Montgomery, Captain John Berrien

US naval captain, of the USS Portsmouth, who raised the US flag over the Plaza of San Francisco in 1846.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Montgomery

Richardson, William A.

British sailor and early California colonist; founder of San Francisco and Saucelito.

http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=WILLIAM_RICHARDSON_AND_YERBA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Richardson

Crowley, Thomas

Asbury thanks Thomas Crowley, among others, for help with sources for his book The Barbary Coast. This is perhaps the same Thomas Crowley who began as a whitehall boatman on San Francisco Bay, and went on to found Crowley Maritime.

http://www.crowley.com/About-Us/History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowley_Maritime

In 1967, Crowley sat for an oral history interview on his recollections of San Francisco's waterfront:

digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/crowley_thomas_waterfront__w.pdf

McGee, Patrick

Asbury thanked police Sergeant Patrick McGee among his sources for the book. McGee was a long-time police officer, who had joined the force before the Spanish-American War. He wrote a history of the San Francisco Police Department in 1928.

Boland, James

"Policeman James Boland and friends" (San Francisco Public Library). The man to Boland's right looks a bit like Herbert Asbury.

Asbury listed police Lieutenant James Boland among those he thanked as sources for his book The Barbary Coast. A year after the book was published, Boland would be acting chief, overseeing a hunger strike by political prisoners in the aftermath of the 1934 general strike.

"Acting Police Chief James Boland showing a gun" to Mayor Rossi and other members of a "crime commission." (San Francisco Public Library)

Quinn, William J.

William J. Quinn, from sanfranciscopolice.org

William J. Quinn was San Francisco Chief of Police at the time of Asbury's research. He reportedly had started off his career as a beat cop on the Barbary Coast.

http://www.onlinebiographies.info/ca/sf/quinn-wj.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Quinn

Fay, Luke

Luke Fay was a longtime San Franciscan and heir to a soapmaking fortune. He was an amateur historian interested in early San Francisco, and is listed by Asbury as one of his sources for the Barbary Coast.

More information on the Fay family:

https://rhnsf.org/history/houses/the-fay-berrigan-residence/