A Face From Sonoma County
•nia
in the ocean. So after they
got through hauling it in
there; after the feds got on
it, you'd go there abalonein1
and the first thing ya know
you'd pick up a bottle of
Scotch where it'd been washed
FREDERICK HARLEN BARNES
1903-
Fred Barnes was born in
Santa Rosa in 1903. Barnes
Road, off Fulton Road, is
named after his father,
William Perry Barnes, who
came to Santa Rosa in 1846-
I got just down to where I
could see the ocean an' I
turned around a turn an' a
guy stuck a gun in my face
and said, "Where 're you goin'?"^“
I says, "I was goin' abalone- * ABOUT STILLS:
ing." He says, "Are you alone?" They had a big still
So- I stayed there an talked out here where the Guerne-
to the guy for awhile. He says, ville Road crosses the lag-
"Just stay here a few minutes. 0on- to the right. Used to
Go on about your business." be a big dairy on the hill.
They was bringin' the booze 'bout a half mile from the
in an stackin' it up down there, bridge- east side of the
When they got it all in, the lagoon. Stead of running
launch left. Then the guy says, a dairy, he just had the
"Come on now, we'll go down
and meet the boss." So I went
down there and this guy was
there an we got to talkin' an
the first thing he asked me
was what kinda car I had. So
I told him. And he said, "You
wanna make a run up to
1847. Fred's family (six half Williams for me with a
brothers and three half sis¬
ters) owned the property on
Barnes Rd. until the depres¬
sion when they lost it for
the price of the taxes.
load a booze?" Hel 1 ! A
dollar them days was a
Sol 1 ar, boy! I think he
said, "When you get there,
there'll be $100.00 waitin'
During the bootleg years, for you."
Fred was more than a casual
observer of what was going on
in Sonoma County. During an
interview with him recently
the Journal asked him if he'd
ever had an occasion to "run
rum" or "make hootch".
He responded:
They used to bring the
booze in at Salt Point from
Canada - White Horse. How I
got onto it was I was goin'
abalone huntin' at Salt Point
and I couldn't get anybody to
go with me so I went alone. I
had a *26 Hudson ; Brogham
with a leather top. Anyhow-
I went up there and I parked.
I knew they were bringin'
He told me to go to an
cows there for a bluff.
Wasn't milking 'em. The big
barn was a whole big still.
I don't know who was run¬
ning it, but I know who
owned the ranch. It was the
Illingsworth Ranch. I used
to hunt ducks there.
Anyhow, he was making it
and puttin' this raw ale in
brand new five gallon cans
^nd stackin' it in the barn
away from the still. So the
feds come in on him. So he
runs out of the place an went
down an got in his boat and
booze in there 'cause they
had the line out from the bank the bottles come in gunny
Anchored out there- pulled sacks- twelve bottles to a
the launch in under it with sack-every once in awhile,
the booze on it- hooked it when they were bringin
onto the line and pulled it in 'em in, the sack would rio
Anyhow, I started down there, and the bottles would fall
Сз.)
old garage there (in Wi 1 1 iams) crossed the lagoon. Well they
and get out of the car. When jthe , s/ d , t Set him.
I got back, the car was empty. ^ the-y had , tde and
And the money was laying on flve °r S1X hundred cans of
the seat. How many bottles raw a^c stacked up there. So
did they get in the car? Oh wdo do feds get? They had
Christ I don't know. The whole Set a guy to watch the
back end was full! I didn't place til the next day when
count it. They loaded it and tdey cou^d haul it off. So
unloaded it an I never touched !;hey Set Tom Brady. And Tom
it. Anyhow, I loaded three or ^rad-Y was a cousin of Rosco
four loads for that guy. About .dnson s W1^e- An ^ was work-
every eight or ten days he'd in9 f°r Rosco (as a mechanic)
call me up to tell me when ^hen Tom got out there, the
to come. I was making S400 first thing he did was pick
a month and not doin nothing! ^ , phone up and call Rosco
Johnson. The first thing he
says is, "Get the back seats
out of a couple a cars and
get out here!" So out come
the seats and out there we
went. We loaded the back of
those two cars of all we could
get in it of five gallon cans
of pure raw alcohol! We hid
(Cont'd on p. 4)
I never had time for abalon-
ing anymore.
Every once an awhile-
