Oakland Public Library, Oakland History Room

(Above) Until the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad's (CPRR) right-of-way through Oakland in November 1869, transcontinental trains traveled Cohen's line which ended at this terminus at Pacific Junction, where Pacific Avenue met the Bay.

Part Two

By 1859 Alfred A. Cohen had retreated from a burgeoning San Francisco to Alameda. He had already begun acquiring property on the more bucolic peninsula from one of the town's founders, William W. Chipman.

Cohen left the city — escaped, some might have whispered — riding the wake of a scandal. History would recall Feb. 23, 1855, as Black Friday, a day that left some citizens embarrassed, others angry and many penniless and distrustful of a shaky banking system.

At 10 a.m. that morning, angry crowds impatiently waited at the doors of the city's banks. Some banks opened and endured a run on their deposits. One bank did not open and endured the shouts of a mob that grew angrier by the moment.

Adams & Co. did not dare open its doors at 10 a.m. and face its depositors; the bank had no money to distribute. Its board of directors had declared bankruptcy and surreptitiously had the courts appoint Cohen its receiver.

While its depositors were waiting outside in the February chill, Cohen pored over Adams & Co.'s books. He learned that the bank had not only cooked its books but had made a "quiet run" on the bank. The directors had withdrawn $250,000 the night before.

As receiver, Cohen was nothing more than the bearer of some very bad news. Depositors and investors saw matters otherwise and made him the scapegoat. They sued and the courts issued a warrant for Cohen's arrest.

Alameda Museum

(Right) Cohen built a station at Park Street and the Alameda Park Hotel just to the north. Cohen's hotel did not survive long. A pair of doctors bought the property and converted it to an insane asylum.

Cohen did little to help his cause. In his memoirs William Tecumseh Sherman — who was working as a banker in San Francisco at the time — accused Cohen of spreading false rumors about his bank, Lucas, Turner & Co. Others accused him of substituting gold that did not meet purity standards for gold that did. Some say that he pocketed the money that the scheme had netted — $100,000, a tidy sum in the 1850s.

In an attempt to escape, Cohen concealed himself in the hold of the steamer Uncle Sam bound for Nicaragua, to no avail. On Jan. 5, 1856, deputy sheriff John Harrison came aboard warrant-in-hand and arrested Cohen.

While in jail, Cohen studied the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1857. Around this time he began to put down roots on his 106-acre spread in the east end of Alameda. He built a home and dubbed his property "Fernside," perhaps in imitation of another prominent Alameda land owner, Jack Hays' "Fernwood" estate in Oakland.

Cohen settled in and got involved in local politics. In 1859 he decided to run for office. On the evening of Sept. 7, good news reached Fernside, Cohen was one of Alameda Township's new justices of the peace.

Cohen had his eye on more than politics, however. Although many credit Cohen as the moving spirit behind Alameda's railroad and ferry service, he scarcely worked in a vacuum.

W. W. Chipman had already laid the groundwork before Cohen ever set foot on the peninsula. "As early as December 1854 (while Cohen was still living across the bay), (Chipman) went on an exploring trip from the west end of Alameda to Stockton to look for the best route for a railroad," says historian Imelda Merlin. "Two years later (while Cohen was embroiled in the Black Friday scandal) Chipman drew up a plan for a railroad to go to San Jose."

Merlin says that Chipman wrote letters to California's United States Senator William McKendree Gwin and others "who might listen to his projects."

While Chipman was laying the groundwork for rail transportation, Charles Minturn was busy setting the stage for regular ferry service from the peninsula. By December 1852 (when Cohen was just settling in across the bay), Minturn was building a wharf into the San Antonio Slough (today's Oakland Estuary). The wharf became the focal point of the second of three settlements on the peninsula, the town of Encinal.

Alameda Museum

Woodstock then & now: A.A. Cohen laid out the town of Woodstock just south the rail-and-ferry junction at Pacific Station. He named the north-south streets for property owners and the east-west streets for trees. Some of Cohen's street names survive as is evident on the modern-day map on the left.

Chipman also played a role in the development of a ferry service from the peninsula's West End. He had tried to start a service from the East End with little success. He agreed with C. C. Bowman who had settled the West End that such a service might work there. Chipman made arrangements to procure the necessary redwood pilings. Merlin tells us that the Russian ship Kamchatka made a partial delivery, but that squatters quickly helped themselves to the logs.

Merlin says that Chipman had logs and shells transferred to the West End from a road he had hoped to build to San Leandro at the peninsula's East End. Alameda County declined his offer to help build the road if he would supply materials.

Alameda Museum

Park Avenue was another of A.A. Cohen's real estate projects in Alameda. He patterned the development after San Francisco's South Park. Cohen hoped to attract wealthy San Franciscans to buy large lots here. Like his Park Street Hotel, the project met with little success.

Chipman hired a boat captain named Lubbock and his boat the Kearny to start a West End ferry service. At first Lubbock agreed, then he backed out — rumor had it that Charles Minturn had persuaded Lubbock to work for him. When Chipman finally found a boat — the Ellen Craig that he renamed the Peralta — it proved unable to navigate the tricky West End waters. Finally the Peralta's boiler blew and Chipman laid the boat up for repairs. When he did, West End ferry service came to a halt.

By now A.A. Cohen had cast his eyes on the West End. He acquired Bowman's property, laid out a town and dubbed it "Woodstock." Cohen later acquired and developed other properties, among them Park Avenue.

Cohen also stepped in and gave Alameda the cohesive transportation system the peninsula sorely needed. Before we're too quick to lay all the credit at Cohen's Fernside door, let's not forget those who paved the way for him, particularly William Worthington Chipman and Charles Minturn.

Stay tuned.