Univerait$ of Galifo~nka. BenelpaL ~ibra?y/Berkeley Regional Oultural Ef;le~toxyProject All mcsd ef this mnubc~ipt;am czovwsd by an agrtewsnt ,batwean the Rscsnta ub &%ur Wntuerste of Ca3lfutnla md huts "*rtrPe$tt, drat& Pbetreh 4, 1957, Tht~manusc~igtis thza~ebyrnde avaiIabl+ for ~aareaurahpurp08~11. A11 litt)ra~s]~righ?~in except that thob Librurf had granted to Mr Bartile%$fh@csxc%rx8fvarighf: to p~nblish4whg hl~ lifettae. 'bBa prarf of the reanuse~iptmy be qMtted POP publieation by myone oth& than Zauir %~&lett exeept by mItt4n gertnlrssion of tha Ltbmrirn af Gha Unfversiky of California at Berkeley Laas BartXatt, h5s f4the)~~hi^ un~la8314, indeedl hia bro%breend hi8 cousins and hlr aunts (not to aseation Us f3jlar.b wif~tarfd%y, ths 02nsys) have tall bean of th~,ahif that aWhe*r Whela" am madre of, l%aaoh(ganeratisn hresr aanCributed pabl%6-apirited ePvie and otiXWal leadera to CaliPtmnZa -- noted lawprsJ aduaato~a, a Regeat of interview tap@-recorded in Berkeley on Marah 3, April 8, and OQtobsr 28, 1954* Loals Bar~tlettrrsaalla same of the higUigh.t;r and dxlamatio epirodee of' hirr own ezperieaae~in highep education, legal work, city politias, and water ad power devtalopnrent ln LQo~thernCalifomla over thFe@quarters of a czrmtury. Partiolpantra in 'tido sf tb reuordlng laeaeiom were -sfessor Walton Bean of the University of California Hiatory hga~tssent:and h. Robert E, fhuPk6 of the Banaxoft Libraryta Hmusaript Division, Bartlett: wae in his smly eightieo when tb inbmiew was rcsaoNeQ. AlCharrgh he elmeked over the tmertpt and retrimdl 5% ea~erf'ully, he felt that hla asemmy waa not what it aaae had been and that scum phases of tha story could be covered only IJn a fmgmentwy way. That there, were ohapbrs yet to rroons bn h2r lang, varied, and bway life was rsvfdenaed when an May L1* 1957, he in San ~anaPeecrsLna s~toff on a honeymoon uhieht RB ht~~%old Regional. CuZ%tamZBi~tot+yhjatef Co~.ZnneL, FPlb TTnfversity aP Caf ifornfa Library, krkeley %.~ckb., 1957 ADMIt35JCOW 'F3 !BIB W3 Am %AH FRABacIScjr) CITY POLITICS QOVEIZbJaR ROGPB ATD 'I'm CEBTRAL VALLkY BROJECT HVS1TfGIPAL WZLI'PY DISTRICT8 IWRIGATTO-Et DISTRICTS C)OVRR?7OR OLSON TVA FOR CAL3PORHIA PARTIAL INDEX FAMILY A2fD EDUCATION Bwtlett: I was born in San Francisco in 1872, and lived there until we moved to Alameda in 1884. We lived on Ell18 Street, between dough and Octtavia. It was a new street, and we faced a reeky hill- side of about four blooks, not graded nor built on until long after we left 8an fianalsao, Gilbt You were telling me that you spoke Freneh before you spoke English. How did that come about? Bartlett: My mother was Louiee b1, born on Staten Island, New York, in 1841, In '49 my grandfather John Me1 decided to come to California, Ee had cousins around Bordeaux, Prrance, and his oldest Ban, Lou18 Mel, was sent there in 1850 and remained in ban08 until 1858, as his father98 correspondent, He returned to California Pn 1878. My grandfather left Hew York for California in 149 via Panama, and there he had the $Panama' fever. That laid him up for three month8 or so, and he arrived in California too late to be a California pioneer. In the beginning he kept a store in one of the abandoned sail boats that Bartlett: was stuck in the mud on the San Francisco beaeh, Quite a number of boata that came to San Francisco never went back. They were relatively small, and for a number of years houaed the stores and the homes of the pioneers. When my grandfather came to California, he sent his family to Prance where hia siaters lived. They remained there until 158 or 59, when they sailed to Califo~niafrom Bordeaux around the Horn. They lived in San Franciaoo, My mother, one of the younger members of the family, was married in '68, and ahe and my father began a family right may, Gilb: There were ten children in your family, didaft you say? Bartlett: Yea, my oldest aiste~was born in '70, and the reat of us arrived at two ye- intervals, Gilb : What was your father's family like? Where did they come from? Baptlettt My father's ancestors came from England -- mieaed the first boat - the Mayflower -- but caught the Bartletts aecond, They arrived in Massachuaetta, and fmaa there, in the cotarse of a few generations, went north to few Rampahire. The earlierst member of the famfly I can recall was Joslah Rartlett, a signer of the Derrlaratian of Independenee. Somtimea I think he was the only man living in Bew Hampshire, beuause he was a doctor, a lawyer, a college president, GOV~P~OF of the state, and Chief Justice. f don't bow exactly how these jobs fitted in with each othr, but apparently he was the mst important man in Hew Hampehire during the period of the Amriaan Revolution, My direct ancestor was his brother, Stephen, He was born and lived in Hew Hampahire. And his descendent8 went down south, taking it in gradual ateps: my f atbr waer born in ColWha Georgia, Itve never known whather he was named after the town or tha Diaeaverer, but Us name was Columbus Bartlett. Shortly thereafter, my grandfather went .to Florida, At that time it wae a new country bought from Francs. And a lot sf Bartlett: get-rich-quickera went there; they had -- I was going to say, all the graces, but perhaps all the ~oughneasis mare exact -- of pioneers, He was an influential m, though, and beoame myor of Appalaehioola, whieh waB and etfll is a little town, Gilb a Being mayor goes way baak in your family1 Bartlett: Goes way back, yea, The woods are full of Bartlett mayors, His only s%oq I remember wsla that h6 disapproved of what some of the pioneers in Florida were doing, and acquired the enmity of two men who were t~gingto ~ltealeverything in sight, These two came into his -- I was going to say his afflce, but that was juat a pioneer shack -- as all building8 were. An offiee in those clay1 was a place where you kept everything that you had, As he was warking, these men came in and announced they would take him out and hang him, "well," he safd as he pulled out a mtah and lit it, to his little keg daun here at my feet BIB gun- powderl ff you don't get out of here, I'll drop thfs match and we'll all go to hell togetherem They beat it, (Laughter) That's the only atory I Bartlett: recalled when a member of a Florida hietorital society wrote me for data about hila h om 30 yews ago. But it sounds like a Bartlett, I would say. To catalog the mayopa in the family, Grand- father war Mayor. of Appalachic~ola, Florida; Uncle Washington Bartlett, San Franciaao and Governor of California; brotbr Francis He Bartlett, Alameda and leter Wyeville, Californiaf Louis Bartlett, Mayor of Berkeley. Qilb: How did the Bartlstts get to California? Rartlsttt In '49, my Father's eldsat brother, Washington Bartlett, came to California via the Panama. He was quite successful and was aoon elected aounty Clerk in San Francisco. Gilb: How did your father aome out? BartPettt My father came out later, in 1852, via Panama. His father was a pioneer living in Florida. Then hie aons were pioneers too, and went on thefr own as they reached 17 or 18; three came to California, two to New Orleans. Thy were all named after famoua men: Washington Montgomery, Franklin Adarms, Bartlett: William Tell, Colurabus, His daughters were named after Southern atatea: Louisiana, Texaa, eta, My father, at 17, started early and ran a newspaper in a tiorthern Mississippi town, until hia brother Washington invbted him to wm to Sari Franclaco in 1852, I don't know mueh about hir early work, except that he waa a printer and worked on a newspaper2 he studied law, and then began praeticf ng it, and was bin13 this when I arrived on the scene, I remember ae a very small child going down to his offloe on Montgomery Street where Wells Fargo Bank now is, He married my mother In '69, when he was 36, She was his second wife. His f *st wtfe died in childbirth, having twin girls, All three died together, He married my mother In 1869, and from then on there was a child every two yea~suntil held had nine. And then, for some reaason or another, there was a gauae for three or four yeara, when the last one was born, Gilb t Where didcyou come in? Bartlete: I was the second, I had an oldw sister, My father was a good and rsu6oesaful laruyer, He didn't make any fortune, but he managed to keep ua all going, until he got toward 70, when he gradually faded and died at 72. Gilb: I still wonder how yon happened to learn Frsnoh before you learned Engli sh, Bartlete: Hy mother, as a small girl, went to Franae, Xy grandmother took the family there when xny grand- father left for Califo~n2.ain 1849, She stayed there eight years, giving her children an education, and came to California in '58, As my mother went to school in Prance, French really became ae much her native tongue as Engliah, When she married my father, plhe made up her mind that all of her children were going to mrpeak French.