Rope

    You can’t live in the Bay Area very long without seeing or hearing the name Crocker or Merritt or Chabot.  ButTubbs?  Who but serious historians has heard of Hiram Tubbs or Alfred Tubbs?  What about Tubbs Hotel, some people will say, but that was owned by their father.

        In the 1850’s and 60’s, Hiram and Alfred Tubbs were the only ropemakers for thousands of miles in a world that moved by rope.  Rope to tie up the ships that used rope to hoist the sails, rope to load the cargo, rope to secure the loaded cargo, rope to make hammocks for the sailors to sleep in.  Rope in every thickness, of every length, was essential to make a sailing ship go and keep it in business.  And sailing ships provided the only means of long distance commercial travel before railroads crossed the country.

        Hiram and Alfred were prominent businessmen and fabulously wealthy.  In an era when $1 a day was a good wage, they donated $1000 a month to the Sanitary Commission, the forerunner to the Red Cross.  It was Hiram, along with Samuel Merritt, Joseph Emery and others on the Cemetery Board of Directors who decided that Oakland needed a big cemetery out in the country.  They wanted to replace the small ones scattered around town that were becoming surrounded by a fast growing city.  So they developed Mountain View Cemetery at what is now the end of Piedmont Avenue.

        Hiram came here from Boston almost reluctantly, when urged by his younger brother and lured by the business opportunity.  They established their business in San Francisco, the commercial hub of the Bay Area at that time, but Hiram lived in Oakland and Alfred owned property in what is now San Mateo County.  It’s easy to speculate that without a bridge but with his knowledge of boats, Hiram sailed to work each day, but there were ferries, so he may have gone that way.  He also owned an island in the bay where he grew hay and held duck hunts for his friends.

        The site where the rope was made – a rope walk it was called – was more than a mile long and produced every size anyone could want, but all of hemp.  Unable to import all the hemp they needed for the demand, the Tubbs brothers bought more property which they devoted solely to growing hemp.

        Personality wise, the Tubbs brothers were almost polar opposites, but they made excellent business partners.  Hiram, retiring in his personal life and cautious with finances, was a contrast with the younger Alfred who loved getting dressed up for a night on the town or going to a party.   Alfred was always ready to try new things, too and was not afraid to take a risk

        The Tubbs mausoleum, carved into the hillside at Mountain View Cemetery, was the first mausoleum built in the new cemetery.  Was that Alfred’s idea?  Alfred was interred in 1897 and Hiram five months later.  Other inhabitants of the tomb including their parents and several of their children had preceded them, though.  If you’re walking near the maintenance yard of Mountain View Cemetery, you can’t miss their tomb.  After almost 150 years, it still stands as a monument to these enterprising and generous brothers who were at the right place at the right time with the right idea.