San Francisco treasure.

Cool - that's about Santa, Hardluck.  I found this article and drawing of his home in the Ft Worth Texas Gazette.

THE DEATH OF SANTA CLAUS

It Was Followed by a Fierce Rush to
Find His Hoard

Frank Gallego better known as Old
Santa Claus died recently at his solitary
shanty on Telegraph hill San Francisco
and since then the people of the neighbor
hood have been hunting for his buried
treasure Somehow the story got abroad
that Gallego died wealthy and that a rich
hoard lay concealed somewhere in the
sand about his cabin So far however
nothing has been found

WHERE GALLEGO LIVED
The cabin stands on the verge of a cliff
and to it the owner never admitted any
one He got the name of Santa Claus
years ago because of his love for children
He worked as a stevedore and with his
savings bought circus and fair tickets for
the little ones and various presents balls
and bats for the boys and dolls for the
girls Whenever one of his favorites fell
ill he kept the sick room beautiful with
fresh flowers One Sunday morning the
children failed to see him and told their
parents who broke down the gate to the
high fence forced the door and discovered
poor Santa Claus seated in a rocking chair
dead with a half filled cup of water in his
hand Then everybody made a frantic
but futile rush to find the old mans gold



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Hello All

Sue thank you for your very interesting post. It is amazing that you have actually found an illustration of Frank Gallego's shack. Well done!

It would be very interesting to see for fun if we could track down the address and see where the shack once stood in relation the present buildings today.

I wonder how many pre 1906 records have survived???

BA it would interesting to see if you could ever get permission off a developer especially in today's world of litigation and occupational health and safety.

I think you would have to ask them permission presenting a signed documentation freeing the developer from any litigation from your exploration of the site.

If successful then perhaps many interesting items from the original city could be recovered from the 1906 earth quake?

Hardluck 


Hello all again

Below is a picture of the coins allegedly found on a building site at San Francisco. The date range of these gold coins went up 1906 before the earthquake.

The alleged treasure of Frank Gallego could of only had coins up to his death in the early 1890's So from that assumption,the coins discovered were not connected to the Frank Gallego story.

However it does go to show Building sites in the greater San Francisco area could yield up treasures from the 1906 earthquake. Who knows what lies buried beneath the city streets?

And Frank Gallego treasure may still be one of the treasures lying beneath them?

Hardluck 



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Hello BA

You Have an excellent idea there.

If I was in that part of the world I'D be looking for these demolition sites and cross referencing them with old street directories. I wonder how many banks were destroyed in 1906 earthquake and fire?

San Francisco has a almost perfect urban hunting ground. A gold rush city still in its height with thousands of people in boom times with enormous amounts of money, almost totally destroyed and perhaps enough records and photographs surviving to help locate interesting sites.

An urban md'er playground.

Hardluck 



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Hello Sue

Well Done with your very interesting and amazing discovery.

It goes a long way helping us to discover the story behind the legend. Give yourself pat on the back for me. But your interesting discovery raises more questions?

It seems clear that he died with little money on him?

And He a brother at one time in Haig street in 1880. Perhaps they were behind the claims about the hidden money?

Perhaps the story of Gallego's wealth was based more on local hearsay?

However an interesting discovery discovery all the same.

Hardluck 

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Hello all

Sue I can confirm your discovery. In the 1890 San Fransisco directory mentions a C Romulus and Co Bag Broker?

The name seems to be fairly rare.

Another thing in the 1880 census I found two children  Pajaro Valley Male Orphanage Asylum
Epiphanio Gallago aged 10 and his Brother Fulgencio Gallago aged 12. I wonder if they were related to Frank Gallago or his brother? What ever the connection if any the place they lived does not sound like a nice place.

It would be interesting to see any of the Brothers  family was still alive after 1906. earthquake

The mystery deepens

Hardluck. 
 



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Hello Sue

There is a partial list at http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/sfdata.htm

Hardluck 

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