Mariposa Gazette, May 5, 1906: SAN FRANCISCO LETTER.
"Tips" Gives His Views on Several Subjects.
The weather is murky, sultry and suggestive of more earthquakes.
Everyone is on the run. You never saw such bustle and rush in your life. It foretells the whirl with which California vim will upbuild its metropolis.
For ten days we of the neighboring hills had to bring sandwiches and a bottle of water in our pockets on coming to the city, but now there are a dozen stands and wagons on every block dispensing soda water, cider, milk, tea, coffee, sandwiches, boiled eggs, oranges, etc., at the lowest of prices. Drinks 5 cents and sandwiches and coffee 10 cents.
No saloons are open and strong drink is a luxury. Red faced topers are seen bravely gulping down sasaprilla and other temperate beverages, San Francisco is surely and completely a "dry town." Liquor can be had only on prescription of doctors, which is a godsend to the poor medico's who saved neither libraries, implements, nor parchments.
The burnt hillsides with their low brick walls and more pretentious chimneys give the poor city the air od a graveyard, but the flats with their rushing vehicles and pedestrians, their rising tent and frame temporary buildings lend the city it's mining form of '49. Nob Hill is a cemetery of obliterated greatness, Tar Flat is a re-animated spirit of the early days of Frisco.
For three days and nights we watched the great city burn. On the 19th, I landed at the Sausalito ferry, swung westward to Broadway street, up which I rushed to Dupont to offer refuge to Mrs. CASTAGNETTO and family, whose store and home was then two blocks west to the
advancing fire that had destroyed Chinatown. The store had just been painted and rose proudly over its humbler neighbors. I found it barred and locked and deserted, serenely awaiting its doom. I ran into the next block above to Eddie CASTAGNETTO undertaking parlors. Its closed door offered no check to me and I ran in to find it deserted and its floor strewn with fallen plaster. The chairs on which the watchers of the dead had sat where grouped about the room in formal order, a desk stood in a neighboring room. I called aloud to Eddie, but all was as silent as the tomb. For a minute I owned the place, but its solemnity soon drove me to the street with a sigh of relief. I rushed back to the store where I found a bystander who informed me that the CASTAGNETTO had gone westward to the home of the DEVOTEE'S. Nor have I been able to learn more of them. I lingered to see the beautiful home go down before the flames, after which I returned homeward sick at heart with the destruction and desolation about me. A motley crowd of Italians, Chinese, Americans, loaded with all sorts of burdens, poured forth to the city front. Adversity made them all akin one helping the other, all superbly resigned and hopeful. A lie has been circulated at Washington that the Chinese have been abused. I saw them helped by Caucasians and fed kindly at coffee tables on the Front, while a weeping Chinese mother and her two babies received part of my own bag of crackers.
I found Mrs. Tell WILCOX and daughter Ethel, re-arranging their home on McALLISTER street, just one block ahead of the burnt district. They had moved to Golden Gate Park, but returned after the fire to find their houses sadly looted. They were too nervous to stay in the buildings and were then camping in Jefferson Square nearby. Mrs. NEWMAN and her folks were also safe from the fire on the next block, but ere I returned I passed the ruins of Mrs. Annie McELLIGOTT home, that of Ed GREEN'S and I think that of John MULBERRY'S. I have been unable to locate any of the Mariposa outcasts.
John HITE was spared the woe about him by death, who had summed him into the Great Beyond, two hours before the earthquake.
Mr. and Mrs. BLACK suffered very little at Berkeley other than the loss of a chimney. Mr. BLACK is seriously ill.
I found Mrs. BYRES (nee JENKINS of Mt. Bullion) and her daughter and two infant granddaughters fleeing from a burning rooming house to a brick hotel near by, but as this was burnt down later they must have sought the park for refuge.
Yours in duty to old Mariposa,
Tips.
San Francisco, May 1, 190665

Mariposa Gazette, May 26, 1906: CASTAGNETTO'S returns to San Francisco
Mesdames L. CASTAGNETTO, W. CASTAGNETTO and J. DEVOTO returned to San Francisco last week, after having visited two weeks here. The former was a heavy loser by the fire.65

CASTAGNETTO, Mrs. Lizzie April 6, 1918 Mariposa Gazette:
Mrs. Lizzie CASTAGNETTO, of San Francisco died at her home in that city Monday evening. Mrs. CASTAGNETTO was a sister of the late Mrs. A. M. POTTHAST, and well known in this county. The funeral was held on Thursday.

CASTAGNETTO, Mrs. Lizzie April 13, 1918 Mariposa Gazette:
IN MEMORIAM.
It is hard to realize that Mrs. Lizzie CASTAGNETTO is dead and even harder to do so upon seeing the unwrinkled, youthful features crowned with snow white hair and wearing the calmness of a restful repose as she lay in the robes of the tomb. Without a pang of pain, while playfully chiding a romping grand child, she passed away last Monday at her San Francisco home, several months after a stroke of paralysis had benumbed the lower limbs and had led to a slow spinal decline.

She was laid to rest Thursday in the Italian Cemetery by the side of her husband, John, and the five sons that had preceded her to the grave. She is survived by her daughter, Mrs. James A. DEVOTO, by her son Walter and five grand children, Jerome DEVOTO, Everett CASTAGNETTO, Elizabeth and Phyllis CASTAGNETTO.

Lizzie GOERNERT was born in a German village from which she came just after the civil war, a girl of twelve, with her sister, the late Mrs. POTTHAST, to Princeton. She espoused her new mountain home most fervently and in selecting fabrics at a Bear Valley Store to be seamed into raiment for Mariposa maidens, her own life romance began in a devotion to the handsome dry goods man, John CASTAGNETTO, which led to a wedding at the Oso House in 1869 that rippled the social circles in every cranny of the county.

In 1875 the young couple moved to San Francisco to renew their business, and this place became a veritable Mecca for the visiting and errant and afflicted Mariposans, who were always welcomed, entertained, solaced and assisted by this lovable woman. Though her gentle brown eye fun shimmered like sunshine through the limpid waters of the Merced when others’ joys beset her, or a pensive gloom and a hopeful sympathy would pervade the when a being’s sorrow sought her, Just as she enjoyed the lilies of the mountain meads and justas she became a provident benefactor to the woes of mortals on earth may she enjoy the fadeless asphodels and the endless ecstasy of angels of paradise. H. C. HALL San Francisco, April 5, 1918.

Surname spelling is uncertain; may also be Gournet or Goernert or Gornett

1880 United States Census
Household:
Marital Birth Birthplace
Name Rel Status Sex Race Age place Occ Father Mother
John CASTAGNETO Self M M W 38 ITALY Dry Goods Merchant ITALY ITALY
Lizzie CASTAGNETO Wife M F W 28 HESSE DARMSTAD Keeping House HESSE D HESSE D
John CASTAGNETO Son S M W 9 CA ITALY HESSE D
Albert CASTAGNETO Son S M W 7 CA ITALY HESSE D
Edward CASTAGNETO Son S M W 6 CA ITALY HESSE D
Lizzie CASTAGNETO Dau S F W 5 CA ITALY HESSE D
John E. CASTAGNETO Son S M W 2 CA ITALY HESSE D
Maria BUSH Other W F W 60 FRAN Keeping House FRAN FRAN
Luigi TACONY Other S M W 30 ITALY Tailor ITALY ITALY
Fabian CANHARDT Other M M W 34 SPAIN Printer SPAIN SPAIN
Teresa CANHARDT Other M F W 25 SPAIN Keeping House SPAIN SPAIN
Solfito CANHARDT Other S M W 1 CA SPAIN SPAIN

Source Information:
Census Place 4th Ward, San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Family History Library Film 1254073
NA Film Number T9-0073
Page Number 345C

December 13, 1902 Mariposa Gazette
CASTANETTO, Giovanni, Another Pioneer Gone.
CASTAGNETTO- In San Francisco, December 9, Giovanni, dearly beloved husband of Elizabeth CASTAGNETTO and loving father of Edward, George, Fred and Walter CASTAGNETTO and Mrs. James A. DEVOTO, a native of Italy, aged 64 years.
Giovanni CASTAGNETTO was one of the early residents of this county. He came to Bear Valley when a small boy and lived there until the later part of the 70's. He conducted a store there for a number of years.

December 20, 1902 Mariposa Gazette:
Tribute from a Friend. CASTAGNETTO, Giovanni
The following lines from the pen of an intimate acquaintance of the late Giovanni CASTAGNETTO, whose death was mentioned in these columns last week. The sentiment here expressed is shared by all the old friends of the deceased:
"The writer of this has known him over 40 years, during which time the strongest friendship has existed.
"Mr. CASTAGNETTO came to Bear Valley in 1854 and entered into business which he successfully followed until his removal to San Francisco in 1875, at which place he has been a successful merchant until his death.
"He married Miss Lizzie GOURNET, sister of the wife of Frank POTHAST of Mt. Bullion, in 1869. Many old Mariposans remember the wedding as it was a notable event owing to the generous hospitality of the occasion and that hospitality of the occasion and that hospitality
has been kept up to this time in his San Francisco home.
" Liberal and generous to the last degree, friends and acquaintances were always welcome to his home and table. His heart and purse were open to relieve the needy. Many eyes that read this will moisten at the memories of his kindness in former days. Soft and kindly words will be spoken of him who now sleeps.
" Sweet and dreamless be thy slumber, old and true friend, and may
thy awakening be happy and glorious, and until then fare thee well.
From his friend,
John W. WILCOX."
San Francisco, Dec. 15, 1902.65