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A War on the Potrero: the Examiner’s report of 23 February 1892
A fire, a boarding-house dispute and a pistol recovered from the mud, as reported by The Examiner.
People in this article
Five days before “Iliad of the Potrero,” The Examiner of Tuesday, 23 February 1892 carried a report headed “A War on the Potrero.” It describes a violent confrontation among boarding-house keepers near the Union Iron Works and includes a drawing captioned as King McManus’s pistol, found in the mud with one chamber discharged.
A fire and a confrontation
The article says a small fire at the Monterey House, 909 Illinois Street, preceded the fighting. It places J. C. Welch at the Monterey House and William Phillips at an adjoining grocery, describing Phillips as Frank McManus’s brother-in-law. Frank’s Union Hotel is placed on Michigan Street, closer to the Union Works.
According to the report, remarks about the fire led to a preliminary fight. A larger confrontation followed, involving a crowd, weapons and police. The paper includes competing allegations about who attacked whom and who fired a pistol; these should remain attributed accounts rather than a settled reconstruction.
What the illustration claims
The gun drawing is captioned as King McManus’s pistol, recovered from the mud with one chamber discharged. The text says Frank denied owning the weapon. A second illustration in the full clipping depicts knives and a policeman’s billet said to have been found at the scene.
These are newspaper illustrations and captions, not photographs or independently verified evidence of ownership. The conflicting attribution is part of the source.
Which brother was involved?
The report names William McManus and describes a brother as “the Gossoon.” Existing family research associates that nickname with Cornelius (Con). The newspaper’s combination of name and nickname therefore needs checking against other reports and arrest or court records.
This article is linked to Frank’s profile. It does not treat the disputed passage as a confirmed event in either William Henry’s or Cornelius’s life. The William Phillips relationship is also a research lead, not a resolved identification of his wife.
From the immediate report to the Blue Mud Wars
The later Blue Mud Wars overview discusses the Examiner’s 28 February account. Compare the two newspaper stories for changes in names, chronology and allegations; reports from the same newspaper are not necessarily independent corroboration.
Source and full clipping
The Examiner, San Francisco, California, Tuesday, 23 February 1892, “A War on the Potrero.” Newspaper and issue date supplied by Kevin McManus. A page number and direct newspaper-page URL have not yet been supplied.
