him that the directors of the company would hold a meeting at the Blake
and Moffitt Building on the corner of Eighth and Broadway, Oakland, on
May 2, 1906. Who really located them, scattered as they were, and finally
got them together, has remained an unexplained mystery. It must have
been either the president or Chief Clerk Shallenberger. The late Mr.
James Moffitt, a stockholder in the company and the owner of the
building named, kindly secured for us two rooms in that building for an
office. They were on the third floor facing Broadway and the location
and the habitat of the company was disclosed by a canvas sign which,
banner-like, hung upon the outer wall proclaiming this to be the office
of the California Insurance Company. For furniture, there was a flat top
desk and a typewriter (both secondhand) and the balance of the equipment
was handmade, of ordinary lumber, by a local carpenter. There was not
very much cash among those thus assembled, but, fortunately, the company
had maintained a deposit in an Oakland bank and this was immediately
available for checking purposes.



First Meeting of the Board of Directors



Quietly and almost silently the directors gathered. The only emotion
apparent was that of the usual caution shown by men of large affairs who
meet to face a crisis. The president called the meeting to order and
stated that the object of the gathering was to inform the directors that
the company was heavily involved in the conflagration which visited San
Francisco on April 18, 19 and 20, 1906, that the amount of which
obligations was at present unknown, that they overshadowed the resources