My
grandfather, Jason Dominic White, and his wife, Mary Frances
(Baltic) White moved to San Quentin in 1898. He came from Folsom
Prison where he was employed as a guard in l890. My Dad, Charles
Baltic White, was born in the little village of San Quentin on June
15, 1899. I do believe they wanted to move away from family and get
out on their own.
Besides,
at that time, Folsom was the "hard" time prison. Before he
worked for the prison system, he used to guard the sluice boxes at
the mines, at night, because the Chinese used to rob them. He was
very musical and played in the Folsom band, for funerals, gatherings
and such. He played the coronet and the violin and they also had a
piano. He had a great sense of humor and when he would to go San
Francisco to visit relatives, he would always buy "Captain
Billy's Whizbang" which was a joke book, so he could read it on
the ferry boat and laugh all of the way home!
Grandma
White was of German extraction, also born in the Folsom area and
herfather (John Henry Baltic) died when the family was young. Her
mother (Margaret Mitchell Baltic Himmel) remarried so she had to
finish raising all of her sister's and a brother. Life was not easy then.