Mr. Carpenter and the Creation of the Town of Oakland.
Amongst the flood of humanity rushing for wealth was a crew of cunning businessmen led up by a lawyer, Horace W. Carpentier. This guy added an i to his last name to be high class…
Horace and his cronies Edson Adams and Andrew J. Moon squatted on the Peralta’s ranch in May of 1850. The sheriff showed up to boot them, but Moon was able to sweet talk the situation.* After that, Vicente Peralta, one of the four sons of Luis Peralta, somehow was convinced that he had to lease 480 acres of his land to them.
Carpentier, Adams, and Moon, with a town plan laid out by Julius Kellersburg, began selling lots. Some people say that the twenty six year old Columbia Law School graduate Carpentier wasn’t aware that he was defrauding the Peraltas by selling property that he did not own. Carpentier was acting like a capitalist in an area with unwritten law--he was trying to establish a monopoly through manipulation of the law.
With all this ripe territory, Americans were building new towns wherever suitable land could be found. Alongside of Oakland, the towns of Clinton, Brooklyn and San Antonio were forming, and beyond Don Peralta's land, California's prime locations were filling up fast.**
There is no statue in Oakland to Horace W. Carpentier.
He looted and pillaged.
You’re not gonna believe what he got away with.
* The Bay p.359
** Cummings, p 13
Amongst the flood of humanity rushing for wealth was a crew of cunning businessmen led up by a lawyer, Horace W. Carpentier. This guy added an i to his last name to be high class…
Horace and his cronies Edson Adams and Andrew J. Moon squatted on the Peralta’s ranch in May of 1850. The sheriff showed up to boot them, but Moon was able to sweet talk the situation.* After that, Vicente Peralta, one of the four sons of Luis Peralta, somehow was convinced that he had to lease 480 acres of his land to them.
Carpentier, Adams, and Moon, with a town plan laid out by Julius Kellersburg, began selling lots. Some people say that the twenty six year old Columbia Law School graduate Carpentier wasn’t aware that he was defrauding the Peraltas by selling property that he did not own. Carpentier was acting like a capitalist in an area with unwritten law--he was trying to establish a monopoly through manipulation of the law.
With all this ripe territory, Americans were building new towns wherever suitable land could be found. Alongside of Oakland, the towns of Clinton, Brooklyn and San Antonio were forming, and beyond Don Peralta's land, California's prime locations were filling up fast.**
There is no statue in Oakland to Horace W. Carpentier.
He looted and pillaged.
You’re not gonna believe what he got away with.
* The Bay p.359
** Cummings, p 13