Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

Chapter 5: The Disorder of Financial Life

CHAPTERS THE DISORDER OF FINANCIAL LIFE SHERMAN'S MARRIAGE had not provided him with the personal stability he sought. Unfulfilled, he decided to risk his one real home-the army-to see if he could find success and contentment elsewhere. He hesitated because he feared he was taking the ultimate risk of losing both the army and his family. Yet he saw no other choice. He was not gaining economic success in the military, and he was constantly on the move, and these factors were undermining his position with Ellen and Thomas Ewing. He had to do something else; not trying anything new meant a continuation of a life of dependency within the Ewing fold. Moving to California, the site of gold rush chaos, demonstrated the depth of his yearning to better his life. The result was further conflict with Ellen over Thomas Ewing's influence and increased disorientation in general. Successful resolution of Sherman's need for personal stability remained as elusive as ever. The trip by wooden steamship was uneventful until April 9, 1853, when the vessel was only a night away from docking in San Francisco. Sherman was asleep on a deck chair when he felt a sudden jolt and heard the sounds of shattering dishes and crashing furniture. The ship was stopped dead on a rock, rising and falling with the ocean's swell. Shermanjumped up and helped maintain calm among the frightened passengers, who came pouring out of their rooms. The dark night hindered visibility, so it was an anxious three hours until a foggy dawn finally permitted the lowering of an exploratory lifeboat. Sherman and the ship's captain pored over charts and compass and discovered that the ship was aground a mile offshore near Bolinas Bay, north of San 93 SHERMAN ------------*-----------Francisco . The passengers were ferried to land, and, as fit his many years of commissary duty, Sherman did not disembark until he had first fished out a can of crackers and some sardines from the submerged pantry. When he reached shore, he and a young companion walked two miles until they stumbled upon a small lumber boat about to leave for San Francisco. Sherman sent a note back to the crew of the injured vessel and then climbed on board the small boat. Just inside San Francisco Bay, a swell capsized the vessel, and a passing ship had to rescue the party. Sherman wondered what his two failed attempts to reach the city signified about his future banking career there. Throughout his early life, he had often fallen short of reaching financial security and career satisfaction just when he seemed within sight of it. Some unforeseen event capsized his hopes, requiring numerous rescue efforts to keep his head above water. His shipwrecked arrival in California could not have been more ominous, or, as it turned out, more prophetic.I Sherman found his colleague Henry S. Turner, and rented a small sleeping room. When he looked around the city, he was impressed with "this most extraordinary place on earth." San Francisco had grown to a population of nearly fifty thousand, a phenomenal sixty times as many people as had lived there just five years previously. Wharves extended a mile into the bay and were crowded with ships of all sizes and kinds; new buildings, substantial and ramshackle, had been thrown up everywhere; streets were being extended, sewered, and planked. Gambling halls boasted elaborate lighted mirrors and French table girls, but churches were also becoming more numerous. "San Francisco is quite a large city now and is much better regulated than formerly," Sherman noted, "but it wears the appearance of a mushroom of rapid growth and rapid decay." The cost of living was high, "everybody seemed to be making money fast," he noticed. Since that was his purpose in returning, he felt encouraged.2 He studied the city's financial establishment. California had no bank regulatory laws, so anyone could open a financial institution without state interference. Page and Bacon of St. Louis was San Francisco's leading bank, its success having provided the impetus for Lucas and Turner's new institution. Turner had already established the branch bank in rented quarters, assisted by a teller and a former Page and Bacon employee. The bank was receiving 94 THE DISORDER OF FINANCIAL LIFE --------------------------*-------------------------deposits , selling bills of exchange, and making loans at the prevailing rate of 3 percent per month. Turner was...