The Mysterious Death of a Marysville Postman
This entry was not written by us, but was featured in:
"THIS IS MY OWN, MY NATIVE LAND" by Stephen G. Hust (Pages 184 - 187).
"THIS IS MY OWN, MY NATIVE LAND" by Stephen G. Hust (Pages 184 - 187).
We felt it was an interesting story that our readers might enjoy. It's quite the strange story. Perhaps one of the first cases where "going Postal" applies, and it all happened right here in Marysville, Ca.
" Are You There, Jake? "
JACOB “JAKE” GUNTHER (Guenther) was a mail carrier in Marysville. After he had carried the mail for many long years, and trod many a weary mile without getting anywhere he had retired and glad of it. No longer could acidulous old maids insinuate that he read their post cards, or disappointed customers burn the pants off him because negligent correspondents had failed to answer said customer's letters. Above all, he was free to realize his life's ambition; to travel. No longer would he travel in circles, but travel and get somewhere. Then he got the job transporting the mail from the post office to the train and vice versa but things were no better. Of course he could and did drive his 'one hoss' rig over the well-trodden roads like a very Jehu, scattering all before him, but what the heck, he was still getting nowhere; so he retired again. To friends he confided that above all he wanted to make a trip to Australia. And reader don't forget it!
Jake was 55 years old then and lived in a modest little frame house on Eye (I.?) Street, between 7th and 8th. There he lived a pedestrian existence, cooking his modest meals, plodding down town to play pinochle with the boys, and reading the paper. Oh yes, on lodge nights, attending the meetings of his order; the Knights of Honor. From the name it must have been something! All in all, it was as dull and regular as clock existence. No one expected anything surprising from Jake. Of course he had fits, but he had them regularly too. Then he did surprise them.
On the night of October 22, 1886, at 3 o'clock the fire alarm rang. The fire ladies averred they made their usually rapid trip, but the fact was that the place was burned to the ground when they arrived. It was Jake Gunther's house. Evidently the alarm was rung mighty late. Then, on the way back to the fire house the ladies had another mystery to mystify about. Where was Jake when all this was going on? Frankly, he was the little man that wasn't there. However, some of his relatives showed up later and gave a fairly reasonable solution to the mystery. The missing man had announced his intention of going to Maxwell, via the Colusa stage, in the early morn, and they opined that he had spent the night in a local hostelry, lest he over-sleep and miss the stage.
Could be! Two gentlemen who were with him on that evening reported that the three had just one drink, then accompanied him as far as 5th and D. During that time he spoke with delighted expectation of his coming trip to Australia, when he would be leaving hot feet and belly-achers far behind. At 5th and D they separated, each to go his respective way.
On the morning after the fire two boys, playing in the ruins, made a discovery that set the town back on its haunches! In the embers they found something, which after a bit of study, they were horrified to recognize as human remains. They reported to the Coroner on the run. Forthwith Coroner Hopkins repaired to the scene. There, where the bed room was, previous to the fire, he found the terribly burned remains of a body. He gathered up what he could in a basket and over it held an inquest in his office.
The verdict, "death by accidental burning" threw but little light on just how Gunther came to be cremated. It became the talk of the town. Everyone had a theory, but it boiled down to something like this: Gunther was in the habit of lying down on his bed of evenings and reading. The debaters surmised that while he was so occupied he had a fit and in his struggles he overturned the kerosene lamp which resulted in an instant and terrible conflagration.
The Knights of Honor gave Jake a fine funeral. They looked mighty dressy in their brass bound uniforms and over 200 carriages followed them to the city cemetery. Jake would have liked that! Incidentally, he was discovered to be pretty well insured for that day. There was a $2000 policy with the Knights and one for $3000 with the Fidelity and Casualty Co. of New York. The house was insured for $500.
Well, Jacob Gunther's body lay a moldering in the grave for over three months and the affair seemed to be a closed incident. Then scandal raised its ugly head! Very pregnant rumors began to circulate the town, even to penetrating to the distant city of Colusa.
Says the Colusa Sun of Feb. 2, 1887: "Marysville has a sensation, something very unusual for the very quiet old village."
And so she had; a king sized sensation. It had to do with Jake Gunther, the obscure little letter carrier, who in life hardly rated a how-de-doo, kiss my foot. Now he was the subject of hectic conversations, arguments and yack-yack all over Marysville. The gist of all of this gum beating was briefly this: Was it Jake Gunther lying quietly out there in the city cemetery or was it an obscure little Chinaman, who was willy-nilly, placed there as a sort of an innocent stand-in, in a gigantic hoax? And why this sudden hullabaloo? There were several reasons why, plus the arrival of U. S. Marshall Casad in Marysville on a secret errand.
Firstly; About the town were some observant cusses, generally termed busy-bodies, who reported certain very peculiar preliminaries to brother Gunther's demise. All the plumbing had been cut off, all the blinds were removed and all that was left of the furniture was a cheap cot, on which the alleged deceased was lying when he met a fiery death.
Now for Marshall Casad — he was most reticent about his business, but the grapevine had it that he was investigating the manner of Gunther's death. Be that as it will, he got many ‘Marysvillians’ to one side and whispered a lot of questions; sub-rosa, you know. But before he left he made a statement that set the tongues to wagging faster than ever. In this statement he advanced the theory that lying in John Jacob Gunther's grave was not John Jacob Gunther, but a Chinaman, who, alive or dead, Gunther had substituted on his humble cot just previous to the conflagration. Details would be interesting but Marshall Casad would not document his theory, but just left town.
Violent debates resounded all over the city. What sort of a guy was Gunther anyway? Was he dead or alive? How could they tell a burned Chinaman from a burned Caucasian? But above it all was the cry, "raise the dead and let's find out." Accordingly, at Coroner Hopkin's request a committee was appointed to do that very thing. The committee of examination consisted of ex-Judge Bliss, Dr. Harrington, Dr. Hamlin and Dr. Rogers. The date of the disinterment was kept secret lest the committee be overwhelmed by a ghoulish mob, but on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1887 the city sexton exhumed the body in the presence of the committee and a few spectators. The Judge and the doctors examined the poor remains long and carefully; then left to render their report. It was a firecracker. In brief, their studied opinion was unanimous and as follows:
(1) The body was not that of a Chinaman.
(2) The deceased was not Jacob Gunther.
And that was that! Things happened swiftly then; on instructions from New York, the local agent of the Fidelity and Casualty Co. refused to pay the policy for $3000 that it held on Jacob Gunther's life, stating that they were not satisfied that Gunther was the person burned to death on the night of October 22, 1886.
Then Marshall Casad arrived in Marysville again. He served a paper on Henry Berg, administrator of the estate of John Jacob Gunther in the case of his heirs and also imparted some very interesting news to you reporters. He averred that on Oct. 24, Jacob Gunther sailed from San Francisco on the steamer Alameda, bound for Australia. He served as an assistant cook and on being shown a photograph of Gunther fourteen of the crew identified him as the assistant cook. The paper expressed its conclusion; "If living, he will certainly be brought back."
Certain citizens had their say; "I told you so; said he was going to Australia;" Last but not least Gunther's friends added their two cents worth; "It is a case trumped up by the company to avoid paying the $3000 insurance. As a sort of a rebuttal to this last the company' pointed out that already the investigation had cost them more than that. One clue which was supposed to prove something blew up in the investigator's face. A lump of molten metal was found in the charred ruins of the bed and was assumed to be the molten remains of Jake's silver watch and the big silver dollars that he carried in his pants' pocket. This, claimed the supporters of the theory that the corpse was all that was mortal of Jacob Gunther, proved it to be a fact for they maintained, "he wasn’t' the man to throw a silver watch and honest-to-God money into a fire. But this clue turned out to be a phony when an assay proved the metal to be melted zinc. But the heirs of Jacob Gunther were not taking the action of the company lying down. They hired a lawyer. Their lawyer was Judge J. H. Craddock of Yuba City, a prominent lawyer, and a prominent politico, as well. The Judge went down to San Francisco and interviewed the sea men who claimed to have recognized the cook as Gunther. "Their testimony," says the Judge, "is of no account and would cut no figure in a court of law."
The issue was joined when the case came to trial in the United States District Court at San Francisco on Sept. 10, 1887. A jury trial was waived and Judge Sawyer presided over the trial. It took three days.
The Fidelity and Casualty Co. set forth its case. They maintained that the alleged deceased had expressed an intention of going to Australia, that he had procured and incinerated a body, living or dead, with the intention of defrauding the company; that they had witnesses to prove that Gunther had sailed for Australia on the Steamer Alameda and was alive and well in Australia.
Things looked black for Henry Berg and the Gunther heirs. But this man Craddock was a doughty lawyer. He blasted the witnesses, sailors from the Alameda, and made their testimonies look foolish. Then he ridiculed the possibility of a dull as ditch water plug such as Jake, thinking up such a bizarre crime, let alone finding a human stand-in and successfully cremating the same without being detected in the act. Finally, he defied them to prove that the remains were not Jake!
That did it. There were just not enough remains left to prove anything, in spite of the verdict of the Commission of Examination. At least that was the decision of Judge Sawyer, who, without waiting for the closing arguments, ordered judgment to be entered for the plaintiff, with costs.
So the heirs got their $3000 and, officially at least, the fine granite monument, with the name of JACOB GUNTHER inscribed thereon, and standing in the west side of the city cemetery is reared over the right guy.
But I can hardly restrain a devilish temptation, to repair there some fine night when the spirits are abroad and hoot-owls hoot, and holler in my most clairvoyant voice, just for the hell of it; "Are you there, Jake?"
Other Fires Pertaining to Jacob Gunther
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| Marysville, Ca 1856 |
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| The Golden Eagle Hotel, 1856 |
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| Early Marysville Postal Workers. |
On the night of October 22, 1886, at 3 o'clock the fire alarm rang. The fire ladies averred they made their usually rapid trip, but the fact was that the place was burned to the ground when they arrived. It was Jake Gunther's house. Evidently the alarm was rung mighty late. Then, on the way back to the fire house the ladies had another mystery to mystify about. Where was Jake when all this was going on? Frankly, he was the little man that wasn't there. However, some of his relatives showed up later and gave a fairly reasonable solution to the mystery. The missing man had announced his intention of going to Maxwell, via the Colusa stage, in the early morn, and they opined that he had spent the night in a local hostelry, lest he over-sleep and miss the stage.
Could be! Two gentlemen who were with him on that evening reported that the three had just one drink, then accompanied him as far as 5th and D. During that time he spoke with delighted expectation of his coming trip to Australia, when he would be leaving hot feet and belly-achers far behind. At 5th and D they separated, each to go his respective way.
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| Early Marysville, with the fire department’s horse-drawn hose reel in the foreground. |
The verdict, "death by accidental burning" threw but little light on just how Gunther came to be cremated. It became the talk of the town. Everyone had a theory, but it boiled down to something like this: Gunther was in the habit of lying down on his bed of evenings and reading. The debaters surmised that while he was so occupied he had a fit and in his struggles he overturned the kerosene lamp which resulted in an instant and terrible conflagration.
 |
| 1800s Knights of Honor Emblem |
Well, Jacob Gunther's body lay a moldering in the grave for over three months and the affair seemed to be a closed incident. Then scandal raised its ugly head! Very pregnant rumors began to circulate the town, even to penetrating to the distant city of Colusa.
Says the Colusa Sun of Feb. 2, 1887: "Marysville has a sensation, something very unusual for the very quiet old village."
And so she had; a king sized sensation. It had to do with Jake Gunther, the obscure little letter carrier, who in life hardly rated a how-de-doo, kiss my foot. Now he was the subject of hectic conversations, arguments and yack-yack all over Marysville. The gist of all of this gum beating was briefly this: Was it Jake Gunther lying quietly out there in the city cemetery or was it an obscure little Chinaman, who was willy-nilly, placed there as a sort of an innocent stand-in, in a gigantic hoax? And why this sudden hullabaloo? There were several reasons why, plus the arrival of U. S. Marshall Casad in Marysville on a secret errand.
Firstly; About the town were some observant cusses, generally termed busy-bodies, who reported certain very peculiar preliminaries to brother Gunther's demise. All the plumbing had been cut off, all the blinds were removed and all that was left of the furniture was a cheap cot, on which the alleged deceased was lying when he met a fiery death.
 |
| Early photo of Marysville Fire Dept, |
Now for Marshall Casad — he was most reticent about his business, but the grapevine had it that he was investigating the manner of Gunther's death. Be that as it will, he got many ‘Marysvillians’ to one side and whispered a lot of questions; sub-rosa, you know. But before he left he made a statement that set the tongues to wagging faster than ever. In this statement he advanced the theory that lying in John Jacob Gunther's grave was not John Jacob Gunther, but a Chinaman, who, alive or dead, Gunther had substituted on his humble cot just previous to the conflagration. Details would be interesting but Marshall Casad would not document his theory, but just left town.
Violent debates resounded all over the city. What sort of a guy was Gunther anyway? Was he dead or alive? How could they tell a burned Chinaman from a burned Caucasian? But above it all was the cry, "raise the dead and let's find out." Accordingly, at Coroner Hopkin's request a committee was appointed to do that very thing. The committee of examination consisted of ex-Judge Bliss, Dr. Harrington, Dr. Hamlin and Dr. Rogers. The date of the disinterment was kept secret lest the committee be overwhelmed by a ghoulish mob, but on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1887 the city sexton exhumed the body in the presence of the committee and a few spectators. The Judge and the doctors examined the poor remains long and carefully; then left to render their report. It was a firecracker. In brief, their studied opinion was unanimous and as follows:
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| Daily Alta California, Volume 41, Number 13568, 23 October 1886 |
(2) The deceased was not Jacob Gunther.
And that was that! Things happened swiftly then; on instructions from New York, the local agent of the Fidelity and Casualty Co. refused to pay the policy for $3000 that it held on Jacob Gunther's life, stating that they were not satisfied that Gunther was the person burned to death on the night of October 22, 1886.
Then Marshall Casad arrived in Marysville again. He served a paper on Henry Berg, administrator of the estate of John Jacob Gunther in the case of his heirs and also imparted some very interesting news to you reporters. He averred that on Oct. 24, Jacob Gunther sailed from San Francisco on the steamer Alameda, bound for Australia. He served as an assistant cook and on being shown a photograph of Gunther fourteen of the crew identified him as the assistant cook. The paper expressed its conclusion; "If living, he will certainly be brought back."
 Daily Alta California, Volume 42, Number 13662, 26 January 1887 |
The issue was joined when the case came to trial in the United States District Court at San Francisco on Sept. 10, 1887. A jury trial was waived and Judge Sawyer presided over the trial. It took three days.
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| b. Jun. 22, 1831 d. Oct. 22, 1886 Jacob's Find A Grave |
Things looked black for Henry Berg and the Gunther heirs. But this man Craddock was a doughty lawyer. He blasted the witnesses, sailors from the Alameda, and made their testimonies look foolish. Then he ridiculed the possibility of a dull as ditch water plug such as Jake, thinking up such a bizarre crime, let alone finding a human stand-in and successfully cremating the same without being detected in the act. Finally, he defied them to prove that the remains were not Jake!
That did it. There were just not enough remains left to prove anything, in spite of the verdict of the Commission of Examination. At least that was the decision of Judge Sawyer, who, without waiting for the closing arguments, ordered judgment to be entered for the plaintiff, with costs.
So the heirs got their $3000 and, officially at least, the fine granite monument, with the name of JACOB GUNTHER inscribed thereon, and standing in the west side of the city cemetery is reared over the right guy.
But I can hardly restrain a devilish temptation, to repair there some fine night when the spirits are abroad and hoot-owls hoot, and holler in my most clairvoyant voice, just for the hell of it; "Are you there, Jake?"
Other Fires Pertaining to Jacob Gunther
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| Marysville Daily Appeal, Number 142, 16 December 1873 |
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| Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 8, Number 94, 27 June 1879 |
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