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I stared at the plaque and the four blue gum trees, all that is left of the House of Mystery at 1661 Octavia Street. I heard an icy cold whisper. "Resurrect Me" she said. In stolen moments, I dig through the mislabeled miscellany of a life scattered. At the height of her success in San Francisco in the 1870’s, Mary Ellen Pleasant was worth over $30 million in 1875 dollars. Born on August 19th, 1814 perhaps the daughter of Louis Alexander Williams, a native Kanaka and Mary Ellen, a full blooded Louisiana negress. In 1835, she married a Cuban tobacco grower, Mr. James W. Smith, in Boston. He died in 1844 at their plantation in Charles Town, Virginia. A few years later, she married JJ Plaissance, the grandson of Henri Christophe, black emperor of Haiti, and they had a girl, Lizzie. They spent time in New Orleans with Marie Laveau, but were forced to flee upon threat of discovery of their Underground Railroad activities. She came to California on a ship that also carried a young Scotsman, Thomas Bell. In 1857, when Mary Ellen met back up with Thomas Bell, she owned three laundries, a saloon, and investments in the Athenaeum, Dennis and Brown Livery Stables and various other black-run businesses. She contributed $30,000 to John Brown, the new leader in the fight against slavery. A handwritten note was found on John Brown after he was arrested for the raid on Harper’s Ferry. It said: “The axe is laid at the root of the tree. When the first blow is struck, there will be more money and help. - MEP” After her business partner, Thomas Bell died in a fall, his widow, Theresa Clingan Bell, who had always resented Mary Ellen, set about destroying her reputation and taking title to her assets. She was forced to leave the mansion she had built at 1661 Octavia Street, and died in the small apartment of Olive Sherwood in 1904, nearly penniless. Her last request was that her tombstone should read “She was a friend of John Brown’s”, and there in Tulocay Cemetery in Napa where she was buried, that is indeed what appears on her grave marker.
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Built in 1875, occupied by Mary Ellen Pleasant and Thomas Bell in 1877.
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| 1865_04_lizzie_smith_marries_rberryphillips.tiff |
| 1871_08_11_daily_alta_cal_a_slander_refuted.pdf |
| 1884_08_13_daily_alta_cal_tyler_still_talking_mep_praised.pdf |
This 1884 Article from the Daily Alta is one of the earliest mentions of Mary Ellen Pleasant. She is testifying in the trial of Senator Sharon who claimed he was NOT married to Sarah Althea Hill, when indeed he was. Here is an excerpt: LAUDATION OF MAMMY PLEASANCE. Mammy Pleasance's testimony was read, and at the close Tyler said an effort had been made to impeach her by insinuating that she had furnished the babies, for which Mrs. Bell had got $50,000 a piece. They did not prove it by producing the alleged mother of one of the babies, because a little bird had whispered to him that the defendant was the father of that particular child. From this on the laudation of Mammy was wild, eloquent and high flown. "I have known her for twenty-five years," said Mr. Tyler, "and do not believe that the gold of Ophir (Ophir was quoted in the big Board yesterday at 132 cents) would induce her to tell an untruth. For years she has been engaged in finding homes for the children of friendless women whose maternity was due to the debaucheries of wealthy rakes. I tell you that I would rather my soul would be behind that old black face than behind Mr. Sharon's money bags. All his ten, twenty or thirty millions, if put into his coffin, will have no effect in obtaining a passport from old St. Peter, for up beyond the pearly gates there is a great kingly Judge, whom gold cannot corrupt, and who will render justice to all. I say here that I believe I shall pass those pearly gates, and shall see that good old black soul, still retaining her kindness of heart in the act of passing a cup of cold water to assuage the burning thirst and torments of the man who has come into this Court-room to traduce her."
| 1885_02_10_sacramento_daily_union_californians_at_new_orleans..pdf |
| 1886_06__29_daily_alta_cal_g._w._tylers_trial.pdf |
| 1890_05_07_sfcall_mammy_pleasant_angel_or_fiend.pdf |
| 1892_10_17_sfcall_death_in_a_stairwell.pdf |
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San Francisco Call October 17, 1892
DEATH IN A STAIRWELL. The Fatal Fall of Capitalist Thomas Bell DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS. While Moving About His Home in the Darkness He Took the Wrong Door----His Busy Life. Thomas Bell of the firm of Thomas Bell & Co., commission merchants, died suddenly at his residence, 1661 Octavia street, at 1:30 o'clock yesterday morning, from injuries he received three hours before his death. Mr. Bell has been an invalid for several weeks.... |
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1890's Mary Ellen Pleasant Address Book selected pages courtesy of SF Public Library, Helen Holdridge Collection
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| 1895_07_18_sfcall_the_colored_pioneers.pdf |
1896 Two original letters from Mary Ellen Pleasant from her biography file at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley and transcription. I believe the first one was dictated - the handwriting from the second letter more closely resembles examples in the Helen Holdridge files at San Francisco Public Library - History Room.
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| 1897_09_23_sacramento_daily_union_the_hawaiian_treaty_and_mepleasant.pdf |
| 1897_10_07_sfcall_mrs_pleasant_is_good_and_mad.pdf |
| 1898_03_27_sfcall_mepleasant_insolvent_forcing_her_to_the_wall.pdf |
| 1899_07_09_sfchron_queen_of_the_voodoos.pdf |
| 1900_06_denverpost_mammypleasantbankrupt.pdf |
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| 1904_01_12_sfexaminer_mammy_pleasant_will_work_weird_spells_no_more.pdf |
| 1904_01_13_sfcall_her_epitaph_is_written.pdf |
| 1904_01_16_sfcall_leaves_estate_to_sherwoods.pdf |
| 1905_05_19_sfcall_teresabell_offers_site_for_lowell_high_school.pdf |
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| 1923_sfchron_they_are_not_my_children_mrs_bell_said.pdf |
| 1940s_negro_world_digest_she_was_a_friend_of_john_brown_by_earl_conrad.pdf |
| 2010_12_by_jean_libby_mep_at_tulocay_john_brown_the_abolitionist_blog.pdf |
| 2011_06_27_marker_for_mother_of_civil_rights_in_california_-_sfgate.pdf |