The Dangerous Ladies Affair

Authors’ Note

There was in fact a California State Woman Suffrage Convention held in San Francisco in November of 1896. Its delegates wore badges such as the one described here, and the campaign was in fact headed by Susan B. Anthony. Unfortunately, her tireless efforts and those of dedicated proponents such as Sabina and Amity Wellman were in vain. The proposed amendment to the state constitution giving women the right to vote was soundly defeated, owing in large part to the powerful Liquor Dealers League and the considerable clout the organization wielded with both Democratic and Republican politicians. It was not until 1911, thanks to a new, more widespread, more determined suffragist movement risen phoenix-like from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake, that California women were finally granted voting rights.

Steamboats were still a primary mode of transportation between San Francisco and Stockton in 1896. The Captain Weber was an actual stern-wheeler that made the daily overnight run; the descriptions herein of her route and her physical characteristics are as accurate as research can make them. Also as stated, the stern-wheeler was operated by the Union Transportation Company and owned by Sarah Gillis, widow of the original owner and an ardent member of the Stockton branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; thus, the Captain Weber and her sister boat, the Dauntless, were the only two dry packets on the San Joaquin River. There were none on the Sacramento River.

In the closing years of the century several small hamlets and enclaves did dot the islands of the delta, among them Rye and the settlement of Locke, founded by Chinese who toiled as farm laborers. Kennett’s Crossing, however, while representative of these isolated communities and their citizens, exists only in our fevered imaginations.

M.M. / B.P.