REPOST
The Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party, consisting of ten pioneer families, left Iowa on May 22, 1844 and was the first wagon train to cross Donner Pass into California. One member of that party, Sarah Armstrong Montgomery, was eighteen years old and married to Allen Montgomery. The couple eventually settled in San Francisco. Not much is known about their life together, but in 1847 Allen Montgomery set sail for Hawaii on business, never to be heard from again. Two years later she married Talbot Green.
Talbot Green arrived in California in 1841, where he immediately established himself as a well respected merchant and civic leader. In 1849 he moved to San Francisco and married Sarah Montgomery. He had a street named after him when he and six other business leaders formed The Society of California Pioneers, whose goal was to cultivate social connections and preserve the history of the early pioneers[1]. But in 1851, two years into his marriage and while Sarah was pregnant with their only son, Green was called out in public for being an impostor. He was quickly exposed as Paul Geddes, a married man and father wanted for bank fraud in Pennsylvania. When he could no longer deny the truth, Green told Sarah that he was returning to Pennsylvania to clear his name. He instead fled to Panama, leaving a $450 stipend to be paid to Sarah every month. He eventually moved back to Pennsylvania, reunited with his family, and paid his debts. Sarah divorced Green in 1854 and, aged 29, married Joseph Wallis, a lawyer and future State Senator. They moved to Santa Clara County where Sarah would have four additional children and live until her death in 1905.
At the corner of Green and The Embarcadero, there are six bronze plaques embedded in the sidewalk commemorating Talbot Green’s life. One of them reads in part: “Green Street had already been named for this prominent pioneer citizen and San Franciscans kept his name, perhaps as a reminder that in this city of new arrivals, not every man came wearing his true identity.”
[1] Pioneer Hall is located in the Presidio and open to the public. Visit them at https://www.californiapioneers.org
