More About My Grandfather

If you saw my last blog post on Facebook you probably saw this photo in one of the replies. I try not to mention my family members on the internet, but the photo was obviously posted by a family member. (Thanks, Betsy.)

Besides juggling cannonballs, as I explained in my last post, my grandfather was also a champion rower.

He told us about one time when he rowed across San Francisco Bay, a distance of about twelve miles. His brother met him at the eastern shore and the two of them carried the boat about eight miles uphill to Lake Merritt, where a race was being held.

Grandpa won the race. Then with his brother he carried the boat down to the bay, and rowed it back across to San Francisco.

Not counting the race itself, that was a trip of over 40 miles. He was certainly a strong young man.

Since he lived with us when I was a child I was fortunate to hear lots of stories from him, including his experience of the 1906 Earthquake and knowing the detective who caught the famous robber, Black Bart.

If anyone is interested I could share more of his stories in the future, but not for a while as I have other things to blog about.