To Inform and Entertain
On behalf of the Sisson Museum, where I volunteer as Docent, and the Board of Directors of the Museum Association, I offer to share some of the fun and excitement that comes with fulfilling the mission of the Association. "To inform and entertain while studying, preserving and sharing our local history, and culture."
I've been studying Sisson history (1887-1925) for nearly thirty years. I don't expect everyone to be equally "impassioned" by this cold case detective story. That said, I've heard from a lot of folks that they'd like to hear more of the stories I've learned about the people who first came to the empty sides of these railroad tracks through our town. They bought $150.00 corner lots on the east side of Sisson's meadow in 1887. What was it "like" to live here at that time? What did these pioneers contribute to the creation of the vibrant little town in which we live? I hope to share some of what your local historians have learned about Sisson.
The Moors Brothers
I do a lot of internet searching. When time permits, I have added the names of dozens of pioneer Sisson families to genealogy query lists seen around the world. A story has developed over the past few years and it makes a nice example of how productive and fun internet searching can be.
Oliver and Frank Moors owned and operated a clothing store on the lot, with the orchard now, between the Catholic Grotto and the old Pine Street School. Their two story building had a meeting hall upstairs which seated 200 people and the IOOF and other groups used it. When John Ney altered his business dealings on Whiskey Row to begin building his resort on Stink Creek a new Postmaster was needed. George W. Schuster served for seven months until August 26th 1889 when Oliver E. Moors became Sisson's third Postmaster. Residents could now pick up their mail, after the arrival of each train, at the Post Office in the Moors Brother's Store just a block west of the Depot on Pine Street.
Here is how the two brothers from Detroit, Michigan got to Sisson in the first place. I learned that they had come via the Pacific islands of Samoa. Their father, Henry C. Moors traveled to San Francisco in 1851 with the "49ers". He returned in 1863 with his three sons.
Harry J. Moors traveled on to the South Pacific, Oliver E. and Frank Moors apparently followed their elder brother at a later date. I had read tales of their having a number of trading vessels and that the Moors brothers owned an island. I posted a question on a genealogy website. It was discovered and shared to a growing number of Samoan people who share the heritage of the three Moors brothers. For a long time I didn't learn much about anyone owning photographs or other interesting materials from the time period. But, at the same time a large and loving family of Moors descendents were joining in the on-line conversation and sharing their family ties around the world on the genealogy site. This new communication seemed to renew an interest in learning their connections. I had a personal e-mail, last year, from a proud great great grand niece of Oliver E. Moors. Tiare Meatoga, whose maiden name was Moors, and who lives in Northern California. She made sure that I had honorable reasons for digging into her family history then sent a picture I have longed to see. Oliver E. Moors looks back at us from what appears to be a passport.
I recently received a message from Harry Moors' great grand son who related the memory of being told that Oliver and Frank had been brought to Samoa to help with their brother's growing cocoa trading business. They were brawlers, he told me, too fond of drink and of very little help with the business. The oral history goes on to tell that Harry send his brothers home after an incident wherein Oliver was to take a trading ship to the neighboring island to deliver supplies to several Moors-owned village stores. When nothing was heard of Oliver for a couple of weeks, Harry went looking for him. He found his ship snug in the harbor, and that most of the trade goods had been given to the chief of the island in exchange for the hand in marriage of his daughter to Oliver. This was the start of the Fagamalo-Moors family line, and it prospered, the last known Oliver E. Moors died in American Samoa in October 2009.
I've lost track of Frank. He was married in Sisson and had children here, but left in the mid 1890's. I believe that Harry lived his entire life in Samoa. Oliver didn't much like being a public servant, in 1894 the economy was terrible; he left Sisson, and married the daughter of a prominent Tehama family. He bought a sizable ranch near Cottonwood. Later he would own the palatial Tremont Hotel in Red Bluff. I do not know if he ever returned to the South Pacific. The names of the three brothers are deeply laced in the tightly knit and proud heritage of the Moors family name around the world. I am indebted to Ms. Meatowa and the Moors family for the use of their photograph. Their name is laced into our community too.
The eldest of the brothers, Harry J. Moors, who may never have visited Sisson, left more stories. He met Robert Louis Stevenson on the beach in Samoa when he arrived to live the last years of his short life. They lived through an intense period of revolution and imperialism in Samoa. They became good friends. More information: With Stevenson in Samoa
A photocopy image, believed to show the Moors' store in the background on the right, has surfaced and a search is being made for the original. If you know of an 1888 era photograph of the Sisson Depot from the north east, Sisson Museum would like to study it. To become a member of the Mt. Shasta Museum Association, contact Sisson Museum at 530-926-5508.
Anna Little, Silent Film Star
Envision, if you can, 1890 in Sisson. All the streets are dirt, and mostly dirty. They are rutted with the marks of wagon wheels and the passing of horses. The train passes through once each day from each direction.
From the depot platform, across the tracks from the site of Lalo's Restaurant, with a southeast wind, would waft a mixture of the aromas of two livery stables and the cigars, whiskey and cheap perfume of "Whiskey Row". There were no electric lights. Turning around to the southwest you'd see the town base ball diamond and behind it on the south side of Alma St. across from what is now the Forest Service office there was a hotel. Tall, thin and long the hotel was built in 1888 as the Edson House. In two years it had three names. In 1890 it was called the La Grande Hotel. Early Sisson, the boom town, was like that.
In September of 1890 Sisson's first murder took place in the Saloon of the La Grande when Frank Cockran shot Nate De Freese in defense of his and his sister's reputations. The manager of the hotel was James L. Brooks who lived in the hotel with his wife and employed the victim, but was known to be a friend of Cochran. "Jimmy" made himself scarce during the trial, and may not have been at home when his wife gave birth to their daughter Mary. He was home the following year when the hotel caught fire. He, his wife and their baby daughter Mary barely escaped the upper floor and into the night with their lives. They lost everything. The fire spread quickly and ultimately burned all of the few homes and structures on the triangular Block 42 directly across the street from the USFS today.
The Snograss Pharmacy was threatened, it was located across the street where the Catholic hall is today.
In the months that followed, the Brooks lived in town and Frank Cochran had been sentenced to 7 years in San Quentin for the manslaughter of Nate Defreese. Ultimately the Brooks family drifted away from Sisson. The story picks up some seventeen years later with a young dancer turned silent screen actress named Anna Little. An accomplished horsewoman with a dark complexion she often played the roles of Native American women in silent films with men such as William S. Hart or Bronco Billy Anderson. She made around 150 films before retiring near the height of her career when sound on films was developed. She married briefly when young, divorced her husband, and remained single. For most of the rest of her life she was the Manager of the Hotel Marmont in Hollywood. This famous hotel earned a reputation based on the frequent Hollywood gossip generated there. You must have guessed that Mary Brooks and Anna Little were one and the same. Born on Alma St. in Sisson, the little babe who survived the La Grande Hotel fire lived a long life out of the spotlight, but in the center of Hollywood secrets and extravagance.
Anna Little
Sisson's Anna Little appeared in the Cecil B. DeMille 1918 remake of the silent classic Squaw Man. In the film, the protagonist James is taking the rap for his Cousin Sir Henry's felony. He's doing it to protect Henry's wife, the lovely Lady Diana, whom James secretly loves. In the mean time James first saves from a bad guy, then marries the lovely Indian maiden Naturich, Anna Little, with whom he has a son. The evil Henry makes a death bed confession in a fatal hunting accident suddenly freeing the lovely Lady Diana. The handsome James promptly has no further use for Naturich and plans to take their son from her. Naturich drinks poison. James and the Lady Diana with the half Indian boy promptly sail, hand in hand, for England. For the flavor this time gone by, a clip of Anna Little working in Squaw Man can be found here, at the 6:30 point.
You too can be part of Sisson history. Please contact Sisson Museum at 530-926-5508 to volunteer. Perry Sims, Co-City Historian