The Many Lives of Fanny Sweet (Part Four)

The Conclusion 

By now we have reached the 1860's.  Between 1860 and 1880, Fanny basically flew under the radar. Other than the slanderous newspaper articles written about her in 1862, and her novel of a response to those newspaper articles, there really isn't much in the way of documentation showing what she was up to during that time period. 

By 1880, fifty-four year old Fanny (who listed herself as being forty-five) pops up in the census in New Orleans, but now she is working as a domestic for William R. Mills. The census recorder misspelled her name was Fannie Seyman, thus the reason it was hard to locate. At some point during her employment to Mr. Mills, Fanny must have won his heart, or he won hers. Either way, the two were married and it appears the pair were actually happy with the union.

Mills was a prominent attorney in New Orleans and his last client, Myra Clark Gaines retained him to represent her in her infamous lawsuit (originally known as the longest running lawsuit in the history of the United States) which proved to be the biggest payoff in Mill's life. Sadly, he never got a chance to truly enjoy the wealth he received from that one case, and so on July 17, 1891, William R. Mills passed away, leaving all his fortune to his "beloved wife."

Between 1891 and 1893, Fanny continued to live in excess but developed permanent blindness by 1893, and her paranoia became even more severe. By this time she was worried that everyone wanted money from her, and that if she had anyone living with her that they would rob her. Because of this fear of everyone possibly wanting to rob her, she became a hermit in her own home, refusing to allow outsiders to come inside to help her. She would occasionally send for a doctor, an attorney or notary, especially when it came to her wills. Prior to her death she had written up several wills but revoked them all just before her death. The last will was to leave many friends and attorneys her estate, as well as a large portion going to an orphanage (which I believe might have been where William G. Stephen's children might have ended up at). 

Another interesting tidbit of her revoked will was a clause for anyone she had listed to inherit money from her. Her demand was that they must all attend her funeral and visit her grave regularly, also visiting every All Saint's Day or their inheritance would be stopped and the money given to St. Joseph's Church instead. 

With all the money she had at her disposal: $45,000 of US Government Bonds, over $60,000 in real estate, and much more including a $450 check found under her pillow, Fanny refused to have anyone help her or purchase food for her. Towards the end she fell ill and being all alone and too weak to send for help, she fell to the floor of her room and remained there, virtually starving to death. Eventually a neighbor of hers worried about her and decided to go inside the house, where she discovered her emaciated body, rotting away.

It was a very sad end for Fanny....but, was it really the end? 

Well, as far as her life was concerned, yes, she was dead, but her story was far from over.

Fanny Mills or Rachel Brown?

Given the highly publicized account of her sudden death and her past 'infamy' with the newspapers years prior, the media had a field day with Fanny's story once again rehashing the past, all without her able to defend herself this time.

Since Fanny had passed away and her wills had been previously revoked, she died intestate. This gave the State of Louisiana the green light to try to lay claim on her property, but they didn't expect people to come out of the woodwork claiming to be heirs of hers.

There were people from all over the country trying to claim they were related to Fanny, but it was Charles Clinton Brown and niece Rosanna McVey Fuller who helped solve the biggest mystery of all: Who was Fanny Mills (Fanny Sweet, Fanny Hinkley, Fanny Smith, etc)? 

It took two years of litigation to sort this mess out. From witness statements, investigating long lost letters and documents and even cross-examining witnesses who committed perjury in court, this case certainly gained attention from the press. During one part of the court battle, J.F. Moliere and J.A. Peale testified, claiming they met Fanny on her crossing over from England to the US on the ship Waterloo, trying to contradict the story that C.C. Brown had given to court. When the ship's passenger list was obtained, neither Fanny nor Moliere or Peale were listed on it. Needless to say their testimony was thrown out.

After C.C. Brown testified and established his professional background, and that his character was untarnished, he went on to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Fanny was in fact Rachel Brown of Ohio, and that she was his elder sister. His testimony as well as his niece's sealed the fate of Fanny's estate. (Read C.C. Brown's Interview here)

The icing on the cake was the smoking gun evidence Rosanna McVey Fuller brought to court, one daguerreotype photo of Fanny and a pair of earrings she actually produced to the court. The photo showed Fanny wearing the same exact earrings. The question then was how did Rosanna acquire them? She testified that her aunt Fanny had given them to her. Judge Fred D. King closed the case and ruled in favor of C.C. Brown and Rosanna McVey Fuller. In all Fanny's estate was estimated to be worth around $100,000.  (Read Brown Wins His Suit here)

Fanny's Legacy

Over the years Fanny's story has been slandered terribly. Yes, she lied about her background from the very beginning, but you have to ask yourself, why? Was she lying to hide her past because of embarrassment? Did she wish to forget her reality and instead chose to create this fantasy in which she was the star? Regardless of why she started to lie about her past and strove so hard to conceal her true identity, many of the rumors or flat out accusations made against her were simply unfounded. Again, just because she lied about some things doesn't mean everything she said was a lie. 

And if people wish to believe all the horrible things spread about her, why do they choose to forget the good that was documented about her? What about the thousands of dollars that was said to have been donated by Fanny during the Civil War to help the injured and sick on the battlefields? What about the monies she gave to people in New Orleans who reached out to her in times of crisis, needing some financial help. She was adamant that she never turned a person away no matter what. 

For the record, we will never know in exact detail all the truths about Fanny's life. We have what the newspapers liked to sensationalize about her and then what she wrote about herself.  As I wrote in the first part of this story, "there are always two sides to every story," and I feel we owe it to Fanny to at least give her that platform here to share her side of the story and allow us to come to our own conclusions after reading it.

Rachel Brown, aka Fanny Hinkley-Mills was laid to rest at the St. Louis Cemetery # 3 in New Orleans in January of 1896, at the age of 70. Whether you believe Fanny's personal account or the elaborate and scandalous rumors spread about her by the newspapers of the time, Fanny deserves our respect in death that was not afforded to her in life.


Fanny's Final Words

In ending, I felt the best words would be Fanny's own words from the ending of her auto-biographical response to the slanderous accusations made against her back in 1862. I felt her own words were not only fitting but also give us a chance to let Fanny finally speak once and for all on her own behalf.

"And now she has nothing to add to this already lengthy card, unless that it is from no desire to obtain further notoriety, that she has published it. But falsehoods had been circulated of such skillful framing and circumstantial account, that she was forced, in justice to herself, to expose them in all the  nakedness of their monstrosity. Having done so in a manner, as she believes, to satisfy the  most prejudiced critic, she prays from the public only peace and quiet, and freedom from molestation.

For the wrong that has been done to her, either from malice or thoughtfulness, she forgives, if she cannot forget; and she will pray that those who wronged her may be forgiven by a power on high for all the anguish they have unjustly caused her, as well as for the shame they have heaped upon the dead, who cannot answer them, and upon the little orphans who may yet, in after years, be doomed to a bitter knowledge of all that was spoken concerning their parent.

One day all mortals have to stand before the bar of the Almighty Judge, and the sins of their earthly career will be exposed as they are, without worldly position or influence to screen them, and without malice to exaggerate. Until that dread day, the writer hopes not to be dragged before the public in a false light, and to have to repel charges for which she may seek in vain for a foundation. And such is the fervent prayer of FANNY MARIA HINKLEY. ---" Southwestern (1/8/1862)

Photo: c/o Alicia Borges

(Copyright 2018 - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

Some of my many sources:

New Orleans Daily Crescent, July 15, 1861

U.S. Census Record, 1880

Cincinatti City Directory 1843

The Times Picayune, June 22, 1861

The Times Picayune, April 28, 1899

True Delta, December 8, 1861

The South Western, January 1, 1862

The South Western, January 8, 1862

Los Angeles Herald  December 15, 1897

Sacramento Daily Union  February 3, 1896

Sacramento Daily Union December 7, 1854

Sacramento Daily Union  June 1, 1896

The Wichita Daily Eagle  December 31, 1899

Omaha Daily Bee,  January 2, 1897

The Record Union, June 1, 1896

The Record Union, January 15, 1896

The Evening Bulletin June 20, 1896

Rock Island Argus  June 26, 1896

The Scranton Tribune  December 26, 1896

The Record Union  February 1, 1896

The Record Union  May 5, 1899

The Southern Reporter, Volume 24: (Containing all the decisions of the Supreme Courts of Alabama, Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi – September 28, 1898- March 15, 1899

The Southern Reporter, Volume 26 : (Containing all the decisions of the Supreme Courts of Alabama, Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi – July 5, 1899-February 21, 1900)

Louisiana Reports: Cases Argued and Determined, Supreme Court of Louisiana. Volume 52, 1900.

Louisiana Annual Reports, Volume 50, No. 12,386 – December 13, 1897

U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana, No. 13,206 – November 20, 1899 (Hon. Fred D. King, presiding).

The Green Bag, Volume 18 – 1906

Sacramento’s Gold Rush Saloons: El Dorado in a Shot Glass – By Special Collections of the Sacramento Library

& various other records, including census records.

Tragedy In Jackson - Amador County

What I imagine Albina might have looked like....

I stumbled upon this story several years ago but didn't take the time to write about it until recently. Although the tragedy itself took place back in 1918, just outside of Jackson, California, the real story started eleven years earlier.

It was in the fall of 1907, when Albina "Bina" Bargala fell in love with John "Jack" Keyes, of Plymouth. She was Native American, English and Chilean while Keyes was Irish and Canadian.
It appeared that the couple were smitten for one another despite the fact she was only 15, and Keyes was 28.  Albina ran away several times to be with Keyes, which upset her family. Maybe the couple thought their love story was exciting, almost like Romeo and Juliet sneaking off to see one another, but lovesick Keyes only found himself facing charges of kidnapping by Albina's father, Francisco.

While still in jail on the kidnapping charges, Albina's father brought Albina to the county jail on January 16, 1908, and allowed his daughter to marry John Keyes.  Charges were dismissed and the couple left the jail as man and wife, headed back to his home in Plymouth. It was not long until Albina realized that John and his family were not on the 'up and up' in the county. In fact, by September of that same year, she found herself pregnant and all alone when John and his brother, Edward were arrested for burglary and sent up to San Quentin on a 5 year stint. As luck would have it, while the two brothers were incarcerated together, they got off on good behavior and both were paroled early. John on September 1, 1910 and Edward in 1911.

Keyes' Mug Shot 1910

While John was in prison Albina had moved back in with her father and raised their first child, Johnny by herself. John had issues with a hot temper and it seemed that the couple fought quite often over the years according to the newspapers. By 1918, the couple had been married nearly eight years and on March 6 of that year they welcomed a new baby girl, Marie into their family. Albina told the staff at the hospital that she feared her husband terribly and that she was afraid to go home with him after the birth of their daughter, but she went anyway. This would prove to be a fatal mistake for both her and her daughter.

The Tragedy -- August 29, 1918

"Brutal Husband Kills Wife And Child With Axe-

One of the most brutal murders it has been our duty to record occurred yesterday sometime before noon at the Head place*, about two miles up the ridge from the Summit House, when Jack Keyes with the blunt side of an axe crushed the skull of his wife, Bina Keyes, aged 24, and then inflicted a fatal blow with the same instrument on the forehead of their 6 month old daughter, Marie Keyes. 

The first known of the crime was about 8:30 last night, when Keyes came to the County Hospital in Jackson and asked Superintendent Murphy for some poison.  Murphy asked what he wanted it for, and Keyes replied that his had killed his wife and baby with an axe. Murphy told him it was hard to get poison but Mr. Dodd, the nurse, would take him down town for some, and while they walked away from the building Murphy quickly called up the Sheriff, who met Keyes shortly after this side of the hospital. Keyes told the Sheriff he had killed his wife and baby because a lady told him his wife was an anarchist. The Sheriff placed Keyes in jail and went to the scene of the murder.

When asked why he killed the child, Keyes said he figured the baby was an anarchist also. He said he struck his wife several times with the axe before the fatal blow crushed her skull. After the murder Keyes washed the bodies, dressed and covered them. He sat around the house during the afternoon, until the time he came to Jackson.

Keyes showed absolutely no signs of being intoxicated, as testified to by both Superintendent Murphy and Sheriff Lucot at the inquest held here today by Coroner Dolores A. Potter.

During the inquest Keyes, angered at the removal of a stove poker from his reach, sprang from his chair and attacked Deputy Sheriff Ford. Instantly a dozen men were on the job and a well-directed blow on the murderer's neck by Telephone Manager Watts, a juryman, floored the belligerent.

When asked if he had anything to say, Keyes said he wanted to be hanged. Other than that he made no further statement. Keyes has been in trouble before. It is said he and his wife quarreled frequently. She feared to return to him from the County Hospital, where the baby was born on March 6 of this year." ---Amador Dispatch (8/30/1918)

Keyes' Mug Shot 1918-1919

Soon after the murders, Keyes was sent down to the Stockton State Hospital for "observation" to check is mental state, at that time he was declared insane and ordered to remain there until his mind was able to comprehend the actions he made and face the consequences by the justice system. He remained there for over a year receiving treatment but by May of 1919, he managed to escape the hospital but was later apprehended.

After further examination, the doctors at the State Hospital felt he was within the mental capacity to stand trial, and so they sent him back up the County Jail in Jackson to face the murder charges of killing his wife and baby girl the year prior. On November 13th he pleaded guilty and by the time the November 21, 1919 edition of the local paper came out, he had been convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Amador Ledger (11/14/1919)

Amador Ledger (11/21/1919)

Keyes went to San Quentin State Prison on November 20, 1919 but he was only there for about a week before he was transferred to Folsom Prison on November 28, 1919. There he remained until 1920 when prison records show he was transferred to the Napa State Hospital to carry out the remainder of his life. The 1930 and 1940 census' show him as a patient or inmate there at the hospital in Napa. I could not locate any death record of his, so I have to assume he passed away while at the State Hospital and he is more than likely buried out in the field behind the hospital, among the many thousands of unmarked graves.

Mother and Child....

Conclusion

When going back to research this story I felt so sad for Albina and baby Marie. For one, Albina had been a young woman stuck in an abusive marriage during the early part of the 20th Century. Remember this was a time when leaving your husband was taboo. My heart is broken for baby Marie, knowing she didn't even live to see her first birthday.

John Keyes was mentally sick to do what he did, and I wonder how he came to be that way in the first place. Some things we will never find answers to though. Besides the heartache for the loss of these two innocent lives, I also wanted to learn what became of their older son Johnny, but I found no information on what happened to him. More than likely his grandfather raised him, at least I hope so. 

If you head out to the Cemetery in Jackson it was nearly impossible to locate Albina's grave, but one contributor on Find-a-grave, Steve Jones managed to do it. I have since contacted him about finding the exact location, and I hope that soon I can have some sort of small marker with a stake for the ground designed in the future to mark the spot where Albina and baby Marie are buried. Everyone deserves to be remembered, and they have been forgotten for far too long.

I will try to keep everyone updated if and when we get a marker put up for Albina and Marie!

According to one researcher, this is the spot where Albina and Marie are said to be buried
in an unmarked grave. Hopefully in the future I will be able to definitely state exactly where in
this general area they both are buried, and perhaps maybe (with the cemetery board's help) we can
obtain permission to get some sort of memorial plaque for them both. 

Rest in Peace, Albina and Marie....you will never be forgotten again.

(Copyright 2018 - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

Sources:
Amador Ledger: August 30, 1918; May 30, 1919; November 14, 1919, November 21, 1919
Sac Union: November 15, 1919
Bakersfield Californian: May 27, 1919
Census Records: 1910;1920;1930;1940
Amador County Marriage Records, 1910.

Note: The "Head Place" as noted in the newspaper is the Head Ranch which was located off of Ridge Road and was once owned by James Head. After his death, his wife Mary Ann Gardner inherited the ranch. Mary Ann was the mother of the infamous Emma Le Doux, who murdered her husband Albert McVicar in Stockton and stuffed his body in a trunk and left it at the train depot in 1906. According to records, Keyes was a laborer, so more than likely this family lived on the ranch of the Head family.

Euphemia Hill and the Forgotten Hill Ranch - Calaveras County

 

"From first glance at the beautiful shore of Lake Camanche, located on the borders of Amador and in Calaveras Counties, you would never guess that at one time a town stood in its place. In fact, there were other settlements such as Lancha Plana, Poverty Bar, and Limerick, which was later renamed Camanche, before the man made reservoir was completed in 1963.

Said to have been one of the biggest ranches in the area, the Hill Ranch spanned between 500 to 1,000 acres, and was run by a woman by the name of Euphemia Hill.  Widowed at the age of 31,  Euphemia picked up where her husband left off and carried on managing the ranch, all the while raising three minor children on her own.  The story of how she became a widow is an interesting and complicated one to say the least.

According to historical accounts passed down through the years, Euphemia’s husband, Hugh L.W. Hill, who went by his middle name, “Lawson,” suspected Euphemia of cheating on him with Marion Tate.  At the time, Marion was working and living at the Hill Ranch. The 1860 Census showed 35 year old Tate as one of the members of the Hill household, with his occupation listed as “farm laborer.”

Apparently Euphemia was not happy with her marriage to Lawson so she filed for a divorce on May 12, 1861, the very same day he died.  Although it was said to have been a neighbor who took Euphemia to the courthouse to petition for divorce, Lawson was adamant that it was Tate who influenced her to leave.  In a drunken stupor, an armed Lawson Hill confronted Tate and a shootout ensued.  After the dust cleared, Lawson was dead and Marion Tate was the last man standing. 

The Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History’s website index sources note that Marion Tate was acquitted of the murder of Lawson Hill on May 13, 1861, so it appears that his actions were accepted as  self-defense. Unfortunately, one Hill family descendant would disagree with the story entirely. According to an article from the Stockton Record, kindly provided to me by Danielle Ballard at the Calaveras Historical Society, there’s been some misconceptions about Hill’s death down through the years. 

Pleasant Hill III, the great nephew of Euphemia and Lawson Hill, was interviewed for the newspaper many years ago claiming that Lawson was murdered by Tate and that the inquest showed that Tate approached Lawson when the incident occurred. He was adamant that the newspapers had made Lawson look like the bad guy, when really he was the victim in the story.  Pleasant Hill also mentioned that Lawson’s murder occurred right when he was just starting a hog ranch on his property. He was only 35 years old and still in the prime of life.

It was believed that Lawson was buried at the small and forgotten Pioneer Cemetery  on the south side of Highway 12, about two miles east of San Andreas because his headstone can be found there. With time and the elements breaking it down, his headstone is battered and broken and now lays flat up against the hill and centered in a newer concrete foundation, no doubt to keep the stone from sliding down.

Although Lawson’s chapter in life was over, that was not the case for his former wife, Euphemia. By the mid 1870s, Euphemia had lost two of her sons. In 1874, Jesse passed away at the age of 25 years, while John died one year later at the age of 19.  Both young men were originally buried at the Dorsey-Holman-Ostermann Cemetery in Camanche.  As time went on, Euphemia kept busy, entering into a contract with businessman Giovanni N. Milco of Stockton in the 1870s. Cultivation of a natural insecticide made from dried Chrysanthemum (Pyrethrum) flowers began on her ranch. It was then marketed as “Milco’s Buhach, Universal Insect Exterminator.”

In 1910, Euphemia Hill passed away at the age of 81 years. She was laid to rest on the Hill Ranch in a private cemetery. Her last remaining son, Irving died in 1932, and he also was buried beside his mother in the family cemetery. By the early 1960s, when Camanche was deserted and plans to fill the area in with water to create a reservoir had started, the Hill family was exhumed from their original burial spots and reinterred at the historic Lodi Memorial Cemetery in Lodi, California.  What once was the Hill Ranch now lies at the bottom of Lake Camanche, forgotten and buried in a watery grave.

An interesting point I would like to share is that there is also a newer, separate marker at the Lodi Memorial Cemetery for Lawson Hill with his same birth year and death year, right next to Euphemia’s marker. I spoke with Isabel at the Lodi Memorial Cemetery who pulled the old archived records and the mystery deepened. Their notes state date of death as being January 1, 1861, and burial on October 25, 1861, which we know to be incorrect dates. She said there was no official record of him being buried at the cemetery.

It would have been impossible for Lawson to have been buried in that section at the Lodi Cemetery at the time of his death.  The section where these plots are located is not part of the old historic section, so there would not have been anyone buried there at that time in 1861. Even the marker itself is newer, and had to have been added around the same time Euphemia and her sons were reinterred there in the 1960s, as the cemetery staff stated.  Lawson Hill’s original grave, where I believe he is still buried, still rests on the steep hill at the Pioneer Cemetery off Highway 12.  He is literally a man with two graves.  

Fast forward to recent times, I was contacted by a Hill relative, Jimmy King, who was searching for Euphemia and Lawson's graves. After his own family research he discovered that Lawson actually is buried at the Lodi Memorial Cemetery after all. You see, according to Shannon Van Zandt at the San Andreas archives, Lawson was originally buried at Poverty Bar's cemetery, but around the time that the reservoir was being planned, his grave was dug up. The odd thing though was that his body went to Lodi to be buried, while his headstone went to the Pioneer Cemetery near San Andreas.  Since the Lodi Memorial Cemetery could not give me a definitive answer about one of their own burials, when I published my book in 2016, I was still unsure where Lawson was buried, so I left it up for debate. Now, once and for all we know Lawson is buried in Lodi, and has been there since the 1960's. 

In the recent years, the Calaveras Enterprise mentioned that the old television series, “The Big Valley,” which first aired in 1965, starring actress Barbara Stanwyck, was based on Euphemia and the Hill Ranch at Camanche.  The article forwarded to me from Danielle Ballard at the Calaveras Historical Society  also mentions this story reiterated by Pleasant Hill during his interview for the Stockton Record years before.

If you are ever in the small vineyard town of Lodi, California, please stop by the Historic Lodi Cemetery and pay your respects to Mrs. Hill, a true female pioneer of California’s old west. And please don’t forget stop by the grave of Lawson Hill, too, which ever one of the two that you choose to visit."----  From the book, "Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered." (Chapter 11) - By J'aime Rubio, Copyright 2016, All Rights Reserved. (ISBN-13: 978-1523981175)

To read more stories like this one, purchase your copy of "Stories of the Forgotten" on Amazon today!

(Copyright 2016 - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

UPDATE: 5/7/2019  (THANK YOU JIMMY KING!!)
Photos: Copyright, J'aime Rubio

Sources:

U.S. Census Records, 1860, 1870; Find-a-grave; Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History, website index, #1736, P, Lawson Hill Inquest, May 13, 1861, Acquittal of Marion Tate, (Calaverashistory.org); Pacific Rural Press, July 23, 1892; Lodi Memorial Cemetery, Burial Records; California Death Index, 1905-1939; California Wills and Probate Records, 1850-1953; “Euphemia A. Hill, Rancher of Calaveras County, CA.”- Women of the Old West blog; “The Forgotten Cemetery– Pioneer Cemetery Established 1851”- Charity Maness, Calaveras Enterprise, February 10, 2015; “Memories Alive at Lode Cemetery”-  Kathy Geiszler, The Stockton Record (archived news clipping), courtesy of Danielle Ballard, Calaveras Historical Society.