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William Lindsey, a suspect in Lucy’s unsolved murder. Photo courtesy of Humboldt
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James Brown, a suspect in Lucy’s unsolved murder. Photo courtesy of The Humboldt Historian,
State University Library Special Collections
November-December 1985
dren. It is possible that Lucy feared that Annie and Charles, fathered by someone alleged to have helped the Indian Island massacre’s perpetrators, would face retribution on the reservation. She may have also been familiar with conditions there and known that, as her eyesight failed, she would be unable to protect and care for her children. Whatever the reason, Lucy remained. In the early morning hours of Jan. 12, 1862, Annie Romero made her way to the home of John and Sarah Preston, and told them her mother was ill. The Prestons sent her home. Hours later, Annie tried again, this time towing little Charles behind her. The toddler’s head was covered in blood, but neither John nor Sarah checked the boy for injuries. Later, John would explain that he assumed the boy had a bloody nose, while Sarah would say she thought Lucy had been “whipping” him again. A visiting neighbor, 20-year-old Alan Hill, did examine the tiny boy for injuries but found none and the children were sent home. Later, as Hill walked through the Prestons’ orchard, he looked through Lucy’s cabin door and saw blood on the floor. He entered to discover Lucy’s body and saw her head was cut in several places. He reported it to the Prestons, and he and Sarah returned to the cabin to find the children in bed with their mother’s corpse. Hill and John Preston then searched the property, but the perpetrators were gone. When questioned, little Annie said only that two white men had killed her mother. Three days later, Byron Deming, a 35-year-old, part-time coroner and wheelwright, held an inquest. He called prominent members of the community to serve as jurors, including merchants Augustus
Jacoby, Henry Stern and Isaac Cullberg, barkeep Edwin Wallace, hotel owner J.C. Bull and four others. The men met at the Preston’s property, viewed Lucy’s body and called witnesses that included John and Sarah Preston, Findley Lindsey, Sarah’s brother, William Lindsey, Allan Hill, James Bishop and James Barnes. From their testimony emerged a picture of Lucy’s last day. The Prestons last saw Lucy alive at about 6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 11. Annie couldn’t say when her mother was killed but witness James Barnes recalled seeing two men walking down the middle of the road past Leon’s hotel (around 10th and H streets) and across the plaza toward the brewery around dawn on Sunday. Barnes said the smaller of the two men had a stooped shoulder and he recalled that one wore a blanket and the other a coat. When Sarah’s brother, William Lindsey, later testified, he said he knew of no one else with a stooped shoulder like himself. But when questioned further, William insisted he was home all of Saturday night and didn’t sleepwalk. He also denied spending time with James Brown that night. Findley Lindsey explained that he and his wife went to visit their neighbors, the Phillips (original owners of the Phillips House museum), on Saturday night. Lindsey recalled seeing Brown head into Arcata about sunset that evening and remembered hearing Brown’s gate open when they returned from the Phillips’ house around midnight, believing he’d heard Brown returning home. Findley Lindsey also testified that he believed Brown owned a rifle, a butcher knife and Tommy Hawk (hatchet) with a 3-inch blade. When asked to testify, Sarah Preston Continued on next page »
northcoastjournal.com • NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015
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