Joshua Norton and the McAllister Brothers
IF YOU’VE MADE IT as far Episode 5 of the new HBO series The Gilded Age, from Downton Abbey creator and writer Julian Fellowes, you'll have encountered the character of Ward McAllister, played by Nathan Lane.
Ward McAllister (1827–1895) was a real person who arrived in New York in 1858 and is best known for his efforts to craft and control New York society, i.e., New York high society, with his list of “the 400” that he deemed worthy to be members of it. (“The 400” was a precursor to Louis Keller’s Social Register, first published in 1887.) He became a consigliere of sorts to Caroline Schermerhorn Astor a.k.a. “Mrs. Astor,” using his list to advise her on whom should be “in” and whom should be “out.”
Ward McAllister (1827–1895). Photograph by Aimé Dupont (1841–1900), taken sometime after the Belgian-born Dupont, originally a sculptor, emigrated to New York and pivoted to photography in 1886. Source: George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress
But, it was in San Francisco that Ward had cut his teeth as a social arbiter. He arrived in the city in May 1850 on the steamship Oregon with his father, Matthew Hall McAllister (1800–1865), a prominent judge — more about whom shortly.
There to greet them was Ward’s older brother Hall McAllister (1826–1888), who had arrived in San Francisco in June 1849 on the steamship Panama, and the brothers’ cousin Sam Ward (1814–1884), who had arrived with Hall on the same ship.
Uniting the McAllisters, father and sons, were two things — the family business, law, and their place of birth: Savannah, Ga.
It’s possible that Joshua Norton was part of the younger McAllisters’ circle — or at least an occasional guest at their home — when he was at the height of his prosperity, 1850–52.
Norton biographer William Drury noted that, by 1851…
...a society of sorts began to emerge; men who had "made their pile" sent home for their wives, who had their own ideas as to how the rich should live. The Jones Hotel was no longer socially acceptable, so Norton moved to the newer, more prestigious Rassette House. A good address was important these days, for he was walking with gods. That is to say, he knew the McAllisters.
Hall McAllister, an urbane lawyer from Georgia who would reign over San Francisco's fashionable set for more than thirty years, lived in a cottage on Pike Street with a younger brother who was about to return East. A day would come when New York's aristocrats would gladly surrender an eyetooth for a nod of recognition from the arrogant Ward McAllister, who created the privileged order known as "The Four Hundred" by pruning Mrs. William B. Astor's guest lists of names he considered unworthy to associate with the créme de la créme. In the San Francisco of the 1850s, this social arbiter would have found it immensely trying to think of even forty names he would have dared recommend to an Astor. He had to be content with the company of merchants like Norton, who came to Pike Street to discuss business ventures with Hall over brandy and cigars. Dinner with the brothers was something to brag about, particularly when their witty cousin, Sam Ward, was on hand to supervise the menu and select the wines.
Hall McAllister was an attorney — in fact, became widely celebrated as one of San Francisco’s most gifted, wise and influential attorneys over the course of his nearly 40 years of practicing law in the city.
Cabinet card of Hall McAllister (1826–1888), probably from 1887. The photograph is by Bradley & Rulofson studio. But, in 1887, the studio was “Bradley & Rulofson” in name only, Bradley having been ousted in 1877–78 and Rulofson having died in 1878. The studio moved to 14 Dupont Street in 1883, with the street name changing to Grant Avenue, as shown on the the card, in 1887 — the last year of the firm. (Information from Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865 (2000).) Collection of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Calisphere
Although Joshua Norton may well have taken dinner, brandy and cigars with Hall and Ward at the McAllister family digs at 11 Pike Street (now known as Waverly Street), Hall McAllister was the lawyer for Joshua’s opponent in the rice affair of 1853–54, as shown in this page from the record of the California Supreme Court’s final decision in October 1854, in which Norton was the “appellant” and McAllister’s client, the Ruiz brothers, the “respondent.”
Excerpt from Ruiz v. Norton, October 1854, in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California in the Year 1854, v4, 1856. Source: Google Books
It appears that, by the time the decision was handed down, the specific partnership of McAllister, Williams and Rose had been dissolved for several months. But, it stands to reason that this is the partnership that was in effect when Hall McAllister took on “Ruiz, Hermanos” as a client.
Notice of dissolution of partnership of Hall McAllister, Charles H.S. Williams and Julius K. Rose, Daily Alta California, 17 March 1854, p.2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Hall McAllister was in his late 20s at the time. The following daguerrotype of McAllister with his wife, Louise Hermann McAllister (1837–1896) — dated from the mid 1850s — gives an idea of what McAllister looked like then.
Daguerrotype of Hall McAllister with his wife, Louise, mid 1850s. Source: Cowan’s Auctions via Bidsquare
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HALL McALLISTER’S father’s name was Matthew Hall McAllister.
The son’s name was the same.
Given that both men were prominent in the legal profession — and that both were active in San Francisco during the same period — it’s easy to see the opportunity for history to have gone sideways a century-and-a-half-later.
There is no Wikipedia entry for the son. But, the entry for the father features a photograph of the son. (Note: I corrected the photograph on 7/16/2022.)
In 2017, the San Francisco Arts Commission published a “catalog” of its public art. The catalog includes a listing for Robert Ingersoll Aitken’s 1904 statue of the son that stands adjacent to San Francisco City Hall. But, the description includes biographical details about the father. (Note: 1903 had seen the unveiling of Aitken’s Victory figure that tops the Dewey Monument, in San Francisco’s Union Square.)
Statue of Hall McAllister (1826–1888) at San Francisco City Hall. Statue, 1904, by Robert Ingersoll Aitken (1878–1949). Source: Wikimedia Commons
The main thing to remember in sorting out the two Hall’s is:
The father was a judge who arrived in San Francisco relatively late in life, at 50, and lived in the city for most (but not all) of the next 15 years. In 1855, he was appointed, by President Franklin Pierce, as the first presiding Judge of the newly created U.S. Circuit Court for California and Oregon — and, he served in this role until 1863.
The son was a private lawyer who arrived in San Francisco early in life, at 23, and lived and worked in the city for 39 years.
But, father’s and son’s — and Ward’s — professional lives did intersect in interesting ways in early San Francisco.
In August 1849, the Daily Alta carried the following notice of what appears to be the younger Hall’s first legal partnership:
Notice of partnership of Francis J. Lippitt, Hall McAllister and Frank Turk, Daily Alta, 23 August 1849, p. 2, Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Some six months later, in February 1850, Julius K. Rose joined the firm.
Notice of Julius K. Rose joining the firm of Lippitt, McAllister & Turk, Daily Alta, 26 February 1850, p. 3, Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Three months after that, in May 1850, a new arrangement suggested that Julius had been added in anticipation of Hall’s departure to create a new “family business” with his father “M.H.” and his brother Ward.
Notice of new partnership of McAllisters, Daily Alta, 25 May 1850, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Hall McAllister would be in partnership with Julius Rose once again before long. But, for the next couple of years, the “partnership of record” would be “M.H. and H. McAllister” — M.H., the father; H, the son. Although Ward had been admitted to practice law in California, it doesn’t appear that he did much lawyering when he was in San Francisco.
Ward was listed on the Pacific Mail steamship Golden Gate that left San Francisco for Panama on 30 June 1852. In Panama, he will have caught a connecting ship to New York. On 15 March 1853, he married Sarah Gibbons in Madison N.J.
During this same period, the senior McAllister returned to Georgia to make a bid for a U.S. Senate seat, returning back to San Francisco in 1855 to take up his U.S. Circuit Court appointment.
The “junior Hall” McAllister is the only one of three who arrived in San Francisco and never left.
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THE SOUVENIR card shown below features a newspaper clipping which suggests that, late in life — on 22 May 1879 — Emperor Norton tried to get a message to Hall McAllister.
The tone of the “Edict” suggests that the Emperor had not forgotten the ruling that McAllister secured against him 25 years earlier, in 1854.
So far, we’ve had no luck in tracking down where this edict was published — or whether McAllister ever saw it.
But, the back of the card features the Emperor’s signature, hand-dated 19 June 1879 — four weeks after the edict — which does gives credence to the authenticity of the edict itself.
In 2015, we did a deep-dive on this, which you can read here.
Front of souvenir card published between late May and mid June 1879 by Imperial Gallery, 724½ Market Street, San Francisco. Photographs of Emperor Norton possibly by gallery owner Hector William Vaughan (c.1827–c.1878). Signature and seal on the reverse: "Norton I. Emperor U.S. & Protector of Mexico. 19th Day of June 1879" [image]. Collection of the California Historical Society. Photo: John Lumea.
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A FURTHER clue that Joshua Norton once traveled in the same San Francisco circles as the McAllisters — even if he wasn’t in the same social echelon — comes in a news item that appeared eight years after the Emperor’s death in 1880.
Those who have followed Emperor Norton’s story closely will remember that, in his early days as a prosperous merchant in his adopted city, Joshua befriended Joseph G. Eastland (1830–1895), who became a founding partner of the San Francisco Gas Lighting Company — the corporate predecessor of PG&E.
When the Emperor died, it was Eastland who led his friends at the Pacific Club to contribute the necessary funds for a proper casket; who made the funeral arrangements; and who donated one of his plots in the Masonic Cemetery for the Emperor’s burial.
When Hall McAllister died in 1888, Joseph Eastland was among the pallbearers.
Article of the funeral of Hall McAllister, Daily Alta California, 4 December 1888, p. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
It appears that McAllister and Eastland went back a long way. For starters, McAllister and Eastland both were from the South — McAllister, from Savannah, Ga.; Eastland, from Nashville, Tenn.
McAllister was one of the earliest members of the Bohemian Club. And, the Weekly Alta California of 10 October 1874 listed both McAllister and Eastland as attendees of a banquet of the Club — which had been founded just two years earlier, in 1872.
Indeed, Joseph Eastland’s place of honor at Hall McAllister’s funeral suggests that William Drury is right to include Eastland among those who socialized at the McAllister house in the early 1850s — 20 years earlier.
In fact, Drury goes further to suggest that Eastland and Joshua Norton could be found there at the same time. In the following passage, Drury comments on one of Emperor Norton’s 1869 Proclamations that the Emperor signs and dates “in the seventeenth year of our reign”:
If he had really been in "the seventeenth year of our reign" in 1869, as he said in that decree, he must have donned his invisible crown in 1852, though still keeping it a secret from his friends in Pike Street and giving them only the merest glimpse of his innermost thoughts when he said: "What this country needs is an emperor. Now, if I were Emperor of the United States …." Why, even as he talked with Hall McAllister and Joseph Eastland over brandy and cigars after dining on Sam Ward's delicacies, in the darkest corners of his mind he already was an emperor. The Emperor spoke the truth in that proclamation; he had been an emperor for seventeen years. And here, all along, we've been thinking it was ten.
At another point, Drury even speculates that it was “the Pike Street crowd” who first gave Joshua the nickname “Emperor.”
But, here’s something to wonder about: Was Joshua a friend of Hall McAllister’s independent of Joseph Eastland? Did he pay visits to the McAllister house on his own? Or did Joshua socialize at the McAllisters’ only when Eastland was present — possibly always having been “brought along” by Eastland as Eastland’s friend?
If Hall McAllister had no personal attachments to Joshua Norton, he might not have had any qualms about taking on Joshua Norton in the rice lawsuit of 1854 — notwithstanding his friend Eastland’s loyalties to Joshua.
Perhaps McAllister’s pursuit of Norton was an inflection point for Joseph Eastland: one of the earliest examples of Eastland’s looking out for his friend Joshua Norton in the wake of Joshua’s legendary reversal of fortune — a devotion that would continue until, and even after, Emperor Norton’s death 27 years later.
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