| Notes |
- http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/44/
Roberts' ownership tenure of the Cottages property was extremely brief, selling it and Lot 7 behind it to fellow sea captain Timothy Dame on March 5, 1859, for $145. A month later Dame swapped the inner parcel (Lot 7) for the one adjacent to the Cottages lot to the south (Lot 4). The evenup exchange ($50 per parcel) was made with Dr. Kittredge, who had a large holding on Beach Hill where the current Hotel McCray was later constructed. This exchange resulted in Dame owning the entire half block south of the Roberts' holdings fronting Jefferson Street.
Dame was born in 1823 (or as late as 1827 according to some sources) in New Hampshire. He was an early '49er, arriving in California in November 1848 in search of gold. Shortly, he returned to the sea, captaining the schooners Mount Vernon and Queen of the West along the Central Coast. In 1857, Dame ushered in a new era in Santa Cruz as captain of the new steamer Santa Cruz . Purchased by his employer, lime magnates Davis and Jordan, this ship reduced travel time between Santa Cruz and San Francisco from what could be thirty or more hours to seven or eight. According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel,
Passengers can leave this place [i.e., Santa Cruz] at nine o'clock on Wednesday evening - take breakfast in the city, have all day to transact business and be home on Friday, at Two o'clock P.M. - thus consuming only 32 hours of day time, at a cost of $10.00 passage there and back. The same journey per stage will consume 60 hours working time, and the fare, including road expenses at Hotels, will be $28.00 ...
Not a more careful commander, or one better acquainted with the coast than Captain Dame can scarcely be found on the Pacific - consequently we have no hesitation in saying that a person is in no more danger on board the Santa Cruz than [in] a bed in his own bedroom.
Invited on the maiden voyage was a reporter named Livingston from San Francisco's Alta California who wrote glowing accounts of both Santa Cruzes, the ship and the "village." From the wharf at the foot of Washington Street the vessel embarked across the Bay to Monterey with group of soon sea-sick local dignitaries. Regular trips continued to be made among San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Monterey carrying a bounty of raw materials to export, including produce, lumber, leather, and of course lime, as well as passengers. Dame continued to pilot this run through the rest of the year.
But operating the steamer proved expensive, and Davis and Jordan traded it for land near Felton. Dame went on to captain Davis and Jordan's schooner, the Alfred Adams, brother-in-law John Chace's brig, the Wolcott, and the schooners Anna Anderson and Equity. Ready to depart Santa Cruz in March 1858, Dame noticed that lime in the Alfred Adams' hold had set fire to some cargo. Faced with a certain major conflagration if an attempt was made to unload the ship, exposing the smouldering cargo to air, Dame decided to head for his San Francisco destination. After two days at sea, keeping the hatches air tight, and one unsuccessful unloading attempt at the Sanf Francisco docks, the cargo was able to be discharged with minimal damage. The Alta California reported that "a remarkable instance of intrepidity and decision of character" as well as skill was displayed by the Captain in bringing this incident to a favorable end.
Dame's first marriage was to fourteen-year old Mary Isabella Liddell on June 1, 1856. (The marriage certificate claimed that she was sixteen.) Mary was the daughter of George and Elizabeth Liddell, born in Stafford, England on March 6, 1842, and one of ten children. Circa 1851 Elizabeth, Mary, and seven siblings followed George to San Francisco, taking six months to sail around the Horn. Mrs. Liddell became very ill on the trip. Mr. Liddell shortly moved to the north coast of Santa Cruz, where he established a lumber mill on what is now Liddell Creek. Later the widowed Mrs. Liddell operated a bath house on the bluff above the main Santa Cruz beach, where Terrace Court is today.
Mary and Timothy Dame lived on Jefferson Street in a what was termed a "cabin." Later deeds and court records all suggest that this Dame residence was on Lot 4, at the corner of what is now Second and Main Streets, and below Lot 8 (the Cottages property). But further evidence is necessary to completely rule out the possibility that the Dames lived on Lot 8, perhaps in a building still standing today. Even if the family did not then live on the Cottages property, Dame, as will be seen, was the original inhabitant of one of the current Carmelita Cottages. The Dames had two sons; Charles Elliot on April 1, 1859, and Alfred Herbert on March 30, 1861.
In 1863, Timothy Dame experienced legal problems, both marital and financial. Mrs. Dame complained, in a lawsuit filed on June 18, 1863, that her husband had committed adultery in February. Furthermore, she alleged that he contracted a loathsome venereal disease, and so she stopped cohabitating with him. She requested an annulment, custody of the children, and the homestead and furniture. Dame denied the charges and also claimed that the complaint was defective and ambiguous because it did not say with whom he committed adultery or when. Mrs. Dame did not file an amended complaint as Judge McKee required, and the case was dismissed on October 17,1863.
Meanwhile, on July 29,1863, John Arcan won a case against Dame in Judge W. Pope's court. Sheriff Charles Kemp was authorized to seize Dame's land to pay off the judgement. The Cottages parcel (Lot 8) was sold at a Sheriffs auction on August 24, 1863, to Hugo F. Hihn for $164, the highest bid. Hihn received final title to Lot 8 on February 26, 1864, when the six months given to Dame to redeem his land lapsed. Hihn, brother to famous entrepreneur Frederick Hihn, is known for the Flatiron Building at Pacific Avenue and Front Street (site of the Plaza Bakery and the Teacup Restaurant, razed after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake), which he acquired from his brother in 1860.
Despite the divorce not being granted, Dame abandoned Mary and at least one son. As a sea captain, Dame alternately bedded down on board ship, in San Francisco, and in Santa Cruz. Where he lived in Santa Cruz immediately after early 1863 is unknown, but it was not at the family residence on Jefferson Street. This information is contained in Mrs. Dame's second filing for divorce on May 2, 1865. She alleged, supported by her mother's testimony, that Dame deserted her on March 12, 1863, and she had supported herself and the boys since then with the help of other family and friends. It may be that by the time of this new complaint the Dames had settled their affairs, since all she requested was a divorce and custody of the younger Alfred. A day earlier, the Dames, appearing together, had sold their land to Charles Williams, the local Wells Fargo agent and husband of Mary's sister Anne Elliot, for $50. The case was referred to the Court Commissioner to take testimony and report back. Although Judge McKee denied the divorce again, it appears that the marriage remained in name only.
Mary's subsequent whereabouts and what became of the house are not exactly known. A year later, on June 2, 1866, Williams sold Lot 4 back to Captain Dame (solely) for $50. Perhaps Mary went elsewhere to obtain her divorce, because soon she apparently remarried. Her new partner was a fellow Englishman, Captain George John Fake of San Francisco, born in 1834. He purchased the Main Street lot below Thomas Johnson's Beach House in Santa Cruz on January 2, 1869. The couple had a daughter, Lucy, in 1868, who was evidently raised by her grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Liddell, after Mary died shortly thereafter. Captain Fake went on to marry Lena Seegar in 1872 in San Francisco. Lucy eventually married Alexander Cuthill and lived in Duncan Mills on the Russian River for many years. She died in Santa Rosa on November 22, 1959.
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http://www.maritimeheritage.org/captains/dame.html
On July 25,1881, Dame remarried. His new wife was Ellen (Hutchinson) Thomson, a widow and the sister of his next door neighbor, Mrs. Thomas Johnson. On their wedding day, Ellen Dame purchased from her new husband his Main Street property for $1,000. The marriage lasted until Captain Dame passed away on May 19, 1886 of apoplexy at the IXL Lime Works. The funeral proceeded from their Beach Hill cottage to the burial plot in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Santa Cruz.
- Capt Timothy Dame, owned land in Santa Cruz, CA, which is now the Santa Cruz Hostel - Carmelita Cottages.
One hundred twenty years ago, you could walk down to the end of unpaved Main Street to a wharf and catch a ship to San Francisco. Captains built their homes overlooking the sea on Beach Hill, among them Timothy Dame.
After piloting the first steamer to dock in Santa Cruz, Dame by 1872 had been relegated to dock work, when he built his modest Carmelita Cottage (origin of the name unknown).
Prior to renovation as a hostel, the structure was single-wall construction, with interior wood siding (like in a ship’s cabin) with newspaper insulation.
If you needed to stay overnight awaiting a ship, you lodged at Thomas Johnson’s Ocean View Hotel overlooking the wharf.
Johnson built a two-story, four-room home next to Dame’s also around 1872, later adding a whole new section.
His wife’s sister came to Santa Cruz from New York and married Captain Dame.
Her daughter, Lottie, eventually inherited Dame’s cottage and Johnson’s house, as well as four other cottages that had been built in the rear of the property.
Pianist Lottie had married opera star Henry Thompson (a.k.a. Enrico di Tomaso), furnished her parlor as a music room and participated in local music events. Soon widowed from Henry in 1900, then later divorced after a brief second marriage, she ran the cottages as rental units until her death in 1955.
Lottie willed the property to the City of Santa Cruz in order that all people could enjoy her gardens.
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Old Dead Relatives
1823 - 1886 (62 years)
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