Happy 165th birthday San Mateo County

A series of events takes place Wednesday, May 12, including a webinar on the ballot box stuffing, voter intimidation and the politicians from San Francisco, in league with criminal gangs, who attempted to take over the county before it could be organized in an orderly fashion in 1856.

What took place on May 12, 1856, 165 years ago this week? People on the Peninsula went to the polls to vote for San Mateo County officials for the first time.

It is important to realize that San Mateo County was not an original California county. We were at first just the southern portion of San Francisco County. Like many of the original counties, San Francisco’s boundaries were defined by the old Mission borders. However, the two places were vastly different. San Francisco as we know it today was a growing pulsating city of 50,000 people, the most important city on the West Coast. The Peninsula was rural, with a population of no more than 2,500 people.

Recognizing the vast differences, as early as 1855, residents on the Peninsula were trying to get a new county formed to be called Raymundo. In 1856, they found some unexpected allies in a roundabout way.

In San Francisco, a consolidation movement was afoot because having two governments (city and county) made it difficult to mount reform campaigns to rid San Francisco of political rascals from both the governments at the same time.

So, in 1856, state Assemblyman Horace Hawes introduced a bill to combine the two. But corrupt elements in San Francisco had allies in state government too. And so, a compromise was necessary.

According to Benjamin G. Lathrop (a contemporary observer), “Hawes had to make terms with the thieves by adding a clause to his act cutting off about nine/tenths of the County of San Francisco, establishing what is now the County of San Mateo. Chris Lilly and Bill Mulligan agreed to accept that much of the County provided it could be arranged to organize a county government within one week after the passage of the Act. A clause to that effect was inserted and the bill passed.”

What was the compromise? For the reformers — they got one government — a city and county of San Francisco, as it is today. Also, city officials had to be bonded and fixed expenditures were placed on five city departments.

For the “roughs” (as Lathrop called them), they would be given a new county, to be organized without delay. They could run their rackets from here and wait for better times in San Francisco. Who were these guys? Mostly gamblers, former prize fighters, political hacks and petty criminals mostly from New York.

Before local residents knew what was even happening, the elections were staged. Although the Consolidation Act was scheduled to go into effect in July, the election was called for in May. On Election Day, May 12, 1856, three of the county’s 13 voting stations were seized by gang members who stuffed ballot boxes and ran election booths.

The results were predictable. Out of a total population of 2,500, 1,700 votes were counted. Gang members became sheriff, county clerk, county attorney, assessor and treasurer along with picking up one of the three supervisorial seats. They had a strange hold on the infant county.

It was only with the aid of San Francisco’s famous Vigilance Committee of that year (numbering some 8,000 citizens) that these original organizers and their allies were chased, jailed or hanged. San Mateo County was then able to reorganize itself.

There will be a free online presentation called the “Legacy of Corruption” at 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 12. Click http://historysmc.org/courthouse-docket/ to learn about the series and to sign up for the webinar.

In celebration of the 165th birthday of the county, the San Mateo County History Museum is also presenting “Happy San Mateo County Day,” a free online event for children on May 12. For more information and to sign up click http://historysmc.org/happy-san-mateo-county-day/.

Mitch Postel is president of the San Mateo County Historical Association and David J. Canepa is president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.