Volume 90, Number 1 - California Historical Society

Miller’s friendship with the journalist John P. Irish (1843–1923) dated to the first year of his return to San
Francisco. In the February 1914 issue of Out West magazine, Irish described Miller’s influence: “There
occurred at his mountain home certain things which in literary interest have probably not been equaled
in the history of any genius. . . . The arms of his hospitality were opened to the maimed and spent and the
stranger, who, in the atmosphere that was around him discovered talents that they had not suspected.”
Charles Wood Irish Papers, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa
The Irrepressible John P . Irish . . . Colonel
John P. Irish was a dervish. Prior to
arriving in California in 1882 at the
age of thirty-nine, he had trained as a
lawyer, served two terms in the Iowa
legislature, run for governor, and been
publisher of the Iowa State Press. Within
six or seven years of arriving in Oakland,
he became editor and chief owner
of the Oakland Times and the last managing
editor of San Francisco’s venerable
Daily Alta. 1 Within that same period,
he served on a committee to oversee
the Southern Pacific, led another committee
to overhaul the city’s sewer system,
and was elected head of the West
Oakland Improvement Association.
Simultaneously, he shared responsibility
for the Home for the Adult Blind and
the Women’s Sheltering and Protective
Home. In sum, for the next forty years,
he was ubiquitous as a civic leader,
writer, and speaker.
Large, with an oversized head, and
(later) flowing white hair—and always
without a tie—this public figure poured
himself into conservative causes. He
opposed women’s right to vote, Prohibition,
and the ceding of Yosemite
to the federal government. He campaigned
nationwide against silver and
for the gold standard. Ambrose Bierce,
not a fan of Irish, nevertheless recognized,
in a backhanded way, his omnipresence:
“Ah, no, this is not Hell,” I cried;
“The preachers ne’er so greatly lied.
“This is Earth’s spirit glorified!
“Good souls do not in Hades dwell,
“And, look, there’s John P. Irish!”
“Well,The Voice said,
“that’s what makes it Hell.” 2
From 1894 to 1910, Irish held the sinecure
(which earned him the title of
Colonel) of Naval Officer of Customs,
Port of San Francisco. He never gave
up farming, eventually operating a
thousand acres near Bakersfield. In the
penultimate year of his life, he made a
triumphant visit to Japan, where he was
received as a hero, since he had campaigned
ardently against Asian discrimination
laws. He was greeted by Yone
Noguchi, a member of the Japanese
parliament, who, as a stowaway at age
thirteen, wandered into West Oakland
and the Irish home. The family took
him in and educated him. According to
the lore, this future parliamentarian was
the first Japanese the Iowa native had
ever seen.
47