When I was of preschool age in the 1950s my mother's method of discipline when we traveled about in public was to inform me that if I didn't behave myself I'd have to sit in the car alone while she did her shopping, got the mail, or visited friends and relatives. My mother was a well-versed, lifelong practitioner of the art of conversation, so a simple trip into Mendosa's Store could seem an eternity to a three or four-year-old confined to a Ford station wagon with nothing but one's own imagination for entertainment. As readers might easily gather, I learned quickly to tag along quietly with Mom.
At some point in my early childhood development I grew aware of the concept of foundlings, orphans, and adopted children. I even developed a detailed tale of how Australian gypsies had left me on the doorstep at the Macdonald ranch. This ploy was usually pulled out at times when things were not going my childish way at the aforesaid ranch, but neither Mr. or Mrs. Macdonald took this to heart, as evidenced by their willingness to claim me as their own throughout their relatively long lives.
Other children were not so fortunate in their selection of parents. Witness this account from 1926:
Mr. and Mrs. R.J. Murray of Fort Bragg called at the garage of James Maksente on West Street in Healdsburg the first Sunday of June to purchase a pair of tires for their automobile, telling Mr. Maksente that they were bound for home in Fort Bragg when the old casings would not hold out for the length of the trip. Mrs. Murray carried a giggly, blue-eyed, six-month-old baby boy in her arms and while her husband was attempting to conclude a transaction with Maksente it became clear that Mr. Murray was lacking in the needed funds.
Mr. Murray offered to leave the baby with Mr. Maksente, garage man, until he (Mr. Murray) could obtain the necessary funds to pay the bill. At this point Mr. Maksente telephoned to his wife, describing the situation. Apparently, the Maksentes, being childless, accepted the proposition put to them by the Murrays.
At this point Mr. Maksente helped Mr. Murray mount the two new tires, valued at $12.50. The infant was transferred into Maksente's arms and the Murrays wended their way north to Mendocino County and its coast.
The public notoriety given the Murrays once the proposition was printed in newspapers was one thing, but Sonoma County legal authorities read the papers too. District Attorney George W. Hoyle as well as Sonoma County Probation Officer John P. Plover commenced an investigation into the unusual transaction.
In the meantime Mr. and. Mrs. Murray returned to Healdsburg where Mr. Murray was promptly arrested on a charge of petit larceny on a warrant sworn out by H.G. Grant, a Cloverdale merchant, who accused Murray of having stolen a dress from his store during the previous week.
Both the Murrays and Maksente denied to authorities that the baby was pawned over to the garage owner. Mr. Murray claimed he had promised to pay $1 per day for the infant's care until he and/or his wife returned for the child.
Law enforcement was having none of Murray's excuses. Probation Officer Plover escorted Murray to Santa Rosa and lodged him in the county jail. Mrs. Murray was also detained pending a hearing of the case in the Sonoma County court system. Readers would presume that among other queries Mrs. Murray's motives in the matter would have come into question.
Meanwhile, the auto was returned to Maksente's garage where he removed the unpaid for tires. Newspaper accounts made mention that Mr. Murray was of Portuguese ancestry and that seemingly his original name was Antone Maria. He had been residing in Fort Bragg for several years, making some sort of name for himself as a local prizefighter.
The Sonoma County Probation Office filed a petition to have the infant, whose name was Roy, declared a ward of the juvenile court. Mr. and Mrs. Maksente expressed a desire to adopt the child.
A somewhat bizarre followup twist on this story was recounted in a Healdsburg Tribune story precisely two years after the “tire baby” affair: “The 18 month old baby boy which has been in the Maksente home since it was a few days old, was taken from the local couple to Ukiah where it will likely be put in a home of some kind...
“The child was taken away from Maksente by Probation Officer John Plover, upon request by the Mendocino county probation officer […] Maksente was endeavoring to get papers of adoption for the child when the opposition occurred. It appears Maksente brought the child here from Ukiah when the latter was only a few days old, after the parents, whose name could not be learned, had given him permission to take it to his home to bring up.
“Maksente, proprietor of a West street tire store, recently bought a small ranch near Lytton and it was the home there that was visited by the officials this week.”
This was not the “tire baby” as the Healdsburg Tribune article finally makes clear: “Maksente received state-wide newspaper publicity two years ago when he obtained from some tourists, a laughing, blue-eyed baby boy in exchange for some automobile tires. He kept that child only a few days and was forced to part with it when the law interfered and brought the negligent parents to task. It was not many months afterward that it was announced Mr. and Mrs. Maksente were the parents of a little son, and the child has been regarded here as a son of the local people since that time.”
(Spare tales, if not tires, traded freely at: malcolmmacdonaldoutlawford.com)
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