McGowan, Edward. Narrative of Edward McGowan, including a Full Account of the Author's Adventures and Perils while Persecuted by the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856. Together with a Report of His Trial, Which Resulted in His Acquittal. San Francisco, California: Printed by Thomas C. Russell, at His Private Press, 1734 Nineteenth Avenue, Sunset, 1917. Limited Edition. [12547]
Plain gray paper-covered boards, printed paper spine label as issued, paper joints have some surface splitting with the boards still tightly attached, 8 x 5 1/4 inches. Top page edges gilt. Title page printed in red & black, facsimile of the original wrapper in orange & black; facsimile of the original 1857 title page & preliminaries, 6, [i]-viii, 9-240 clean pp., several illustrations in color. Light diagonal crease to the first few leaves. Good. Hardcover.
Title continues: Reprinted Line for Line and Page for Page, from the Original Edition, Published by the Author in 1857, Complete, with Reproductions, in Facsimile, of the Original Illustrations, Cover-page Title, and Title-Page.
No. 74 of a limited edition of 200 copies, printed upon hand-set type, and the type distributed.
Howes M103.
No. 1408 in Adams, Six-Guns and Saddle Leather: A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets on Western Outlaws and Gunmen. "Contains some material on Jack Powers, with whom the author hid out when the vigilance committee was after him."
Edward McGowan (1813-1893), b. Philadelphia, Pa; d. San Francisco, Ca. McGowan was a controversial figure, a brawler who became embroiled in several disputes and altercations. An Irish-Catholic, McGowan was a young man during the anti-catholic riots of the 1830s. He was elected as a Democrat to several positions in Philadelphia, including to the State House of Assembly in 1842. He was accused in print by the Whig John Bratton of bribery, and when Bratton rose to speak in the Pennsylvania Assembly McGowan beat him about the head with a chair; McGowan resigned before he could be expelled. He became superintendent of police in the Moyamensing area of south Philadelphia, and in 1848 he was accused of being complicit in a robbery, was convicted, with the verdict being overturned on appeal.
In 1849 McGowan decided to follow the gold rush to California, and leave his troubles behind. He fell in with fellow Irish Democrats in San Francisco, who made him a judge in San Francisco County. A period of crime and arson in San Francisco led to a law and order movement, culminating in the formation of a Committee of Vigilance - actual vigilantes who took the law into their own hands. McGowan confronted their mob, revolver in hand; and this confrontation made him a marked man. He continued a firm resistance, and the Committee disbanded by 1851.
By 1855 the Committee had reformed, energized by the rise of the American Party, or "Know-Nothings," whose anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant fervor was growing in California. The murder of a deputy US marshal and McGowan's involvement in the subsequent fervor led to a mob of over 2,000 men seeking his life, a force much too large for him to withstand. He escaped, disguised as a Mexican, to the Napa Valley, where he was tried and acquitted, with his political enemies continuing to hound him afterwards. McGowan founded two newspapers, the Phoenix and the Ubiquitous, both of which sought to expose the enormities of the Committee of Vigilance.
The Narrative offered here ends with McGowan's acquittal in 1857. His subsequent career is perhaps more outrageous: he went to British Columbia in search of gold and instigated what became known as "McGowan's War," a dispute that once again led to his escape from justice.
