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Caroline Kolmer & William Howard | Page last modified: |
This page contains excerpts from three accounts of Dutch Bill’s activities, as well as his letters home:
Additional anecdotes and information about Dutch Bill are available:
Brief Account of an Eccentric Uncle, by P.K. Stibolt
The following account was provided to us by Ann Vibeke Knudsen, website administrator of the website: https://danishimmigrants.weebly.com – Udvandring til Amerika (Emigration to America). We translated it into English.
The Bornholm storyteller and parliamentary stenographer P.K. Stibolt, provided an intriguing account of an eccentric uncle, who was born 1823 in Rønne (near Vestermarie, on Bornholm Island, Denmark) and died 1899 in San Francisco (California, USA). (Recorded in 1952, Archives of Bornholm):
“Throughout his youth, he wandered around the globe as a sailor. I have Letters from him from Rio and other distant Places; in one of them he warns his parents against the Mormons. In another, he writes a couple of stanzas from a Norwegian sailor legend: “Now I have lost my Pain / now I am happy again”. He was rescued after being thrown overboard during a shipwreck on a desert island, alone like a Robinson. During the war between the States and Mexico, he enlisted in the Navy, but when the gold rush broke out, he deserted with 11 comrades [in San Francisco, California]. They came ashore, but were swiftly pursued by a cavalry troop, and caught as they rested in some Native American huts. Uncle saved himself in a stream, from where he, with his head in a bush, saw how a brief trial was made with his comrades. He later traveled extensively in the Northwest, but then moved – as "William Howard" – to California, the state acquired during the war. In this beautiful, then virgin land, he, with a farmer’s son from Rutsker, Carl Rømer, founded a large country estate, of which he eventually became the sole owner. But soon after he married a German lady he was no longer heard from, forgot his mother tongue; he was still alive in the late nineties, when my cousin Herman Grønbech reached out to him.”
Amie Hill’s Biography of Dutch Bill
The following is an excerpt from the book An Historical and Anecdotal Walking Tour of the Small (but Fascinating) Village of Occidental, California by Amie Hill and Harry Lapham. No longer available online, we downloaded this excerpt (copyright 1997 by Amie Hill) from the Occidental website (30 July, 2002). The book is available at local stores in Occidental or may be purchased by mail by sending a check for $14.77 (includes tax, postage, and handling) to: Amie Hill, P.O. Box 941, Occidental, CA, 95465.
“DUTCH BILL” HOWARD
As eminent local historian Harry Lapham points out, the doughty pioneer “Dutch Bill” Howard was not Dutch, nor was his name William Howard. He was in fact a Danish sailor named Christopher Thomassen Folkmann, born in 1823 on the island of Bornholm on the Baltic Sea. Folkmann/Howard, according to his grandson Ray Roix, was serving (under the name of Faulkner) as an able-bodied seaman on the U.S. ship St. Mary’s which dropped anchor in San Francisco Bay in January of 1849. Unable to resist the lure of California’s recently-discovered goldfields, Folkmann and nine other sailors jumped ship, stole a small boat and headed north, followed closely by pursuing military police. The fugitives abandoned the boat in Richardson Bay and eight of the men were apprehended almost immediately. Folkmann and another sailor named Thompson, however, made it as far as Paper Mill Creek near Tomales Bay before spotting their pursuers less than a mile away. Thompson was quickly caught and arrested for the crime of desertion and stealing government property, but his wily shipmate eluded capture by squirreling into a large pile of debris piled up in the creek by winter flooding.
Though sentenced to 100 lashes in absentia, Folkmann/Faulkner was never apprehended. Borrowing the name of a captain of topsails he had once sailed with, the man subsequently known as William Howard headed north, somehow fetching up on the unclaimed timbered plateau which was to become the site of Occidental. Soon after establishing a squatter’s camp on the site of his future home, he left for the California goldfields, where he was moderately successful in mining, but quickly lost all he accumulated in a cattle speculation. In November of 1849, he and another Dane, Charles Roamer or Romer, started a ranch on what was then government land, now the intersection of Graton Road and Bohemian Highway.
In October of 1855, Howard married Caroline Kolmer, daughter of a German family which had settled some years previously in nearby Coleman Valley. The wedding, like many of Dutch Bill’s activities to date, was a somewhat unorthodox affair. Samuel M. Duncan, of Duncan’s Mill at nearby Salt Point, had imported a preacher (a rare commodity in pioneer California) named G. Robinson to officiate at his own elaborate wedding ceremony to Miss Fanny Holliday. Robinson was so delighted by his kindly treatment and handsome fee that he offered to perform a second ceremony free of charge. Among the wedding guests were William Howard and Caroline Kolmer, who stepped right up to the line. Local legend has it that Caroline’s father Michael Kolmer, mightily displeased by the match, went hunting for Dutch Bill with a firearm, thus adding a new twist to the concept of “shotgun wedding.”
Following the wedding, Dutch Bill bought out his partner, and the Howards settled down to farming, stockraising and the begetting of nine children, only one of whom died in infancy. In the midst of these domestic and agricultural activities, Dutch Bill accumulated even more land (he eventually owned 465 acres), and somehow became an American citizen under his assumed name in 1865. In the early 1870s, when the North Pacific Coast narrow-gauge railroad was proposed, he granted the railroad company a free right of way through his property. As a result, he received a lifetime railway pass (the train often stopped at his gate for him), and the railroad station was marked with a sign which read “Howards”. Eventually, in competition with the town-building activities of M.C. Meeker, whose family owned much of the rest of the townsite, Howard founded his own town.
The town of Howards existed informally through the late 1800s, when, following his wife Caroline’s death, Dutch Bill’s hard drinking and careless spending and lending led to financial reverses. He began to spend more time in San Francisco (family legend has it that he was a musician of sorts), married a second time, and borrowed large amounts against his land from a Bodega merchant, L.S. Goodman, who eventually found it necessary to foreclose on the property to regain the sum of $6,346.37 owed to him. William Howard died in San Francisco in 1899, and today his name survives only in that of Dutch Bill Creek, which arises on his old homestead north of town, and in that of the Howard’s/Howards Station Cafe. He never returned to Denmark.
This biography is taken from: “History of Sonoma County”, by J.P. Munro-Fraser, published by Alley, Bowen & Co., San Francisco, 1880, pages 491-494. It appears the author took down Dutch Bill’s account verbatim. We have highlighted names and inserted paragraph breaks to make it easier to read on the web.
African Fever: Probably Yellow Fever. Today: endemic in Africa & South America, there are vaccines.
Howard, William. This pioneer, whose portrait appears in this work, was born on the island of Bornholm [Denmark], in the Baltic Sea, October 23, 1823. He received a limited education in the common schools of his country in his early youth.
He began his career as a sailor at the age of thirteen, on board the Danish brig “Cecilia,” then engaged in seal fishing on the coast of Greenland. One voyage, though a successful one, cured him of all longings he may have entertained for this kind of adventure. Shortly after his return, he shipped on board the Danish bark “Concordia,” at Copenhagen, bound for a whaling cruise in the north-western sea. The voyage consumed about two years.
At the age of sixteen Mr. Howard engaged as a seaman on board an American ship at Elsinor, bound for Boston, United States. They touched at Turks Island, where they found the American brig “Norman”, from the coast of Africa, homeward bound, in distress, having lost all her crew, of African fever, the captain and mate being the only survivors. Mr. Howard volunteered to assist in working the brig to New York. They sailed from Turks Island with a crew consisting of five, all told. The captain (who was convalescent from the fever), the mate, Mr. Howard, and two negroes, one employed as cook, by almost superhuman efforts, this small crew managed to sight the Sandy Hook lights, where they received on board a pilot.
Before reaching New York harbor they encountered a heavy north-wester that drove them out to sea; they were driven about for four days. A little before daylight of the fifth day of the storm the brig went ashore on Barnegat. The day previous to their going ashore one of the negroes died from exposure. Mr. Howard sewed his remains up in canvass, preparatory to consigning them to a watery grave. When the vessel struck they found they were on a sandy coast. The pilot and captain went ashore in the “dingy,” the mate and Mr. Howard commenced preparing to follow in the long-boat. While gathering the ship’s papers and instruments the surf, which was constantly increasing lifted the stern of the long-boat from the davits. This mishap rendered it necessary to jump in and cut loose the bow at once. They had hardly cleared the brig when their boat was swamped. This was the last that Mr. Howard knew until he found himself under the shelter of the long boat, where he had been placed by the mate, who had rescued him from the surf. That evening they were visited by a wrecker, who conducted them to his shanty where they were provided with such comforts as the place afforded. The mate and Mr. Howard returned to the vessel as soon as the storm had subsided sufficient to permit of their again venturing into the surf, and brought off the surviving negro, whom they were compelled to leave, also the corpse they had prepared to bury at sea. With the assistance of the wreckers, the brig was lightened and worked off the sand. Mr. Howard, in company with the mate, returned to the shore to collect such articles as they had left, and while thus engaged the brig was taken in tow by a tug, sent out for that purpose, leaving them on shore. Several days after they boarded a coaster bound for New York, but were again driven out to sea by adverse winds; they finally succeeded in reaching Staten Island.
Over-exertion and exposure proved too much for Mr. Howard. On reaching Staten Island he was taken down with lung fever, and went to the sailors' hospital. Not being favorably impressed with the management of the hospital he remained but two days; by representing himself much improved, he gained assent to his leaving, and went immediately to New York. He barely reached the city when he lost consciousness, and was conveyed to the city hospital, where his life was for a long time despaired of, but his constitution proved equal to the strain, and brought him through.
On recovering strength he entered the United States service, on board the receiving ship “North Carolina.” He was transferred to the sloop-of-war “Preble,” in 1844, then under orders to proceed to the African coast. Immediately on their arrival in African waters they were ordered up the river Besow to protect a Portuguese settlement from the natives. On reaching the settlement they found there was not sufficient sea-room for working the vessel. The guns of the “Preble” were transferred to an old hull lying in the river. This proved a disastrous move for the crew of the “Preble.” But a day or two had elapsed when Mr. Howard and one other man were taken down with unmistakeable symptoms of African fever. The surgeon ordered the sloop to vacate the river immediately. They sailed for the Cape de Verde Islands. Before reaching there between eighty and ninety of the officers and crew were taken down. Nearly twenty fell victims to the terrible disease, and as many more were sent home invalids. Mr. Howard in this case owed his life to the fact of being among the first to contract the disease, thereby receiving more favorable attention than could have been given a few days later.
At the expiration of his term of service he returned and re-entered the naval service, being assigned to the frigate “Columbia,” bound for the Brazilian station. This proved a rather uneventful cruise. He was in Rio de Janeiro at the time of the arrest of two American officers and two sailors for a trivial offense. Through the intercession of Minister Wise all were soon released, but one seaman, who was kept in prison until the “Columbia” returned from a cruise to Buenos Ayres. On entering the port Mr. Wise ordered the “Columbia” to double-shot her guns and haul up within easy range of the town. This demonstration, taken in connection with a notice to release the American or prepare to receive the fire of the “Columbia,” had the desired result, and the man was soon at liberty. This occurring just previous to the christening of Don Pedro the First, the American vessels were the only ones in port that refused to dress ship in honor of the event. Mr. Wise also declined to illuminate. These events, taken in connection with the Minister’s remarks at the time of the christening (on board the “Columbia” of the daughter of a veteran of Palo Alta (born at sea), to whom Minister Wise stood godfather, that ”he would rather stand godfather to an American soldier’s child than to Don Pedro,” resulted in Mr. Wise being called home. He took passage in the “Columbia.” An idea may be formed of the impression Mr. Wise had made upon the crew of the “Columbia” by his course in Brazil, and his gentlemanly bearing while an honored passenger on board the “Columbia” frigate, when it is stated that the crew, who were ordered aloft to cheer when he went ashore at Norfolk, not only cheered with goodwill, but refused to desist when ordered, and even went so far in their endeavor to demonstrate their esteem for the gentleman that they threw their hats after him, thereby laying themselves liable to chastisement for violation of orders.
On reaching Norfolk Mr. Howard re-enlisted on board the sloop-of-war “St. Mary’s,” bound for the Pacific station. They anchored at Monterey, in 1848; from there they sailed to San Francisco bay, where the vessel remained until Mr. Howard quit the service. [Quit? See the other bios.]
On leaving the navy he followed the course of all seekers after fortune, or adventure at that particular time, and went immediately to the gold mines of California. He followed mining for two Summers on Beaver creek and in Hangtown cañon, spending the Winter in Sonoma county. He was moderately successful in mining, but lost all he had accumulated in a cattle speculation. In 1850 Mr. Howard, in company with Charles Roamer (a countryman of his) settled on Government land, where he now resides. The two partners carried on the ranch, keeping bachelor quarters up to the year 1855, when Mr. Howard found in a young lady (Miss Caroline Kolmer) a more congenial partner.
Mr. Howard and Miss Kolmer were married at the residence of Alexander Duncan at Salt Point, October 5, 1855 [see their marriage record]. Mrs. Howard was born in North Carolina, December 31, 1838. She, with her parents, came to California in 1846 [correction: 1845]. They spent the first Winter at Sutter’s Fort, near Sacramento; the following season went to Fort Ross; afterwards settled in Kolmer valley. In 1851 they moved to Timber Cove, where they resided at the time Mr. and Mrs. Howard were married.
On assuming his new relations he bought out his partner, who returned to Denmark. Mr. and Mrs. Howard have had the satisfaction of seeing the wilderness in which they commenced life together gradually settled and improved until a railroad passes through their farm, and a station, around which quite a village has sprung, bears Mr. Howard’s name. They have been blessed with nine children all living, and who still reside with them. The following is a list of the children, with the dates of their birth: Elizabeth, born December 10, 1857; Charles, born April 13, 1859; Theodore, born July 11, 1861; Amelia, born May 31, 1863; Clara, born July 12, 1865; William, born January 24, 1868; Annie, born September 20, 1870; Emma, born December 31, 1873; Alfred, born December 21, 1877.
Dutch Bill’s Letters Home (1846 - 1855)
Dutch Bill’s letters and photos were very kindly provided to us by Ann Vibeke Knudsen, website administrator of the website “Udvandring til Amerika” (Emigration to America – https://danishimmigrants.weebly.com):
Ældste Generation |
Christopher Folkmann |
Folkmand Family
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The “old parents”, Jørgen Jacobsen Folkmann (1788-1879) and Elsebeth Hansdatter Skov of Vestermarie (a village midway between Rønne and Aakirkeby), Bornholm island, Denmark. His coat with two rows of buttons is from the 1700s. She was born ca.1798 (per census) and her style of dress is also old-fashioned: the "Påsigbundet" (bonnet with chin bow & lace) is traditional of Bornholm, as are the silk shoulder scarf and creased silk dress. Photographed by G. Støckel in Rønne. |
Dutch Bill’s portrait was made by George Ross before 1862 (per name & address on its back). Ross arrived in Petaluma in 1855 (as a house painter); in 1862 he moved his studio to Petaluma’s Main Street. |
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We translated the letters from Danish into English using Google’s Translate. |
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Nº 1 
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Rio de Janeiro, 9 July 1846. — next page — I hope you will be good enough to write to me at
Mr. Thomas Faulkner |
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Nº 2
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Now I ask you to greet all good Friends and — next page — to write to You |
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Nº 3
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Bodega on December 3, 1854 I am also pleased to hear that grocer Peder Madsen but dear Father and Mother in particular, I thank you — Side 2 — Dear parents, ask me to let you know about the course of life I now live in an area called Bodega — Side 3 — I will now end (my) bad Letter fo this time with one Dear Father and Mother Sisters and Brothers |
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Nº 4
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California, January 13, 1855 Dear Sister there Letter from the 1st of November — side 2. — Dear parents, ask me to let you know about the course of life Dear Sister, you must excuse my short and simple — Side 3. — Mr. William Howard Now Dear Sister a fat Greetings to mine Christopher Thomasen Folchmand. |
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Nº 5
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Bodega California, July 20, 1855 Dear Sister, I also have your letter of 13 May — Side 2 — to let me know why she's not married yet Dear sister, now I must thank you a thousand times Christopher Thomasen Folchmand My Address is as before |
© Peter Benitz (Benitz Family)