Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Curly Gus From Third and Minna

Curly Gus From Third and Minna 
A S, O. M. Boy Who Has Made Good 


Gustave was the brother of my Grandmother's mother. A list of the family is on previous post

Gustave A. Melsing was born, the first male white child in Gold Hill, on the Comstock Lode, Nevada, the mining camp that made San Francisco the home of the Bonanza Kings and the most romantic and wonderful city in all the world. From rumors of the long, forgotten past, he came very near being born a few thousand feet under the ground in the Yellow Jacket Mine, where his mother had descended to collect a few specimens from a particular rich vein, for the collection of his father. At any rate the Hoist House was a fair enough maternity home for him to be born in. Rumors further state, that every man, woman and child, even the Piutes, celebrated this eventful occasion. All of the men and Piutes got polluted, not with "bootlegger arnica" but with the real, old, genuine hooch made out of "skunk cabbage." 

After the Civil War Gus, at the age of 3, brought his father, mother and three sisters, by Burro-Pullman, over the Divide into Grass Valley and then by easy stages back to 'Frisco where they originally came from. 

His father started and was the owner of "Humboldt Hall" on the corner of Dupont and Washington streets. This marvelous Emporium was a bakery, pool room, restaurant, first free-lunch, confectionery cafe, where the finest imported liqueurs (not liquors) would be served with the demitasse, except they called it coffee. 

Not satisfied with "North Beach", the "Mission", "Telegraph Hill" or "Russian Hill", Gus moved, with the rest of the Melsings, including two dogs, a cat, several canary birds and other necessary things like a baby brother, into the Land of Promise, "South of Market", around the year of 1877. At the corner of Minna and 3rd streets a little bakery was opened and from that time on the little shop was known as "Melsing's Bakery." 

Upon the sudden death of his father, Gus was called into action when only 17 years old and conducted the little place successfully, simply because it had to l)e done for want of funds to keep the family together until all of his sisters and his brother were married and provided for. Then and then only did he get married. Pie married Olive Blanche Bradshaw, daughter of one of the first wholesale grocers of San Francisco and the grand-daughter of Col. John W. McKenzie, the Mexican War veteran and the first Acting Chief of Police in San Francisco in 1847. 


Saturday, May 16, 2015

Gustave Melsing - 1826 - Prussia

Gustave Melsing - 1826 - Prussia

Gustave Melsing was a trained accountant, he also learned the confectioners trade in Germany.  They migrated in approx. 1858.

After Gustave Melsing and Elizabeth Schwerin Melsing arrived in America, they came directly to Gold Hill, Nevada where he worked as an accountant in the silver mines.   When the ore ran out and the silver mines closed down, they came with their five children to San Francisco, where he opened a confectionery shop at 3rd & Minna Sts.   It became famous for Melsing's rye bread.

Melsing children

Louisa (Lucy) Melsing
Married - Daniel Barnes Libby (1882)
Issue - Daniel, Jr & Adeline
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Mary Melsing
Married - Alfred Huddart
Issue - Emily, Lucy & Alfred
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Gustave Melsing
Married - Olive Bradshaw
Issue - Melba
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Antoinette Melsing
Unmarried
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Elizabeth Melsing
Married - James Gagen
Issue - Edward
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Dorothea Melsing (1872)
Married - George Bunker
Issue - Alpharetta (1892) (My Grandmother)
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Louis Melsing
Married and divorced
no Issue

3rd & Minna

Over the years, the land where the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts now stands has been home to a wide variety of businesses including: The Manhattan Bakery, Melsing's Bakery, a millinery store, a cabinet maker, a furniture dealer, multiple tailors, a dry goods merchant, the Doscher and Company Grocery, Howard Presbyterian Church, Mission Street Hotel, many laundries, the Ixora Dancing Hall, an undertaker, a candy shop, a tin shop, a coal yard, St. Patrick's School, Thomas Day and Co. Gas Fixtures, a pork shop, many restaurants, a stable, a wire and iron works factory, a drugstore, the Peerless Movie Theater, the West Hotel, a machine shop, a lithography shop, St. Patrick's Shelter Annex with reading room, St. Vincent du Paul Center for Servicemen, an engraving shop, and a number of pawn shops.

Secondary notes .....
Gustav Melsing was married on March 23, 1856 to Elizabeth Schwerin. 
In 1872 was employed as a baker [Columbia Bakery] at 1129 Dupont st., San Francisco [now Grant ave]
In 1878 he was living at 727 Broadway and in 1879 was living at 2126 Howard.
Gustav then listed himself as a confectioner dealing in fancy baked goods
Daughters Louisa and Maria were living with their parents at this time.
In 1880 the bakery was located at 120 3rd. st. and the family was living at 205 Minna.
The bakery was owned by August Schwerin was deeded to Gustav in late 1881. August and Elizabeth Schwerin [Gustav's wife] were brother and sister. 
In 1883 Gustav`s son Peter Henry was employed at the bakery. The son was commonly known as Harry.
In or about 1884 Gustav expired. His wife Elizabeth was running the bakery in 1885. Two other sons Gustav A [gus jr.] and Louis were also working at the bakery until 1896.
After that Gustav A was a brakeman on the cable cars. 1888 and 89 was a watchman and 1900 was a bookkeeper. son Louis was a collector for a law and collection agency. 

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