Posted on 09/02/2015 8:48:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Only one known survivor remains: 109-year-old William Del Monte, who was 3 months old when the quake hit
Ruth Newman, one of only two known remaining survivors of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 that shook the city and the surrounding area, has died. She was 113.
Family members say Newman passed away July 29 at her home in Pebble Beach, California, the coastal town where she and her late husband moved to after living in Pacific Grove.
Newman was 5 years old when the quake struck, shaking her home in a Healdsburg ranch about 70 miles north of San Francisco the early morning of April 18, 1906. "She remembered being downstairs and her father picking her up and running out of the house,'' said Newman's daughter, Beverly Dobbs of Fair Oaks.
The family remained on the ranch, where she grew up, because the house wasn't damaged, Dobbs said.
"She would tell us she remembered my grandmother being upset because they had just milked the cow earlier and she had separated the cream and all and put it in containers that got thrown to the floor,'' Dobbs, 85, said.
Newman’s death leaves only one known earthquake survivor still living. William Del Monte, 109, was 3 months old when the earthquake hit, said Lee Housekeeper, an organizer of the quake's commemoration events.
1906 Color Photographs From San Francisco1906 Color Photographs From San Francisco More than 1,000 people were killed in the earthquake and fires. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, measurements of the 1906 quake have ranged from magnitude 7.7 to 8.3.
One of five children, Newman was a strong willed woman — she drove and played golf until her mid-90's — who always kept busy knitting, gardening and baking. She also had an active social life and enjoyed great health throughout her life, which her daughter attributes to her "joie de vivre.''
Newman and her late husband met at a dance and after marrying they continued to go out dancing, even joining a dancing club in Sacramento, where they raised two children. The couple also loved to entertain, Dobbs said.
"She was one who couldn't sit down,'' Dobbs said. "She was a beautiful knitter and a fantastic seamstress. They both loved to dress well. She made all her gowns to go dancing and most of my clothes when I was young.''
Dobbs said her parents would have a scotch with water every night before bed, a habit that could have helped her longevity. Though genes may have helped too. Two of Newman's siblings were also centenarians. Her older brother Barney Barnard lived to be 108 and their younger sister Genevieve Gully died at 103.
Newman never attended the annual earthquake commemorations events, which include gathering at Lotta's Fountain at Market and Kearny streets in downtown San Francisco before dawn, because she preferred to sleep in rather than wake up early for them, Dobbs said.
That’s a long run...i know friends who never made it to 30 years old.
Ping
Thanks for post. Tweeted the link.
My grandpa was six years old when the earthquake hit. He said it knocked him to the ground and opened a big crack in the pastures of his family’s dairy ranch in Lolita California (250 miles north of San Francisco). He died in 1982, but I will always remember his stories about “The Big One.”
Dobbs said her parents would have a scotch with water every night before bed, a habit that could have helped her longevity. Though genes may have helped too. Two of Newman’s siblings were also centenarians. Her older brother Barney Barnard lived to be 108 and their younger sister Genevieve Gully died at 103.
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I would say it’s genes. Her husband died in 1983 at the age of 83.
http://z3.invisionfree.com/The_110_Club/ar/t12765.htm
Funny thing about that earthquake. (and it will probably happen again) Most people did not have insurance for an earthquake, but they did have insurance for damage from fire, so many people torched their damaged buildings after the quake, and that is what lead to the massive inferno that engulfed the city afterwards.
Great story.
The story I once heard about the origin of the fire is somewhat different.....
After the quake hit, someone decided to cook themselves breakfast on their kitchen stove.
The chimney was cracked, and a fire broke out in the home as a result, which spread to other structures.
The locals, as the story I heard goes, called the fire the “Ham and Eggs Fire.”
Don’t know if it’s true, but this is the story I once heard.
The fire laid waste to 80% of San Francisco.
Wow, couldn’t someone have dug her out by now? ;’) Thanks nc.
Not without endangering the garter snake and Snowy Plover, so she’ll just have to stay...
RIP.
Lived through the earthquake; never got to see a Chicago Cubs championship.
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