Peter’s family are off to San Francisco soon so I thought I would add a post about one of the Wood family (my paternal grandmother’s family) who lived in San Francisco. Any text that is underlined has a link you can follow for more information.
Early Life in Greenock
Thomas McNaught was born in Greenock, Scotland (near Glasgow) in December 1862 to Peter McNaught and Grace Wood. Grace Wood was the daughter of George Wood and Grace Marshall; my generation’s 4th great grandparents. Making Thomas my generation’s first cousin 4x removed; for my dad’s generation he is their first cousin 3x removed.
At age 18 in 1881, Thomas was working as a Railway Clerk in Greenock and living with his mother Grace at 30 Nelson Street. His father had died when he was just seven years old.
30 Nelson St, Greenock
At age 28 in 1891 he was lodging in Greenock at 13 Brisbane Street and working as a Mercantile Clerk. His mother had died in 1888.
13 Brisbane St, Greenock
Just one year later he emigrated to the USA.
Living and working in San Francisco
We first pick him up in the USA in 1896 in the San Francisco City Directory where he is listed as a clearing-house clerk for the Anglo Californian Bank living at 529 Post which is in Lower Nob Hill. Some 20 years later Raymond Chandler worked for the same bank.
He subsequently lived for quite a few years at 708 Hyde and is listed there in the 1900 United States Federal Census living with the Meyer family who had previously lived in NY and whose parents hailed from France. By 1903 he was working for the International Banking Corp as a Paying Teller.
In 1903 he makes the news in the San Francisco Call as a hotly tipped competitor in the Scottish Bowling Tournament although he didn’t win. There are numerous reports from matches involving Thomas over the next few years. The club he was a member of is America’s oldest lawn bowling club. The club, now known as the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club, is based in Golden Gate Park with a beautiful Edwardian club house. This website has some more fabulous photographs from the time when Thomas was playing, unfortunately we have no way of knowing if one of them is him!
Scottish Bowling Club 1910
The Club’s first treasurer was James “Sunny Jim” Rolph Jr; Mayor of San Francisco from 1912 to 1931 and Governor of California from 1931 to 1934.
The Great Earthquake
Thomas was resident in San Francisco during the great earthquake of 1906. The earthquake struck at 5.13 am on 18th April and is estimated to have been around 7.8 in magnitude. It damaged buildings and killed many people, but it was the fires that raged for four days that meant that two-thirds of the houses in the city went up in flames. It is estimated that about 3,000 people died and between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of 410,000.
Makeshift camps in the parks and beaches were set up, and over 5,000 wooden shacks were built for the homeless. Many still operated up to two years later.
Wooden huts in camps
As a result of the devastation, trade moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles which took over the role of premier city of the west coast of the US.
Prior to 1906 Thomas was still at 708 Hyde but afterwards in 1907 he had moved to 2018 Sutter and again to 445 Page. This US Geographical Map shows that Hyde was in the area of the fire. We can also see photographic evidence of the devastation of Hyde that forced him to make this move.
Ruins of cottages on Golden Gate near Hyde
Latter Years
From a few records we know that Thomas was a registered Republican voter.
In the 1910 United States Federal Census his immigration year is given as 1892 and he is living at 1753 Pine Street in the Lower Pacific Heights. He is listed as a single boarder, age 47 and working as a Bank Paying Teller. He is listed as naturalised. The building appears to be still there.
Pine Street
In the 1920 United States Federal Census he is listed as retired, still single and is boarding at 1390 California Street in Nob Hill. The building is still there and now houses a ‘dive’ bar called the Wreck Room and a hotel called Cable Car Hotel.
1390 California Street
In September 1929 Thomas died in San Francisco aged 66. Just one month before the stock market crash brought devastation to the financial sector he had worked in since arriving in America.