In the historic ghost town of Virginia City, Nevada, just about
everyone you talk to knows the name Julia Bulette. Unfortunately, most people
only know the legend and lore surrounding her story and haven’t truly dug deep
enough to know all the details surrounding her life and death. I have been
intrigued by the story of Julia Bulette ever since reading about her alleged
murderer’s hanging in an article published in an old Chicago newspaper archive.
Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain and undeniably the father of classic
American literature, penned the very emotional account of his experience in
Virginia City witnessing the public hanging of her convicted murderer, John
Millian. It was his words that sparked an interest in learning more about
her death, and inevitably, her life, too.
Over the years there
have been many authors and journalists who have tried to weave a fantastic yarn
full of folklore surrounding Julia’s life and her death. With so many writers
choosing to immortalize Julia with over the top lore, her true story has been
lost in the mix. Over the course of many years I have sought answers to various
questions regarding Julia’s true background as far as her name, her family
roots and her hometown, besides digging into the story of her murder. After
studious research, I believe I have put the pieces together, all the while
debunking a lot of the fabricated information that unfortunately has been
passed on as fact. This chapter will not only expose the over embellished
stories told (or literally made up) about Julia, as well as state to you, the
reader, the real facts that are known about Julia. I will also share with you
the details surrounding her gruesome death, all followed by cited sources so
that you can form an educated opinion regarding what you choose to believe.
Lack of Cited
Sources!
One thing that I
always say is “cite your sources!” If you read a book, an interview, or
even a blog about Julia’s story (or any other person in our past for that
matter), if the writer does not cite their sources within the text, or list
them at the bottom of the text then that is a red flag that there is usually
some sort of fabrication or false history being shared. If the factual
documentation exists, why suppress it from the public? Why not share it with
your readers so they can verify your findings for themselves? In this effort to
find the truth about Julia Bulette’s life and death, I have found that many
times previous authors did not cite their sources, leaving us left only to take
their word for it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t go for
that! With that being said, I have gone to extra lengths with this chapter
just to prove what I am sharing with you is factual and also to debunk and expose
the false stories that have been fabricated about Julia’s life as previously
told by other authors and historians who claim to know the real story of Julia
Bulette. I will also dig even deeper to try to explain to you what I suspect
are the origins behind some of these falsely told stories. I not only
researched this story thoroughly, but I brought in several other genealogists
and historians to do their own research on the subject, to have them double
check or “fact check” my findings to make sure I left no stone unturned. All of
my source citations will be in the back of the book, in the bibliography for
reference purposes.
I encourage you to
always research, research, research!! A real historical writer who has nothing
to hide will gladly provide you with the tools for you to verify their
findings for your own peace of mind so that you can come to your own
conclusions yourself.
Debunking False
History
First and foremost,
the details regarding Julia’s early life prior to her arriving in Virginia City
has never been proven or verified. There have been various authors over the
years who claimed to have revealed her true identity and past history, but
after diligently researching said claims I have debunked them entirely.
So what claims are
not backed up by real historical fact? Let me show you. For example, in the
book, “Family Jules: The Life and Times of Julia C. Bulette,” author
C.C. Haile claims that Julia was actually named Julia Goulette, from Morehouse
Parish, Louisiana, and that she was a Quadroon (1/4 African-American).
The author never cites the documents or sources she used to come to her
conclusions, but instead uses very vague references to her “extensive research”
and weaves this story that Julia’s father’s family was from France and that her
Creole background came from a black mistress with whom Julia’s paternal
grandfather had children. This Creole mistress (who is unnamed) is allegedly
the African-American whose bloodline she tries to tie to Julia.
The problem with this
story is that there are no documents to prove such a story exists, nor does the
connection to this specific family. For one, the people she names in her first
few chapters cannot be tied to Julia Bulette in any way, shape or form
whatsoever. Even the girl, Julia Goulette whom the author tries to say is our
Julia, could not possibly be the same Julia from Virginia City for several
reasons. First, this Julia Goulette was listed in the 1850 Census
for Morehouse Parish as a Mulatto, not a Quadroon. Her mother (who is not
listed) was black, and her father, Louis Goulette, the same side of the family
the author claimed carried black heritage, was actually listed as being
Caucasian, as was his brother. So, just because this young girl had a similar
sounding name and was born around the same time period as our Julia, that alone
is not enough to tie to Julia Bulette. Unfortunately, this did not stop her
from continuing to push this story.
I would also like to
point out that there are no records to back up the early French “family history”
of the Goulette, Boulette, Pulet, or Bulette family as told in that book.
In France, their census records didn’t have actual listed names for many years,
just statistics, so there was no way the author could have discovered all that
information with names, dates and births connecting Julia to that family as she
claimed.
There’s more. When we
get deeper into the theorized backstory, I found even more errors, or you could
say contradictions. For one, the author claimed that Julia left Morehouse
Parish with her half-uncle Jules Bullett (again another spelling variation of
the surname; we will get to him a little later in this chapter), to live in New
Orleans in 1848. It was there that he supposedly set her up in a house to be a
prostitute. But how could that be when this particular Julia Goulette was still
living with her father in Morehouse Parish in August of 1850, as listed in the
census? The information just doesn’t add up.
More so, the author
then claims that Julia left New Orleans to Chagres, Panama with her alleged
cousin Paul Pulet aboard the vessel “Falcon” in March of 1850, crossing the
Isthmus of Panama and then boarding the vessel “Northerner” where she allegedly
arrived in in the port of San Francisco, May of 1850. Again, there are too
many errors here.
First off, there is a
record of a J. Billett boarding the “Falcon” but not with anyone else, and
there is no record of this person being male or female. Secondly, there is no
record of Julia arriving on the Northerner. In fact, the Northerner didn’t
arrive to San Francisco until August of 1850, and she wasn’t listed on the
passenger list, nor was she listed on any of the other lists I searched during
that entire year. I found a record of a P. Poulet (notice the different
spelling) traveling on the Falcon from New Orleans to Chagres two weeks after
J. Billett, but again, he or she was alone and there are no records that prove
either of these two people were related or even knew one another.
In my research to get
to the bottom of this story, I asked three other genealogists to research
Julia’s alleged backstory and to see if they came up with the same information
as I did. I wanted to make sure that I really, thoroughly checked every possible
lead. In all of the research I did, I have never found any concrete evidence
that supports the “history” as told in Ms. Haile’s book.
As fun as it may seem
to believe an embellished and entertaining story, there are no facts to back it
up. When it came to tying the Bulette name to Julia Goulette, the author
went on to claim her half-uncle, Jules was the one who basically took her under
his wing and put her on the path she ended up living later on in life,
prostitution. The author also claims that Julia took the name Jules as a
nickname after her uncle. But who was this person Jules?
The book “Family
Jules” states that Jules Bulette arrived in the U.S. from Le Havre,
France in 1837, on board the vessel Rubicon. Unfortunately, again, there are
discrepancies we cannot ignore. Genealogists Karen Ashworth, Amanda
Trainor of “Digging up Roots,” and my friend and colleague, Shannon
Bradley Byers, also known as the “Paranormal Genealogist,” all
offered their help to confirm or debunk certain so-called facts or events
as stated in the book. All three of them could not find any factual
evidence to support any one of the events they were privately asked to
research.
Case in point,
Shannon was the first to discover the passenger list records for the Rubicon,
which shows that a person named “Jules, Bullett” (Surname listed as Jules) was
on board the vessel but was listed as a family member of P. Francois. She also
found The National Archives abstract which also lists him as B. Jules,
traveling with the family of P. Francois. Again, there is no proof that this
person Bullett Jules or B. Jules was related to the Goulette family of
Morehouse Parish, or our Julia Bulette.
The more we dug the
more it became apparent that the story being pushed was not one of historical
fact but instead historical fiction. As authors we are not supposed to weave a
fantastic tale of an adventurous journey about a real person in history unless we
have documented facts backed up by real sources to confirm these stories.
Otherwise, it is only conjecture and nothing more. In the case of Julia
Bulette, there just isn’t enough concrete information to state as a matter of
fact how or when she arrived at the west coast, or what her early background
was besides what the newspapers said at the time of her death (which we will
get to later on).
I reached out to the
author of “Family Jules” with numerous questions with the hope
to get some sort of answers. Ms. Haile offered her explanation to me by email.
Although her answers were very vague, she admitted that the book was never
meant to be taken as a scholarly text and that she published her book to be for
entertainment purposes. After looking into her background, I found on her own
Amazon “Author’s Page” her biography literally says that “her
focus of late is centered in tales of the Wild West - some true, some
embellished, and some just figments of an unharnessed imagination.”
Let me make this very
clear, Ms. Haile’s book is entertaining if you take it as a work of historical
fiction, but it is in no way an historical or biographical book on the true
life of Julia Bulette. If you enjoy romanticized novels much like Yellow
Bird’s, ”Joaquin Murrieta”, then you would enjoy her book, but
again, I advise you to take it all with a grain of salt.
The real bone I have
to pick is with other writers, historians and reenactors who have been
spreading this false history about Julia online, despite the fact that they
have been called on it and asked to cite their sources. These so-called experts
still choose to push this revisionist history without citing any sources,
besides using Ms. Haile’s book as their “gospel” on Julia’s life. That is
wrong on so many levels, not only ethically, but is a complete disrespect to
Julia Bulette’s real legacy because they are ignoring the facts in order to
prop up a fantasy. This wouldn’t be the first time though. In fact, this has
been happening far too often and for far too long, especially in Julia’s case.
After proving that
Julia did not take the Falcon or the Northerner on
her journey to California, and that she was not this Mulatto girl from
Morehouse Parish, that leaves us with the questions, where did she come from?
Who was the real Julia Bulette? And how did Julia get to the west coast? The
answer, as disappointing as it may be is that there is no definitive answer.
There just isn’t enough primary source documentation that proves Julia’s
background beyond a shadow of a doubt. We cannot just search a historical
record or index, pick a random name up out of a book and say, “that is
the person I am looking for.”
So where did all the
false information come from? To get to the origins of some of Julia’s
fabricated past, we will have to go back even further than Ms. Haile’s book.
Back to earlier retellings of Julia Bulette’s story by earlier authors who
decided to sensationalize this woman’s life so much, that the true history
behind Julia Bulette’s life was lost to history, at least for a while. Thanks
to other truth seekers like myself, over the years there have been a few other
authors and journalists who have delved into the facts and tried their best to
set the record straight, too. They will be mentioned within this book, as am a
huge believer of giving credit where credit is due. I will also be
placing blame on the other authors, writers and historians who have chosen to
take the low road and continued spreading these fabrications over the years,
which in turn has forever changed the world’s opinion or belief of just who
Julia Bulette actually was.
The Fabricators of
History
Earlier authors such
as Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, along with others like Duncan Emrich, Oscar
Lewis, Zeke Daniels (who was actually Effie Mona Mack) and George Lyman were
the originators of sensationalizing or romanticizing Julia’s story and her
background. They used what they could find in the newspapers at the time of her
death and then over embellished, sensationalized and downright fabricated the
rest of her story to the point it has been become legendary.
First, assumptions
were made by Lucius Beebe that she might have been Creole, and later other
authors (and even self-proclaimed historians) changed her ancestry from Creole
to Mulatto without any form of cited sources or documentation. Then came more
fabrications. From the over-the-top statements by both Duncan Emrich and Beebe
that Julia lived in her “palace” and hosted dinner parties with fine French
wines and the best delicacies for some of the town’s high society making
her house the “cultural center,” to the grossest fabrication, that she
rode around in a lacquered brougham carriage, that I might add, had a crest of
four aces, crowned by a lion couchant which had been imported across the
Isthmus of Panama, covered in her fantastic furs and jewels, the story just
kept getting bigger and bigger!
Other stories have
her nursing the sick and donating her money and time to help the community, as
well as her well known generosity towards the fire department. Nowhere is
there any evidence of any of these conclusions these authors wrote in their
books, yet they had no problem freely printing lies to push as fact. No, Julia
was not Mulatto, or Creole, and there has never been any sort of documentation
to suggest this besides an author’s wild ideas.
As one of the few
writers to successfully debunk the whole mixed-race or Creole theory, Susan
James put it, “So little was known about her life that her attributes could
be greatly enhanced without fear of contradiction…writers speculated about
Julia’s ancestry. The fact that she might have lived in Louisiana was all they
needed to transform the fair-skinned Englishwoman into an enticing New Orleans
Creole. Exotic beauty was not among Julia’s assets, but it didn’t hurt to
stretch the truth a bit.”
As far as Julia
having hosted fancy dinners at her home, that is also a farce. Her
cottage consisted of just two small rooms with no in-door bathroom or kitchen.
In fact, Julia depended on a neighbor, Gertrude to provide her with food,
because she had no way of cooking it at her house. She did not live lavishly
with fine furs, diamonds and extravagant carriages. She had some nice clothes
and some jewelry, she also had a few decent pieces of furniture, but that was
it. Her estate appraised for $517.00, and at auction it sold for
$875.41. Her debts exceeded her assets, which totaled $790.00, plus $291.00 in
legal fees. Facts don’t lie, and the facts show that Julia was a poor
prostitute living just one step above squalor, and one who died in debt.
Yes, she was known
for her association with the fire department, and the newspaper did mention her
generosity of helping out at times during a fire, but the story that she nursed
the sick, or that she stuck with the menfolk when there was a threat of an
Indian raid, did not take place because those events took place long before the
Comstock had gained notoriety, and long before Julia had moved to Virginia
City, and that has been proven by other writers over the years as well.
What bothers me to no
end is the fact that so much of the sensationalism written about Julia has been
quoted over and over in one book after another, virtually sealing her legend in
stone. The book, “The Old West: The Miners” which was one of a
series of Time-Life books circulated in 1976, carried on the tradition of
pushing fabrication over fact in its brief write up on Julia’s life. Stating
adamantly that she was “so bewitching that she could command prices as
high as $1,000.00 a night for her company. She served fine wines and a
delightful French cuisine, and almost daily adorned her house with fresh
flowers rushed from the Coast by the Wells, Fargo and Company express.” The
lies don’t stop there. “When hundreds of miners became ill from
drinking polluted water Julia turned her house into a hospital and herself into
a nurse.”
The fact of the
matter here is that none of these things ever happened and there is not one
piece of documentation to prove that they did. My dear friend and historian,
Kent Spottswood once told me, “It’s not a matter of making up a theory
and saying prove me wrong.” We are supposed to record and
preserve history as told by documented facts, not what we wish the history to
be. In the case of Julia Bulette, that seems to be the case, that a majority of
writers and historians have chosen to over embellish or downright create a
legend since her death, and they expect us to believe their “theories” as fact.
Thankfully, because
of other truth-seekers like myself, there have been a few journalists, authors
and historians over the years who have uncovered the facts surrounding Julia’s
life to the best of their abilities, such as former Nevada State Archivist and
author, Guy Rocha. Another such truth seeker, Susan James, wrote a fantastic
piece, “Queen of Tarts,” in Nevada Magazine (October 1984). I
tracked down a copy of the publication on eBay for my own personal records
during my research for this chapter and was so impressed to see that she came
to the same conclusions that I did.
Not only does James
debunk most of the information I have mentioned earlier in this chapter, she
also covers the infamous “imposter” photo that I also cover within this
chapter. Another pair of writers who did their best to debunk a lot of the
false information spread about Julia, are Vardis Fisher & Opal Holmes in
their book, “Gold Rushes & Mining Camps of the Early American
West,” in which they set out to completely debunk Duncan
Emrich and Lucius Beebe’s highly sensationalized retelling of the story.
Going back to the
subject of the “imposter” photo, according to my research it seems that this
photo first appeared at the Bucket of Blood Saloon back when the McBride’s
owned it. Where or when they acquired the photograph is unknown, but it has
been stated that the McBride’s hung it in their business to attract
tourists Over the years self-proclaimed historians have used this photo as
a means to concoct their “Mulatto” theory, claiming that this photo is proof
that Julia Bulette was of mixed race. This story has been spread far and wide,
ending up in books and even on Find-a-grave. But that photo is not
Julia.
|
|
"Imposter"
photo (NOT Julia!)
Courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society
|
I contacted the
Nevada State Archives about the photo in question, and they referred me to the
Nevada Historical Society. After speaking with one of their curators, Sheryln
Hayes-Zorn, she confirmed with me that the photo in question is not Julia
Bulette. In fact, she also went on to mention that the photo, which shows a
woman with darker skin and frizzy bangs, can be dated to the 1880’s, given the
fashion and hairstyle. Julia Bulette was murdered in 1867, so the dating of the
photo alone is proof enough that is not our Julia. Sheryln did confirm that the
well-known carte-de-visite of Julia Bulette standing in the Sutterley Brothers
portrait studio next to a fireman’s hat in the dark dress is the only
recognized photograph of Julia Bulette.
In my quest to fix
this terrible mess that has been spread for too long, I reached out to the
contributor on Find-a-grave who manages Julia’s memorial and had posted the
false photo. Like others, she too had spoken to an old timer who claimed to
have “knowledge” about Julia. In the end he went with the false stories that
had been started by the McBride’s so many decades ago. Despite my best efforts
to convince the contributor that she had posted the wrong photograph, and even
after sharing with her the confirmation of my findings that I received from the
Nevada Historical Society, she still refused to remove the photo. I then had to
go around her and wrote Find-a-grave personally, sending them proof, and
thankfully they removed the false photo.
It doesn’t end there.
I also wrote several bloggers, writers and even a local Nevada Chautauquan who
claims to be an expert on Julia’s life. First, I asked them where they got
their information from and if they would mind sharing their sources. Some never
responded to my email, and the Chautauquan gave a very vague description of her
sources, which in the end turned out the only research she had done was reading
C.C. Haile’s book, (the one I proved earlier is not actually historically
accurate). After seeing that she didn’t really do her research thoroughly, I
tried to convince her that the information she had been sharing on tours or
online was not accurate, and after offering to share with her the factual
history that I have uncovered, all I received back was a very haughty response
and a complete unwillingness to accept facts over her own feelings.
I reached out to
another blogger who interviewed this “expert” and I explained to her that we
owe the dead nothing but the truth, and it is our responsibility to get the
history right, and that the information she was sharing on her site was
erroneous. And her response? Basically, that she believed the woman she had
interviewed, and she didn’t have any doubts about the authenticity of her
research despite not having any cited sources back up her claims.It was
disappointing to see so many people unwilling to accept that they had incorrect
information that needed to be fixed. Sometimes in our life, we may have wrong
information about a certain person, place or thing, and unknowingly we tell
that wrong information. But, if after finding the correct information, we do
not swallow our pride and fix these mistakes, how are we any different than
history revisionists?
In the end, I learned
that these people really do not care about telling or sharing Julia’s true
story, they just pretend to care. The sad fact is that most people today
who claim to care about our history really have little interest in whether
they tell it correctly or not. It ends up being all about the notoriety they
receive about the subject they are sharing, instead of about sharing the facts.
So, now that I have
cleared up all the fakelore that surrounds Julia’s early years, now I can
finally share with you the rest of her story! ----TO READ THE CONCLUSION OF THIS CHAPTER, PLEASE PICK UP A
COPY OF "More Stories of the Forgotten" on Amazon
today!
(COPYRIGHT
2019, ISBN-13: 978-1979454049, J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)
Thank you to the
Nevada Historical Society for photo permissions.
Sources:
Mark Twain’s letter
to the Chicago Republican, May 2, 1868 (Published 5/31/1868); From the Journals
of Alfred Doten, 1849-1903, a letter to the Plymouth Rock, 7/22/1867; “The
Life and Confession of John Millian” by Charles De Long, 1868; “A
History of the Exempt Virginia Fireman’s Association Cemetery”, by Steve
Frady (1980-87); “Mercantile Guide & Directory for Virginia City,
Gold Hill, Silver City, and American City,” compiled by Charles
Collins, 1864-1865; 1850 United States Census, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana;
National Archives; New Orleans Passenger Lists & Manifests; California
Bound, The Daily Picayune, 3/16/1850; Maritime Heritage Project, Ship
Passengers: 1846-1849; Papers Concerning the Estate of Julia Bulette, Storey
County Courthouse, 1867-1868; Virginia City Trespass: 5/24/1867; Virginia Daily
Union: 1/21/1867; Gold Hill News: 1/21/1867, 1/22/1867, 5/24/1867, 5/25/1867,
5/31/1867, 6/26/1867, 1/7/1868, 2/27/1868; Daily Alta California: 5/28/1867,
5/30/1867,4/28/1868; Twain Project, Fred Gooltz; Information cited regarding
Guy Louis Rocha, former Nevada State Archivist’s research in “The
Mythical West: An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore and Popular Culture” by
Richard Slatta; “Queen of Tarts,” by Susan James in Nevada
Magazine, Sept/Oct 1984, No, 5 (pages 51-53); Nevada State Library Archives;
Nevada Historical Society, courtesy of Sheryln Hayes-Zorn; “Gold
Diggers & Silver Mines, Prostitution and Social Life on the Comstock
Lode,” by Marion S. Goldman; “Gold Rush & Mining Camps of
the Early American West,” by Vardis Fischer & Opal Holmes; “Legend
of Julia Bulette and the Red Light Ladies of Nevada,” by Douglas
McDonald, 1980; “Bawdy House Girls: A Look at the Brothels of the Old
West,” by Alton Pryor; “Uncovering Nevada’s Past: A Primary Source
History of the Silver State,” by John Bevis Reid & Ronald Michael
James; “A Hike to the Location of Julia Bulette’s Gravesite, East of
Virginia City, Nevada,” by Neil Mishalov.
Disclaimer: The
additional sources cited below for Chapter One are for reference purposes
ONLY! These publications listed below are examples of historical revisionism
and/or over-embellishments of Julia Bulette’s story:
“Family Jules: The Life and Times of Julia C. Bulette,” by C.C.
Haile; The Old West: The Miners, Time-Life, 1976; “Legends of the
Comstock Lode,” by Lucius Beebe & Charles Clegg; “Julia
Bulette: The Comstock’s First Cyprian,” by Lucius Beebe & edited
by Charles Clegg and Duncan Emrich; “Life and Death of Julia Bulette:
Queen of the Red Lights,” by Zeke Daniels (Effie Mona Mack); “Silver
Kings,” Oscar Lewis; “The Saga of the Comstock Lode: Boom Days in
Virginia City,” by George Lymon, 1934; “Immoral Queens of the Red
Light District,”- by Marla Kiley, True West Magazine, 7/1997; “Julia
Bulette, There’s More To Her Story,” by Karen Dustman, Clairitage
Press Blog.
