What would Valentine’s Day be like without stories of love? Tales of romance abound in Long Beach. Let me share a few tales from the past with you.
Lost Love Found
Five
years earlier Leslie was first officer of an English vessel engaged in trade in
the tropics. He fell in love with the captain’s daughter, also traveling on the
ship, and married her. Three weeks after marriage the vessel sank in the
English channel, Leslie witnessed what he thought was the death of his wife —a
huge wave washing her overboard—but unknown to him she was taken aboard one of
the ship's life boats, he himself being in another of the life boats. The tempestuous
sea drove the boats widely apart, after several hours Leslie’s boat was picked
up by a passing vessel. The other boat which held his wife was also rescued
after a long ordeal. Diligent inquiries on the part of both husband and wife
failed to reveal any trace of either, both finally giving up all hope of ever
seeing each other.
While visiting Long Beach Mrs. Newlin, went
for a sail on the Dawn. The couple
met, looked at each other, and couldn’t believe their eyes. It couldn’t be;
each thought the other dead. They chanced to meet again the next day on the
wharf and he went to her and asked her who she was, and she told him. About a
year ago she had married another man, thinking Leslie dead. But her first love
won out. She would notify husband number two that their marriage was illegal.
In the meantime she and Leslie Newlin set sail together on a lumber vessel for
Puget Sound.
An Elopement
The
Thomsons discovered their daughter missing around 8:30 p.m., Sunday, August 2,
1897. They found a note explaining that she had lived at home as long as she
cared to and that she had decided to spend the remainder of her life with
Homer. The police were immediately notified and several search parties started
toward the beach, but it was too late. Jenny, Homer and their escorts had
already boarded Captain Pearson’s ship the J.
Willey and were heading out to sea and the nine-mile limit where Pearson
could legally marry the young lovers.
Jenny’s
father was livid, her mother prostrated with grief. Their daughter was not of
legal age to marry without her parent’s consent and Alexander C. Thomson was
definitely not going to give it. The determined father found his daughter in
Long Beach and hurried to the seaside town demanding that Jenny come home with
him. Homer Norman told his now father-in-law he no longer had a say so in the
matter. Thomson disagreed.
The tangled court case that resulted would
come to define the legality of marriages at sea. If Pearson’s marriage of the
couple was legal it meant that any man could take any underage child to sea,
defy the wishes of her parents and have his way with her.
On
August 15, 1897, Judge M.T. Allen rendered his decision: marriages on the high
seas were legal only when neither of the contracting parties was violating the
laws of the State or country in which they lived when contracting such
marriage. Since Jennie was underage she was still under her father’s custody.
The marriage was not legal and a hysterical Jennie was returned to her family
home.
Jennie claimed she still loved Norman and
vowed she would run away with him again, at the first opportunity. Alexander
Thomson told the press he would rather have a dog for a son-in-law than Norman
and that he would have the young man arrested on a charge of rape unless Norman
stopped harassing his daughter. The threat must have done the trick. Though no
further stories appear, a look at the 1900 U.S. Census finds Homer Norman
living with his parents along with his British born wife, Beatrice, and their
3-month-old daughter. Jennie, eighteen-years-old in that same census, is still
at home with her parents; finally of legal age to marry---but her Romeo had
deserted her for another.
A Love Rekindled
On November 20, 1907, two thousand people
crowded the shore of Long Beach to bid goodbye to the cruisers Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia who were leaving Long
Beach after a ten day stay. The four ships of the first division of the Pacific
fleet had cordially greeted visitors and performed shore drills. The major
purpose of the visit, however, was to meet family and friends who had traveled
from throughout the country to meet their sailor kin. Twenty five men had
enlisted during the squadron’s stay, five from Long Beach. Two Long Beach lads,
Robert Mead and Arthur Letts had signed up so they wouldn’t need to testify
against Alice Shorers and her alleged house of prostitution. Thirty others had
deserted, often with some ingenuity. Fred Smith of Los Angeles told how he met
a sailor at the West Virginia ball who persuaded him to change clothing to see
how he looked in sailor’s attire. Smith then said the sailor excused himself
for a moment and never came back.
A Father Changes His Mind
When Y. Igloppi of Long Beach married a
lovely Japanese girl in Los Angeles in January 1919, he thought their lives
together would be filled with happiness. But troubles not their own were
brewing and in a few short days complications arose which ended up sending them
to court.
Before the marriage festivities were over
the father of the bride told the couple that an ill friend, who could not
attend the wedding, wished them to visit. When the newlyweds arrived at the
home of the ailing man, the father asked the bride to follow him into an
adjoining room. Leaving her new husband behind, the girl followed. The father
closed and locked the door, fled through another passage, taking his daughter
with him. Igloppi could not find his bride and was forced to return to Long
Beach without her. He told his story to Attorney Newton M. Todd who served a
warrant on the girl's family. According to reports the father, upon thinking about it, decided he could negotiate a better marriage to a more prosperous man for his daughter. But it was too late. Threatened with a law suit for having decoyed the
bride away, the father returned the girl to her legal husband. It was a happy ending for the couple loved each other. Now all Igloppi had to do was prove himself a worthy husband to the father.
Looking for a Wife
In November 1913 Mayor Kiel of St. Louis
received an interesting letter from L.B. Johnson of Long Beach:
Dear
Mayor – I am writing you a letter asking you to help me find a companion. Am 23
years old, 5 feet 11 ¾ inches in height, with light complexion and blue eyes;
weigh between 185 and 192. I want a good girl, not over 20 years old. She must
be good looking, a fair cook and willing to start life with a young man who
will treat her right and offer her a good home. I do not want any red haired
woman. She may be fair or dark, but not too dark. If you will find me this kind
of a girl I will be ever thankful. Kindly answer right away. L.B. Johnson.
Johnson, living at 65 Alamitos Avenue, got
the idea from a friend, Leo Anderson, who wrote a letter to the chief of police
of St. Louis asking him to help him find a wife. Anderson received many
replies, one of them from Miss Ella Alvin. The letter was nice, and a picture
was enclosed convincing him she was the girl he was looking for.
Anderson joked to Johnson that he should
think about getting married. Johnson thought about it for a few years, and then
decided to do what his friend suggested. Anderson helped Johnson draft the
letter but put in the piece about the red-hair as a joke. Johnson, a fireman by
trade expected to get as lucky as his friend Leo, because as he told the Daily Telegram “their experience has
shown that a correspondence courtship may result in a happy marriage.”
Unfortunately, there were no follow up
stories to tell of Johnson’s success or failure, he moved away from Long Beach
the following year. Did he travel to St. Louis to meet the woman of his dreams?
Sadly, we will never know.
An Advertising Success
No Kissing
A. T. Sackett became the first man arrested
under section two of Ordinance B - 456. Sackett was given an option---a fine of
$l5 or spending 15 days in jail. He told the judge the young woman in whose
company he was when arrested was the girl to whom he was engaged to marry.
Sackett pleaded guilty to violating the ordinance, but declined to pay the fine
levied by the court and appealed on constitutional grounds. “Under the Long
Beach law a man can be arrested for kissing his mother or his sister,” he said.
“My arrest and fining was unjust.”
Sackett won on his appeal. Superior Judge
Willis declared the local imitation of Connecticut's blue laws unconstitutional
and "an unwarranted interference with the inalienable right of liberty and
pursuit of happiness." His decision was also based on the fact that none
of the acts listed in the ordinance could be declared wrong in themselves, but
depended upon two things: First, whether the act, otherwise harmless, was
performed in a public place. Second, whether the participants of the act were
of the opposite sex. In other words, a young man could kiss, hug and embrace
his girlfriend in the privacy of her own home, but should they do it outside,
they would both be guilty of a misdemeanor. Also, a male child could place its
head upon the lap of his father and a female child on the lap of her mother on
the beach, but if their respective positions were reversed they too would be
guilty of breaking the law. The remaining portion of the ordinance, governing
public morals, was unaffected by Judge Willis' decision. Thanks to Judge
Willis, a public kiss was now legal in Long Beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment