From 1864 or 1865 until his death in 1880, Emperor Norton is documented to have been a resident of the Eureka Lodgings, at 624 Commercial Street between Montgomery and Kearny, in San Francisco.

The two book-length biographies of Emperor Norton fleshed out those bones with the names of the landlords…

In 1939, Allen Stanley Lane noted that the Emperor's landlord at the Eureka was David Hutchinson.

In 1986, William Drury added the detail that Hutchinson was preceded at the Eureka by Aaron Babcock, who probably was the landlord who took on the Emperor at the Eureka. (Drury mistranscribed Babcock's first name as "Alfred.")

Our latest discovery — a part of the Emperor’s story that we believe is documented here for the first time — reveals that David Hutchinson and Aaron Babcock had much more in common than a famous tenant whose residency at the Eureka Lodgings stretched across both of their proprietorships.

The connection is to do with a marriage that probably was a significant — perhaps the most significant — reason why Emperor Norton's living arrangements at the Eureka were so amenable and so secure for so many years.

Read on to learn who was the groom and who was the bride.

Documentation included — as always.