Miriam Pawel - The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation

For those who believe in the geography of hope

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography

The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavezs Farm Worker Movement

Contents

The genesis of this book was a conversation several years ago, on an isolated ranch in Northern California, with Jerry Brown. The governor had talked in recent speeches about this land, settled by his great-grandfather soon after the Gold Rush and still in the family four generations later. I was curious to see the homestead and understand what had drawn the last heir of Californias storied political dynasty to spend his weekends in a small cabin with no running water, off the grid.

Amid the rolling hills dotted with oaks, Jerry Brown talked about reinhabitation. He explained his desire to return to his ancestral home, his quest to research every aspect of the land, and his effort to trace his family roots. It is a history worth studying, he said, because history offers anchors in time of disruption and helps us understand how to respond to change.

The same could be said, of course, about the history of California. I came away from that conversation struck by the parallel arcs of the Browns and California. Jerry Brown traced a family history that spanned the life of the state he and his father had governed. I thought the story of four generations might offer a lens through which to tell a unique history of the thirty-first state.

It is, by definition, a selective history, shaped by the paths of the extended family. It is more Northern California than Southern, more modern than early, more political than cultural. Yet, because the family is so intertwined with California, the Browns story illuminates core values, concepts, places, and events that have molded the worlds fifth-largest economy. There is arguably no family more passionate about California, more closely identified with the Golden State, or more influential in determining its fate. The heart of this book is the story of two men who collectively governed California for almost a quarter centuryan ebullient, beloved, old-style politician and his cerebral, skeptical, visionary son.

The book is first and foremost a family saga, a narrative history built around collective lives and actionsfrom far-reaching policy decisions to private, personal choices. My goal is to convey through that tapestry a sense of the sweep and spirit of California, to highlight that which has stayed the same over time and that which has changed. I leave it to future historians to pass judgment on the Brown legacy, which will become clearer with distance.

Given that the two principal protagonists have the same name, and many other characters share the same surname, I refer to the various Browns by their first names. I did this for clarity and readability; it is also true that for many Californians, the states two longest-serving Democratic governors are known simply as Pat and Jerry.

The corner of Sixteenth and H was just a vacant lot when August Schuckman reached Sacramento in 1852, a square of frontier dirt awaiting its destiny.

August drove a stagecoach, peddled fruit, and dreamed big. The German immigrant had come west seeking land, not gold. Within a decade, he staked his claim to a ranch sixty miles north of the state capital in Colusa County. Augusts daughter Ida was born there in 1878, the same year a prosperous Sacramento merchant moved into a majestic Victorian mansion he had built at Sixteenth and H. The empty lot had become the most elegant house in town: Seven fireplaces of Italian marble. Elaborate bronze hinges and doorknobs engraved with hummingbirds. Intricate wood inlay on the ballroom floor.

By the turn of the century, more than a million people had been lured to California by visions of gold, land, and sun. Sacramento needed a residence suitable for its governors. In 1903, the state bought the wedding-cake house at Sixteenth and H for $32,500. Two years later, Augusts daughter Ida gave birth to her first son, Edmund Gerald Brown. He would grow up to be the twelfth governor to live in the Mansion.

Sixteenth and H would become the coordinates where the history of the Golden State intersected with the destiny of August Schuckmans descendants. A family shaped by California would grow into a dynasty that transformed the state, with ambition and audacity to match the grandeur of the towering, turreted Mansion.

Edmund Brown, known to all but his mother as Pat, loved his life in the Mansion, where he seamlessly blended work and family. Most days began with meetings in the breakfast room. Thats where Senator John Kennedy asked Pat for support in 1959, and where Pat took a congratulatory call from President Kennedy three years later after defeating Richard Nixon in the governors race. Most nights, Pat stayed up late reading files from his overstuffed briefcase in the mustard-colored easy chair in the living room or the upstairs office with the special panic button hidden in a drawer. Weekends brought grandchildren splashing in the kidney-shaped pool and sliding down the curved mahogany banister. Pats sister might arrive with Ida to find Frank Sinatra at dinner. Adlai Stevenson stayed overnight, and Earl Warren often stopped by his old home.

Each Thanksgiving and Christmas, four generations of Browns gathered in the Mansion. News photographers snapped photos of Pat with the turkey, fresh out of the oven. At Christmastime, the Browns chartered a bus to bring San Francisco friends to the Mansion, decorated with lights on the turrets and towers, with 14-foot Christmas trees in the parlor and hall and smaller trees in almost every room.

First lady Bernice Brown oversaw the formal entertainment, dozens of dinners for legislators and lobbyists that eased partisan divides and smoothed important deals. Visitors knew to check for the small black ceramic cat on the table in the entryway; as long as the sleeping cat was on display, conversations were off the record.

Pat Brown was the twelfth governor to live in the Mansion, originally the home of a wealthy hardware merchant. More than four decades later, Jerry Brown became the thirteenth. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS Cal,34-SAC,19-1)