Transcript of October 13, 1895 "Life Story of "Mammy" Pleasance" published in the San Francisco Examiner
LIFE STORY OF MAMMY PLEASANCE
The Interesting Career of a Very Remarkable Colored Woman.
She Has Been, the Main Support of Many People of Social Distinction.
How She Aided John Brown, "The Liberator," Whose Soul Is Marching On.
FIRST MEETING WITH MISS HILL.
Her Recollections of Nearly Fifty Years of Active Life Among the Prominent Families of San Francisco.
"Mammy" Pleasance, the colored woman who has occupied a unique position In San Francisco for nearly five decades is slowly succumbing to the weight of her years. She has retired to her room in the Bell residence at the corner of Bush and Octavia streets, and is there endeavoring to keep alive the once vigorous flame of life which sustain her through the many years of her most remarkable career. It seems, however, that the lamp is about burned out. The tremendous exertions to which they have been subjected have sapped her vital forces, and slowly but surely the old "mammy" is approaching the end of the road.
Her proud spirit chafes at the weakness the weary body; her mind, yet vigorous, resists the imputation that she has become exhausted, but her friends, and there are scores of them, sorrowfully shake their heads as they consider her condition. The end may not be soon, for Mrs. Pleasance is as remarkable physically as she is in every other way. The mere fact, however, that she has taken to her bed is more direct evidence than the testimony of a score of doctors that her illness is serious. The life of this woman has been one of Intense activity since the days of her child hood. She has always been at work, and those whom she has befriended now gratefully acknowledge that her greatest efforts have been exerted unselfishly on behalf of others. Now, in her eightieth year, she finds that her physical ability is no longer able to keep pace with her tremendous energy, and so at last she has lain down to rest.
Her experiences in this city and State since her arrival In San Francisco on January 15, 1849, would form one of the most interesting volumes that California has ever known. Safely locked in her loyal breast are the secret histories of many of the prominent families of the coast. She has supplied the ladder upon which more than one proud woman and ambitious man have climbed to wealth and social position. Her purse - for she has been for years a wealthy woman - has ever been open to aid the needy and unfortunate. The greatest joy of her busy life has been the knowledge that she was able to carry cheer to the homes of the humble and hopes to the hearths of those ambitious ones whom she knew needed a hand to help them. Neither creed, color, sex nor condition in life ever had meaning for her when her interest had been once awakened. Her deeds of charity are as numerous as the grey hairs in her proud old head.
That is why carriages now drive daily toward the Bell residence, and women of the highest social standing, who love “Mammy" Pleasance and are proud to be counted among her friends, send cards, fruits and flowers to cheer her. "Why, the dear things will make a flower store of my room," she said the other day.
"They all call to see me since they heard that I was ill. See, there are a number of cards; all those people called to-day."
But she resents any allusion to what she has done for others.
"I want no compliments," she said. "I can't abide them. No matter what I may have done; it has been little enough. It has been a pleasure to me, and that is all that need be said about it. I have frequently filled up my buggy with fruits and turkeys cooked, stuffed and uncooked it was all the same, and taken them to churches and hospitals. I am a Catholic, but one church was the same as another to me. It was all for the cause."
Though now weak and ill, "Mammy" Is as proud and independent as ever. Her head shakes in the same decisive manner that made her feared years ago; her words are thrown out with the same snap and energy that marked her testimony in the Sharon case, and she asserts now, as she did then, that she asks odds of no one.
The old colored woman was born in Barley Street, Philadelphia, in 1815. When she was nine years old she was bound out with Phoebe Hussey, a Quakeress, who kept a general merchandise store at Nantucket. There "Mammy" made poke-berry ink, ran errands, managed the store and sold everything that would bring in a copper cent. She remained with the Husseys for about fifteen -years, when, upon the marriage of the younger Phoebe Hussey to Edward W. Gardiner, the young ink-maker returned to Philadelphia. There she was married to James Henry Smith, a foreman carpenter and contractor, who had a good business and possessed considerable means. Smith died about five years later, and Mrs. Smith then returned to Nantucket to live with the Gardiners. Six or seven years later she married John J. Pleasance.
At that time the excitement over the discovery of gold In California was at its height in the New England villages. Pleasance took the fever and came to this State to make his fortune, leaving his wife behind him. He became a cook on the Panama steamers. "Mammy" followed him in a few months, arriving in San Fran Cisco on January 15, 1849, after a very tempestuous passage around Cape Horn. She did not come empty handed, for she had $15,000 In gold coin, portion of her first husband's estate, with which to start a fortune in California.
"I divided this money," said "Mammy" a few days ago, while in a reminiscent mood "among Fred Langford, William West of the firm of West & Harper on Kearny Street, between Jackson and Pacific, and Thomas Randolph, who lived on Green Street, between Stockton and Dupont. He is now a Baptist minister at Marysville. I had known these gentlemen at home. They put out the money for me at 10 per cent interest. I did an exchange business with Panama, sending down $1,000 in gold at different times and having it exchanged into silver. Gold was then at a high premium. I also had many bank books. My custom was to deposit silver and draw out gold, by which means I was able to turn my money over rapidly. I always had friends in places where a good deal of silver was required. Most of my business was done with Wells, Fargo & Co., through Mr. Canfield and Mr. Zander. The firm was then at the comer of California and Montgomery streets."
When this money-broker from Nantucket arrived in San Francisco she went to live in the bachelor quarters of Case, Heiser & Co., at the corner of Spofford and Washington streets, where she became a house keeper. Captain Johns of the army was a member of this bachelors' club, but he had left a sweetheart in New York, and presently he went East and married her. The Captain returned to Case. Heiser & Co.'s with his bride and lived there some time. When the establishment became dismembered Mrs. Pleasance went with Mrs. Johns as her maid to the Tehama House, then kept by George W. Frink, on the present site of the California Bank. Mrs. Pleasance became Mrs. Johns' maid and went with the little lady to her new quarters. That was about 1854.
"Mammy's" next move was to Harder place, off Kearny Street, near Sutter. There she kept house for a bachelors' club, of which Fred and Selim Woodworth were members. Upon the departure of Fred Woodworth to the East for his family the colored woman went to the Mintons’ establishment, on Battery Street. This was maintained by Walter B. Minton, Charley Mintou, Ben Hartshorn and Charley Cunningham. They ran the Sacramento steamers. Upon the return of Mr. Woodworth to this city with his family he hired the Richardson House, on Minna Street. General Richardson had been recently killed by Cora, and his house was vacant. Mrs. Pleasance re-entered the service of the Woodworths and remained with them many years. She subsequently kept a boarding house in which many prominent people lived. Newton Booth was a guest of "Mammy" when elected Governor. He had great affection for her, and one of his last requests was that she should be present at his funeral. When he died in Sacramento not long ago a dispatch was sent Mrs. Pleasance, and she went to the capital and followed the remains to the grave.
A very interesting part of her career was her visit to Canada in 1858 to meet John Brown, the "Liberator," whose soul is marching on. "Mammy" was an ardent Abolitionist, and she determined to assist Brown. She met him at Chatham, Canada West, over the line, and gave him a purse of gold she had taken from California. Brown used the money in the cause. "Mammy" never saw him again, but she wrote him two letters from Chatham to Portsmouth, Va. These letters were found on Brown when he was captured at Harper's Ferry. Their connection with Mrs. Pleasance was never traced, and she was not even suspected of complicity in the conspiracy. She remained in Canada, however, until John Brown's son had written her that the coast was clear. Then she returned to California.
“Mammy" has been with the family of the late Thomas Bell for over twenty years. She is not "in service" but is considered a member of the family. Her uprightness of character, fidelity of nature, shrewdness, ability and unusual vigor ability and unusual vigor are so well known that she is rather considered as a counselor, guide and friend than as a servitor. No more independent woman ever wore shoe leather. There is, of course, no pecuniary reason, nor has there been for a great many years, that she should labor for others, for she has long been independently wealthy. Yet she has always dressed in a plain gown. She has never assumed, with all her wealth and social power, to be more than she would seem at a casual glance a bright colored woman in a gentleman's family.
It may appear rather strange that this retiring woman, who seems to take something of a pride in the fact that she was born of an alien race, should be referred to as a social power. Yet such has been her sway that she has been as a Warwick behind the thrones of the socially great. She has opened the closed doors of the select to those whom she considered worthy applicants; she has closed the portals to others who had offended her. Her Influence has naturally been greatest among the old Southern families, who in the early days formed the elite of the city, and whose luster has not been dimmed by the many new stars, resplendent in recently acquired riches, that have appeared in the social firmament.
"Mammy" she has always been so called, though her name is Mary Ellen acquired a national reputation during the great Sharon divorce case. She took up arms then in behalf of Sarah Althea Hill. who claimed to be the wife of the late Senator Sharon, and was her firm friend during all the many years of her adverse fortunes. It was generally supposed that Mrs. Pleasance was Miss Hill's maid, but such was not the fact. The colored woman met the unfortunate Southern beauty through Mrs. Simpson who in the early days was popularly known as Patsie Ritchie. "Mammy" relates the manner of the meeting with the woman who afterwards became her protege as follows:
“We heard that Miss Hill was engaged to marry Senator Sharon. I did not know her then, but by general repute. She was handsome and very charming woman. Mrs. General Simpson had some laces that she wanted to sell, and she thought that this girl who was about to marry the rich Senator would be a very good customer. So she sent me with the laces to Miss Hill to negotiate a sale. I met Miss Hill at the Grand Hotel, where she was then living, and found her a very pleasant woman. I had some diamonds to sell at the same time, and I tried to do some business on my own account. Well, to make the story short for you, I sold her the laces and gave the money to Mrs. General Simpson, and afterwards I also sold her the diamonds. I went frequently to see her, and we became very good friends. I sold her a number of things both on my own account and for Mrs. General Simpson. All the time we thought she was going to marry Senator Sharon. She took a very great liking for me, for like all Southern people she had a great fancy for niggers. That is the general rule with all people who come from the South, but I never saw it so strongly developed as in Miss Hill. Why, she just doted on niggers. Anything I did for her was just right. Then there was Martha Wilson, another nigger; anything she did as also just perfect in the eyes of the dear girl.
“One day when I called upon her at the hotel. I found her in tears. I asked her the trouble, and she said her brother was going home and Senator Sharon had given her $1,000 to go with him. “Well,’ I said, 'why don't you go. You are going to marry the Senator any way, and when you come back you can do so.'
“But he, wanted me to go away,' she said. 'You don't understand. I am married to him already by a contract. That was the first time I ever heard of the contract.
" ‘Will that contract stand?' I asked. She said she thought it would. Then I told her to hold on to the contract by all means, and to refuse to give it up to him. It was all very plain to me. He wanted to get rid of her as if she had been his mistress. I told her to give the contract to some of her relatives or friends. She was afraid that no one would stand by her, but I said I would always be her friend, and I was."
After this interview Mrs. Pleasance continued to call upon Miss Hill at the hotel. She used to address the young lady as "Mrs. Sharon." Before she had been told about the contract "Mammy" addressed her friend in a jocular manner as "Mrs. Will- Be-as-Soon-as-Can-Be." The two women had a great deal of fun in the possession of the secret that while the whole world thought Miss Hill was only engaged to the Senator she was, in fact, his wife, according to her story. A change soon came over the spirit of their dreams, for Senator Sharon about this time, commenced forcing matters to an issue. He ordered Miss Hill out of the hotel, and when she. refused to go he had the doors and windows taken from her room. It was in this predicament that Mrs. Pleasance proved her friendship. She sent Miss Hill to San Jose for several days, and during her absence rented a house on Ellis Street for her, for which the colored woman paid $125 a month. Miss Hill and her cousin, Frank Rodney, lived there. The Bracketts lived next door, and going to her neighbor's to get her meals Miss Hill met Nellie Brackett, who became her maid and subsequently played a prominent part In the celebrated suit. About this time the marriage contract was given to Martha Wilson for safe-keeping.
Some months after she had made her home in the house on Ellis Street Senator Sharon sent for Miss Hill, and proposed to furnish her a house for herself. According to Mrs. Pleasance, the Senator was desirous at that time of removing the lady from the control of her mentor. Miss Hill said, however, she would get "Mammy" to furnish the house for her and left the Senator in a happy mood.
"So she came to me," said Mrs. Pleasance in relating the incident, "and told me what Mr. Sharon had said. I said I would furnish a house for her and I went to A. Berson, now on Market Street, about the business. I found it would cost $6,000 or $7,000, and I naturally wanted to know how I would get my money back. She told me Senator Sharon would pay it; that she was his wife, and had a contract with him to that effect. I said: 'Let me see the contract! Then she showed It to me for the first time. I copied part of the contract without using any names, and took it down to G. W. Tyler. I did not tell him who the parties were, but just asked him if the contract would hold. He said it would. Then I went to see Mr. Sharon and told him that Miss Hill wanted me to furnish a house for her. I did not call her 'Mrs. Sharon,' nor did I tell him then that I j knew anything of the contract. He said he would pay all the bills and that anything Miss Hill signed in the matter would be all right."
The house was never furnished, however, for Sharon about a month later, refused to have anything whatever to do with Miss Hill. "Mammy" Pleasance went to see him at that time, and his curt manner to her made the proud old negress very indignant. Then the famous suit was commenced, and Mrs. Pleasance became bound to the fair plaintiff. The defendant in the action lost no time in preparing for the battle. He was told that 'Mammy' had seen the alleged contract and he was anxious to get her story of it. The colored woman then had the contract, the "dear wife" letters, and the letter of "unblemished character" in her possession. The latter was said to have been written by Senator Sharon to Manager Thorn of the Grand Hotel, introducing Miss Hill as a lady of "unblemished character." Captain Lees called on "Mammy" at the Bell residence, and tried to find out who had the valuable documents, particularly the contract, but he obtained very little satisfaction from the shrewd old woman, who, during the interview, had the papers in her stocking. Then the Senator wanted to see her, but she refused to go near him unless he sent for her. She had not forgotten his curtness at their former Interview. Finally a meeting was arranged, and “Mammy" went to Senator Sharon's office.
"When he came in," she says, in relating this interesting interview, "he begged my pardon for his conduct on my former visit. Ho said he had not known then who I was. Then I said, 'Let me speak my piece first.' I said my message from Miss Hill to him was that she did not want any money. She only wanted a divorce, so that she could save her reputation. She also wanted him to pay her money he owed her. He had some of her money. I also told him that I had seen the contract.
"Senator Sharon said: "I told Conkling, Field and all my friends when I was in New York that I had never signed that contract. Now, I can't give her a. divorce. Then again, she has not been true to me since the contract was signed.'
“'Then you did sign the contract,' I said"
“'That makes no difference whether I did or not,' he answered. 'I have bought up the grand jurors thirteen of them and all the judges, and you might as well come in with the rest of them. You might as well take some money and go off some where and be Queen of the niggers.’ He told me he would give me all the money I wanted even $500,000 if I would get for him the contract, the 'dear wife' letters and the letter of 'unblemished character.' He asked me if I could get the documents, and I said I could. They were on me then. I never let them get out of my reach.
"I said I could not do what he asked at the expense of the reputation of a woman.” He said: 'Oh, pocket your honor and take the money. Go away and be Queen of the niggers.”
Mrs. Pleasance never betrayed her friend. She constantly supplied Miss Hill with the sinews of war throughout the long fight. The colored woman was on the stand six times for the plaintiff during the trial, but she was never cross examined. That fact created considerable comment at that time, and has since. She thus explains it:
“I told Senator Sharon that if his lawyers did not bother me in court – did not harass me with questions – I would say nothing about his offer to make me Queen of the niggers; but if his lawyers troubled me I would tell the whole story. He agreed to leave me alone, and I was never cross-examined. That was the reason.”
“A woman came to me and said she had been offered money to make certain false statements about me. I told her to take the money and to work the other crowd for all she could get. Well, she went to see ‘those people,' and made her fortune.
"I am not an educated woman," she said. “but I am educated for all that. Ask me how I got my education? From a knowledge of the world, you say? By observation I would have answered. I have lived a long time - a thousand years, it seems - and I have observed all things. Yes. a knowledge of men and the world; that is it. You will find such knowledge much more advantageous in the end than all the book-learning you ever knew."
Then “Mammy” gazed out of the window of her room and mused and mused.
The Interesting Career of a Very Remarkable Colored Woman.
She Has Been, the Main Support of Many People of Social Distinction.
How She Aided John Brown, "The Liberator," Whose Soul Is Marching On.
FIRST MEETING WITH MISS HILL.
Her Recollections of Nearly Fifty Years of Active Life Among the Prominent Families of San Francisco.
"Mammy" Pleasance, the colored woman who has occupied a unique position In San Francisco for nearly five decades is slowly succumbing to the weight of her years. She has retired to her room in the Bell residence at the corner of Bush and Octavia streets, and is there endeavoring to keep alive the once vigorous flame of life which sustain her through the many years of her most remarkable career. It seems, however, that the lamp is about burned out. The tremendous exertions to which they have been subjected have sapped her vital forces, and slowly but surely the old "mammy" is approaching the end of the road.
Her proud spirit chafes at the weakness the weary body; her mind, yet vigorous, resists the imputation that she has become exhausted, but her friends, and there are scores of them, sorrowfully shake their heads as they consider her condition. The end may not be soon, for Mrs. Pleasance is as remarkable physically as she is in every other way. The mere fact, however, that she has taken to her bed is more direct evidence than the testimony of a score of doctors that her illness is serious. The life of this woman has been one of Intense activity since the days of her child hood. She has always been at work, and those whom she has befriended now gratefully acknowledge that her greatest efforts have been exerted unselfishly on behalf of others. Now, in her eightieth year, she finds that her physical ability is no longer able to keep pace with her tremendous energy, and so at last she has lain down to rest.
Her experiences in this city and State since her arrival In San Francisco on January 15, 1849, would form one of the most interesting volumes that California has ever known. Safely locked in her loyal breast are the secret histories of many of the prominent families of the coast. She has supplied the ladder upon which more than one proud woman and ambitious man have climbed to wealth and social position. Her purse - for she has been for years a wealthy woman - has ever been open to aid the needy and unfortunate. The greatest joy of her busy life has been the knowledge that she was able to carry cheer to the homes of the humble and hopes to the hearths of those ambitious ones whom she knew needed a hand to help them. Neither creed, color, sex nor condition in life ever had meaning for her when her interest had been once awakened. Her deeds of charity are as numerous as the grey hairs in her proud old head.
That is why carriages now drive daily toward the Bell residence, and women of the highest social standing, who love “Mammy" Pleasance and are proud to be counted among her friends, send cards, fruits and flowers to cheer her. "Why, the dear things will make a flower store of my room," she said the other day.
"They all call to see me since they heard that I was ill. See, there are a number of cards; all those people called to-day."
But she resents any allusion to what she has done for others.
"I want no compliments," she said. "I can't abide them. No matter what I may have done; it has been little enough. It has been a pleasure to me, and that is all that need be said about it. I have frequently filled up my buggy with fruits and turkeys cooked, stuffed and uncooked it was all the same, and taken them to churches and hospitals. I am a Catholic, but one church was the same as another to me. It was all for the cause."
Though now weak and ill, "Mammy" Is as proud and independent as ever. Her head shakes in the same decisive manner that made her feared years ago; her words are thrown out with the same snap and energy that marked her testimony in the Sharon case, and she asserts now, as she did then, that she asks odds of no one.
The old colored woman was born in Barley Street, Philadelphia, in 1815. When she was nine years old she was bound out with Phoebe Hussey, a Quakeress, who kept a general merchandise store at Nantucket. There "Mammy" made poke-berry ink, ran errands, managed the store and sold everything that would bring in a copper cent. She remained with the Husseys for about fifteen -years, when, upon the marriage of the younger Phoebe Hussey to Edward W. Gardiner, the young ink-maker returned to Philadelphia. There she was married to James Henry Smith, a foreman carpenter and contractor, who had a good business and possessed considerable means. Smith died about five years later, and Mrs. Smith then returned to Nantucket to live with the Gardiners. Six or seven years later she married John J. Pleasance.
At that time the excitement over the discovery of gold In California was at its height in the New England villages. Pleasance took the fever and came to this State to make his fortune, leaving his wife behind him. He became a cook on the Panama steamers. "Mammy" followed him in a few months, arriving in San Fran Cisco on January 15, 1849, after a very tempestuous passage around Cape Horn. She did not come empty handed, for she had $15,000 In gold coin, portion of her first husband's estate, with which to start a fortune in California.
"I divided this money," said "Mammy" a few days ago, while in a reminiscent mood "among Fred Langford, William West of the firm of West & Harper on Kearny Street, between Jackson and Pacific, and Thomas Randolph, who lived on Green Street, between Stockton and Dupont. He is now a Baptist minister at Marysville. I had known these gentlemen at home. They put out the money for me at 10 per cent interest. I did an exchange business with Panama, sending down $1,000 in gold at different times and having it exchanged into silver. Gold was then at a high premium. I also had many bank books. My custom was to deposit silver and draw out gold, by which means I was able to turn my money over rapidly. I always had friends in places where a good deal of silver was required. Most of my business was done with Wells, Fargo & Co., through Mr. Canfield and Mr. Zander. The firm was then at the comer of California and Montgomery streets."
When this money-broker from Nantucket arrived in San Francisco she went to live in the bachelor quarters of Case, Heiser & Co., at the corner of Spofford and Washington streets, where she became a house keeper. Captain Johns of the army was a member of this bachelors' club, but he had left a sweetheart in New York, and presently he went East and married her. The Captain returned to Case. Heiser & Co.'s with his bride and lived there some time. When the establishment became dismembered Mrs. Pleasance went with Mrs. Johns as her maid to the Tehama House, then kept by George W. Frink, on the present site of the California Bank. Mrs. Pleasance became Mrs. Johns' maid and went with the little lady to her new quarters. That was about 1854.
"Mammy's" next move was to Harder place, off Kearny Street, near Sutter. There she kept house for a bachelors' club, of which Fred and Selim Woodworth were members. Upon the departure of Fred Woodworth to the East for his family the colored woman went to the Mintons’ establishment, on Battery Street. This was maintained by Walter B. Minton, Charley Mintou, Ben Hartshorn and Charley Cunningham. They ran the Sacramento steamers. Upon the return of Mr. Woodworth to this city with his family he hired the Richardson House, on Minna Street. General Richardson had been recently killed by Cora, and his house was vacant. Mrs. Pleasance re-entered the service of the Woodworths and remained with them many years. She subsequently kept a boarding house in which many prominent people lived. Newton Booth was a guest of "Mammy" when elected Governor. He had great affection for her, and one of his last requests was that she should be present at his funeral. When he died in Sacramento not long ago a dispatch was sent Mrs. Pleasance, and she went to the capital and followed the remains to the grave.
A very interesting part of her career was her visit to Canada in 1858 to meet John Brown, the "Liberator," whose soul is marching on. "Mammy" was an ardent Abolitionist, and she determined to assist Brown. She met him at Chatham, Canada West, over the line, and gave him a purse of gold she had taken from California. Brown used the money in the cause. "Mammy" never saw him again, but she wrote him two letters from Chatham to Portsmouth, Va. These letters were found on Brown when he was captured at Harper's Ferry. Their connection with Mrs. Pleasance was never traced, and she was not even suspected of complicity in the conspiracy. She remained in Canada, however, until John Brown's son had written her that the coast was clear. Then she returned to California.
“Mammy" has been with the family of the late Thomas Bell for over twenty years. She is not "in service" but is considered a member of the family. Her uprightness of character, fidelity of nature, shrewdness, ability and unusual vigor ability and unusual vigor are so well known that she is rather considered as a counselor, guide and friend than as a servitor. No more independent woman ever wore shoe leather. There is, of course, no pecuniary reason, nor has there been for a great many years, that she should labor for others, for she has long been independently wealthy. Yet she has always dressed in a plain gown. She has never assumed, with all her wealth and social power, to be more than she would seem at a casual glance a bright colored woman in a gentleman's family.
It may appear rather strange that this retiring woman, who seems to take something of a pride in the fact that she was born of an alien race, should be referred to as a social power. Yet such has been her sway that she has been as a Warwick behind the thrones of the socially great. She has opened the closed doors of the select to those whom she considered worthy applicants; she has closed the portals to others who had offended her. Her Influence has naturally been greatest among the old Southern families, who in the early days formed the elite of the city, and whose luster has not been dimmed by the many new stars, resplendent in recently acquired riches, that have appeared in the social firmament.
"Mammy" she has always been so called, though her name is Mary Ellen acquired a national reputation during the great Sharon divorce case. She took up arms then in behalf of Sarah Althea Hill. who claimed to be the wife of the late Senator Sharon, and was her firm friend during all the many years of her adverse fortunes. It was generally supposed that Mrs. Pleasance was Miss Hill's maid, but such was not the fact. The colored woman met the unfortunate Southern beauty through Mrs. Simpson who in the early days was popularly known as Patsie Ritchie. "Mammy" relates the manner of the meeting with the woman who afterwards became her protege as follows:
“We heard that Miss Hill was engaged to marry Senator Sharon. I did not know her then, but by general repute. She was handsome and very charming woman. Mrs. General Simpson had some laces that she wanted to sell, and she thought that this girl who was about to marry the rich Senator would be a very good customer. So she sent me with the laces to Miss Hill to negotiate a sale. I met Miss Hill at the Grand Hotel, where she was then living, and found her a very pleasant woman. I had some diamonds to sell at the same time, and I tried to do some business on my own account. Well, to make the story short for you, I sold her the laces and gave the money to Mrs. General Simpson, and afterwards I also sold her the diamonds. I went frequently to see her, and we became very good friends. I sold her a number of things both on my own account and for Mrs. General Simpson. All the time we thought she was going to marry Senator Sharon. She took a very great liking for me, for like all Southern people she had a great fancy for niggers. That is the general rule with all people who come from the South, but I never saw it so strongly developed as in Miss Hill. Why, she just doted on niggers. Anything I did for her was just right. Then there was Martha Wilson, another nigger; anything she did as also just perfect in the eyes of the dear girl.
“One day when I called upon her at the hotel. I found her in tears. I asked her the trouble, and she said her brother was going home and Senator Sharon had given her $1,000 to go with him. “Well,’ I said, 'why don't you go. You are going to marry the Senator any way, and when you come back you can do so.'
“But he, wanted me to go away,' she said. 'You don't understand. I am married to him already by a contract. That was the first time I ever heard of the contract.
" ‘Will that contract stand?' I asked. She said she thought it would. Then I told her to hold on to the contract by all means, and to refuse to give it up to him. It was all very plain to me. He wanted to get rid of her as if she had been his mistress. I told her to give the contract to some of her relatives or friends. She was afraid that no one would stand by her, but I said I would always be her friend, and I was."
After this interview Mrs. Pleasance continued to call upon Miss Hill at the hotel. She used to address the young lady as "Mrs. Sharon." Before she had been told about the contract "Mammy" addressed her friend in a jocular manner as "Mrs. Will- Be-as-Soon-as-Can-Be." The two women had a great deal of fun in the possession of the secret that while the whole world thought Miss Hill was only engaged to the Senator she was, in fact, his wife, according to her story. A change soon came over the spirit of their dreams, for Senator Sharon about this time, commenced forcing matters to an issue. He ordered Miss Hill out of the hotel, and when she. refused to go he had the doors and windows taken from her room. It was in this predicament that Mrs. Pleasance proved her friendship. She sent Miss Hill to San Jose for several days, and during her absence rented a house on Ellis Street for her, for which the colored woman paid $125 a month. Miss Hill and her cousin, Frank Rodney, lived there. The Bracketts lived next door, and going to her neighbor's to get her meals Miss Hill met Nellie Brackett, who became her maid and subsequently played a prominent part In the celebrated suit. About this time the marriage contract was given to Martha Wilson for safe-keeping.
Some months after she had made her home in the house on Ellis Street Senator Sharon sent for Miss Hill, and proposed to furnish her a house for herself. According to Mrs. Pleasance, the Senator was desirous at that time of removing the lady from the control of her mentor. Miss Hill said, however, she would get "Mammy" to furnish the house for her and left the Senator in a happy mood.
"So she came to me," said Mrs. Pleasance in relating the incident, "and told me what Mr. Sharon had said. I said I would furnish a house for her and I went to A. Berson, now on Market Street, about the business. I found it would cost $6,000 or $7,000, and I naturally wanted to know how I would get my money back. She told me Senator Sharon would pay it; that she was his wife, and had a contract with him to that effect. I said: 'Let me see the contract! Then she showed It to me for the first time. I copied part of the contract without using any names, and took it down to G. W. Tyler. I did not tell him who the parties were, but just asked him if the contract would hold. He said it would. Then I went to see Mr. Sharon and told him that Miss Hill wanted me to furnish a house for her. I did not call her 'Mrs. Sharon,' nor did I tell him then that I j knew anything of the contract. He said he would pay all the bills and that anything Miss Hill signed in the matter would be all right."
The house was never furnished, however, for Sharon about a month later, refused to have anything whatever to do with Miss Hill. "Mammy" Pleasance went to see him at that time, and his curt manner to her made the proud old negress very indignant. Then the famous suit was commenced, and Mrs. Pleasance became bound to the fair plaintiff. The defendant in the action lost no time in preparing for the battle. He was told that 'Mammy' had seen the alleged contract and he was anxious to get her story of it. The colored woman then had the contract, the "dear wife" letters, and the letter of "unblemished character" in her possession. The latter was said to have been written by Senator Sharon to Manager Thorn of the Grand Hotel, introducing Miss Hill as a lady of "unblemished character." Captain Lees called on "Mammy" at the Bell residence, and tried to find out who had the valuable documents, particularly the contract, but he obtained very little satisfaction from the shrewd old woman, who, during the interview, had the papers in her stocking. Then the Senator wanted to see her, but she refused to go near him unless he sent for her. She had not forgotten his curtness at their former Interview. Finally a meeting was arranged, and “Mammy" went to Senator Sharon's office.
"When he came in," she says, in relating this interesting interview, "he begged my pardon for his conduct on my former visit. Ho said he had not known then who I was. Then I said, 'Let me speak my piece first.' I said my message from Miss Hill to him was that she did not want any money. She only wanted a divorce, so that she could save her reputation. She also wanted him to pay her money he owed her. He had some of her money. I also told him that I had seen the contract.
"Senator Sharon said: "I told Conkling, Field and all my friends when I was in New York that I had never signed that contract. Now, I can't give her a. divorce. Then again, she has not been true to me since the contract was signed.'
“'Then you did sign the contract,' I said"
“'That makes no difference whether I did or not,' he answered. 'I have bought up the grand jurors thirteen of them and all the judges, and you might as well come in with the rest of them. You might as well take some money and go off some where and be Queen of the niggers.’ He told me he would give me all the money I wanted even $500,000 if I would get for him the contract, the 'dear wife' letters and the letter of 'unblemished character.' He asked me if I could get the documents, and I said I could. They were on me then. I never let them get out of my reach.
"I said I could not do what he asked at the expense of the reputation of a woman.” He said: 'Oh, pocket your honor and take the money. Go away and be Queen of the niggers.”
Mrs. Pleasance never betrayed her friend. She constantly supplied Miss Hill with the sinews of war throughout the long fight. The colored woman was on the stand six times for the plaintiff during the trial, but she was never cross examined. That fact created considerable comment at that time, and has since. She thus explains it:
“I told Senator Sharon that if his lawyers did not bother me in court – did not harass me with questions – I would say nothing about his offer to make me Queen of the niggers; but if his lawyers troubled me I would tell the whole story. He agreed to leave me alone, and I was never cross-examined. That was the reason.”
“A woman came to me and said she had been offered money to make certain false statements about me. I told her to take the money and to work the other crowd for all she could get. Well, she went to see ‘those people,' and made her fortune.
"I am not an educated woman," she said. “but I am educated for all that. Ask me how I got my education? From a knowledge of the world, you say? By observation I would have answered. I have lived a long time - a thousand years, it seems - and I have observed all things. Yes. a knowledge of men and the world; that is it. You will find such knowledge much more advantageous in the end than all the book-learning you ever knew."
Then “Mammy” gazed out of the window of her room and mused and mused.