Chanate Historic Cemetery

Potter's Field Additions and Corrections

Additions

Comment: Joseph Forgett was a cement contractor and installed many of the sidewalks in the area north of Santa Rosa's College Avenue during the early 1900s. His problems during the latter part of his life stemmed from his addiction to cocaine. Jeff Elliott discusses this in great detail in his Comstock House blog. No reason has been found for the two-week delay between death and burial.

Joseph's brother, Fred Forgett, was a Santa Rosa City Councilman (1908-1912), resigning to accept the position of Street Commissioner, which he held at the time of his death in 1913. His influence and that of his mother were unfortunately unable to keep Joseph Forgett from a life of petty crime and continual stints in the county jail.

Newspaper records
> "Your Sidewalk!" [advertisement], The Press Democrat, 6-18-1905.
> "Joseph Forgett in Toils of Law Again," Santa Rosa Republican, 3-27-1907.
> "Six Months Are Given Forgett," Santa Rosa Republican, 3-29-1907.
> "Joseph Forgett," The Press Democrat, 12-17-1940.

Internet records
http://comstockhousehistory.blogspot.com/2009/05/man-who-would-be-sidewalk-king.html

Other records
Sonoma County Death Records, reel 12, page 000555.

McANALLY, [Dr.] William Winter, October 29, 1883, b.TN, a.65, physician, buried 10-30-1883
at the County Farm. CEN, INT, NEW

Comment: Dr. McAnally's obituary said he was a military surgeon in the War for Southern Independence. However, the excellent records of Tennesseans in the war do not include him. Dr. McAnally is thought to have been the resident physician of the State Female College in Memphis before the war [the 1860 U.S. Census enumerated him as a physician resident in the college]. The college served as a military hospital during the war and it may be that Dr. McAnally's wartime service as a civilian doctor was embellished by his Santa Rosa mourners following his death.

The records of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, show that William W. McAnally was a student at the School of Medicine in 1847. Although the records do not show him as a graduate, he may have enhanced his formal education with some "on the job" training under another physician and then awarded himself the title of "Doctor."

Although the 1860 Census shows Dr. McAnally to be a prosperous land- and slave-owner in Shelby County, Tennessee, he may have lost everything as a result of the war. In 1866 he left his wife and family and moved to Nevada County, California, where he advertised himself as a doctor in the Grass Valley Daily Union. Although claiming to have "permanently located" in Grass Valley, he left after a few months and moved to San Francisco where he was enumerated in the 1870 U.S. Census. By August 1871 Dr. McAnally was in Sonoma County where his Santa Rosa newspaper advertisement listed him as a "physician, surgeon, and accoucheur" [obstetrician]. In 1872, Dr. McAnally married Elsie Boyd of San Francisco. [No evidence of a divorce from the first Mrs. McAnally has been found; she listed herself as the "widow of W. W. McAnally" in several Memphis directories before her 1879 death.]

Dr. McAnally and his wife went through a nasty divorce early in 1883. As their home was hers before the marriage, it was awarded back to her (along with her former name!) as part of the settlement, leaving the doctor with little or nothing. later that year, he died in poverty and was buried by the county.

Census records
> 1850 (DeSoto Co., MS) M432-371-399, "McAnalley, Wm. W.," b.TN, a.36, physician, wife Louisa, four children, and [probably] father-in-law Thos. Mosely.
> 1860 (Shelby Co., TN) M653-1273-391, "McAnally, William," b.TN, a.45, physician, living at the "State College" near Memphis, wife Louisa Ann [Mosely] (b.VA, a.38), 4 children, 6 slaves, 2 slave houses.
> 1870 (San Francisco) M593-85-718, "McAnally, Wm. W.," b.TN, a.52, physician.
> 1880 (211 B St., Santa Rosa) T9-84-122, "McAnulty, Wm. W.," b.TN-NC-NC, a.60, physician, wife Elsie (b.NY-NY-NY, a.55).

Newspaper records
> "Business Cards," Sonoma Democrat, issue of 8-19-1871, advertisement placed 8-12-1871.
> "Professional Cards," Grass Valley Daily Union, advertisement placed 3-28-1866 and continued until 8-09-1866.
> "Card," Grass Valley Daily Union, notice placed 8-10-1866.
> "Died," [Santa Rosa] Daily Democrat, 10-29-1883.
> "Departed," [Santa Rosa] Daily Democrat, 10-29-1883.
> "Local Briefs," [Santa Rosa] Daily Democrat, 10-30-1883.

Other records
> William W. McAnally at the University of Louisville, in "Database of Medical School Graduates," School of Medicine (University of Louisville, Kentucky) 1838-1908.
http://library.louisville.edu/kornhauser/info/gfdb.html
> Marriage of William W. McAnally and Louisa A. Mosely, in "U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900." http://search.ancestrylibrary.com
> LaPoint, "Military Hospitals," quoted by James X. Corgan in footnote 107 of "Toward a History of Higher Education in Antebellum West Tennessee," West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, volume 39 (1985).
> "McAnally, Lou A., [widow of] William, [boards at] 360 Lauderdale," in 1876 Boyle- Chapman directory of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee (http://register.shelby.tn.us).
> Dr. W. W. McAnally, physician, in the "Pacific Coast Directory, 1867." http://search.ancestrylibrary.com
> Records of the Superior Court for Sonoma County, California, case number 731, filed 11-28-1882.

Corrections

The following person is in Potter's Field with only a brief report. Please replace the entry for Bert
SILSBEE with the following.

SILSBEE, Bert R., October 31, 1936 [205] b.1-31-1874 PA, a.62, laborer, res.WPA camp in Armstrong Woods, father George SILSBEE (b.NJ), mother Elizabeth RAYMOND (b.NY), 2 years in California, 10 months local, buried 11-04-1936 in the "Co. Cemetery." Silsbee was a transient WPA worker, one of millions so employed during the Great Depression. Entering the California WPA system at Sacramento, Silsbee was first assigned to the camp at Requa in Del Norte County. In October 1936 he transferred to the Armstrong Grove camp in Sonoma County. Comment: Not in the 1920 California Census. CADI, CAT, DC, NEW

Newspaper records
> "Transient Worker Dies in Hospital," Santa Rosa Republican, 10-21-1936.
> "Rites for Silsbee," Santa Rosa Republican, 11-03-1936.

Census records
> 1910 (Salt Lake City, Utah) T624-1607-167, "Silsbee, Bertrand," a.37, b.PA-NJ-NY, res.37 4th East, bookkeeper in newspaper office, wife Louise R. (a.22, b.TX-England-England), 2nd marriage for him, 1st marriage for her, no children.

Other records
> Sonoma County Death Records, reel 10, page 001481.

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