Verona Baldwin - British Royalty?

Meet Verona Baldwin - who claimed to be related to the ruling British Monarchy and one Lucky Baldwin, millionaire owner of the Baldwin Hotel in San Francisco in the 1890s.  Ms. Baldwin is said to have been a better shot than most of the pistol packing mamas of the frontier west.

Verona was tall, stately, wore a jeweled tiara and carried a shoulder-high staff - quite the dignified visitor in Denver's parlor houses of the 1890s. In fact, she owned one of her own parlor houses in Denver.

Her fame comes from a story that she had her own .38 caliber pistol tucked into her pocket and wasn't afraid to use it - which she is said to have used on her own cousin, Lucky Baldwin, as he was leaving his private dining room at the Baldwin Hotel.  What Lucky did to get Ms Baldwin to shoot him point blank is unknown, but she is reported on police file as stating "I shot Mr. Baldwin even though we are related by blood.  He ruined me, body and mind".

Mr. Baldwin recovered from his gunshot wound and went on to make more millions in San Francisco, but whether he shared any of that with his cousin, Verona,  is highly unlikely!

Next Belle Starr....

Steamer Day

In the 1850s Steamer Day in San Francisco was a red letter kind of day!  The Pacific Mail Steamship arrived in the Bay from 1840 - 1925 with the height of popularity in the 1850s.  All the town turned out for the event and received news and mail, including miners and ranchers who came from nearby areas to join in.  Remember that in the 1850's the Pony Express was still taking 13 days to arrive from Missouri and mail was not a daily or even weekly event.  There were no telephones, and telegraph was so new it was used in the newspaper business.  So gathering as a city to meet the mail ship was an event that called for a day of celebration!

Next time...a few of the criminal elements in early San Francisco

Society of Pioneers

San Francisco - the mining city "Before the Fire"... San Francisco's early history was either "Before the Fire" or after.  The city, of course, has a history all its own, and since this blog is "Pioneer Pieces" we won't give a history lesson on San Francisco, BUT there are some very interesting and colorful incidents that I will share.

As soon as the first pioneer set foot in San Francisco, it became THE city of the new West.  In 1850, when pioneers began to settle in the Bay City, the Society of Pioneers was organized by a group of original founders who stated that they had "experienced things no man would ever experience again." Only the first settlers were allowed to join and were men set apart from the later residents.  In fact, these men met together for a banquet every year until 1927 when the last surviving member was no longer able to raise a champagne glass in a toast!

Next time - Steamer Day