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. 

South-of-Market-Journal to read the rest of the article

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. 

George Dow Bunker

GEORGE D. BUNKER is a young man of San Francisco. He is associated with the early history of Northwestern Alaska, and has been identified with mining interests of the Council District since 1897. He is the son of a pioneer business man of San Francisco, and was born in that city June 6, 1870. He attended the San Francisco public schools and subsequently Brewer's Academy, San Mateo. Mr. Bunker's grandfather was Cromwell Bunker, one of the first whalers to sail in Alaskan waters. The date of his whaling cruises was near seventy years ago. The family at that time resided in Nantucket. R. F. Bunker, father of the subject of this sketch, came to San Francisco in the early days of the Western metropolis, and engaged in the butcher business. In 1897 when Captain Libby was outfitting to go to Alaska George D. Bunker grub-staked Louis F. Melsing to accompany him. Captain Libby and Louis Melsing are both brothers-in-law of Mr. Bunker. The other members of this expedition were Harry L. Blake and A. P. Mordaunt. They were the original discoverers of gold in the Fish River country, and were prospecting in this region at the time the strike was made on Anvil Creek.

Mr. Bunker has been interested in mining in the Council District ever since the historical trip of his brothers-in-law. At one time he owned 106 mining claims in Seward Peninsula, but realizing the unwisdom of such extensive holdings in the new country, he concentrated his interests on Ophir Creek. During the past few years he has disposed of his interests in ten claims on this stream. He is now operating No. 3. above Discovery.

He was one of the first arrivals in the Nome country in the spring of 1899, being a passenger on the steamship Garonne. Mrs. Bunker accompanied him on this trip, and she was one of the first white women in Council City. Mr. Bunker has had a varied and interesting experience in the Northland. He has been with the country since the earliest days. In 1899 he set up and operated the first gasoline engine on Ophir Creek, which was probably the first engine of this character brought into the country.

Mr. Bunker was married December 18, 1890. Mrs. Bunker was formerly Miss Dora Melsing. The issue of this union is one girl, Alfarretta, twelve years old. Mr. Bunker is an energetic business man, genial companion, and a loyal friend.

Alfarretta was my grandmother

Council City - 1902

Captain D. B. Libby in Alaska

CAPTAIN D. B. LIBBY

Captain D. B. Libby first went to Alaska in 1866 and had charge of a part of the construction work of the Western Union Telegraph Company, which at that time was attempting to erect a telegraph line across Canada and Alaska to connect with a Siberian line by a cable across Bering Strait. Some of the old telegraph poles that were erected in 1866 and 1867 may still be seen in Seward Pen-insula. Captain Libby discovered gold on Ophir Creek in 1866, and always cherished a desire to go back to this country, but did not have an opportunity for its gratification until the dis-covery of gold in the Klondike country created greater interest than had hitherto been manifested in the Northland. He is a native of Maine, and was born February 3, 1844. He served as a soldier in the Union Army, and after the war went to Pike's Peak. While in Alaska in the employ of the Western Union Telegraph Company he had charge of a division of the line construction. He spent the winter in 1866 and 1867 in a camp on Grantley Harbor named Libbysville. After he returned from Alaska he was ticket agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Fourth and Townsend Streets, San Francisco, for fifteen years. Failing health compelled him to resign this position, and he went to Mendocino County, California, where he fully recovered. His second journey to the Northland was made in 1897. He left San Francisco August 18, sailing on the steamer North Fork. He was accompanied by his brother-in-law, Louis Melsing, and by Harry L. Blake and A. P. Mordaunt. He spent two winters in the Fish River country. At the present time he is at the head of a prospecting expedition in the unknown and unexplored country of the Kuskokwim Valley.

Miss Louise Melsing, of San Francisco, and Captain Libby were married in 1882. They have two children, Daniel B., Jr., and Adeline E. The son is now a young man of eighteen years and an assayer. When he was fourteen years old he accompanied his father on a trip to Alaska.

Captain Libby is a prominent figure in the history of Northwestern Alaska. He has trodden many miles of the "toe-twisting tundra," and his work has been distinctively of the kind that falls to the lot of the pioneer explorer and prospector. The region he is now investigating is so far away from the direct and usual methods of communication that possibly a month or more would be required for him to send a message to the nearest postoffice or telegraph station. It is to men of this type that future generations will be indebted for a better knowledge of Alaska than we possess today. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 202-203 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)

Libby, Melsing, Kerner, Bunker, Parks Genealogy

George Bunker of the Bunkers

When your line of the family leans toward the 'black sheep' side it's easy to loose contact with the rest of the lineage. So it seems this happened with our side and George. George married Dorothea Melsing in 1872 and they had (issue) Alpharetta (my grandmother) in 1892 in San Francisco.

Note from my mother Nancy, daughter of Alpharetta

The family tree is interesting but we heard a different tale about the Bunker Family. As far I knew the family always lived on the east coast, well to do and George Bunker didn't adhere to the family traditions. So he was sent out to Menlo Park to a military school and continued to live in San Francisco.

Even though the Bunker Family Association knew about our side of the family their info was partially incomplete. Found them with Internet search on genealogy sites followed by an email. So I guess we will be sent a pedigree back to Roger Bunker, from about 1500 and a CD with much of the family history. Will be interesting to see how the other half has lived. Now how about all these other family names .....

Party on Third Street

The San Francisco Morning Call - October 31, 1890

Party on Third Street.

A very pleasant party was held at the Melsing residence on Third street on Wednesday last.

The evening was passed in the enjoyment of choice music. Professor MeKenzie rendered "Was It a Dream," and. for an encore, "I Was Dreaming." Miss. Elsie A. Duncan favored the company with the ballad, "The Song Which Reached My Heart," which she rendered with peculiar tenderness.

Then followed a duet by Mr. R. S. Duncan and Mrs. Jennie B. Alderton. The latter was in fine voice, and her friends were glad to welcome her back to the musical gatherings where she has been much missed of late. 'Take Back the Heart", by Mrs. Tyrell, "Love's Old Sweet Song", by Mrs. J. B. Alderton, a tenor solo by Mr. Gus Melsing, a trio in which Mrs. Jennie Alderton, Mr. Gus Melsing and Mr. Robert Duncan participated, selections on the piano from "II Trovatore", "Mikado" and. "La Travista" by Mr. Davidson, "The Galiants of England", "Loves Sorrow", "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep", "The Two Grenadiers", which Mr. Duncan rendered in his usual successful style, ended the musical entertainment, which was followed by dancing and refreshments. The ladies present all wore evening

dress.

Among the guests were: Mrs. Melsing, Mrs. Keppler, Miss Jessie C. Duncan, Miss Nettie Melsing, Miss Elsie Duncan, Miss Lizzie Melsing, Miss Alma Rivers, Miss Dora Melsing, Miss Emily Reid of San Leandro, Messrs. R. S. Duncan, G. Melsing, J. W. Geogan (Gagen), George Bunker, L. Melsing, Mr. Detlefsen, E. Sachs, L. Keppler, Professor McKenzie, F. Quiltey, H. C. Abel, George Richt, F. Curtis.

Chronicling America