Editor’s note: This story is part of a series devoted to the history of Plumas County.
On April 18, 1906, 21-year-old Claire O’Rourke woke to trembling. “The earth was shaking and everything was falling,” she recalled in an interview with the Feather River Bulletin in 1988. It was her 103rd birthday. “They came and made everybody get out. … They were afraid of fire. We couldn’t take anything with us.”
“We never went back. It was gone. It was all gone,” she told Feather River Bulletin reporter Judy Java.
Claire — then eight months pregnant — and her husband spent the next several nights camping in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Much of the city was destroyed, and the fires, caused by broken gas lines, burned for days. Their son Francis Timothy O’Rourke, known as Tim, was born the following month in Oakland.
Claire passed away in August 1996 at 111. By the end of her life, Claire would become known as the last known survivor of the Great Earthquake — but the events of 1906 were neither her first nor her last brush with disaster.
Growing up in La Porte before the turn of the last century
Claire “Tot” Josephine Cayot O’Rourke was born in La Porte in 1885, the eldest of eight children. It was the midst of the Long Depression, a global recession that took hold in the wake of the Civil War and the Second Industrial Revolution, and lasted from 1873 to 1896. Her parents were the owners and operators of the La Porte Union Hotel. Her father, Francis Cayot, had emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine. Her mother, Claire Hinda Quigley, was a native of La Porte.
The Quigley family had come from Michigan to California by wagon train in 1853, passing through Plumas County rather than over Donner Pass. In California, they built flour mills in Napa and Stockton, before returning to Plumas and settling in La Porte.
Francis Cayot and Claire Quigley married in Little Grass Valley on April 20, 1884. After the wedding, they skied home to their hotel, earning Claire the nickname “the snowshoe bride” (at the time, skis were known as snowshoes).
The Cayots’ Union Hotel was “known as one of the best-kept hotels in the mountains,” according to Lani Ah Tye Farkas in Bury My Bones in America. It had an elegantly furnished saloon that boasted a billiard table and a range of leading periodicals, and served as headquarters for La Porte’s stage companies.
As a girl, Claire worked in the hotel with her mother and sister. “We took care of the back house — all the cleaning, baking, preserving, and washing. … We even chopped wood,” she told Reno Gazette Journal reporter Faye Boquist in 1985. Her father manned the bar out front, while her brothers worked in the livery barn across the street.
Anti-Chinese violence became prevalent in California in the late 1800s, driven in part by the Long Depression. In La Porte, the Miner’s Anti-Chinese Association attempted to boycott businesses with Chinese employees. Because the Union Hotel depended primarily on travelers and the stage for its business, Francis Cayot was able to defy the boycott, and continued to employ his Chinese cook through the difficult times. Claire recalled that her father had “raised his children not to feel superior to the Chinese and ‘not to be anti-anything,’” said Farkas in Bury My Bones in America.
Plagued by fire
La Porte burned several times while Claire was growing up. “My dad built five hotels there altogether,” she told Feather River Bulletin reporter Vikki Frans in 1979. The last, most devastating, fire took place in 1905. It “destroyed most of La Porte and it just hasn’t looked the same since,” Claire said.
That same year she married Leonard “Len” Burr O’Rourke, also from La Porte. The young couple traveled to San Francisco, where the earthquake struck only a few months later. They remained in Oakland and Berkeley until 1909 when, as so many Plumas natives do today, they returned home to raise their young son. They settled first in Clio, then moved to Blairsden, where, on July 1, 1930, fire struck again, destroying another home.
“We lost everything but a few clothes. I wanted to save so many things, keepsakes and things, but there wasn’t any time to settle on just what to save,” she told Frans. “I’m scared to death of fires. I’ve seen so many of them. All of a sudden you have nothing.
“I guess you have to go through those things. If you let them get you down, you get way down,” Claire reflected.
A career in public service
In spite of everything, life did go on. The couple found a new home in Mohawk. They enjoyed skiing. Len helped organize ski races, and dreamed of seeing Johnsville developed into a winter sports area.
On their return to the area, the couple had started a stage line using wagons and sleighs, eventually transitioning to trucks. Len became president of the Plumas County Chamber of Commerce, and he and Claire helped to secure funding for the construction of the Feather River highway. Len was elected a Plumas County supervisor, and in 1930, chosen as chairman.
In 1947, Len was elected Plumas County treasurer, and the family moved to Quincy. When he died just two years later, Claire took on his responsibilities. She was elected to four more terms, serving as tax collector as well during her final term. Her only sister, Eva, was also active in the community as a teacher and principal. She was appointed superintendent of schools the same year Claire became treasurer.
“She raced up those marble steps like a teenager. Yet she was always low key, never demanding anything. And patient? During the county fair, she would sit night after night signing checks for the fair winners,” Raynelle Slaten, former county clerk, told Faye Bouquist of the Indian Valley Record in 1985.
Claire retired from the county in 1963, at 78, but continued to serve as treasurer of the Quincy Senior Citizens Nutrition Program, where she volunteered well into her 100s.
Later life
In later life Claire was close with her son and daughter-in-law, Edith, and her sister Eva. She remained active in clubs including the Eastern Star and garden club. She enjoyed trips to Reno with the Senior Nutrition Program to gamble or shop, and Sunday evenings out at Mt Tomba Inn, in Cromberg, her favorite restaurant. Another favorite activity was long, scenic country drives with Eva.
“I just enjoy every day. I take each day as it comes and am glad to have it. If you decide you’re going to live, you might as well really enjoy it. I try to do as many things as I can,” she told Frans in 1979.
In difficult times — times of economic struggle, of prejudice and discrimination, of disaster and destruction — stories like Claire’s remind us that we are part of a long history. People just like us, from this same place, faced similar challenges. They rebuilt, fought back, served their community, took joy from their surroundings, built business and families, homes and roads. They survived. Just like Claire Cayot O’Rourke.
Sources and further reading
“110 Scions of Quigley Family to Fete ‘53 Trek.” Oakland Tribune, August 27, 1953.
Boquist, Faye. “Former Plumas Treasurer Turns 100-Years-Old.” Indian Valley Record, January 9, 1985.
Boquist, Faye. “Still Spry at 100.” Reno Gazette Journal, January 17, 1985.
Duferrena, Carolyn. “Confessions of Red Meat Survivors.” Range Magazine, spring 1993.
Farkas, Lani Ah Tye. Bury My Bones in America. Nevada City, CA: Carle Mautz Publishing, 1998.
Frans, Vikki Frans. “Native and Retired County Treasurer Turns 94.” Feather River Bulletin, January 18, 1979.
Java, Judy. “Town Elder Looks Ahead.” Feather River Bulletin, December 14, 1988.
Little, Jane Braxton. “Ex-Plumas Treasurer Pauses to Blow Out Candles.” The Sacramento Bee, January 22, 1991.
