Charles J. Beerstecher

Charles Julius Beerstecher (January 15, 1851 – December 31, 1900) was a German American lawyer, politician and socialist who served as a delegate to California's Second Constitutional Convention from 1878 to 1879, as a member of the California Railroad Commission from 1880 to 1883, and as town attorney of St. Helena from 1894 to 1896. Beerstecher was heading the German language section of the Workingmen's Party of the United States in San Francisco when, in 1877, he and "practically all members" of the organization abandoned it for the anti-Chinese Workingmen's Party of California.

Beerstecher was born in Urach, Württemberg on January 15, 1851. His father, A. W. Frederick Beerstecher, was a forty-eighter forced to flee to the United States following the unsuccessful Revolutions of 1848. His wife and son joined him in the spring of 1852, and they settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[1]

Beerstecher attended the University at Lewisburg until the spring of 1868, when he moved with his family to Centreville, Michigan. He studied law under several lawyers and judges (including Michigan Supreme Court Justices Thomas M. Cooley and James V. Campbell) and entered the University of Michigan School of Law in 1870, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1872. He practiced law in Centreville and nearby Union City for the next four years, arguing several cases before the State Supreme Court.^[1][2]

Beerstecher entered politics as a Republican in 1874, when he was elected one of two coroners of St. Joseph County, Michigan,^[3] serving a two-year term.^[4] He was later appointed a United States commissioner for the Western District of Michigan,^[2] during which he was called to investigate obstruction of mails when a man tried to foreclose on a post office.^[5]

Beerstecher moved to California in the summer of 1877 and became active in the socialist movement, joining the Workingmen's Party of the United States and heading its German language section in the city. He left the organization soon after to become a founding member of the anti-Chinese Workingmen's Party of California, contributing significantly to the party platform.^[1] At the party's 1878 state convention, he introduced a resolution recognizing "the Socialistic Workingmen’s Party of the United States as a kindred organization, having for its purpose and end the emancipation of the Workingmen," which was passed.^[6]

At the Constitutional Convention, Beerstecher and fellow lawyer Clitus Barbour were considered leaders of the Workingmen's delegation.^[7][8] In his first speech to the convention, Beerstecher announced the party's "crusade" against monopolies and the Chinese, but rejected the charge that they were radicals, stating:

I repel and repudiate the idea that I am a communist and disorganizer. I came here to vote for the interests of all the people of this State. I came here representing the poor man, and I came here representing the rich man. I came here for the purpose of protecting the poor man's interest, and also for the purpose of protecting the rich man's interest. I do not desire the confiscation of property...

Beerstecher secured passage of a resolution to establish an eight-hour workday,^[10] fulfilling one of the party's campaign promises.^[7] He also supported translating the proceedings of the convention into Spanish to honor the promise of equal treatment made to Californios in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.^[11]

The Constitution of 1879 established the California Railroad Commission, a directly-elected three-member body, paid high salaries to avoid bribery, charged with regulating the state's railroads (especially the Southern Pacific) through setting freight rates and examining corporate records. Its first three members were J. S. Cone, a pro-railroad Republican representing northern California, George Stoneman, an anti-railroad Democrat representing southern California, and Beerstecher, representing San Francisco.^[12]

Although Stoneman hoped to ally with Beerstecher to "take care of the interests of the people,"^[13] Beerstecher soon sided with Cone in taking a pro-railroad stance. When complaints against the railroads were filed, Cone and Beerstecher directed them to company officials instead of investigating them themselves. The two also co-authored reports warning against "hasty, inconsiderate action" in dealing with the railroads, justifying their own inaction by claiming that the state's railway network had developed faster than the state could keep up with it and therefore rate reform was premature.^[12]

The commission was criticized heavily for its perceived corruption and failure to enact rate reform; Stoneman was elected governor in 1882 on an anti-railroad platform, and soon after the commission's term ended the State Assembly opened an investigation into their conduct. The report, released on February 26, 1883, "excoriated" all three men for their inaction. Although Stoneman was criticized for his poor attendance and inability to understand the railroad's accounting system, the greatest charges were leveled against Cone and Beerstecher, who the committee accused of accepting favors from the railroad. In Beerstecher's case, the committee found "no other explanation" for the fact that he had made $11,000 while in office "than that he was bribed." He claimed he had saved the money from his salary while living with his parents and maintaining his law practice, but the committee was not convinced. After the report was published, none of the men were ever prosecuted.^[12]

At around 10:45 pm on December 12, 1880, Beerstecher hopped off of a streetcar on Steiner street and was approaching his home when he saw a man crouched by a fence who he soon recognized as Anthony Fischer.^[14] Fischer, a trunkmaker and socialist^[15] who Beerstecher considered a friend, was the former president of the German Workingmen's Club^[16][17] and the party's unsuccessful candidate for county recorder in the previous year's municipal elections.^[18] He had been waiting for Beerstecher to return home for the last two hours, hoping to ask for a political appointment.^[14][15]

Beerstecher apologized for making him wait and invited him inside, but Fischer declined, saying it was too late and they would wake up Beerstecher's parents. Fischer walked Beerstecher to the gate and then, without warning, drew a revolver^[19] and shot him in the chest.^[15] The bullet hit Beerstecher in the left breast, glancing off a rib and lodging itself in the fatty tissue near his armpit.^[14] Unsure if he had been hit, Beerstecher jumped into the garden and took cover behind a tree. Fischer tried to shoot again, but his gun misfired, prompting Beerstecher to flee into a neighboring grocery store. Fischer began to chase after him but stopped halfway, running down Sacramento street towards a cemetery. Beerstecher eventually made his way back to his home, where a doctor treated his wound.^[14]

In a statement to The San Francisco Call, Beerstecher claimed that he had no idea why Fischer would want to kill him, and that there was no animosity between the two of them. Police worried that Fischer would try to kill himself, but he was found and arrested the following morning. He denied having any recollection of shooting Beerstecher, although he admitted that, had he not been arrested that day, he intended to assassinate certain stockbrokers and mayor Isaac Smith Kalloch. Papers theorized that, in light of his own defeat, Fischer was jealous of Beerstecher's election as rail commissioner, and felt that he was owed an office for the work he had done for the party.^[14][15]

Fischer went to trial on May 19, 1881,^[20] charged with "assault with a deadly weapon, with intent to do great bodily harm."^[21] By this time Beerstecher had recovered, but doctors left the bullet in his body as it had nested close to his heart and they felt an operation to remove it would be too dangerous. The prosecution pursued the jealousy theory and Beerstecher's testimony was corroborated by his parents and August Pracht, the grocer whose store he fled into. Fischer meanwhile pled insanity, with the defense pointing to his lack of a motive, the testimony of his relatives that he had fallen into a depression leading up to the shooting, and two notes left at his home right before the shooting that implied he would commit suicide.^[20] Fischer was found guilty the next day^[21] and sentenced to two years in San Quentin.^[22]

While serving as Railroad Commissioner, Beerstecher purchased a $3,000^[23] 145.41-acre ranch^[24] near Rutherford, California with his father,^[25] to which he retired after declining to seek reelection.^[26] Among his crops were thousands of fruit trees^[27][28] and a thirty-acre vineyard.^[29][30] By 1888, the ranch had grown to 500 acres.^[31] Soon after Fischer was released from prison, he encountered Beerstecher's father while visiting St. Helena in July 1883, and was forced to leave town after police discovered he was carrying a dirk knife and Colt Navy Revolver.^[32][33]

Beerstecher remained politically active after leaving office,^[34] serving on the central committee of the Napa County Republican Party.^[35] He was an unsuccessful candidate for State Assembly in 1890,^[36] State Senate in 1892,^[37] and Napa County District Attorney in 1898, failing to secure the party's nomination each time.^[38] He resumed the practice of law and was appointed St. Helena Town Attorney by its board of trustees, serving from 1894^[39] to 1896.^[40] He also served as defense attorney in several high-profile local cases, including for accused murderers William M. Roe,^[41] Jesse Walters,^[42] and former Napa County Sheriff George S. McKenzie.^[43]

Beerstecher died at the Napa State Hospital on December 31, 1900,^[44] having suffered from dropsy for the last eleven weeks. The Napa County Superior Court adjourned for the day out of respect to his memory.^[45]

• Media related to Charles J. Beerstecher at Wikimedia Commons
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