In its earliest days, the San Francisco Chronicle didn't just cover the news -- it (or, more precisely, its publishers) often made it, as well. So says "War of Words: A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder," released earlier this month by Union Square Press, which details the nascent days of the Chronicle. Written by local journalist Simon Read, the book examines the efforts by the de Young brothers, Charles and Michael, whose earliest editions in 1865 featured nothing but advertising on the front page of what was essentially a theater program.
The book holds ironic importance in the modern media climate. In 1865 San Francisco, newspapers were new media, and the Chronicle (first named "The Dramatic Chronicle") thrived because it adapted quickly as the model emerged.
"Today we take information for granted, but back then San Francisco was considered the Wild West, a new town," said Read. "It was isolated from the rest of the country, and newspapers were a big deal. The de Youngs would collect discarded copies of their newspaper at the end of each day, clean them off, iron them out and ship them up to the gold miners in the mountains. For people in these remote areas, newspapers were a huge benefit. Today, it's hard for people to imagine role newspapers once played."
Read, who worked as a reporter for the Contra Costa Times and the Alameda Newspaper Group, detailed five facts for BayNewser that most people don't know about the early days of the Chronicle.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln helped establish the Chronicle, four months after the paper's founding. Michael de Young would go down to the Western Union telegraph office to read the dispatches that came in from across the country, and would publish the interesting ones. One day he went down and found the operator in a considerable state of excitement. The man showed de Young a message he had just received from Washington, D.C., saying that President Lincoln had been shot in Ford's Theater. De Young rushed back to the office, and the brothers printed it. Because the Chronicle came out in the morning, while the other papers in town were evening papers, the de Youngs beat others to the punch and got the scoop. In fact, Michael kept running down to the telegraph office and the brothers put out extras through the afternoon. This was really the first time other editors in the city took notice of the paper.
More after the break.
Charles de Young was very devoted to his mother, very protective of her name. A paper called the Sun started in San Francisco in 1874, edited by a guy named Benjamin Napthaly, a former Chronicle reporter who had been fired. It didn't last very long and wasn't well respected, and to get back at de Young, Napthaly published an article that basically accused de Young's mother, Amelia, of being a whore. This was a rumor that had been following the de Youngs -- that Amelia had been a prostitute-turned-madam in St. Louis. It wasn't true, and Charles de Young was understandably upset to see it in print. His response was to take gun in hand and try to blow away Benjamin Napthaly in the middle of the street. It actually wasn't uncommon for newspaper editors in those days to physically attack other newspaper editors. de Young and his brother Gustavus both shot at Napthaly, but they both missed. The Oakland News actually made fun of the de Young brothers for their awful aim. Charles, in fact, missed him several times, and shot an innocent bystander, causing a considerable uproar in the city. All three of them were hauled off to city jail for causing such a commotion; while they were being booked, Charles tried to kill Napthaly again with a gun he had hidden in his coat. A reporter for a competing newspaper saw him go for the gun, let out a scream, and Charles was tackled by police officers. Napthaly again avoided getting shot. The brothers were remanded into custody, faced trial and somehow got off with only a fine. Not exactly harsh justice.
There was also a feud between Charles de Young and Isaac Kalloch -- a Baptist minister who had a reputation for lusting after the ladies. Kalloch came to San Francisco in the mid-1870s and started the Metropolitan Temple on the corner of 5th and Mission -- then the largest Baptist temple in the country -- and in 1879 talked publicly about running for mayor. For various political reasons, Charles de Young didn't like Kalloch, and he knew that Kalloch had a reputation for sleeping around. In fact, Kalloch was tried for adultery in Boston the 1850s, which had sparked a scandal up and down the East Coast. Charles de Young didn't think Kalloch was made of worthy material to be mayor, and told him that if he was to run, de Young would run everything he knew about him in the Chronicle. Kalloch essentially told him off, so de Young followed through on his threat. Kalloch responded by standing up in front of his congregation and blasting Charles de Young and the Chronicle. At end of this lecture he pulled out a copy of the article that had run in Sun several years prior, and he read it out loud:
The de Youngs are the bastard progeny of a whore, conceived in infamy and nursed in the lap of prostitution.
This created an immediate uproar. Charles de Young once again took gun in hand, and the next morning waited outside the Metropolitan Temple in a carriage. He paid a messenger boy to approach Kalloch to tell him that a lady was waiting in a carriage outside. Kalloch could never resist the women, and as he approached the carriage, de Young leaned out the door, pulled out a gun and shot Kalloch twice. A crowd surrounded the carriage, pitched it over, pulled de Young out and beat him senseless. He was rescued by two nearby police officers, who brought him to jail. One bullet went into Kalloch's chest and lodged near a lung, and another bullet went into his thigh. He unexpectedly made a full recovery, and though the last thing Charles de Young wanted was for this guy to be mayor, the assassination attempt got him in on sympathy vote.
After things had died down somewhat and the city was awaiting de Young's trial to begin, a pamphlet appeared on the city streets detailing Kalloch's sexual history. A lot of it was probably made up, but it was very tawdry and entertaining. Kalloch's son thought Charles de Young was responsible for its publication -- which he wasn't -- got his own gun, went to the Chronicle office and shot Charles de Young point-blank in the face, killing him instantly.
Michael de Young took over operation of the Chronicle, and he was shot several years later after writing an article that angered Adolph Spreckels, a sugar magnate, that accused Spreckels's family of embezzling from their own company. Spreckels' son showed up at the Chronicle newsroom and shot Michael de Young, but unlike his brother, Michael survived.
"You hear the name de Young a lot in San Francisco in connection to the de Young museum," said Read. "But the family had a much more colorful history than most people realize. These were flamboyant characters who did some wild and crazy stuff."
