By Earnest Jackson and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society
ILLUSTRATION BY J. C. (PATSY) CARROLL
Con O’Leary’s fatal fall
Last week we presented the first in a series of historic essays by old-time Sausalitan Earnest Jackson. This week we offer his recollections of the beginnings of Sausalito ferry service, and two of the characters who populated our town in the mid-nineteenth century.
The first steam ferry boat to run from Sausalito to San Francisco was the “Princess,” wrote Jackson in 1936. “She landed at a flat little wharf near Gus Peterson’s boat-house. The road that led from the hill down to the Ferry ‘Princess’ was first called ‘Princess Road’ and is now ‘Princess Street’.”
According to Jack Tracy’s book Moments in Time, “the Princess was launched September 14, 1858, destined for a career on the Sacramento River. The Princess was purchased by the Sausalito Land & Ferry Company just days before her inaugural voyage as a ferryboat on May 10, 1868. She made two trips a day from the Princess Street landing to Meigg's Wharf in San Francisco. When the North Pacific Coast Railroad took over ferry operations in 1875, the Princess was sold and five years later was broken up for scrap.”
Jackson continued:
In those old days there were a lot of interesting characters in Sausalito. There was Con O'Leary and Mr. Broderick, and Horse-shoe Billy and Ed Stahl, and Dan Slinkey and many more. Most of these oldtimers came to tragic ends. In fact, in early days Marin County was famous or perhaps infamous for the number of murders committed here. One by one these old-timers, usually still in harness, passed on. Their favorite hang-out was Broderick’s store, until Mr. Broderick, himself, slid out of the back of his cart while making deliveries to some of his hill customers, and broke his neck.
Con Knew It All
Then came Con O’Leary’s time. Con was a very important man in Sausalito. He worked for the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company. Almost he was that company. He knew all about the water pipes of the town. I think the only complete record the company had of these pipes was in Con’s head.
And then too, Con attended to the graveyard and kept tab on where people had been buried, or usually did ... Con was hale and hearty and would have probably lived many years as the most indispensable citizen of Sausalito, if he had only stayed with his proper job. I say indispensable advisedly, for surely there is nothing any more necessary than water to drink or a grave to lie in.
However, quite unmindful of his importance, on one fine day Con, who usually was delving into earth, climbed a tall tree to saw off a large limb. Careless, Con made the fatal mistake of sitting on the wrong side of the saw cut. The limb fell and Con fell and that was the end of Con.