S4 Ep8 Marnie's Story of Henry Fortmann

This episode is a memorial to a Civil War Veteran and locally famous (in his time), San Francisco/Bay Area resident, Henry Fortmann. 

This story is special to me because it honors my listener's great-great-great grandfather, Henry Fortmann, and his connection to San Francisco's disinterment of the dead.

monkeyblocksf@gmail.com (email me directly)
monkeyblocksf.buzzsprout.com (for transcripts and cited sources)
buymeacoffee.com/monkeyblocksf (support the podcast)
twitter.com/monkeyblocksf (follow me)
facebook.com/MonkeyBlockSF (follow me)

Transcript

Introduction

The last two episodes discussed San Francisco’s 4 main cemeteries, the eviction of the dead, (which means the disinterment from San Francisco and reinterment in Colma). 

This topic hits close to home for a dear listener, and today’s episode is a conversation between me and that listener, Marnie in Monterey. 

Marnie holds a special place in my podcast heart, because she was the first listener to believe in my project enough to become a monthly contributor, back when I didn’t think anyone would. When she reached out to me to tell me how this topic directly relates to her family, with so many unknown endings, I wanted to step in. 

Oliver, did you want to add anything?

Oliver: I do. Today’s episode has a few plot twists, and research that occurred prior to the interview which I will need to fill you in on, as we go. I’ll interject along the way to provide context. And, with that, let’s jump into today’s episode. 

Girlina: Oh, one thing, before you ‘jump in’. Sorry. Throughout the episode, we shorten the reference to ‘great grandfather’, when we are discussing Marnie’s great-great-great-grandfather. 

Girlina: Alright, Oliver. As you were. You know what comes next. 

Oliver: I’ll say it for you. Are you ready? Here we go. 

Girlina: What's exciting about doing this podcast is I never know the impact it's going to have on someone else. This is one of those moments that make me grateful I have this platform because one of my listeners, was able to utilize the information from my interview with Terry Hamburg, and reached out to let me know they have some relatives buried reburied somewhere in San Francisco.

Girlina: Welcome, Marnie. 

Marnie: Thank you. 

I listened to your episode with Terry which I enjoyed. And then I went out and bought Terry's book. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I am very much looking forward to diving into it knowing that I have family from San Francisco. I thought I would connect with you and see if maybe you could help me locate them. 

Girlina: You sent me the names of some of your relatives that had been buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery and according to your family history what did you understand about that situation? 

Marnie: I didn't know a whole lot. I originally had discovered, or thought them to have been, at Greenlawn, but that they were in an area that was inaccessible. And when I had reached out to Greenlawn, I didn't get a response. And, so my plan was to go up there and I just haven't had the time. So, I've been doing more research. And found that maybe they were at another cemetery called Cypress Lawn and just was thoroughly confused, not knowing the order of things at all.

Marnie: So, the work that you've done has just been absolutely incredible. I did not know the whole history of the relocation of graves from San Francisco to Colma. 

Girlina: Before two weeks ago, I didn't either. What happened is Marnie sent me what she knew about her relatives and their names, and I took it upon myself to reach out to Greenlawn and asked them to research two of the four names you gave me and their answer, while very polite, was what I expected based on what Terry said about how unorganized the whole thing was. 

Oliver: Marnie provided Girlina with four family members, who were known to be buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery. All in the same family plot, Central section, Lot 17 Plot 2:

Girlina: Greenlawn was only willing to research two names for free, so I picked the two I thought would have the most findable ‘history’. 

·      Fred Fortmann died Jan 11, 1866 

·      Baby Frederic H. Fortmann, died September 20, 1869

·      Fritz H.L. Fortmann, died Apr 10, 1888

·      And the main character of today’s episode, Henry Fortmann died April 30, 1900, (Marnie’s Great-great-great-grandfather.)

Girlina: What I read next is the response from Greenlawn.

Girlina:What they wrote was, “Unless there is information as to where else they have moved, then I cannot confirm. For example, if a family member paid to have them moved prior to the main disinterment, then usually it says where they were moved to. We have found that some of this information is missing, though. If they moved with the main disinterment, then we assume that they are here in the IOOF plot. This is why I can only mention if we see their names in the original records. We will do the research for you on the two names and get back to you. 

Girlina: So what they had said prior to this was. The only thing they can say is they can confirm who was at the Oddfellows Cemetery, but because the Odd Fellows never gave them a book that said [who was moved], and these people were moved from Odd Fellows to Greenlawn, they can't say that they were reentered at Greenlaw.

Girlina:They can only say they might have been [moved], and they have two areas at Greenlawn. One for people who really were Odd Fellow members and another area for people who were not Odd Fellow members, but had purchased a lot at the Odd Fellow cemetery once Odd Fellows was in a financial situation to have to open it up [to non Odd Fellows members].

Girlina: They confirmed what might've been the end of the story had I not been little Miss Nancy Drew. And we would've said, okay, they were at the Odd Fellows. We know that, and they were or weren't reburied at Green Lawn, or they're underneath a playground in San Francisco or a movie theater.

Girlina: I hate to be so callous. I usually need two or three data points before I'll accept an answer. That's how I go about my research, and something was nagging at me and telling me that wasn't the end of this. 

<Ding> 

Oliver: A bit of backstory. IOOF stands for the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows. 

The Odd Fellows Cemetery initially moved all the Odd Fellows members, so by 1932 the remaining bodies at the cemetery were in the nonmember’s section and they were moved by volunteers to Greenlawn Cemetery and put into a mass grave specifically for non Odd Fellow members. 

By 1933, where part of the Odd Fellows cemetery once was, we have Rossi Park near Anza and Arguello Street. And, by 1949 the Coronet Theatre near Geary and Arguello Street. But, not all of the cemetery had been covered up. 

Girlina: Next up, the plot thickens.   

Oliver: Girlina found something at Cypress Lawn regarding Frantz Fortmann, (not to be confused with Fritz H.L. Fortmann), and also found something for Henry Fortmann.

Girlina: You had sent something that said Cyprus Lawn in connection to their name. And I ran with that and turns out two out of the four we're cremated and located at Cyprus Lawn. Lawn in an area that has been permanently sealed off. The other two are very likely in this grassy knoll that Terry Hamburg had discussed, where people were moved. The fact your family was moved from Odd Fellows, and to Cypress Lawn means that at least for two of them, they very deliberately paid to have those two people moved. The other two were not specifically paid for at Greenlaw, to have been reburied at Cypress Lawn is with the higher echelon of San Francisco. 

<ding> 

Oliver: Non Odd Fellow families would have intentionally paid for a second reburial to be individually reinterred wherever they wanted to be reburied. And, that’s where we are in the thinking right now. But, the story evolves.

Girlina: Exactly. The story literally evolves as we speak. 

Marnie: And that totally makes sense to me. After I heard back from you initially, I was having a hard time accepting that response because in researching my family history, the brothers that came over from Germany, which were Henry and Frederick, were very successful in San Francisco. They settled, they had families. Their children were very successful. They married into good families. One of them has a street named after them in Alameda, they were well known. They were well connected in the community, and so I thought, of course, the family would pay to relocate them, and I really felt like more research needed to be done.

Girlina: I am so glad we continued to chase this down, that we didn't just accept the first ‘No’.

Girlina: I think both of us were individually thinking, this can't be where the story ends. It just, it can't be. And if it is. I've chased down every avenue before I'm willing to call it done. 

Girlina: I want to see what else I can find out. For you and your family to know that they are at Cypress Lawn. Two out of the four have a proper area where they were cremated and the other two have remains that are amongst 35,000 other people.

Marnie: This just, this really inspires me to continue my research of my family I'm fortunate to have some family photos so I know what my grandfather, Henry Fortman looks like, and the two names that you selected, I have photographs of those two individuals. And it means so much to know where they are and it inspires me to want to find other members of the family. They settled in San Francisco and they settled in Alameda and they stayed there. And, generation after generation was part of those two communities.

Marnie: And I want to learn more about them. 

Girlina: This is an amazing part of San Francisco history. Your family stayed locally so they were aware of the changes in San Francisco and the eviction of the dead. And they had the means to, not once, but twice, bury the same people. At least two of them. Yeah. I think the two people, one was your great-grandfather. And the other person… 

Marnie: It would've been his son. My mom talks a lot about her nana and she has this photograph of her nana sitting on her mother's lap with a little boy, and my mom never knew who the little boy was. And on the back of the photograph, it was written in very light pencil, Fritz. Nobody knew who Fritz was.

Marnie: And Fritz passed away when he was like 17 years old. 

Girlina: And he died before his father. 

Marnie: Yeah. 

<ding> 

Oliver: We know that based on Henry Fortmann’s date of death and burial at the Odd Fellows cemetery. 

Girlina: Fritz was buried with his father at the Odd Fellows family pot. 

Marnie: Yeah. So his name just didn't carry down through the family. But now it's like, I have this photograph and I know who that little boy is. 

Girlina: For you, Fritz now has this second life of sort where there's more of a connection to the family history now that you know where his remains are. 

Oliver: Next, they discuss the Fortmann family history in San Francisco. 

Girlna: We start with Marnie’s Great, great, great grandfather.

Marnie: So Henry Fortman was the first to immigrate from Germany. His firstborn daughter was Dora Fortman, and that is my mom's nana. That's who she called Nana. They had seven children and the youngest, Walter, married a Julia.

Girlina: Julia is buried exactly, with Henry Frederick Fortman. They're in the same niche.

Oliver: For clarity, Henry Fortmann died in 1900 and was originally buried at the Odd Fellows. Julia and Henry Frederick Fortman were cremated and buried at Cypress Lawn. 

Marnie: The one thing that's been really challenging with my family research is that they like to reuse the same names. So, there's a lot of Henry and there's a lot of Frederick, and it's been really interesting trying to individualize them.

Oliver: Buckle up! It’s about to get confusing. We are discussing Henry Fortmann who is buried at Cypress Lawn.

Girlina: Okay huh, maybe I didn't solve such a mystery. So Henry Frederick Fortman, it's saying, died in 1946, so that's not likely your great-grandfather is it? 

Oliver: Marnie’s great grandfather, Henry Fortman, died in 1900. Not to be confused with Henry Fredrick Fortman who died in 1946, or Fredrick Fortman.  

Marnie: That is likely the Henry that I call Alaska Packer Henry. So, he was my Henry Fortmann’s nephew, who was the president of the Alaska Packer Association. He owned a mansion in San Francisco. 

Oliver: Henry Frederick Fortman, at Cypress Lawn was Alaska Packer Henry, who was very successful. 

Girlina: It's the Fortman Mansion, right? 

Marnie: Yes. 

Girlina: So this was related to salmon canning? 

Marnie: Yes.

Girlina: I know exactly which mansion that is. So that's your family? 

Marnie: That is my family.

Girlina: And then Julia Fortman died in 1936. Meta Fortman died in 1897, if Meta was at the Odd Fellows, they should have wound up at Greenlawn, but they wound up at Cypress Lawn and Frantz, F-R-A-N-T-Z, Fortman. There's nothing listed other than their name. 

Girlina: I should have pronounced that Frah-nzzz. 

Oliver: Now we have Frantz Fortman, not be confused with Fritz Fortman or Fred Fortman, who is also buried at Cypress Lawn along with Alaska Packer Henry Fredrick Fortmann. 

Girlina: I don't know how rare of a last name Fortman is. 

Marnie: In my research, there has been a Fortman family, but in a different part of the United States. And, so, I've been able to clearly distinguish them as separate. I haven't found during this time period that there were multiple Fortman families that were not associated with mine. So, that has made things a little bit easier. 

Girlina: And the fact Meta Fortman was buried at Cyprus Lawn. It makes it very likely that person married into the family.

Marnie: I tried doing some research on ship records because I was curious to know how they got here and at one point I found something that suggested that maybe they came over with their sister. But I couldn't find any other information to verify that. But it's possible based on the date of death that it could have been a sister.

Girlina: May 17th, 1897. And what year did they come here? 

Marnie: They came over in 1850. And the other thing I was thinking too, because my grandfather in 1863 signed up to serve in the Civil War, and I thought that maybe, having fought in the Civil War, his burial might have been a little bit bigger of a deal, but maybe it wasn't that way back then, like it is now. 

Girlina: You had to pay money to be buried there at the Odd Fellows Cemetery. So, there must have been some amount of ceremony around his burial. Now what happened from there varies greatly. 

Oliver: A Civil War Veterans Group purchased an area at the Odd Fellows Cemetery and had annual Veterans Day parades that ended at the cemetery. The Odd Fellows did have a dedicated section for Civil War Veterans, but Henry Fortmann was buried in the family plot. 

Girlina: Keep that in your memory because this comes up again. 

Marnie: He had seven children, so one would think that of the seven, that they would've taken care of it, 

Girlina: Especially since they were local. 

Marnie: Yes. And his very wealthy nephew was still in San Francisco at the time while the rest of the family was in Alameda.

Girlina: But we know Fritz HL Fortman was buried at the Odd Fellows because we have their exact location. We know Baby Frederick H Fortman was also buried in the exact same location, and we know Fred Fortman was buried in the exact same location at the Odd Fellows. It is possible that your family is located in both. That you have the people who were at the Odd Fellows who did get buried unceremoniously in the non Odd Fellows area of Greenlawn while these other members …

<ding>

Oliver: We are still holding out hope that we found Marnie’s Great Grandfather.

Girlina: Actually, based on the dates they might have been originally buried at Cypress Lawn to begin with. They may not have been moved at all. Based on the dates, they could not have been buried in San Francisco. They would've been buried at Cypress Lawn. So it's quite possible that both things are true.

Girlina: So I guess I didn't solve the mystery as I had hoped. Now that I'm taking a closer look at the information.

Oliver: Oh, dear. This is where the story takes another turn. 

Girlina: And as you said, they did recycle names. 

Marnie: They did. 

Girlina: Which only makes it harder. Shoot, because Greenlawn did say that had they been buried in the area, that was for Odd Fellow members that they would have more information. They said, “We found the two names you requested for research. Henry Fortman, 64 years old who passed April 30th, 1900, buried May 2nd, 1900, and what his location was at [the] Odd Fellows and Fritz HL Fortman, 17 years old, 10 months, passed on April 8th, 1888 and then he was buried two days later. And the exact location, which is right next to I guess his father, 

Girlina: “I do not have information as to the Reinterment here. We cross check our Greenlawn book to confirm they were not moved to an endowed section here. Since there is no other information, we can only assume they were moved to the IOOF non endowment section in the back.”

<Ding> 

Oliver: Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Marnie: So when I read that it didn't sound like that was the ideal situation, and that's when I just started thinking, I just, I can't imagine the family would've allowed that to happen.

Girlina: In the last episode, there's a lot of reasons why people were not paid to be reburied. Sometimes it was a matter of not being able to afford to be reburied, but that doesn't seem like that's the case here. Sometimes the cemeteries couldn't get a hold of the families. 

Girlina: Only 25% of the letters they sent out got any kind of a response, specifically from the Odd Fellow. But they stayed locally, so that also doesn't sound right.

Girlina: I really don't know what to make of the fact that a family that was local and had the means … unless maybe they were promised a much better re burial than what actually happened. And they left it in the hands to do a proper job and give them their own niche or their own area. 

Girlina: What happened with the Odd Fellows is they sold their land in San Francisco, turned around and used the proceeds from that sale and gave it to an association that was supposed to take proper care to rebury each and every person. This association ran off with the money and left the Odd Fellows to still have to deal with the remains. What happened from there was less than ideal.

Girlina: Not because they didn't care. It's that they lost the money. And all this is hypothetical, it may have been that your family, did not realize until it was too late what had happened and had trusted that this would have been handled in a more methodical manner than what ultimately happened.

Girlina: That is quite possible and one of the shames of what happened to so many people there. For generations later like you to realize there's really no great ending to the story.

Marnie: Yeah. 

<ding>

Oliver: This is why volunteers were needed to quickly meet the eviction deadline. 

Girlina: And, this is where San Francisco history stops being history and becomes a personal family story for one of my listeners. You can hear the emotion in her voice.

Girlina: I hate to pry what does that feel like for you?

Marnie: That feels like immense sadness. They came here so many to start a new life. And it feels like they were just forgotten.

Girlina: It's not a great chapter in San Francisco history. And this sadness and lack of closure on your end is a story that tens of thousands of other families have. 35,000 people just from Laurel Hill alone have that story. I want to say it's over 40,000 at the Odd Fellows Cemetery have that same story. Like yours where there is no closure for the families.

Girlina: There's just a mound with so many other people.

Marnie: And if I am totally honest, what's really been weighing on me the past couple days is thinking about my situation. And how the natives must feel about their shell mounds. That episode really moved me, and I can't ever say that I know how they felt. But I feel like I might be getting a glimpse of what that might feel like to have, the remains of your ancestors disrespected in that way.

Girlina: You're right. Imagine there's a mound where your ancestors are, and someone builds a retail center right on top of it. 

Marnie: Yeah. 

Girlina: I don't think you're wrong to feel like that. And to find that connection between the shell mounds and this mound, literally a memorial mound, with several people.

Girlina: Off topic. That was a tough episode. It was tough. because there was a lot of guilt there. Yeah. But also pain for people that will never have justice for the burial of their ancestors. And that is not the same, but it's not unlike, your situation either. 

Marnie: It really makes me think about the human experience and how we can and we need to do better. We really do. 

Girlina: Wow. Marnie. I was excited for a second. I chased down something. I just don't know that it was the ending we were necessarily hoping for.

Marnie: So why are you second guessing yourself now? 

Girlina: It's based on the dates of the death that it was a different Henry Fortman. Your great grandfather died in 1900, but the Henry Fortman that is at Cypress Lawn died in 1946.

Girlina: Henry Frederick Fortman and would've been cremated. 

Marnie: So I thought in your email from Greenlawn, didn't they say that the date of death was 1900? 

Girlina: For that Henry Fortman. Yes, but there is a Henry Frederick Fortman who is buried at Cyprus Lawn who died in 1946.

Marnie: So that's a different Henry. 

Girlina: Exactly. And I didn't read the dates closely. I read the name. But not the dates. I can share my screen. One second.

Marnie: Considering how many times they used the name Henry, that very well could be a relative. 

Girlina: , I'm sure it is. 

<ding>

Oliver: Based on ‘this’ Henry Fortmann’s death, this likely Alaska Packer Henry with the Fortmann Mansion in San Francisco. 

Marnie: I wonder if Franz, George and Meta might actually be related if their last name is spelled the same.

Girlina: Yeah. And look at the years. George Fortman would've died around the same time as your great-grandfather. Wait, hold on a second. He also died in May of 1900.

Marnie: So I believe his death date was April 30th, 1900. 

Marnie: I guess I'm still encouraged because the response from Greenlawn was not conclusive, and that still gives me some hope that there's more information out there to be uncovered.

Girlina: Odd Fellows started moving the remains of people incrementally up through the late 1930s, early 1940s. So it didn't happen in one shot.

Girlina: This is so many families’ story. And it's so disappointing to know that there's nothing conclusive and you have to hope that their remains really were moved. 

Marnie: So after the association took off with the Odd Fellows money, Odd Fellows must have had to find someone else to help them, but they didn't transfer or keep any records at that point of their efforts.

<ding>

Oliver: The volunteers may not have been as careful as paid professionals or had adequate time to complete the project. 

Girlina: Greenlawn said they never received the book that would've said with certainty who got moved. Was there a book to give? I don't know. Was there supposed to be a book? Absolutely. 

Girlina: So that's the very unsatisfying part of this. 

Girlina: By and large, the people who were still at the Odd Fellows got moved to Greenlawn. People who were at Laurel Hill got moved to Cyprus Lawn. Unless you intentionally paid money to individually get buried again, otherwise you got put into something very general.

Marnie: Okay. 

Girlina: I can feel it. You're like, gotta keep looking. 

Marnie: I'm gonna keep looking. I'm definitely gonna keep looking. 

Girlina: With you, the exact location, it was in the central location, so if maybe we can find out when the Central location of the Odd Fellows was reinterred elsewhere, that might give us some information. 

Marnie: Do you think the newspaper was reporting on it as it was occurring? 

Girlina: I haven't looked, If you're in the 1850s, that's way too recent in San Francisco history for me. I'm not an expert there. 

Marnie: True. 

Girlina: But that's not to say I can't use my same research methods and logic, to try to chase this down as well. I guess I'm just scared that we may continue to come up with question marks.

Marnie: Yeah. 

Girlina: . Sometimes even if it's going to be a no, at least you chase down every avenue. To at least walk away with some sense of closure. 

Marnie: Yeah, and, this research into my family history, I don't see there ever being an end date to it.

Marnie: It's something that will be ongoing until it's no longer of interest, and I can't imagine it not being of interest. So, it's exciting to uncover new information. And, if we reach a dead end in one aspect, then we just pivot and start researching another avenue.

Girlina: I was really hoping I had something better, more definitive. I was very excited when I saw the same names and I feel bad that I got us all excited about a different Henry Fortman, I apologize. 

<ding>

Oliver: We thought we found a definitive and separate reinterment of Marnie’s Great grandfather, Henry Fortmann, at Cypress Lawn. But, instead it was likely the nephew.

Girlina: Correct. A different Henry Fortmann. Alaska Packer Henry Fortmann.

Marnie: No, he is just as important. He is. If that is, and I will check the dates if that is Alaska Packer, Henry, he is the one that they named the street after they named, the Basin and Alameda after him.

Marnie: And the mansion in San Francisco and I'm just as happy to know where he is and that there's a place that I could go, to visit his grave site. 

Girlina: So, where he is and what may have very well been his wife because they are buried exactly together is now closed to the public.

Marnie: I am so grateful. 

Girlina: The search continues. I'm not willing to claim closing this case, but I think we both know going into this, what the possibilities are and what the limitations are.

Girlina: But I think it's still worth chasing down a few more avenues. 

Epilogue

Girlina: This conversation was with one of my dear listener’s as she shared her family history and their connection to the San Francisco disinterment of the dead. Marnie, I want to thank you for allowing me to share your family history. I’m sorry I didn’t come up with more. 

I wonder, had the patriarch Henry Fortmann, Marnie’s Great great great grandfather, been buried in the Civil War area of the Odd Fellows Cemetery, would he had been moved to the Greenlawn area for reinterred Civil War veterans, rather than an inconclusive answer that possibly puts him in the mound with all the other non Odd Fellow reburials? That’s speculation on my part. 

Girlina: Henry Fortmann, purchased a family plot at the Odd Fellows in the non member section, where he and three other family members were buried, naturally assuming this would secure the location of family remains for perpetuity. But, San Francisco ran into the same issue other cities ran into. 

Girlina: What do you do with cemeteries that occupy prime real estate for the living? How do you ethically handle this? 

We started by asking where Henry Fortmann is buried, I thought I found him at Cypress Lawn and ‘thought’ I had good news for Marnie. Then, on the call, I realized I found his nephew, a different Henry Fortmann. 

We know Marnie’s great-great-great grandfather, the Henry in question, either is, or isn’t, buried under a park in San Francisco. Or, maybe, if things went as expected, he resides in a mound in Greenlawn. 

We also know Marnie, his great-great-great granddaughter, and a dear listener, has unanswered questions regarding her family’s remains. I really wish I had something conclusive, but some history, once you bury it, will remain unknown for the tens of thousands of San Francisco families affected by the eviction of the dead. 

Girlina: Marnie and I continue our discussion. For my monthly contributors, I have bonus material on my Buy Me a Coffee site. Please look for an email from Buy Me a Coffee and a link to the continued interview. 

I’ll close with an article that appeared in “The San Francisco Call” May 1, 1900

“Henry Fortmann Closes a Very Honorable Life”

Well-Known Capitalist and Patriot Passes Away Suddenly.

Was a Member of the “California Hundred” Which Fought Through the War-

Brief History of His Career

ALAMEDA, April 30th, 1900 – Henry Fortmann, brother of the late Frederick Fortmann, passed away at his residence in Alameda today, after a short illness. The death of the capitalist removes one of the best-known men of the State. 

He came to California in the fifties and engaged in business in Los Angeles. He was the owner of the New York Brewery of that city. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he dropped the cares of business to offer his services to his adopted country. He volunteered with the famous “California Hundred”, and with other members of that brave band of patriots, was enrolled as Company L. in the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. 

He served honorably through the war and participated in many battles. At the close of the hostilities, he traveled through Europe, and upon his return to this country, he became interested in the Pacific Brewery of San Francisco. 

He and his brother (that’s Frederick Fortmann), controlled the stock of the corporation and later deceased, and his nephew, Henry Fredrick Fortmann conducted the brewery business. (After Henry’s brother, Frederick died, Frederick’s son, Henry F. Fortmann, took his place to work alongside his uncle Henry Fortmann.)

In 1882, Mr. Fortmann retired from business on the account of ill health. Since that period, he has lived in Alameda and looked after his private interests. 

Deceased leaves a wife, three sons, and three daughters. The funeral will take place Wednesday, from 620 California Hall, Bush Street, San Francisco. Internment at the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

Thank you for listening. This is Monkey Block. Retelling the forgotten stories from San Francisco’s buried past.