Oakland Underfoot

Fred H. Austin was born in East Oakland in 1888 and lived in Oakland into the late 1920s, after which I lose track of him. Information about him is a bit confusing (another Fred Austin was also a cement worker), so there may be errors in this post.

Fred was the youngest child of William Austin, an Irish immigrant who settled in East Oakland in the 1870s and ended up running a used-furniture store at 23rd Street and San Pablo Avenue. Fred tried his hand at running the store in 1908 and 1909 but soon declared bankruptcy.

Fred married Anna “Annie” Dora Skipper, an Alameda native, in 1908 and they had no children. In the 1910 census the newlyweds were living at 1660 14th Avenue with Annie’s mother. In the 1912 directory he was listed as a contractor-builder and that year began winning small paving contracts with the city. At that time their address was 2328 14th Avenue, the address on Austin’s stamp. He ran small ads in the Tribune in 1913 (“artificial stone work”), 1915 (“cement worker”) and 1919 (“cement contractor”).

In 1924 his directory entry changed from “contractor” to “inspr Okld Street Dept” and in 1925 his address changed to the Austin family home at 944 34th Street. In 1928 he was listed as “slsmn” and there the record ends.

I have recorded dates of 1912, 1913, 1919 and 1920, but most Austin marks are undated. In 1912 he used two different stamps and another in 1913. He also used special date stamps in 1919 and 1920. That was a rather extravagant practice, as each stamp was custom-cast in brass, but he did do a lot of business in his time.

In addition I’ve recorded a single “F. H. Austin” mark that may date from 1910 or 1911, before he earned his contractor’s license.

69 Sylvan Way, Piedmont

Carlo Rapella (1896-1967) was born in Morbengo, Italy, an ancient mountain town by the Swiss border, and emigrated to America in 1920. He shows up in Albany, where he spent the rest of his life, as of 1925 when he married Rena Zucca (1907-1991). They had two sons. In the 1930 census he identified as a cement worker; as of the 1940s he was working for Nat Lena but later went on his own.

Carlo’s son James (1927-2008) was recorded as working for his father in 1954. The other son, Albert (1937-?), took over the family firm of C. Rapella and Sons, which was incorporated in 1962, and did business locally for many years (one stamp in Oakland looks recent). The firm appears to be moribund.

Rapella’s stamp is scarce in Oakland, but presumably much more common farther north. I have found dated examples from 1956 and 1957.

As I find more dates outside Oakland, I’ll document them here.

Frank Coelho Vieira (1885-1940) first appears in the newspapers in 1926 as a “sewer and cement contractor,” at this address, where city directories show him living there, with his wife Ida (Fereira) and children, as early as 1912 and into the 1930s. They had at least three children. He was born in Portugal, like many Oakland Portuguese-Americans, but Ida was Hawaiian Portuguese, like many others. He’s buried in Hayward at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

His stamps are few. I’ve documented dates from 1935 to 1938.

Sebastiano “Sebastian” Avena (1875-1934) was from Carrú, in northeastern Italy, and immigrated with his wife Anna (Soda; 1874-1953) and son Francesco Dominic “Frank” in 1902. They built a house in west Berkeley in 1912 at 1021 Snyder (later Heinz) Avenue. The 1920 census listed them there with four children: Frank (born in France), Mary (born in Pennsylvania), Amerigo “Ted” (born in West Virginia) and Marguerite (born in California). He appears to have taken up the business by 1915 from Francesco, a family relative. His Avena & Sons firm was active as of 1925-1930 with sons Frank (1901-1980) and Ted (1906-1978).

After Sebastian’s death, Frank worked for the city for a while, then revived the firm with his son Frank Adam (1922-2007), and changed the stamp from “S. Avena & Sons” to “Avena & Son,” apparently by erasing the first and last letters of his father’s stamp.

I have only one dated example of each from Oakland, typical for a Berkeley firm.

Patrick Joseph Ryan (1868-1929) was born in Turles, Ireland. He emigrated in the late 1880s to Massachusetts, where he married Margaret T. Meade, a daughter of Irish immigrants. They lost three children in infancy but had better luck when they moved west to Oakland in the early 1900s decade, where they lived at 937 26th Street and had two healthy daughters. He became a naturalized citizen in 1918. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, division #2, sponsored a Mass for him when he died. He’s buried in Hayward.

The Oakland directories list him as a cement worker or contractor from 1904 to 1915. In the 1920 census he said he was a street cleaner for the city, and the 1925 directory listed him as a laborer.

His stamp was always a cockeyed thing with missing and misaligned letters. I have recorded dates of 1910, 1912, 1913 and 1914.

Edwin Lewis George (1847-1920) was born in New Sharon, Maine, one of four children of farmer James P. and Betsey L. George. He moved to Oakland in 1882; he’s listed in the 1884 directory as a farmer living at 484 25th Street. He was registered to vote in Rocklyn in 1884 and in Penryn in 1886, where he must have been a quarry worker. Later in his voter registrations in Oakland, he called himself an expressman (1888-92), a gentleman (1896), a laborer (1898), and a concrete worker (1906-08). He married “Millie/Nellie” Chapman (1848-1928) in Maine in 1866; they had no children. The couple occupy separate niches at Chapel of the Chimes.

As of 1900, Mr. George was carrying out his concrete business at 1046 62nd Street, where the couple moved in 1891. The house numbers appear to have been changed since then, though.

E. L. George marks are almost nonexistent in Oakland, and I’ve found only one with a date of 1912. This example is at 1229 55th Street in Emeryville, one of two on the property.