William H. McCarthy scrapbooks

Title: William H. McCarthy scrapbooks

Dates: 1911-1955

Collection Number: SFH 651

Creator/Collector: McCarthy, William H., 1877-1958

Extent: 3 cartons

Repository: San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center

Abstract: Scrapbooks of a San Francisco supervisor, Pacific Coast League president, and San Francisco postmaster

Language of Material: English

The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours, with photographs available during Photo Desk hours. Collections that are stored offsite should be requested 48 hours in advance.

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.

William H. McCarthy scrapbooks. San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center

Gift, 2021-46

William Henry McCarthy was born in San Francisco in 1877. He was the grandson of Dennis McCarthy, one of the founders of the United Workingmen’s Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1868. William McCarthy attended St. Peter’s School and was described as a protégé of Fr. Peter Yorke. Graduating from Lowell High School, he went on to manage the Company at age 20. He was involved in local Democratic Party politics as early as 1903, when he was a municipal convention delegate. Later, he was Democratic County Committee secretary in San Francisco. In 1904 he played second base for the Mission Maroons baseball team. He was involved with the Mission district relief effort following the 1906 earthquake and fire and was secretary of the Mission Promotion Association when it formed in May 1906. McCarthy was appointed to the Board of Fire Commissioners in October 1907 and served as President into 1910. He was elected to the Board of Supervisors, serving one four-year term ending in January 1916. Still active in baseball circles, in October 1919 he was elected President of the Pacific Coast League, ending his term in November 1923. In 1924 he sold United Workingmen’s Boot and Shoe to the firm of Buckingham and Hecht. He married schoolteacher Retta Haynes in 1926 and became president of the Mission baseball club the same year. He was named Northern California manager of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential campaign in March 1932, and later that year was named vice-chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee. McCarthy was appointed Postmaster at San Francisco in July 1933. He retired in 1948 and died in San Francisco in 1958.

The fourteen scrapbooks document McCarthy’s varied activities during the period 1911-1955, though there is a dearth of material from about 1927 through 1932. Volumes generally cover one year. His term as president of the Pacific Coast League is well documented in six scrapbooks. The most significant activity of this period was McCarthy’s investigation and discipline of ball players for gambling and “throwing games,” with McCarthy banning players and professional gamblers from PCL ballparks. The December 1926 scrapbook includes clippings and personal correspondence relating to his marriage to Retta Haynes. The last volume spans roughly twenty years, chiefly covering his career as Postmaster for San Francisco. News clippings, while numerous, are accompanied by much ephemera, including tickets for sporting events, guest passes, McCarthy’s membership cards for various organizations, programs for honorary luncheons and dinners, theater programs, convention programs, political campaign material. Most original photographs are pasted in, with captions, and are also represented in published newspaper articles. Correspondence with governmental, civic, baseball, religious and business officials, as well as with personal acquaintances, is spread throughout. Golf tournaments at the Olympic Club/Lakeside are documented, as are occasional boxing matches. Letters of Mayor James Rolph, an early mentor of McCarthy’s, are found in the scrapbooks. McCarthy was active with the San Francisco Club, which supported the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, and there are numerous photographs of many luncheons and dinners for, and public events at the Museum, along with letters from Michel de Young scattered throughout. McCarthy, an Irish Catholic, was a member of the League of the Cross Cadets in his youth, and there are clippings and ephemera about the organization. His membership in the Knights of Columbus is documented with membership cards, souvenir dinner programs, and clippings. He supported various Catholic institutions in San Francisco, and letters from Rev. Richard A. Gleeson, Archbishop Hanna, priests and religious sisters are included. Small artifacts are occasionally found, including the miniature spade souvenir from President Taft’s 1911 visit, and McCarthy’s campaign for Assessor button, 1916.