From Murhaun to Potrero, ...

Table of Contents

This journey of discovery started when I tried to research some family lore that had little or no detail and a lot of confusion.

There was a possibility that it was too late to be asking these questions, but early on I struck gold. I then followed an amazing story as it unwound, all thanks to the fact that these fore-bearers were somewhat infamous. Their story was recorded in the newspapers of the time and these newspaper archives were now available online.

Like many Irish stories, ours is a story of emigration. It is about a family from Leitrim who in the late nineteenth century lived on both sides of the world, some in Drumshanbo and others inIrish Hill, Potrero, San Francisco.

We can only imagine how it came about and like many more before them, they strived to improve their situation and look after their families.

I will begin this story with the headlines of The Morning Call newspaper in San Francisco on July 16th 1894.

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“CON SHOT TWICE”

King McManus’ Brother Badly Wounded. McManus in a Critical Condition.

Cornelius McManus and his eldest brother Frank (‘The King’ McManus) were natives of Murhaun, Drumshanbo and this is how the newspaper reported dramatically on the event:

‘‘ ‘King McManus’ saloon, 16 Third Street, was the scene of a shooting affray yesterday afternoon in which Con McManus, the King’s brother, was the victim, and Charles Sweeney, the Ballplayer, yielded the deadly weapon.

The “King,” accompanied by “the boys,” went to a picnic yesterday morning and left his brother Con in charge of the saloon. Sweeney was one of the bartenders. Business was not very brisk and between 1 and 2 o’clock in the afternoon a dispute arose as to whether Con or Sweeney was the better wrestler. To settle the dispute they went upstairs to one of the rooms, where they grappled and tried to throw one another without success. As the room was rather small, it was suggested that they should go downstairs to the bar and resume the contest. They wrestled in the barroom and finally Con threw Sweeney and landed on top of him. He was mad and gripped Sweeney by the throat.

Sweeney fought desperately to get out of the clench, and as soon as he regained the feet he pulled out a pistol and fired three shots at Con. The first struck him in the right arm, the second lodged in the back and the third struck him in the ribs on the right side and ploughed its way round to his liver.

With a groan Con dropped to the floor but almost immediately sprang to his feet and made for Sweeney, who seemed paralyzed at what he had done and wisely slunk out of the saloon.

Con was carried upstairs to a bedroom by Dan McCarthy and Joseph McDonnell, two other bartenders who were witnesses to the shooting. Dr’s. Bunker and Farnum were promptly summoned and attended to the wounded man. They found that the first bullet lodged in the muscles of the arm, and the third had apparently lodged in the liver. They looked upon this as dangerous, and refused to permit anyone to talk to their patient.

Information of the shooting was telephoned to police head quarters and Detective Cody was detailed to find Sweeney.’’

Quickly Got Out of Control

So, what had started as a wrestling bout between friends seems to have ended as a saloon brawl which got out of control. Cornelius McManus died a few days later from his wounds, at the age of 24.

Charles Sweeney

Charles Sweeney was an ex American Major League baseball player who had achieved moderate success in his short career and was now retired from the game due to an injury.

He was known for his fiery temper both on and off the pitch and was employed by Frank McManus as a barman. Unfortunately for him, by the end of 1894 he was sentenced to eight years in prison for homicide, leaving behind a wife and family. This was a great tragedy for Charles having achieved baseball pitching records that were not broken for another 102 years to eventually spending his last days in prison. He died in San Quentin without finishing his sentence at the age of 38.

Frank ‘The King’ McManus

For Frank McManus, it was reported that the murder of his favourite brother, Con McMANUS, drove him to drink and to a premature grave in 1896 at the age of 57.

Where it all began….

This story starts around 1865 when four brothers Frank, James, William and Patrick McManus left Murhaun, outside Drumshanbo, for America.

They may have left this country with dreams of gold or maybe they headed with aspirations of freeing slaves as news travelled about the American civil war. Most likely they were escaping poverty and hunger after surviving the Famine and by 1880 they joined hundreds and thousands of tough, pioneering men and women travelling to San Francisco, in those early days.

While in America these farmers son’s built a reputation as horsemen. There is evidence that all of them had some dealings in the horse trade but Frank went on to do particularly well. His good fortune in America continued when he won a hotel in a card game, the Union Hotel in the Potrero, San Francisco.

At that time, Irish Hill, Potrero, San Francisco was an area surrounding the industrial plants where many of the Irish immigrant workers of the area lived. The working day was long and transportation poor so workers lived within walking distance of their jobs, despite the noise and pollution of heavy industry. They lived in one of the many hotels, such as the Union Hotel owned by Frank McManus.

Frank McManus 1896 Obituary

In his obituary in 1896 it stated that Frank McManus who was known as the “King of the Potrero” was once a power in the political arena of San Francisco. It was reported that a great deal of the success of the Republican reform movement in the district was due to him and a small group of like minded businessmen. Frank was quoted in the San Francisco Morning as to why he supported the Republican Party

‘it is the party of progress and protection. It is the party and the only party that has elevated the workingman out of the groove in which the Southern cotton-planter kept the Negro. This party has kept up the dignity of labour, kept up the pay of the men and regulated the working hours to eight hours a day. It is for home production, home protection and for keeping the taxes down’.

McManus vs Welch Brothers

However, times were tough in those days and business was not always above board. In the late 1880’s a bitter business rivalry grew between the King McManus’ and the Welch Bros after the Welch Brothers bought another saloon on Irish Hill. They both competed in business for the workers’ rent and saloon trade.

Tensions increased as the Welch’s also became political rivals and this spilled out into the streets where both fractions fought bloody gang wars against each other.

Numerous incidents were reported in the local papers over the years.

Patrick Returns to Ireland

Sometime prior to this, one brother Patrick McManus returned to Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim Ireland

He purchased premises Paddy Mac’s Holiday Bar on High Street, Drumshanbo, married and started a family.

The Gossoon

It was at about this time that his youngest brother Cornelius was born in 1870. For this reason Cornelius got the nick name ‘the Gossoon’, such was the age difference between the brothers.

For the next sixty years, Paddy Mc would run his pub and grocery on High St., which included a stable of horses which he rented out. He became a prominent member of Leitrim County Council as well as being involved in nearly all the public boards in the County. Around the town Paddy Mc Manus was known for his hospitality with always a welcome word, a warm heart and an ‘open house’ for anyone he could assist.

Eliza McGreevy

Another sister Eliza McGreevy also ran a very busy lodging house in Drumshanbo as recorded in the 1901 census.

Politically Active

But the 1880’s was a time of great change in Ireland. The Land League under Parnell was trying to bring about a reduction of rack-rents and also to obtain of ownership of the land by the occupiers and farmers. Like his brothers Frank and James in Potrero, Patrick was politically active. He agitated for land reform and spent time in Kilmainham Goal for his beliefs.

1891 Anti-Parnellite rally

Later, in 1891, when Patrick supported Charles Stuart Parnell, his youngest brother Cornelius was by his side when they broke up an anti-Parnellite rally in Carrick on Shannon.

North Leitrim; The land War and the Fall of Parnell

Local historian Prionnsios O Duignan, in his book ‘North Leitrim; The land War and the Fall of Parnell’ described it thus:

‘Approximately 160 men, led by two brothers, Cornelius and Paddy Mc Manus, marched behind a banner bearing the slogan, ’Where Parnell leads, Drumshanbo will follow.’ He continues ‘knives and sticks and stones were freely used….’

Con McManus Tempered

It was in the heat of this political cauldron where a young Cornelius McManus, was tempered before leaving for San Francisco at the age of 22.

He travelled with his nephew Terence age 16 to join his sister Margaret who had emigrated just a couple of years before.

She was with her husband William Phillips in San Francisco and like his sister before him; he headed over to his elder brother Frank who was well established at this stage.

In San Francisco Frank had his hotel business and his political aspirations, his brother James had a successful Undertaking business and also pursued the political job of County Coroner. And other members of the family worked with them or were set up in other business alongside them.

So it was natural that when ’The Gossoon’ arrived he got a job in the saloon working for his brother the King and as a consequence, he got immediately involved with the street warfare which raged against the Welch’s.

Blue Mud Wars

These Irish Hill battles came to be called “the Blue Mud Wars” probably so-called because the serpentine rock caused the muddy streets to look bluish. It was tough times indeed.

This photo from the 1890s shows Irish Hill, Potrero with the Union Iron Works in the background.

Photo: courtesy San Francisco Maritime Museum

1892 - Con in the Papers

The first time, Cornelius McManus hit the headlines in San Francisco was in 1892 when he survived a gun shot wound after a fracas with the Welch’ and a report was written up in florid prose in the newspapers of the day, like this report in the San Francisco Examiner:

“J.C. Welsh asserts that McManus and his crowd came armed with knives and pistols and promptly proceeded to batter in his door, and when he went outside McManus confronted him with a pistol and fired point blank at his head [but missed]. The sound of the shot brought Sergeant Bennett and Policemen Dan Rearden and Eastman to the scene, from the station around the corner [on 20th], and when they arrived there were from eighty to a hundred men engaged on the sidewalk and knee deep in the mud of the street, assaulting each other with clubs and sticks.”

Whilst both parties recovered it was touch and go for a while. There would have been serious consequences if one party died, so there was possibly a sense of relief afterwards when they both survived and a truce formed between both families.”

1894 - Con Fatally Wounded by Charles Sweeney

Then just a few short years later in 1894 Cornelius McManus was fatally wounded by his friend and colleague Charles Sweeney, in the Kings’ power base, The Union Hotel.

Short life ‘The Gossoon’

In such a short life ‘The Gossoon’ met his end at the age of 24 in a drunken wrestling bout in San Francisco while working for his brother the ‘King of Potrero’. While his fighting life started on the streets of Drumshanbo fighting for Land Reform and supporting the uncrowned King of Ireland, Charles Stuart Parnell, he fought in San Francisco gang wars of the time and eventually was killed in a friendly brawl. Cornelius fought to the end.

Fighting McManus’s on both sides of the ocean

Paddy McManus was a fearless fighter for land reform and independence in Ireland and Frank fought for progress and workers rights in San Francisco. From Ireland to America in those pioneering times, fighting McManus’s on both sides of the ocean.

In conclusion

Thanks to the newspaper archive, we have uncovered a fascinating McManus family story. Some may say that this story raises more questions than answers, in particular around the accuracy of the newspaper reporting in the late nineteenth century. Many of the newspaper reports read like a fiction novel and are tainted with political slurs depending on the bias of the Editor at the time.

But what is more important for my family is that we have this story now and that it wasn’t lost in time. Through the American archive of newspapers we got a huge narrative about the life and times of the McManus Family in San Francisco and this is invaluable. The search led us finally to St Mary’s Cemetery, Oakland in California where we are awaiting confirmation that all our relatives are laid to rest there.

Ar dheis De go raibh a ainm.

SOURCES:

• The Leitrim Observer
• http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
• http://pier70sf.org

Special thanks

Special thanks goes to Wedigo Watson in San Francisco, who volunteered on behalf of www.findagrave.com and did the legwork trying to find the burial place of the San Francisco Mc Manus’.

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Further Reading

Frank McManus

• Frank McManus: King of the Irish Hill - Found SF
• Frank McManus: King of the Irish Hill - Crime Traveller
• KING McMANUS Among the Dead
• The bloody reign of the King of Irish Hill, San Francisco’s destroyed neighborhood
• Frank Mc Manus ‘King of Potrero’ San Francisco
• Irish Hill - A Neighborhood that Disappeared
• The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League, 1903-1957

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Cornelius McManus 1870-1894

• Born 7 Mar 1870 Leitrim, Ireland
• Died: 18 Jul 1894 Alameda, Alameda County, California

Articles about Con McManus

• CON SHOT TWICE- San Francisco Call, Volume 76, Number 46, 16 July 1894
• CALL IT MURDER - San Francisco Call, Volume 76, Number 57, 27 July 1894