goldfields

The trial came to a conclusion on September 16, 1884 and after due consideration, judgement was rendered by Judge J.F. Sullivan on December 24^th. He concluded that under California law a marriage contract such as Sarah Althea Hill claimed she possessed could be valid. He accepted that both the contract and the “Dear Wife” letters were genuine, and he granted her a dissolution of the marriage between her and her husband, William Sharon.

He also believed that both plaintiff (Allie) and defendant (Sharon), as well as many of the witnesses, were guilty of perjury on the stand. Nevertheless, Allie was entitled to alimony and a division of property. Sharon swore that she would not get one cent. He would fight it to the end.

While her attorneys congratulated each other and celebrated their victory, Allie went shopping. A reporter from the Daily Alta California visited her the day after Christmas and found her relaxing “on a richly embroidered lounge,” next to a table “almost covered with glasses and champagne bottles, some empty and others yet to be opened,” evidence that she had been called upon by many well-wishers. He noted some of the purchases she made on Christmas Eve.

Daily Alta California, 26 December 1884

She certainly enjoyed her Christmas. But her ordeal was far from over, and she would never see the money she had worked and schemed so hard for. Senator Sharon appealed the decision and delayed payment with all his considerable craftiness. And then, lurking in the background, was the counter-suit that he had filed in federal court.  Allie would soon find herself once again in the courtroom.

Daily Alta California, 8 April 1884

Sarah Althea Hill tried potions and charms from an assortment of fortune-tellers – they were numerous in old San Francisco – but she had not secured Senator Sharon’s affections to her satisfaction. Another of the mystic league gave her a new charm. She should take some of Sharon’s clothing in a package and bury it in a newly-dug grave beneath the coffin.

So in the spring of 1883, Allie, along with her companion Nellie Brackett, went to the Masonic Cemetery and asked if there were any funerals scheduled. The women were honest, up to a point, about their reason for asking. They explained to the cemetery foreman about having their fortunes told and their desire to bury a package in a grave. This charm would get them rich husbands, they said. What was in the package? “Rose flowers and leaves,” said Miss Brackett, airily.

Daily Alta California, 8 April 1884 — Testimony of Mr. Gilliard

The two attractive young ladies persuaded the foreman, and he held the ladder while Nellie descended into the grave and deposited her package.

This escapade came out when the trial began, and Senator Sharon had the grave dug up and the package retrieved. The package contained, not flowers and rose leaves, but men’s socks, a collar, and the tail of a man’s shirt. In court the lawyers picked over the contents of the package and held up the moldy items with a pair of scissors.

Daily Alta California, 8 April 1884 — George Washington Tyler was the lead attorney for Sarah Althea Hill

It was all high entertainment and Tyler could not resist tweaking Sharon’s lawyer as they returned from lunch by exclaiming, “Avaunt! and quit me sight; let the grave bury thee, thou who desecrateth graves on Sunday, and bringeth forth socks!’

A vignette from the Wasp on the Sharon trial

Next: Pistol-packin’ mama on the stand

But wait — it gets better!

Daily Alta California, 16 April 1884

The counsel for the defense (William Sharon’s side) had a string of strange witnesses and bizarre testimony. Sarah, seemingly desperate to find and keep a sugar daddy, sought help from fortune tellers and charm workers. One of these, named Mrs.Massey, claimed she did not deal in any sort of witchcraft.

Daily Alta California, 15 April 1884

The rich suitor was Senator Sharon, the other was a handsome lawyer named Reuben Lloyd. According to Mrs. Massey, Allie’s scheme was to marry Sharon, then do away with him, and marry Lloyd, who was the one she was truly in love with.

Daily Alta California, 15 April 1884

When Mrs. Massey’s charms with socks, shirts, candles, and hair failed to work, Allie sought out another wonder worker. Mrs. Laura Scott, “a lady of color,” testified that Allie had come to her to have her horoscope cast. She then asked for a love potion — the one she had gotten from someone else made the senator’s hands twitch. Mys. Scott consulted her book and made up a perfectly harmless concoction.

Daily Alta California, 16 April 1884

Trying the sock trick again, Allie brought Mrs. Scott a pair of Sharon’s hose. Mrs. Scott dipped the toes in whiskey, said some magic words over them, and tied them around Allie’s left leg above the knee.

Since the tea and molasses potion hadn’t worked, Allie said she would have to use her first potion, one that Mrs. Scott said smelled like — but Allie’s lawyer objected to her saying what it smelled like. But it must have smelled dangerous because Mrs. Scott was afraid it would harm Sharon.

Daily Alta California, 16 April 1884

All this traipsing around to fortune-tellers must have been exhausting. But Allie was determined — she must have her Senator, her “old darling, beautiful Sen” as she called him.

Next: Voodoo in the Graveyard

While Sarah Althea Hill’s suit for adultery was still pending, ex-Senator Sharon filed his own civil suit in federal court against her for falsely alleging that they were married. He could sue in federal court because he claimed residency in Nevada, the state where he had made his pile of money and had been elected to the U.S. Senate, while Allie was a resident of California. Although this suit would disappear from public notice as the cases for adultery and divorce held the attention of the press and public, in the end it would have fatal consequences for Allie’s fortunes.

But before all this acrimony, Allie had been either William Sharon’s wife or his mistress for over a year. He had his rooms in the Palace Hotel, and she had hers in the Grand. The two hotels were owned by Sharon and connected by an enclosed bridge over Montgomery Street.

The Grand Hotel

The Palace Hotel, with the bridge to the Grand on the left

Allie testified that she often crossed over the bridge to spend the night with Sharon. They went out together on carriage rides, to champagne dinners, and she even visited Ralston Hall in Belmont, the mansion he had acquired after the death of his partner, William C. Ralston. Although not publicly acknowledged as his wife, she certainly filled that role for a time.

Discord arose between the two in the fall of 1881. Sharon attempted to pay Allie off and ordered her out of her rooms in the Grand Hotel. She refused to go; he had the carpet outside her rooms taken up. Next to go was her front door. When he ordered men to start ripping up the carpet inside her rooms she finally moved out.

Some weeks later, according to Allie, they reconciled for a time. In order to bolster her claim to be a wife, and not just a mistress, Allie alleged that pillow talk between Sharon and herself had been overheard by her friend, hidden behind a bureau in the bedroom.

The witness called to testify was a young woman named Nellie Brackett. Nellie was a teen-age hanger-on and confidante of Allie’s. She related how Allie had hidden her behind a bureau, thinking it would only be for a few minutes, but the senator came in and persuaded Allie to stay the night in his bed. Nellie was trapped for hours, but according to both Allie and her young friend, she had heard the senator call Allie his dear little wife.

Nellie gave her testimony in March 1884. By 1885 she had recanted. Allie put her up to it, she declared. True or false, it is quite the bedroom farce, and provoked much mirth among the reporters.

The Brackett Behind the Bureau, a vignette from the cover of the satirical magazine The Wasp,

Next: Love Potion #9