to pull out an old
antique hobby horse which more than likely dated back to the late 1800’s or
early 1900’s. Milly claimed in the Amador Progress News (Ione Valley Echo)
dated back in June 25, 1980 that shortly after opening the well, supernatural
events started occurring.
ad for TV show featuring Ione Hotel, 1980
Because the well was at the ground level, Bill decided to add
stones to build a traditional well from the ground level up equipped with a
hanging bucket, wheel and rope. At that point the layout of the hotel was very
much different than it is today. The big staircase going up to the second level
was set further back inside the hotel and the well was situated just to the
left of the stairs. If you visit the hotel today, you will notice the well is
set back in the dining room, and the new staircase is way up front near the
front door of the lobby. So unless you know how the hotel was back then, it
might be hard for you to wrap your head around the old layout.
During the 1980’s “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!” came to film
segments about the ghost stories swirling around town about the hotel, as well
as local news crews. Even the television show “That’s Incredible!” hosted by
Ted Bateman came to town to film for several days. It really wasn’t until the
Jones’ came to the hotel that the property got so much exposure for its alleged
hauntings, and the ghost stories have continued to spread since then as well.
After Bill suffered from a severe back injury in 1984, Milly hired
a friend of theirs, Morgan to run the hotel and saloon for them. By July 1,
1984 they sold the hotel to Loretta Tillery.
While Loretta Tillery owned the hotel, another news crew with television journalist Jonathan Mumm came to film a short segment about the hotel being haunted. You can watch the
video here from Youtube.
As you can see the layout of the upstairs was also
different, which means the room numbers were in different places as well. This
is also an important thing to remember as we get further into the blog with the
legends and lore.
In 1988, while Loretta Tillery and three other co-owners: Jay McCarthy,
Jerry Cassesi and Bonnie Aparicio were in the middle of completely renovating
the hotel, and were just about to sell the property to new owners the last week
of June, the hotel caught fire. The stone hotel built painstakingly
by the Tonzi family in 1910, that stood for nearly 78 years was completely
gutted on Father’s Day, June 19, 1988.
Fire of 1988
According to my interview with Milly, it was on Father’s
Day, one of the families living in the hotel at the time decided to go across
the street to get hot chocolate but they left their young child alone in the
room along with a baby sleeping in a crib. Milly's recollection was that the young child had found a cigarette lighter and was playing with it. When the parents looked up at the
hotel window they saw the curtains on fire. They rushed in and got their
children, but the fire gutted the entire hotel. The newspapers claimed that a young child was playing with matches when the fire started.
According to the Amador Dispatch dated June 22, 1988, it
states the fire took place on Sunday at around 10 a.m. Not only did the hotel
burn but also the offices of Ione Realty and the newly opened restaurant the
Pasta House which had just celebrated their grand opening two nights earlier.
“It took us four years
to get this far,” stated Loretta Tillery, mentioning her recent
construction in the hotel. “All
renovations were done except one room!”
Fire that gutted the Ione Hotel 1988.
According to Carole Perry at Century 21, the owners were in
the process of selling the hotel for $350,000 to excited buyers. Once learning
about the fire, the buyers were truly devastated.The fire reached temperatures of up to 3000
degrees and crews from all over the county and other nearby areas came to help
in the rescue effort, to no avail. Even some of the boys at Preston and
volunteer firefighters from Mule Creek State Prison joined in the effort.Out of 60 firefighters who fought the blaze,
only two were injured. According to records, the struggle to extinguish the
fire had to do with a lack of water available. A distribution valve was not
operating properly thus not allowing the right volume of water to be accessible
to the fire crews.
In all, 23 people who were living at the hotel were homeless
(12 of which were children). After it was all said and done, the owners of the hotel
expressed their deepest gratitude to everyone who helped fight the fire and
published their letter in the Amador Dispatch on June 24, 1988. The hotel sat for years empty, lifeless and gutted.
A New Chapter
Then in the mid 1990’s new owners Dorothy and Tom Shone
purchased the property and put all their blood, sweat and tears into completely
reestablishing the Ione Hotel, and bringing it back to life again.
In later years, the hotel was sold again to Mahmood Ghani,
and now it is ran by the new proprietors Steve and Cindy Burke. The Burke family has definitely done a fantastic job with bringing the Ione Hotel back to its original grandeur. It is so lovely that I am sure even the Tonzi family would be proud! It was a pleasure visiting the hotel recently and speaking
to Cindy. She was very gracious and allowed me access to the upstairs to roam
around and even let me peek down the well in the middle of her restaurant, while
she entertained her patrons eating dinner! The hotel looks even more beautiful than
I remembered from the 1990’s when I last visited. The dark mahogany wood
throughout the entire building is something dreamy, like a step back in time to
another era.
Cindy was more than hospitable and answered many questions. When
asked about the haunted aspect of the hotel she explained that she herself has
not had any supernatural experiences there and believes there is an explanation
for most things and stated, “even if
someone dies in a place it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s now haunted.” Alejandro,
a member of staff who met us upstairs and let us in some of the rooms to
photograph said he hasn’t had anything paranormal happen. However, he did say
if there is anything other-worldly hanging out there, “if they want to party, let them party, just don’t bother me.”
All in all, I would say that the hotel is in great hands, and
I can see that the Burke’s truly love the hotel and it shows. It is apparent
that they are doing a fine job carrying on in the footsteps of their predecessors
before them, including the founders of the stone hotel, the Tonzi family.
Urban Legends, Local
Folklore & Ghost Stories
So now to the part some of you have been waiting for….the “other
side” of the Ione Hotel. In the recent years there have been a lot of paranormal investigators and websites that mention the hotel's haunted history and well, let's just say, much of it isn't paranormal at all. Well, let’s go down the line and address some of the
urban legends and lore (or ghost stories) of the hotel and then I will either
confirm or debunk them for you. Ready? Let’s go!
·The
Black Rose
Said to have been a prostitute in the late
1800’s that committed suicide in her room. Stories include that there is a mark
in one of the rooms that will not wash away or if painted it comes back. I could not find one single account in any of the old newspapers of the area mentioning any sort of incident at the hotel involving a prostitute who committed suicide, so it looks like this is just another fabricated story. According to the new owners, Cindy Burke, she knows
nothing of this story. Even former owner, Milly Jones stated the only thing she
had heard was that the door to George Williams’ room (which was at that time
#4) had a dark knot in the wood grain that some people had mentioned, but it
was not anything supernatural. For the
record, there were NO prostitutes who killed themselves in the hotel at any time,
so this legend is debunked!
·Mary
Phelps
This story is tricky, and the reason I say
this is because I am not one to dismiss someone’s personal experiences. If
Milly Jones claims that she had an encounter with an entity and the name Mary
Phelps came up, I am not going to say she didn’t. As the story went, (and you can read it in Milly’s Book on Amazon) the entity identified herself as Mary
Phelps and that her grandson died in a fire there.Again, she claims a family member of the
person came and confirmed it. However, there were no fires in this hotel that
took the lives of anyone at any time. So again, I will not dismiss this experience,
but I can say that no one died in a fire
at this hotel at any time and you can feel free to search the Amador County
Library’s newspaper archives too, for your own verification of this.
Room # 12 ( possibly where room #4 used to be)
·George
Williams
Now, George Williams is a chap that did
exist, and he did die at the hotel. This is actually a true story. George lived
in room # 4, which is not the same as the # 4 at the hotel today. Remember
after the fire in 1988, the layout was changed dramatically when it was rebuilt
on the inside. So walls are in places they weren’t before, and rooms have been
renumbered. Remember earlier I mentioned that the staircase was set further
back before? Well, according to my calculations where George’s room was (#4) I
believe it is where or close to where Room # 12 sits now. Again, give or take a
few feet. It is definitely on that side of the hotel though.
According to Milly, there were plenty of
people back in the 1970’s who remembered George well, and confirmed he died of
a heart attack in his room at the hotel. Bill Ketchum was quoted in the
newspaper back in 1980 talking about this very thing. Also, Milly told me that
one of her neighbors, an elderly lady, admitted that both she and another lady
had helped George get up to his room on the night that he died. He was very
drunk, so they guided him up the stairs, and plopped him down on his bed. They
even went so far as to take his shoes off and cover him up with a blanket
before shutting the door behind him.
Although he died of a heart attack it sounds to me like he passed in his
sleep, and since he was so drunk, let’s hope he didn’t feel a thing! George is buried at the old Catholic Cemetery
in town.
George Williams' Grave (J. Rubio)
·The Well
Okay, so now we are onto the well. So there
has been some misinformation about the origins of the well, so I wanted to
clear this up with you first. I have heard from several people that the story going around for years was that this was an ancient Miwok Indian well, and that because of this the well could not be touched and the hotel had to be built around it. That is completely false!
This well does NOT date back to the Miwok Indians.
I am not sure who started this rumor years ago, but they obviously didn’t look into the
customs and living traditions of Native Americans. The Miwok (coastal and inland) were not known for digging wells.
Also, the well is only 50-100 yards from the creek. The creeks, rivers and
streams were the water source they would use to begin with. Some tribes of
Native Americans in the plains and especially desert areas like Arizona are
known for digging aqueducts or trenches but not the type of well that we are
talking about here.
Looking down the well
So for the record, this well, was hand
built with stone all the way to the bottom, and even Milly Jones recalled her husband noticing the stonework all the way down when he first opened the cover of the well back in the late 1970's. She also mentioned to me that it has a drain at the bottom which flows out to the creek.
This was a very well constructed well-water system for that time period and it mimics the wells
found in Europe.
So now we know this was a “caucasian” hand-built well, probably
constructed around the time the saddlery shop and barber shop were situated on
those lots in mid 1800's. According to Milly, there were three original wells in Ione and one
of the other wells is located in the basement of a business just across the
street.
Another thing to mention is that I scoured through the archives of the newspapers in Amador County and found no trace of evidence that anyone fell down this well, or died in it at any point in time. (A lot of people try to insinuate a child fell in and died).
·Phantom
Odor
According to Milly’s book there was a
strange odor that would appear in the lobby on Saturday mornings and would last about 15
minutes and then dissipate. Later on, it was quoted in an online article that
later owner Mahmood Ghani complained of the same thing, and the article went so
far as to claim he hired someone to perform an exorcism to rid the hotel of the
stink, as funny as that sounds!
Well, the new proprietors have had no such issues whatsoever and Cindy told me
when she moved in, the grease traps looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in
years. The hotel was in such a poor state, they had a lot of cleaning and
restoring to do, and have never had any issue with any phantom smells.After speaking to Milly, I think I figured
out the cause of the phantom smell that plagued the hotel at certain
times.
Well, back in the 1970’s the
plumbing and the drainage systems in Ione weren’t always the best, plus on a
Saturday, the busiest day of the week, there was a lot of showers running and
toilets being flushed all at once, which Milly and I believe that could have
caused a back-up in the sewer or drainage system and if the vents weren’t
working right, a smell could have temporarily backed up into the hotel for a
few minutes. That is the most likely scenario.
·Haunted
Room #13
In all my research I have not found any credible stories relating to room #13, only recent online articles mentioning it. I will say though it is in the same general area near where
room #4 originally was (although I still think room #12 is more closely
situated to the original room #4). You
must remember the layout of the hotel was much different back then, so the
rooms are not in the exact spot they once were, and it is even possible that
half of room #12 and half of room #13 are in the same spot where the original
room #4 was due to the change of the construction plans and layout when new walls and doorways were put up after the fire in 1988. According to Jonathan Mumm, the same news reporter in the Youtube video above, he stated that Tom Shone had told him that he renumbered room # 4 to room # 13 after they remodeled the hotel in 1995. He claimed that he changed the room to # 13 to be spookier. Again, George's room was originally very narrow (and you can see it by the Youtube video above), and some of the rooms you find there today seem a bit wider now, because of the construction and rebuild after the fire of 1988.
If you would like to read more about the alleged hauntings at the hotel, you will have to read Milly Jones’ book "The Hotel Ione" on Amazon, as I don’t delve
too deep into the paranormal, I prefer to dig for the factual history of a
location and share that instead.
I hope that you enjoyed this step back
into the past to learn the history of this beautiful hotel and I hope that the
current owners continue to preserve, protect and share this history with the
world. In ending, let me quote something
that Amador County Historian Larry Cenotto once wrote back in 1995, when he was
giving advice to the new owners Dorothy and Tom Shone, “The writer encourages them to ascertain and promote its real history
–that is interesting enough for anyone.”
Mokelumne Hill is situated in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, between Jackson and San Andreas. During the Gold Rush, Mokelumne Hill or "Moke Hill" as I have always called it, was a booming mining town surrounded by many other mining camps in the area. In this particular blog, I will be sharing with you the history of the Hotel Léger, and also debunking some of the "rumors" that have been circulating about this historic hotel for the past several decades. In a future blog I will go further in depth into the history of town of Mokelumne Hill itself, and some of its other intriguing tales. To start, the Hotel Léger was founded and built by George Léger. But that wasn't the hotel's original name. In fact, this hotel has had several names over the years from the Hotel de France, Union Hotel, Grand Hotel, and of course its namesake, the Hotel Léger. The Léger Family George William Léger was of French ancestry, although he wasn't a native of France. According to the 1860 Census he was born in Hesse-Cassel, a small state within Germany. During the time in which George was born, Hesse-Cassel was occupied by French troops and was actually considered to be a "French satelite state." I imagine that George's mother was probably a German woman who married one of the French soldiers who was stationed there and that is how George came to be a Frenchman who was actually from Germany. According to records, George was born sometime in 1815. It has always been said that he came to the U.S. in his mid-thirties, and that he settled in at Mokelumne Hill around 1851. The San Joaquin Valley as well as the Sierras had a large population of French, even in the early days when the French trappers arrived (long before actual settlements). During the Gold Rush, many Frenchmen came to "Moke Hill" as well as Germans, Scots, Irishmen, Chinese, Mexicans, Chileans and even Australians heading for California along with so many others. It is interesting to note that the biggest rush I have found during my research about Moke Hill happened between the Spring of 1851 and the Summer of 1851. Soon after a huge portion of miners headed up to San Andreas to their newly discovered diggings. Still, many miners kept at it in Moke Hill and the population of the little mining camp continued to grow exponentially. This was around the time that George Léger set up his tent-like wooden and canvas hostelry on the corner of Main and Lafayette streets. At some point the hotel was built up, but was only a one story structure in the beginning. On August 21, 1854 around 3:05 a.m. a fire broke out in John Ward's restaurant on Main Street. The fire swept through the main part of town from Franklin to Ravine, through Front street, Center street to Washington, to the bridge over the ravine and Lafayette streets. The only structures saved in town were Parker's stable, four houses, Hawkins store, Magnolia Hotel and about seven small buildings in total. Of the structures lost, Léger's hotel was one of them (Union Hotel). Others included: Morris & Peyton, Root & Co., Cadwaller & Co., Halsey & Bro., S. Forman, Strouz Fountain House, United States Hotel, Dudley's Restaurant, Ford's Restaurant, Sturges & Co., Dr. Soyer, Wells Fargo & Co., Adams & Co., and the post office. Within a year the hotel was rebuilt once again.
George & Louisa's Marriage Record
On May 26, 1856, George Léger married Louisa Wilkin by Justice of the Peace, B.H. Williams. The three witnesses who signed on behalf of the marriage were Henry Krat, Henry Anhiser and Henry Mayer. The couple were to have three children: Albert Henry (1856-1886), Matilda (1858-1937) and Louisa (1860-?). Their daughter, Louisa's birthdate was November 26, 1860 which sadly coincides with the death of her mother, Louisa Wilkin Léger, who apparently died the next day of complications after childbirth. Louisa was buried in the Mokelumne Hill Protestant Cemetery. Her headstone reads (as translated in English):
"Here beloved wife and mother, Louisa Leger (born Wilkin), born on 25 of November, 1833, died on 27 of November, 1860, missing and grieved."
The loss of his wife must have hit him very hard, as it appears he never remarried. He continued to raise his children who all grew up into adulthood. Albert Henry Léger was listed as a registered voter on May 21, 1877 (aged 21 years). By April 21, 1886 though, Albert passed away for reasons I could not find; However, he did not die in the hotel or even in Calaveras County for that matter. He passed away in Fresno County and his body was brought to Mokelumne Hill to be buried at the cemetery where his parents are buried. Matilda grew up and married William Todd in 1879. According to Wendy Cook on Find-a-grave, Matilda married twice and died in 1937 in Seattle, Washington. As far as Louisa, I could only find her mentioned on one document, the 1880 census where she is listed as running the hotel. They erroneously listed her age as 17 and year of birth as 1863, however we know she was actually 20 years old and was born 1860. According to Maureen Love-Allen Elliott on the "Motherlode Memories" Facebook page, she found Louisa listed in the 1885 census in Washington. At the time she was married to David Edwards, who was also a hotel keeper. Amador County Marriage Records also note that Louisa married David Bartlett Edwards on February 3, 1881 in Jackson, Amador County, which was only two years after her father's death. They apparently moved to Washington a short time later. It appears the two separated and divorced, since Mr. Edwards is later listed being remarried to Ida Buck. Maureen believes she remarried to a George Wilson, in Ballard, Washington. The first document I could find of this marriage shows only that she listed her name as "Lou Edwards" but there was no listing of her maiden name or her parent's names on that particular document. Maureen provided me with a second document where it does in fact state that Louisa's parent's were George Leger and Louisa Wilken, so we now know she did remarry. By the 1930 census in Washington, Mr. Wilson is listed as a widower, so she must have passed on sometime before. I have since found a grave for a Louisa L. Edwards (not Wilson), born in 1860, who passed away in 1918. She was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. But it is highly unlikely she would have been buried using her first married name (Edwards) and not the second one (Wilson), so I am currently at a standstill in regards to locating Louisa's grave.
The county seat moved to San Andreas in 1866, which meant the courthouse would no longer be used, but the jail was still in use until March of 1868. Once the new county jail was built elsewhere and inmates were moved out, it was then that George wanted to purchase the empty courthouse located on the corner of Lafayette and Court Streets (now China Gulch). He then used the old courthouse as an addition to his hotel. In 1874, there was another fire that swept through Mokelumne Hill. The hotel burned again, but the part of the hotel that was stone (the former courthouse) survived the fire. The last rebuild of the hotel was the final one, and the hotel stands now just as it was in 1875. On April 26, 1875, George held a grand reopening of the hotel which included a Grand Ball. It was a big 'to-do' around those parts, and all of the county's most important residents attended. Over the years the hotel ownership has passed through many hands. Here is a small list of previous owners of the past, which I am certain isn't complete but here you go: George Léger Louisa Léger (daughter) George Muths Kaufmann Hexter John McLean Nevil Magee Myron Greve Charles Pfeiffer An Attorney from San Francisco (name unknown) Bob Rosenthall Alice & Roger Cannon Ron & Joyce Miller Joe Rohde & Marci Biagi
At George's grave.
George's Death Contrary to the majority of people's opinions, written theories, and adamant statements in books, online or even on television shows, George Léger was NOT murdered. I really wish people would stop spreading that fabricated and completely false story. It is not only a disrespect to the history of the hotel but a personal insult to Mr. Leger himself. According to the Calaveras Chronicle, Mr. Léger had been ill for two days and passed away suddenly. He was mentioned as being the "oldest, most esteemed fellow townsmen."The Sacramento Daily Union stated: "George W. Leger, Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, a prominent Odd Fellow, and one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Calaveras County, died here this afternoon." The Amador Ledger said this of their beloved pioneer:
Amador Ledger (3/15/1879)
Obviously the paper had the wrong information about his native nationality, because it was his wife Louisa who was from Prussia, but other than that, his obituary was right on the money. This is an important piece of information that should be remembered as we get into this subject matter a little further on in this blog.
George is buried at the Protestant Cemetery in Mokelumne Hill with his wife.
Debunking Local Legends and Lore So if George Léger was not murdered in his hotel, then why on earth would this story have come about in the first place? I have my suspicions of just who may have started the rumors and why. You see, I have been digging up as much as I could on the hotel's history and it wasn't until the 1980's when the rumor of George being murdered appeared on paper. Along with the story came some very unsavory accusations about George himself, claiming he was a "ladies man"which was unwarranted. According to a syndicated article that appeared in the Desert Sun (as well as many other newspapers all over the country) dated December 1, 1987, then owners of the hotel, Ron and Joyce Miller were quoted saying that George "was quite the womanizer" and that he was "murdered outside his room in 1881." They were interviewed a couple of more times in 1987 reiterating the whole haunted aspect, again being very adamant that George was a "ladies man" and that the woman who haunts the hotel is probably one of his "old flames." The Millers obviously wanted to capitalize on their investment and bring in tourists with the interest in an historic and "haunted" hotel. Unfortunately, they didn't do their homework on the history of the hotel or they would have known George didn't die in 1881 and wasn't murdered. It is plain to see that they sensationalized the hotel's history to gain publicity which worked, and unfortunately, it worked too well, since their tall tales of the Hotel Léger's history has become one of those urban legends that have spun out of control. Now every book, every tv show and most writers and investigators repeat the same old yarn without actually doing the legwork to see it was completely fabricated. There is absolutely no evidence or documentation whatsoever that has ever mentioned George Léger being a womanizer or sleeping around with women in town. In fact, he was one of the most respected men in town, as well as the county. Had he gained such a soiled reputation as that, surely there would have been something mentioned over the years, but instead, these accusations only popped up in the mid to late 80's which is a red flag that it was completely made up. So, for the record, George Léger was NOT a womanizer, he did NOT sleep around with all the women in town, and he was NOT murdered by a jealous husband or any other person for that matter. He died from illness at the hotel, where he lived. So what about the other "ghost stories"? Again, the first ever mention in a newspaper claiming the hotel being haunted was in 1987, by the Millers. Although they claimed that the previous owners had told them it was haunted, the Millers were the first to publicize that there was an apparition of a woman seen going back and forth upstairs, or a boy sitting in a chair who played with a toy wagon.
George W. Léger
The Millers also claimed that George was around, and that they, as well as their son, had seen him, too. The former owners before the Miller's, the Cannon's purchased the hotel back in 1971, after they read an ad in the Wall Street Journal for the old hotel. Alice and her husband Roger Cannon, who was a traveling appraiser for the forest service, purchased the hotel and moved their six children there in the beginning of 1971. They never mentioned the hotel being haunted in their interview for the paper, but instead they seemed delighted to have such a gem to restore. Prior to the Cannon's owning the hotel, I have found a newspaper article that stated an attorney from San Francisco had purchased it in 1960, with the mindset that he would restore it back to its former Gold Rush days. He planned to bring in authentic items to give it that old west flavor. By 1961, the hotel was planned to become a permanent museum to exhibit 19th century masterpieces of California paintings, but it appears that plan fell through. And even earlier than that, the Greve family had owned the hotel for well over five decades, making them the family with the longest running ownership of the hotel. So as I dug further and further back into the hotel's previous owners, it was obvious to see that the slanderous story about George being a womanizer, or that he was murdered, along with the "ghost stories" seems to have all started in the 1980s, with the arrival of the Miller family. Again, it is possible that a local or locals could have told the Millers of this story and they just took it at face value instead of researching it themselves. Still, it appears the Miller family were the first to get publicity for it, by sharing their "ghost stories" which ultimately put the hotel on the map for paranormal investigators. Old Jail Cells/Dungeon
What about the rumors of the "dungeon" under the hotel? The courthouse and adjoining jail were on the first level of the stone building which was constructed on the hill (corner of Lafayette and Court Street, now China Gulch). While researching the murder of B.R.C. Johnson back in 1866, just prior to the courthouse being moved to San Andreas, two of the three murderers were arrested and being held at the jail cells in Mokelumne Hill awaiting execution. On a stormy night, those two inmates made a daring escape from the jail. According to records the convicted killers, John Ferguson and Jesus Miranda, along with another inmate Brian Fallon, made their escape by cutting their way out of their cells from the ceiling which was composed of boards without covering. The men managed to break free from their shackles, pile buckets on top of one another along with an old chair and Ferguson reached the ceiling and cut his way out with a sharp pointed instrument (the newspapers assumed it was a three-cornered file). While cutting away, the other inmates made noise such as singing, clanking chains and dancing to distract the jailer from hearing Ferguson breaking the boards apart. The man working in the front room, Joe Douglass, was unaware of what was going on just behind him and when he took his break to get some dinner, the prisoners made their escape. At one point it appeared as if the men had contemplated murdering Douglass at first, since they would have had to climb over a partition into the front room where Douglass was working but he had left for dinner so his life was spared. Ferguson discovered a ventilation system during their escape, so they decided to crawl out of the building through there, and jumped down to the back jail-yard fencing area near the hangman's tree, and eventually made their way out of town. They were eventually captured and they met their fate at the hangman's tree which once stood in the back property of the courthouse (more than likely near the pool of the hotel today). The point of this story is that the jail cell areas were on the first floor of the stone building in the back of the property. In fact, it said the jail area and the front room in the court house were only separated from a "partition." It wasn't dungeon-like, it was just a jail. (To read the entire story it can be found here: "The Murder of B.R.C. Johnson" ) As the years went on, the basement area would later be used as a storeroom and wine cellar for the hotel. I do not believe the basement was used as any form of torture chamber for the inmates as the episode of Ghost Adventures implied. It was a storeroom.
During the time that the stone court house was still being used as a jail, the authorities held them, tried them, and if they were convicted, they were sent to prison or hanged. If they were acquitted or their cases dismissed, they were set free. Another point to make is about the alleged "tunnels" - Many times in the 1800's courthouses had tunnels where they would bring in criminals to be held until their trial or hearings. Instead of bringing the criminals in through the front of the courthouse where there would be an audience of people watching, they would sneak them in from another entrance or tunnel. A good example of this is the old courthouse in Auburn. There once was a tunnel that went across the street to the old "White House" and there are remnants of a closed up tunnel that can still be seen today. Again this was not uncommon. There is absolutely no proof that there was tunnel or that one was used for smuggling people, prostitution, or any other illegal activity and those types of assumptions or accusations are not based on facts, but instead on wild imaginations. Who died in the Hotel (or on the property)? Okay, so let's get down to the facts. Who do we have on record that actually died in the hotel? It is more than likely that George's wife, Louisa died in the hotel, given the fact she died after childbirth and she lived in the hotel, so the doctor would have came to her to deliver her baby. So I think it is safe to say Louisa died at the hotel. We also know that George died in the hotel, given the fact that is documented. Another former resident, Mrs. Mae C. Suessdorf passed away at the hotel per the September 20, 1907 edition of the Amador Ledger which stated that she died very suddenly. She was only 34 years old. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and Daughters of Rebekah. Her father was a longstanding Justice of the Peace in Calaveras County, Patrick Kean. Besides these people I have listed, there are countless others who were hanged behind the courthouse at the hangman's tree. Convicted killers, John Ferguson and Jesus Miranda were just two out of many who met their fate at the end of the hangman's noose. According to the March 14, 1868 edition of the Calaveras Chronicle, it stated that the jail closed that week when the last of the prisoners were removed from the jail and sent to the new jail in San Andreas. (Added note: previously on this blog I had noted that a person named Owen Fallon had been shot outside of the jail by someone named Boyd who had mistaken him for an inmate that escaped. This was a mistake. I had somehow mixed up the name of Owen Fallon with that of Brian Fallon, one of the escapees from the Mokelumne Hill jailhouse February of 1886. Interestingly, according to an article in the Calaveras Chronicle dated February 28, 1868, it claims that Owen was Brian's brother. As it turned out, because of mixing up the two people, and after reading page 331-332 in the "History of Amador County" by Jesse D. Mason (1881) which briefly read: "Owen Fallon, a respectable man, being mistaken for an escapee from Mokelumne Hill jail, was shot by William Boyd," I accidentally confused both incidents with one person. The only problem was that the shooting took place in Irishtown (Pine Grove area) not outside of the jail. I didn't realize this oversight on my part when I first published the blog, until it was brought to my attention recently. I apologize for the minor misinterpretation of that particular information on Fallon that I had previously published. I wanted to correct this error as soon as possible. So for the record, Owen Fallon DID NOT die on or near the property of the Hotel Leger or old Mokelumne Hill jail.) True Accounts that took place on the property Besides, deaths that took place on the property, I found the story of a cook who assaulted a waiter at the hotel in June of 1900. Henry Daigel (the cook) got into a heated argument with Walter Luke over the consistency of his mashed potatoes. It was then that the cook threw his cast iron frying pan hitting Luke in the head. He was charged with assault with intent to cause great bodily harm, but claimed he really didn't mean to hurt him. He lost his temper and threw the pan. The cook's son, who was a dishwasher at the hotel took his father's side and the case was dismissed. Just earlier that month in 1900, the storeroom which I believe was located in the basement of the hotel, was burglarized with large amounts of rice, tea, prunes and soap being the provisions stolen. The chambermaid who lived in the room adjacent to the storeroom claimed she heard nothing, and the burglars made their way out a door that opened to the back yard on Court Street (now China Gulch). I am sure there are other stories out there just waiting to be resurrected from the archives, but so far I haven't found any really crazy ones. We know that there was gambling and prostitution at Mokelumne Hill because I have found it mentioned in several newspaper clippings, but none have ever mentioned the Hotel Léger. I will continue to keep searching for more history of this fantastic hotel dubbed the "Gem of the Mother Lode" and I will update this blog with any future findings. In ending, this blog isn't to rain on anyone's parade in regards to their beliefs of the hotel's history or whether the hotel is haunted or not. That is not for me to say. Not all historic locations are haunted, but with the same token, there are lots of places that have "activity," too. This blog isn't to touch on that aspect, but instead this is my way of enlightening those who truly love this hotel and want to know the true history of it. Not just the fabricated or sensationalized stories, but the documented facts. The most important part about learning is growing, and sometimes we find out that what we were told, or read, or watched on a television show was not accurate. It is up to us whether we want to accept that or not. I just want to provide the most accurate information as possible so that those earnestly seeking the truth about this location, can read about it and appreciate it. Happy History Hunting! (Copyright 2018 - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)
In the early hours of May 10, Leahy
sneaked onto the Chateau property and hid in the woodshed outside. When John
Chateau strolled out in the morning to retrieve firewood, Leahy took aim and
shot him. While John Chateau lay there bleeding, Leahy went over and picked up
an axe, intending to finish the job. Yet several neighbors had heard the shot
and quickly got involved — tackling Leahy to the ground and holding him until authorities
arrived.
