In Spring 1855, As He Sought to Recover from His Legal and Financial Apocalypse of the Previous Two Years, the Future Emperor Norton Attached Himself to the Most Desirable New Business Address in San Francisco

Great Ambition, Even in His Darkest Hour

A Little Help from His Friends

THINGS WERE LOOKING pretty bleak for Joshua Norton at the beginning of 1855.

After Joshua lost his 18-month-long rice contract appeal in the California Supreme Court in October 1854, the banks immediately began to foreclose on his numerous mortgages.

He finally was forced to declare bankruptcy in August 1856. But, in 1855, Joshua was continuing to seek a toehold that could keep him relevant — and solvent — in both business and personal terms. He had no choice, really. Sink or swim.

Adding to the stakes: It wasn’t until May 1855 that the Court set the award to be paid to the plaintiff Ruiz, Hermanos: $20,000. So, during the 7-month period between the ruling of October 1854 and the award declaration of May 1855, Joshua Norton was in the fraught limbo of knowing that he had lost — but not by how much.

Toward the end of this period, and extending a little beyond — between late March and late June 1855 — Joshua placed ads using No. 5, Merchants' Exchange, Battery, as a business address.

Although the building was called Merchant’s Exchange as its proper name, a “merchant’s exchange” was a category, a type — like a library. There were several merchants’ exchanges in San Francisco during the city’s early years — sometimes more than one at the same time. These were privately developed and owned enterprises, usually located in a relatively large building capable of serving as a “container” for one or more meeting halls, a reading room with newspapers from around the world, and a home for the Chamber of Commerce — plus rentable office space.

In this way, a merchants’ exchange functioned as a kind of businessman’s clubhouse, where “merchants” gathered to “exchange” real-time shipping, market, and business intelligence — with access to the clubhouse and its privileges a benefit of a paid “subscription,” i.e., membership.

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A NUMBER of the earliest merchants’ exchanges in San Francisco were lost in fires.

In late November 1849 — around the time Joshua Norton arrived in San Francisco — Edward Dunbar, of the firm of Dunbar & Gibbs, opened a merchants’ exchange on the second floor of a new building he constructed on Washington Street near Montgomery. The exchange had been open for barely a month, when it was destroyed in the fire of December 1849. Destroyed not by the fire itself but when the City blew up the building in a failed effort to create a fire break.
In early April 1850, a merchant’s exchange opened in a new building on Ward’s Court — which was a dead-end spur running a half-block west from Montgomery Street between (and parallel to) Clay and Washington. The building was lost in the fire of May 1850. In the months after the fire, Ward’s Court became the first building block of the original Merchant Street, created by extending Ward’s Court further west to Kearny Street, thus paving the way for a new full-block street between Portsmouth Square and Montgomery. Merchant Street opened in December 1850.
By the end of May 1850, at least the third merchant’s exchange in six months had been established on the upper floor of a two-story brick building at the southeast corner of Montgomery and Washington Streets. A year later, on 4 May 1851, the Daily Alta newspaper reported that the exchange had moved to the ground floor of the same building. The next day: yet another great fire.

Although the merchants’ exchange building sustained significant damage, it seems the building was not a total loss in May 1851. But, by the end of July, the merchants were casting about for new digs.

During this period, two veterans of San Francisco merchants’ exchange efforts were George Sweeny and Theodore Baugh. In 1852, the two were particularly known for establishing telegraph stations at Telegraph Hill and Point Lobos, for the purpose of keeping a pulse on commercial ships arriving in port.

Later, between 1854 and 1860, “Sweeny and Baugh” were the authors of a respected daily “Shipping Intelligence” column that ran in the Daily Alta.

But, in late April 1852, Messrs. Sweeny and Baugh stepped forward as the proprietors of a new merchants’ exchange in a building formerly known as the Athenaeum, at 123 Sacramento Street — southeast corner of Montgomery and Sacramento Streets.

It’s a good bet that the recently arrived Joshua Norton was a member of many — perhaps all — of these early merchants’ exchanges.

Indeed, it’s another good bet that Sweeny and Baugh’s new exchange on Sacramento Street is where Messrs. Goddefroy and Sillem — bankers working as agents for a firm, Ruiz, Hermanos, with a shipload of rice in San Francisco Bay — first buttonholed Joshua Norton with an “opportunity.”

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BY MID 1854, the physical foundations were being laid for what appears to have been the first purpose-built merchants’ exchange in San Francisco — not simply a single floor but an entire building.

The building was being constructed on the east side of Battery between Washington and Jackson — across Battery from the new Customs House, which also was being constructed at the time.

Once again, the proprietors of the exchange would be Messrs. Sweeny and Baugh.

Here’s how the Daily Alta described plans for the new Merchants’ Exchange at the end of June 1854.

The Merchants’ Exchange opened in January 1855. The photographer George R. Fardon captured the new building in this Battery street view taken in 1856:

**Merchants’ Exchange (1855), San Francisco, looking north on Battery.** Photograph, 1856, by George R. Fardon (1806–1886). Collection of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Calisphere

The following detail from a photograph looking east from Stockton Street, taken in 1855–1856, provides another sense of how grand the structure was. Fardon included the photograph in his San Francisco Album of 1856. But, many scholars believe the photograph was taken by Carleton Watkins. The Merchants’ Exchange is the domed building in the center of the image.

**Detail from photograph looking east from Stockton Street, San Francisco, 1855–1856.** George R. Fardon (1806–1886) published and claimed credit for the original photograph in his *San Francisco Album* (1856). But, the photograph probably was taken by Carleton Watkins (1829–1916). Source: Getty

This probably was the most auspicious business address Joshua Norton ever had.

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STARTING AT THE END of May 1855 — two weeks after the California Supreme Court announced the $20,000 award that Joshua Norton was to pay to Ruiz, Hermanos — the following ad appeared for Joshua offering to buy wool. The address: No. 5, Merchants’ Exchange, Battery.

**Ad (buying wool) by Joshua Norton at No. 5, Merchants’ Exchange,** *Daily Placer Times & Transcript*, 26 May 1855. p. 2. Source; Genealogy Bank

Although the ad was not unlike countless ads that Joshua Norton had run since 1850, there was one notable difference: Whereas previously Joshua had focused his commodity trading interests on foodstuffs, this ad marked a shift towards textiles: wool, furs, hides.

The ad was slated to run for a month. But, it appeared sporadically into July and August 1855 — possibly being used by the paper as filler when columns were running a little short.

We’ll return to this ad.

Earlier, in March 1855, Joshua ran an ad for a different sort of project that he had begun promoting in October 1854 — just after the California Supreme Court had handed down its initial ruling against him.

The ambitious project was for a bulkhead — basically, a seawall — and breakwater in North Beach, which still was lacking this infrastructure.

Here’s an editorial on the project from October 1854:

A week later, the following ad appeared.

**Joshua Norton notice of meeting at office of Charles Ordeman about North Beach bulkhead and breakwater,** *Daily Placer Times & Transcript*, 2 November 1854, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank

The framing — “Mr. Joshua Norton begs to notify….”, with no signature underneath — leaves one to wonder whether it was Joshua who placed the ad. Indeed, something we learn here is that — at least for a time — Joshua Norton wasn’t working alone on this project. On some level, he was working with a Charles Ordeman who had an office at Montgomery and Sacramento Streets.

Ordeman was an architect and civil engineer — so, it stands to reason that he would have been interested in a seawall project. In fact, when the California legislature passed an April 1860 bill authorizing a North Beach seawall, Senator Henry Edgerton (1830–1887) gave a lengthy floor speech in which he acknowledged “C.C. Ordeman” as one of a number of engineers who previously had done “experimental surveys” of North Beach seawall concepts.

Ordeman produced his survey of the city front, which appears to have incorporated his seawall proposal, in December 1857 — three years after Joshua Norton announced the property holders’ meeting, in Ordman’s office, to discuss a North Beach seawall.

**Notice of Charles Ordeman’s survey of the San Francisco city front, including seawall concept,** *San Francisco Daily Evening Plaindealer*, 26 December 1857, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank

All of which begs the question: Was it Joshua Norton who turned on Charles Ordeman to the idea of engaging on the North Beach seawall issue? Or, did Charles enlist Joshua to help promote a project he already was working on?

Either way: By March 1855, Joshua was using No. 5, Merchants Exchange, as an office and ran the following ad. The ad suggests that he was trying to carry the seawall project forward under his own steam: There is no mention of Charles Ordeman. The ad carries Joshua’s signature, and his alone — and it references a “Proposition to be submitted by the undersigned.”

**Joshua Norton notice of meeting at No. 5, Merchants’ Exchange, about North Beach bulkhead and breakwater,** *Daily Placer Times & Transcript*, 26 March 1855, p. 2. Source: Genealogy Bank

As in the previous ad, from November 1854, the notice here is addressed to “property holders.” So, perhaps the most consequential phrase of the ad is the final one: “upon transfer of a proportion of the property.”

It’s hard to imagine that anyone familiar with Joshua Norton’s real estate woes of recent months would have entrusted their property to him.

What is remarkable is that, in the very crucible of his financial devastation — with foreclosures on all sides, and with the imminent announcement of his financial penalty in the rice affair hanging like the Sword of Damocles over his head — Joshua had the determination and sheer chutzpah to try to lead a seawall construction project.

This is not a man who was going down without a fight.

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BUT, HOW DID Joshua Norton get to No. 5, Merchants’ Exchange?

You may have noticed that I describe Joshua as “using No. 5, Merchants' Exchange, Battery” as an office or business address.

Here’s why that somewhat circumspect word choice, “using,” seems appropriate: The firm of Grisar, Byrne & Co. was running ads at the same address during this period.

In fact, the earliest ad for Grisar, Bryrne & Co. at “No. 5, Exchange Building,” appears in late February 1855 — a month before Joshua starts using the address:

More intriguing: Earlier, I noted that Joshua Norton started running ads offering to buy wool at No. 5, Merchants’ Exchange, in late May 1855. The first of these ads ran on May 26th.

On May 21st, E. Grisar of Grisar, Byrne & Co. had started running the same ad at this address:

**Ad (buying wool) by E. Grisar of Grisar, Byrne & Co. at No. 5, Merchants’ Exchange,** *Daily Placer Times & Transcript*, 21 May 1855, p. 2. Source: Genealogy Bank

And, on 27 July 1855 — within a column inch or so of one another — two versions of virtually the same wool-buying ad appeared at No. 5, Merchants’ Exchange: one listing Grisar, Byrne & Co., the other listing Joshua:

**Ads (buying wool) for Grisar, Byrne & Co. and Joshua Norton at No. 5, Merchants’ Exchange,** *Daily Placer Times & Transcript*, 27 July 1855, p. 4. Source: Genealogy Bank

So, Grisar, Byrne & Co. ran ads at No. 5., Merchants’ Exchange, between February and July 1855.

Joshua Norton ran ads at the same address between March and June 1855.

And, during this same period, the two ran ads for offering the same deal on wool — but without reference to one another.

How are we to make sense of this?

A couple of things to note:

1
Grisar, Byrne & Co. was a commodities merchant — like Joshua Norton.

2
Before establishing their firm in January 1854, the partners at Grisar were in commodities on their own — like Joshua Norton. And, all of them “hung out their shingles” in San Francisco within two years of when Joshua did in 1850. Based on newspaper advertisements, the partners came on the scene in this order:

E.A. Suwerkrop, 1850
Emile Grisar, 1851
Thomas Byrne, 1852

Any or all of these traders might have met — done business with — and even been friends with Joshua Norton during Joshua’s first few years in San Francisco.

But, in 1855, Grisar, Byrne & Co. — not Joshua Norton — was the going concern.

In light of this, one reasonable interpretation of the newspaper record is that, in the first half of 1855, Grisar, Byrne & Co. helped Joshua Norton through a difficult time

Together with Joshua’s apparent connection to Charles Ordeman on the bulkhead project in late 1854, the apparent “helping hand” he received from Grisar, Byrne & Co. in 1855 would suggest something important:

In the wake of Joshua Norton’s California Supreme Court losses of 1854 and 1855, Joshua was not friendless.

During this period when so many did abandon Joshua and leave him to his losses, there still were those who — at different times — were willing to stand by Joshua and try to help him find his footing.

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The Emperor Norton Trust

Joshua Norton at the Merchants' Exchange

In Spring 1855, As He Sought to Recover from His Legal and Financial Apocalypse of the Previous Two Years, the Future Emperor Norton Attached Himself to the Most Desirable New Business Address in San Francisco

Great Ambition, Even in His Darkest Hour

A Little Help from His Friends