Legally unrelated to that lab’s operation, but using its money, the two women started buying property in San Francisco under various different companies.
Of course, anyone with knowledge of history in 1903 would know that the San Francisco earthquake was going to happen in April 1906, and while time travel can do many things, it’s unlikely to change when earthquakes happen. There also were many massive fires, which in theory could be changed by time travelers, but there were so many and their starting locations were fairly unknown so that also would not have been alterable.
But they knew this, and indeed the younger Dr. Marie Equi had helped in the aftermath of that earthquake and massive fire. She knew exactly what had happened, and she likely had done additional research.
So from 1903 to 1906, the two women, in various guises, gobbled up very selective parts of San Francisco real estate, through a system of lawyers. They ended up owning about 10% of the city although their public face was much smaller, just a dozen buildings under a holding company called Commonwealth Next.
They were understood to be wealthy widows from New York, named Elizabeth Beccari and Marie Mullins, who had teamed up to form a real estate investment company, and were reasonably welcomed into the San Francisco elites. They eventually befriended former mayor James Phelan and Rudolph Spreckels, and started secretly working with those two on the anti-corruption project attempting to take down Abe Ruef, the power behind the mayor’s office.
When the fire happened, they had calculated almost perfectly where the fire would go. Records show fire very slightly damaged one of their building’s walls, either due to a miscalculation or just a slight change altering the fire slightly. Everything else was untouched.
By the time the fires were over, history researches estimate that their real estate holdings were approximately 40% of all undestroyed property in the city, after the fire had destroy 80% of everything.
They then marched into the ‘Committee of Fifty’ and basically took it over. This was a somewhat odd committee of important people in the city, civil leaders, union leaders, and newspaper men, formed literally during the emergency, without any legal authority, by the Mayor, who realized immediate action was needed if the city wasn’t going to collapse into chaos after four fifths of it had burned down.
And the two had immediate action. And intact buildings. They seemed to be ahead of everyone, knowing exactly what was going need to happen, who would be best at what. They also promised to spend their money to providing temporary housing, and purchase food, and put in all sorts of money personally, shaming everyone else into going along.
Of course, the buildings they were renting were their own. The cans of food they ‘purchased’ had been purchased well in advance and stored outside the city. In a sense, it was entirely a scam. In the original timeline, for a week after the earthquake and devastating fire, the situation was defined by lack of information and communication and logistics, barely haphazardly managed by the Committee of Fifty.
Here, these two women knew everything in advance, and were ten steps ahead of everyone and everything.
The con was all very calculated, and worked perfectly. They were literally the heroes of the town.
By the end of the year, they were arguable some of the most powerful people in San Francisco…especially after Federal prosecutors took down Abe Ruef and corrupt mayor Eugene Schmitz, which happened faster than it had in the original timeline, likely due to Marie and Elizbeth knowing exactly where to point the prosecutors, in secret.
They then encouraged and helped elect Mayor Fremont Older, and historically it’s clear they were the power behind him, and presumably had convinced him to run to start with because this is the only timeline that he did so.
Back in 1904, they had hired Julia Morgan, the first woman to obtain an architecture license in California, paying her the man’s rate for various small projects that, in retrospect, were less about the products themselves and more about building an association with her, which meant in 1906, when they needed someone to rebuild the city, she was the obvious choice, and Mayor Older wholeheartedly agreed.
By 1907, they essentially owned the hearts and minds of San Francisco.
They then proceeded to sell off a large chunk of their holdings. They wanted influence, not property. They had something else entirely in mind for that money