Born and reared in
Pennsylvania, Ivory went West at the age of 21 to seek his fortune in
the pine forests of Wisconsin. After five years in the lumber business
he returned home.
In 1858, Ivory traveled
to San Francisco via New York and Panama. After a short while he
relocated to Contra Costa County, on a place known as the "Cook Ranch"
in Green Valley.
Ivory conducted the
fourth and last legal hanging in the county in the year 1874.
Elizabeth Eichler, a
"homicidal maniac", was intent on killing her husband,
Valentine, and enlisted the assistance of hired hand Charles Martin to
get the job done. To insure his cooperation, Elizabeth convinced Martin
that her husband was mistreating her, and moreover, that she loved
Martin and wished to go away with him.
After several attempts
to poison and a plan to shoot Valentine failed, Martin grew
disinterested in Elizabeth and her schemes. It was during a severe
argument with her husband that Elizabeth finally took an axe to his head
and embedded it in his skull. Per her instructions, Martin participated
in an unsuccessful cover up story.
Before his execution,
Charles Martin proclaimed on the scaffold, "Gentleman, I am here on this
platform to die an innocent man. The woman deserves ten times as much to
die."
Elizabeth Eichler never
stood trial. Two court-appointed physicians pronounced her insane and
she was admitted to Stockton State Hospital, where she died ten years
later.
After his terms as
sheriff, Ivory was appointed by the Clay Street Bank of San Francisco as
superintendent of their 13,000-acre ranch known as the "Marsh Grant".
