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| Captain Timothy Herbert Dame |
Captain Timothy Herbert Dame, born in New Hampshire either in 1823 or 1827, arrived in California in the late fall of 1848 to dig for gold. Around 10 years later in 1857, Timothy Dame became employed by two local lime magnates, captaining their new steamer, the Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Sentinel praised Captain Dame, announcing that passengers on his steamer were just as safe as they would be in their own beds at home. Captain Dame piloted the steamer Santa Cruz on a voyage between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, reducing the travel time between the two locations from over 30 hours to just 7-8. On these trips, Dame transported all sorts of raw materials - including lime - in addition to transporting passengers.
When the lime magnates sold the Santa Cruz in exchange for land up in Felton, Captain Dame was re-assigned to captain another one of their schooners, Alfred Adams, and several other local schooners, one of which was owned by Dame's brother-in-law - the Wolcott, Anna Anderson, and Equity.
There was a character defining incident in 1858 for Captain Dame, when the lime he was transporting from Santa Cruz to San Francisco caught some cargo on fire. Aware of the risky situation, Captain Dame kept the schooner on water for 2 days, with the burning cargo kept air tight shut. Eventually, he successfully unloaded the burned cargo in San Francisco with minimal damages and zero casualties.
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| Santa Cruz Public Library |
Back in 1856, a year before Timothy Dame began captaining the Santa Cruz, he married his first wife Mary Isabella Liddell. She was 14 years-old at the time of their wedding. In order to follow through with the wedding, they had to lie on the marriage certificate that she was 16 years-old!! He brought her to his property on what is now Main St. - then it was Jefferson St - where they lived in a "cabin" that stood slightly behind what is now the current Carmelita Cottages. Their union created two sons, but the marriage ended bitterly - not unlike several other Carmelita Cottages owners' marriages.
In 1863, Mary Dame sued her husband, Captain Dame, for cheating on her. She demanded full custody of their two children, divorce, and ownership of the house on Main St. The judge, however, dismissed her case on the basis that Mrs. Dame was unable to name the person with whom her husband had cheated.
That same year, Captain Dame had to deal with another court case, resulting in his loss of the land lot at the Carmelita Cottages he owned, in addition to the house his wife and children lived in. After both cases, one of which he lost, the whereabouts of Captain Dame were unknown. He most likely lived somewhere in San Francisco (maybe with his lover(s)?)
In 1865, Mary sued the Captain again, claiming that he abandoned her and their two children, and that she was supporting herself and the children without his help. In addition, she stated that he had contracted an adult disease and she refused to continue living with him. The divorce was, unsurprisingly, denied. Captain Dame and Mary then sold their house to their brother-in-law, for whom Captain Dame worked. During that same year, the brother-in-law sold the house back to Captain Dame for the same sum he paid for the house.
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| Captain Dame's gravestone, photographed by me at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Santa Cruz |
In 1877, Captain Dame almost lost his house at the Carmelita Cottages because of his inability to return a sum of money he borrowed in 1875. But he somehow managed to get the money returned and kept his newly built house. In 1881, Captain Dame married Ellen Thomson. Both Ellen and Captain Dame are characters in Dana Bagshaw's play La Boheme Santa Cruz, with one performance left on August 29th, @4pm at the Carmelita Cottages!
Ellen Thomson was a widow from New York, who moved to Santa Cruz around 1877 with her daughter after her husband died. Ellen Thomson was the sister of Thomas Varley Johnson's wife, who you may remember as our possible pimp from Part 1. Ellen lived with her young daughter in her sister's house, neighboring Captain Dame's cottage. In 1881, she married Captain Dame and moved into his cottage with him. On the day of their wedding, Ellen PURCHASED his cottage from him, making her now the owner. I found zero evidence for this, but Ellen purchasing the Captain's cottage from him as her marriage dowry makes me think that maybe he had not repaid all his debts and needed the money from her to keep the house.
This is also the point at which the play La Boheme Santa Cruz begins, which follows the life of Henry Thompson, the opera singer who returned to his hometown of Santa Cruz and married Lottie Dame, Ellen's daughter.
Stay tuned for Part 3!!!! There's so much more information on Captain Dame than I have here, so please follow all of my links if you are interested.
Where exactly is the odd fellows cemetery?
ReplyDeleteThe one Captain Dame is buried at is on Ocean st, The Santa Cruz Memorial Cemetery.
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