Coal Oil Billy, Howard Avenue Resident

Thanks to a donation of a Scrapbook from the 1930’s we have learnt about another interesting Burlingamer nicknamed Coal Oil Billy. According to a newspaper clipping dated June 29, 1935, Mr. William Tostman lived in “a shack” at 1549 Howard Avenue.  When Coal Oil Billy died at age 79 after he was injured by an automobile on El Camino and Ralston, a treasure hunt began!

The story begins with Billy and his mother, Mrs. Amelia Tostman, coming to Burlingame after the 1906 earthquake and buying a piece of property from the Burlingame Land Company.  When his mother died, Billy scattered her ashes over his garden and continued to live in his shack on Howard for almost a quarter of a century. 

Billy loved to collect but his chief love was five-gallon cans.  He used them for cooking, for storage, for watering cans, storing his property deeds, his bedding, his tax bills and some thought his fortune!  Although Billy slept on a bag of rags and wore tattered clothes, they also discovered carefully folded 14 suits, including two tuxedos, amongst his belongings.  Billy would make an annual trip to San Francisco dressed in one of his tuxedos!

Billy’s life was simple.  He would do odd jobs around Burlingame – a little gardening, house cleaning, window washing and after being struck by an automobile, one of three such accidents, he did no more.  He would cook his own meals by making up a batch of two-week stew, the ingredients of which included powdered charcoal.  He would spend his day at his favorite pool hall reminiscing about his days as a prospector working in the mines with Harry Hatch.  Billy would keep warm in the pool hall until 10:00 or 11:00 at night and then return to his shack.

Billy had sent a map to his brother which was marked “cache” approximately 75 feet from his shack.   It seems that Billy sold a piece of San Francisco property which is now occupied by one of the pillars of the bay bridge and the currency was secured from a Burlingame bank in exchange for gold in the 1930’s.  His fortune was $6,000.

A guard was on duty while the search continued. His shack was hauled away; the overgrown shrubbery and trees were uprooted. They found old newspapers, pick axes, axe heads, footballs, golf balls, rotted lumber, his bedding, clothing, rusty iron pipes and his belongings scattered around his property but their search never resulted in finding Coal Oil Billy’s $6,000!

Has Coal Oil Billy’s fortune been discovered in the years between 1935 and 2006?