This book is dedicated to Bub Clow - By his son Norman Clow

The information in this booklet was written by Elinor and Bub Clow and presented by Elinor at the various District meeting from 1994 to 1996. The material was given to Clara Wilson of the LaSoNaMe/Vineyard District. At the death of Clara, Robin Lindsey asked the family for this book and we were very happy to receive the document.

This is from their son Norman Clow, “I think a dedication to my dad is in perfect order, as my mom evidently had in mind. As many of you might know, my mother was almost entirely blind for most of her adult life, and my dad willingly acted as her eyes for over 50 years, the result being that he gave up a lot of his own life to that end. For this project, as for many others, he was also her loyal narrater, proof-reader, collater, chauffeur, recording secretary, and finder of all mis-placed items. Not bad for a man often more comfortable on a horse, training a young sheep dog, making applesauce, playing with his grandkids, or listening to a Giants baseball game on the radio.

My mom was an amazing historian who combined her education in history at the University of California at Berkeley with her natural talent for research, writing and teaching to make a valuable contribution to local history preservation, and who never let little things like lack of eyesight stop her from living her life to the fullest extent possible.

My sister Janice Miller joins me in thanking Mary Darling and all the others who helped bring this book to fruition, and agrees that if Mother were to write a dedication, it would probably go something like this: ‘To my husband Bub, who gave up so much of his life so that I might live mine.’ ”

ANDERSON VALLEY CFWC California History and Landmarks

Anderson Valley was rather unique in northern California, for while it was bordered on the east by three Mexican land grants and on the west by two land grants, it had been overlooked. It only had to be discovered to be homesteaded and settled and it was the Walter Anderson family that discovered it.

In the Babcock Cemetery on the Mountain View Road there is a monument that reads in part, “Rhonda Couch, born in Kentucky, 1805; married Isaac Beeson, 1826; married Walter Anderson, 1840; Died, 1857. She is my Woman in History today, for she typifies the pioneer women who helped settle the west. She is Anderson Valley’s Pioneer Woman.

In the 1830s Isaac Beeson moved his family to Missouri. He died there, leaving Rhoda with three children. In 1840 she married a widower, Walter Anderson, at Boonville, Missouri. He had kids, she had kids and they had kids and they joined a wagon train bound for California in 1845. Her daughter, Martha, and his older children stayed behind, but Henry Beeson, 17, and Isaac, 16, and three of Walter’s children, made the journey with the two youngest ones. They reached Sacramento and were camping near Sutter’s Fort when their little daughter Rhoda was born; the first white child born in that area. Can you imagine traveling pregnant on that long journey!

They moved on to Sonoma, and then to Dry Creek near Healdsburg when young Henry was caught up in the excitement of the movement for California independence. He was the youngest member of the Bear Flag Party and a monument in the Babcock Cemetery recognizes him as the oldest and last survivor.

The family moved on to the Lower Lake area and it is recorded that Rhoda Anderson was the first woman settler in Lake County. In the fall of 1850 the young men were on a hunting trip into Sonoma County when they followed a wounded elk over the hills and came out at Burger Rock above the Forestry Station and saw this beautiful valley spread before them; perhaps the first white men to see it.

They went back with such glowing reports that in the spring of 1851 Walter Anderson brought his family to the valley which would be open to homesteading. They camped just west of the present airport and Ornbaun Road and were beginning to make logs for a cabin when the Indians came and made signs for them to get out. They hurried to get out and Rhoda was so frightened that she simply gathered her small children and left her spinning wheel behind.

They went back to Dry Creek and in 1852 returned to the valley. This time other families, names unknown, came with them. Walter and Rhoda led the way down into the valley, each riding horseback with a small child behind the saddle. Again they camped on the west side and built a cabin that stood for over 100 years on property much later owned by the Canerass’s. Mr. Anderson began raising cattle and pigs that had to be driven over the hills and down to Petaluma to market.

In 1852 J.D. Ball came from Wisconsin and settled near Con Creek. He is credited with planting the first apple orchard in the valley. Other settlers were coming in and sheep were introduced.

In 1854 the Prather-Burgess party was the first to settle in the mid-valley. When a settlement grew, Cornelius Prather was authorized to open a post office and he named it Philo for a cousin.

Several families came from Switzerland in 1855 and took up land near a great stand of redwoods at the lower and of the valley. John Gschwend built a mill and the house he built is still occupied by his great granddaughter, Esther Clark and her husband, Earl. His daughter, Christine, born in 1857, was the first white child born in the valley. When a post office was authorized for the little hamlet, it was named Christine. The Conrads were one of the families. Leila Rose Rohmer told me that her great-grandmother Conrad insisted on moving farther up the valley, for she was afraid the bears would eat her baby. They moved up to what would become the Schoenahl place near Anderson Creek Bridge.

Also in 1857 the Ingrams came and settled near the Prathers. And in 1857 Rhoda Anderson died. The valley was getting a little too crowded for Mr. Anderson. He sold out to Joseph Rawles and may have taken his family back to Dry Creek. But Henry Beeson stayed. He had acquired his own property and his mother, Rhoda was buried on his land. Our member Ruby Hulbert and her family are descendants of Rhoda Anderson.

A settlement called “The Corners” was growing up around the place where the byways to Ukiah, Cloverdale and Point Arena intersected. There was a general store and a blacksmith shop and in the 1860’s a Mr. Levi and Mr. Straus made the first Levis there. A Mr. Kendall built a hotel about a mile north and their store was moved there. After Mr. W.W. Boone took over Kendall City became Boonville. There was some objection to a saloon being built there, but the proprietor said he was going to build it anyhow and that is what it was, the “Anyhow Saloon.”

The Valley grew like so many rural areas, with one room district schools, churches and farms. The Methodists held meetings in homes until the present Boonville church was built in 1878. About that time the Boonville Hotel was built and one of its early guests was Frank James, who was hiding out there after he and his brother, Jesse, had failed in the Northfield Bank robbery.

In 1904 a shingle mill was built at the deep end of the valley and it became a lumber mill where the bustling mill town Wendling was laid out. When the mill became the Navarro Lumber Company, the town’s name officially became Navarro.

In 1906 Jack London and his wife, Charmian, made a horseback trip through the Valley, gathering background material for a book.

In 1923 there was an important change in Anderson Valley. A fine new Union High School replaced the cluster of cabins that had served since the high school was started in 1913. It immediately became a community center. The high school principal’s wife, Jeanette Hendricks organized the Unity Club. It was the first organization that brought women from out at Yorkville and through the Valley to Navarro together in one activity. This year the Unity Club is celebrating 70 years in Federation.

Elinor Clow - District Meeting - October 1994

BENICIA CFWC California History and Landmarks

For some of us it may have seemed enough to know that the town of Benicia, named for General Vallejo’s wife, was the first -- or was it the second -- capitol of California, and the Benicia Arsenal played an important part in our wars. However, Benicia has a rich cultural and historical heritage and deserves our attention.

Young General Mariana Guadalupe Vallejo, who had been Commandante of the San Francisco Presidio, was sent in 1835 to be Commandante general of Mexican territory north of San Francisco Bay to the Russian zone. His own land grant extended from the Petaluma Adobe to Carquinez Straits.

His headquarters were at the village of Sonoma, where the last of the missions was already closed. He had orders not to grant or sell land to foreigners, but he came to believe that law and order would best come with the Americans and he ignored the rules. In 1846 he transferred his Rancho Suscol on the north shore of the Straits to Dr. Robert Semple, publisher of the Californian, and Thomas Larkin, the only U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, with the stipulation that a town established there would be named for his wife, Francesca. When the settlers at Yerba Buena changed its name to San Francisco, the developers on the Straits used Francesca’s second name, Benicia.

The town flourished, thought it never became the metropolitan center Vallejo envisioned. In 1847 one of California’s first hotels was built there by Mr. Stephen Cooper. The California House was the scene of the town’s first wedding when his daughter was married to Dr. Semple. In 1854 it was remodeled into a brewery. Also in 1847, a store was built by a Mr. Von Fistre, with goods shipped from Honolulu. From its steps Charles Bennett announced John Marshall’s discovery of gold. The town was a natural pathway to the gold fields and many gold seekers became settlers. Admission of California into the Union brought more stability. The establishment of an army post in 1849 and then the Benicia Arsenal made it the military headquarters of the west under Commander Stockton. Shops and warehouses were built along the wharves and it became a coaling station for river boats.

In 1839 California’s first Presbyterian Church was built in Benicia; the site later became a city park. Another first, California’s first Masonic Lodge Hall was built here in 1851. In 1853 the ground floor was used by the legislature while the new state capitol was being built. Sacramento had offered a million dollars to be named the capitol, but a disastrous fire had leveled part of the city and Benicia was named the capitol. [Note: Research for Vallejo showed it had been named the first capitol.] The legislature moved into the new capitol in 1854, but in a few months moved permanently to Sacramento. The new State House was used as the Solano County Court House until Fairfield was named the county Seat. Then it became a grammar school until it was turned into a museum and library.

Benicia was the site of California’s first Episcopal Cathedral, built in 1860. In the 1970s I remember attending Lasoname [La-so-na-me]* District meetings in the beautiful old church. A boy’s academy built in 1852 later was the site of St. Augustine’s Episcopal College in 1867.

A girl’s seminary was also established in 1852. It was bought by Mr. & Mrs. Cyrus Mills, who moved it to Oakland in 1860 and it became Mills College.

A group of Dominican friars, led by Father Villarosa, organized St.Dominic’s Church in 1854. Buried in the cemetery there is Sister Dona Maria Concepcion Arguello and she is my Woman in History today.

Her story is immortalized in a poem by Bret Harte and in other writings. She was hardly sixteen when her father, Don Jose Arguello, commandante of the San Francisco Presidio, was visited by young Count Rezanov, seeking food supplies for the Russian settlement at Sitka. He and Dona Concepcion fell in love. Her father consented to their marriage; however, the Count had to get permission from the Czar. So, Rezanov set out on the long journey back to Russia. Years passed and he never returned. At last, Dona Concepcion joined the Dominican Sisters Convent at Monterey. Later she learned the Rezanov had died on the journey home. When St. Catherine’s School was moved to Benicia in 1854 she taught there until she died in 1859.

Elinor Clow - District Meeting - August 1994

* La so na me was changed to Vineyard District in 1993

CLEAR LAKE CFWC California History and Landmarks

Here at Clear Lake, we have reached the last corner of La Frontera Del Norte. We can't think of it yet as Lake County, for in 1850 the California legislature had as much trouble organizing the county boundaries as it did where to put the new capitol. It included all of Clear Lake in Mendocino County, then in 1852, it moved the Napa County boundary northward and made a line through Clear Lake.

If it were still in effect, all of Clearlake Park, Clearlake Highlands, Clearlake Oaks, Lucerne, Nice and Upper Lake would be in Mendocino County and the rest of the lakeshore would be in Napa County. In 1855, the Napa line was moved farther north to include all of Clear Lake. Finally, in 1961, Lake County was formed and includes all of Clear Lake. Since most of these communities were founded later, I am going back to the beginning of Lower Lake and East Lake.

When the first fur trappers and scouts found their way into the area in the 1830's, coming over the shoulder of Mt. St. Helena or from the Sacramento Valley, they found scattered villages of sometimes hostile Miwok, Wapo and Pomo Indians. One of the scouts was Caleb Greenwood who would be the first to reach the Donner Party and would later spend some time on the Mendocino Coast where the town of Greenwood, now Elk, was named for him.

In Sonoma, Indians told of a great lake beyond the Mayacamas and as early as 1837, General Vallejo's son-in-law kept cattle in Coyote and Lakanoma Valleys. General Vallejo's brother Salvatore led a party of soldiers to explore, but did not find the country attractive for settling. However, in 1844, General Vallejo awarded Salvatore and another brother, Juan Antonio, a grant that included "the entire sheet of water known as Clear Lake and its surrounding land." This included the land from what is now Upper Lake around to Scotts Valley and Big Valley, and the present site of Kelseyville. They used it for raising cattle but there is no evidence they even built a cabin. By 1848, Salvatore had sold the last of his holding to Charles Stone and Kelsey brothers, Andy and Benjamin. There was later much litigation when the U.S. courts denied the legality of the grant.

In 1845, two Mexican grants were made. Tobert Ridley, a British sailor who had become a Mexican citizen was awarded the Callayomi Grant that took in Lakanoma and Long Valleys and would surround Middletown. Joining it on the south, the Guenoc Grant was given to George Roch who had been Jacob Leis's agent. It included all of Long Valley and the northern tip of Napa Valley.

The first white family to settle in the area has a familiar name. Walter Anderson, his wife Rhoda Beeson Anderson, two of his sons, two of her sons and three of their small children came across the plains to the Sutter Fort area in 1845. They moved on to Sonoma where his son William and her son Henry Beeson took part in the Bear Flag incident. They moved up to Clearlake in 1848 and built a cabin east of Lower Lake on Cache Creek. He was called "Bear" Anderson for he would only eat bear meat. In 1849 there was an uprising of the Indians in Big Valley as a result of the brutal treatment by the cattlemen. Walter Anderson rode over and when he was warned away by Indians and learned that Stone and the Kelsey brothers had been killed, he rode down to Sonoma to alert the U.S. soldiers. His place was one of the places used by the U.S. Army when they came to punish the Indians in 1850. On a hunting trip that fall, his sons discovered the unsettled Anderson Valley and in 1851, he moved his family there.

The Anderson Mountains may have been named for Walter, but Anderson Marsh was named for a later settler, a scotch immigrant named John Still Anderson. The first settler was Captain John Grigsby, a member of the Bear Flag party. He led the group who awakened and arrested General Vallejo. Grigsby build a cabin in 1846. After 1850, he acquired neighboring government land and in 1870 sold to the Clearwater Agricultural Improvement Association. They developed orchards and vineyards, raised hay and had dairy farms. In 1885 the company sold the land to John Anderson and with his wife and six children, operated a dairy farm and raised cattle. Members of the family continued operating the ranch until 1960. In 1982, it was acquired by the state and developed as Anderson Marsh State Park. The ranch house was remodeled several times and is the visitor's center. Besides preserving the unique marshland, the working archeological digs have provided historic evidence of Indian culture going back 10,000 years.

Nearby, the town of Lower Lake had grown into a busy community. It was first named Grantville and Mr. E. Mitchell built the first house in 1858. L.V. Thompson had a blacksmith shop, Herrick and Getz opened a store and C. Adams had a saloon. The first hotel was built in 1865. In 1876 a unique two-story schoolhouse was built and was used until 1933, when it was sold to the Masons. It is now a museum and the Park Study Club has been active in supporting it.

In 1852, Captain A.A. Richie and Wallace Forbes claimed the Callayomi Grant and opened it up to settlers. Nobel and Allan Copsey build a cabin and liked the country so much, they encouraged family and others to come from Missouri. A wagon train arrived in 1956 (1856). Many of the group settled around Excelsior Valley, which became known as the Copsey Settlement. Saphonia Copsey is credited with giving so many bible names to locations like Jerusalem Valley, Jericho and Paradise. The Rev. George Hansen and family came and his granddaughter Ella, born in 1859, was the first white child born in the area.

Captain Richie and Wallace Forbes also acquired the Guenoc Rancho in 1865 and opened it up to settlers. There were many cattle ranches, but vineyards had been planted as early as 1854. Settlers from the Lower Lake area to Coyote Valley found that grapes did well. The first commercial winery was founded in 1872 when David Voight planted vineyards near Copsey Creek. There were many vineyards but his was the only commercial winery until 1856. Many grape growers became winemakers and wineries came and went. The one that survived is the Guenoc Winery near Middletown which was founded by the glamorous actress Lily Langtry in 1888 and she is Our Woman in History today. George Bernard Shaw said of her "it is not right for her to be intelligent, daring and independent and be so lovely. It is a frightening compilation of attributes."

Lily LeBurton was born in 1853 on the Isle of Jersey, where her father was Dean of the church. She was well educated and longed for London. She married her brother's friend Edward Langtry from Southhampton in 1874. Later she admitted, "I met him and fell in love with his yacht" In London after the Prince of Wales noticed her, they were deluged with social invitations. Edward, who had lost most of his money, drew into the background and she decided to make her own living as an actress. She was a spectacular success, both dramatically and financially in London, Europe and America. She traveled to California and stayed to become an American citizen and get a divorce.

As a woman in California, she could own property, which she could not do in the east. She bought an old estate on the Guenoc Rancho and planned to raise race horses, but it was impractical to ship them east. She stayed with cattle and founded the Langtry Farms Winery in 1888. She had continued her career and with wise investments, was now one of the world's richest women. She sold the ranch in 1903 but left the memory of a fascinating and talented woman. Theodore Roosevelt said, "That woman is a real marvel and she is so pretty, it takes your breath away."

Elinor Clow - Vineyard District Meeting April 23, 1996

CLOVERDALE CFWC California History and Landmarks

It’s hard not to get carried away about Cloverdale, for I spent one of the happiest years of my life there, coming to Cloverdale High School as a freshman in 1928. I lived with my sister Lois and my Mother, who worked at the old telephone office. We lived with my grandparents, John and Daisy Lloyd, who were Cloverdale residents for over thirty years.

In 1847 the California Republic had been declared and the United states was at war with Mexico, but along Sulphur Creek and the Russian River there were only scattered villages of Pomo Indians. In this remote area of LaFrontera del Norte, Juan Berryessa and his party were exploring land for Mexico. He was awarded two land grants; Pasa La Mayoli and Rancho de Muscalon. In 1851 he sold his land to Johnson Horrel and settlers began to come.

In 1858 Horrel sold 750 acres to Martel & Miller for a trading post at McCray’s Hill and in 1859 they sold out to James A. Kleiser, including buildings and livestock. There was already a flour mill on Sulphur Creek owned by a Mr. Bowman, serving families as far away as Anderson Valley.

Kleiser, a successful builder, laid out the town and built his home of local bricks on the present site of the Sonoma County Library. The business district developed along West Street, now Cloverdale Blvd., not on Main Street to the east or on Commercial Street to the west. The oldest surviving structure is a two-story redwood building on West Street at the alley between First and Second. It was the only building in the block to survive the disastrous 1915 fire. In 1855 it was sold to Charles Mitchell, who had a saloon. It became a variety store, then a popular restaurant and is now a dress shop.

In 1861 Levi Casey and his family came by covered wagon from Wisconsin. They camped several days under the huge pepperwood tree that once stood at the edge of the sidewalk between Third and Fourth. They homesteaded on Pine Mountain, then moved into Cloverdale, where he became town marshal and was the first editor of the Reveille. The office building became the Scandia Cafe and is now being renovated. Casey's daughter Harriet married Abraham Bentley, who came from Nova Scotia and had a blacksmith shop. Their son Rufus married Christine Thompson and one of their four daughters, Barbara Bentley Peterson is a member of our Unity Club.

Cloverdale was incorporated in 1872 and its name is credited to Mrs. Fred Gebhardt, who suggested it for the many fields of clover. Her husband built the U.S. Hotel, which operated until 1947, when it burned.

I.E. Shaw, who came from New York, sold hardware and groceries. In 1880 he and Mr. Bowman opened the Shaw-Bowman Mercantile Co. at the corner of Second and West. The Shaws built their beautiful brick home farther up the block and it is now the Cloverdale Historical Museum. Unfortunately, it is closed while necessary repairs for earthquake safety are being considered.

In 1888 Mr. Shaw sold the store to Fred Yorti. The store had served as the Wells Fargo office and had kept many of the town valuables in the safe. Shaw and five associates opened a bank which became the First National Bank of Cloverdale and is now a branch of West America.

As early as 1859 General Vallejo's son-in-law, General John Frisbee, had proposed a railroad to run from Sonoma to Calistoga, perhaps through Rincon Valley into Healdsburg and up to Cloverdale. About the same time, Peter Donnahue's San Francisco-Northern Pacific proposed that Sonoma County finance a connecting line running from San Rafael to Petaluma and on to Cloverdale. A lot of politics were involved but the Sonoma County Supervisors finally voted to support the San Rafael line on condition that it be completed to Cloverdale by June, 1872. The first train chugged in on March 15, 1972 (should be 1872) amid much celebration. On board was E. Dow, the first white man to break a trail through to Cloverdale in 1848.

Later, Peter Donnahue was a major contributor to the building of the first Catholic Church in Cloverdale. In appreciation, the congregation named the church St. Peter's in 1879. As early as 1856, missionary priests had held mass in the Cloverdale Hotel, but the first church in Cloverdale was built by the Methodist Episcopal South in 1855. The M.E. Church North was built in 1871. When it closed after World War I, the building was dragged over and annexed to the M. E. Church South at First and Mulberry. The fellowship hall was built by my grandfather Lloyd in the mid 1920's.

The Congregational Church, now the United Church of Cloverdale, was built in 1869 on land donated by James Kleiser on West Street. The present sanctuary and steeple were added to the original building in 1904. The pipe organ was operated by a water wheel in the basement, connected to the town water system. When the town water wagon was being filled nearby, it sometimes caused trouble for the organist.

In 1888, two million pounds of wool and 95 million pounds of fruit were shipped by rail from Cloverdale. Grapes, prunes and oranges flourished. In 1881, Andrew Scarboro, an Italian-Swiss real estate broker, and a group of associates from San Francisco brought land along the Russian River south of Cloverdale for vineyards. They brought unemployed workers from the Bay Area and settled them on land at Asti to form the Italian Swiss Agricultural Colony. The winery went through many changes and after World War II, became the country's second largest built wine producer. It is now owned by Beringers.

Many ranchers grew and dried prunes. In 1904 a Mr. Sulvera from Asti went with a group of Sonoma County prune growers to Washington, D.C. to encourage President Theodore Roosevelt to include prunes and raisins in the army's diet. Veterans have said they succeeded too well.

Cloverdale was the northernmost location in the state to grow citrus fruit. There were a number of orange groves, as well as lemon, grapefruit and olive orchards. A Citrus Association was formed to exhibit them. The first Citrus Fairs were held in 1893 and 1894 in Library Hall. In 1895, when they were invited to exhibit at the San Francisco World Fair, Michael Minnihan dug up a whole tree and railroaded it to the Fair. Library Hall and the first fair building at First and West burned and were replaced by a new pavilion in 1909. In 1911 the newly formed Women's Improvement Club started a temporary library in the pavilion. In 1912, Mrs. Charles Humbert donated land across the street for a library, which the club operated until the county branch was built.

In 1924, Peter and Gladys Reynolds opened a root beer and sandwich stand on the corner. Under different owners, it has become the oldest drive-in still operating in California.

Now we turn to schools. The first grammar school was a log building with a fireplace on land donated by Mr. Kleiser. It was replaced in 1860 by a new building and a second story was added in 1864. This was used by the high school that was organized at the turn of the century. Levi Casey's grandson, Hiram Casey, was the only graduate in 1904. Scattered district schools joined to build their new stucco building in 1914; the Union Elementary School using the south end and the high school using the north end.

In the spring of 1929, everyone was buzzing that Jane Leist was going to teach in the high school. I only knew that she was a local graduate, from a pioneer family, and had recently completed her training at College of the Pacific. I never got to have her as a teacher for we went to Seattle that year, but I envy those who did for she was a natural-born kind of teacher every student wishes to have. She is "Today's Woman in History."

My first year in teaching, I went to her for advice. During World War II, she served as an officer in the WAAC's. She returned to Cloverdale to teach until she retired. After that she taught for a time in Fort Bragg. She loved nature and belonged to Green Peace and Earth First. She helped to organize the Cloverdale Historical Society and was one of the movers and shakers in establishing the biennial high school reunions. It was a privilege to know Miss Leist.

Elinor Clow - Vineyard District Meeting - March 1996

RINCON VALLEY CFWC California History and Landmarks

You can’t talk about Rincon Valley history without talking about Santa Rosa and you can’t talk about Santa Rosa without once again talking about General Mariana Vallejo.

Remember that when General Vallejo was named Commandante and was sent to colonize the Line of the North, he was accompanied by his bride, Benicia Carillo de Vallejo. She was one of 12 children from an aristocratic San Diego family. In 1837 her father died and her mother, Dona Maria Ignacia Lopez de Carillo, was left with nine unmarried children and not the means to support them, and maintain their social position. She accepted Vallejo’s offer to award her an 8,800 acre land grant in the Santa Rosa Valley. She was the only woman to receive a grant outright, so she is my Woman in History today.

At 43, Dona Maria set out on the 700 mile journey, traveling with an ox cartera. The boys rode horseback and the family possessions on pack mules. Maria de la Luz, her oldest unmarried daughter was 25, Joaquin was 19 and Jose Ramon was 18. Vallejo had also awarded grants to two sea captains; John Wilson’s Los Gillicos, bordered her grant on the east and Henry Fitch’s, Sotoyome, bordered her on the north. They each had married a Carillo daughter, but they remained in San Diego.

When they reached Sonoma, Vallejo’s brother Salvatore helped them locate the site of the abandoned Santa Rosa Mission, which had been destroyed by Indians in 1824 when the Mission was moved to Sonoma. The place at the junction of two branches of Santa Rosa Creek was recommended for their home. Later Salvatore would marry Maria de la Luz.

Dona Maria named her rancho LaCabeza (Spanish for head) de Santa Rosa, for their adobe was near the head of the main creek branch. She planned and directed the building of the adobe house, which still stands out Montgomery Drive on the grounds of St. Eugene’s Cathedral. The Friends of the Carillo Adobe are striving to restore it and have built a roof over it to protect it.

The wild grass was so tall that it could hide a horse and buggy. Dona Maria was in charge and directed family and Indian workers in planting 300 acres in grain, grapes and orchards the first year. Vallejo provided livestock to start her herds. In two years she had 3,300 head of cattle, plus horses and sheep. Rincon Valley was sometimes used as a holding area for livestock. The Spanish word “Rincon” as a land grant term refers to a country district, a corner or nook, a fitting term for the valley.

Dona Maria was an attractive, gracious hostess, and a hard worker. Many visitors came, including family members from the Bay Area. There was a great fiesta when she held the traditional Ceremony of Possession for LaCabeza de Santa Rosa in 1841.

There had been so much concern about the Russians at Fort Ross, who left in 1841, that squatters and settlers coming overland had slipped in almost unnoticed. Dona Maria was increasingly annoyed with Vallejo for his ignoring orders from Monterey and transferring or selling land to Americans. He was not even to sell them provisions, but he believed that law and order would best come with the Americans and built friendships with them. After the Bear Flag revolt in 1846, Dona Maria closed LaCabeza to Americans. Her firebrand son, Jose Ramon, rode with the defensores in the fighting and was imprisoned for a time with Vallejo. He was even suspected of being Joaquin Murietta, a distinction he shared with five others.

Dona Maria died in 1849 just as California was becoming a state; the Santa Rosa pueblo was becoming a small town and would be named the Sonoma County seat; and the ranchos were breaking up into smaller family farms and this was so in Rincon Valley.

I can’t tell you who the first settlers were in Rincon Valley; but Italians came to plant vineyards and build wineries; Swiss and Germans came to farm and plant orchards; Americans farmed and raised livestock. In 1880 a Swiss promoter named Guy Gros had the idea that Rincon Valley could become the olive oil capitol of the United States. He encouraged replacing fruit trees with olive trees and he planted thousands of olive trees on the ridge that separates the valley from Santa Rosa, naming it Rincon Heights. He persisted in the curing and pressing until 1896 when he announced the greatest season ever, having supplied olive oil to all 16 Santa Rosa grocery stores. Then, in November he offered his land for sale for subdividing - perhaps a fore runner of what was to come.

The Spanish tradition gave western women the right to inherit and to own property, but the American Constitution gave all children the right to an education. The first Santa Rosa schools were private and a Methodist College gave College Avenue its name. The first public grammar school was organized in Court District in 1859, but school was held in the Christian Church. By the time the Court District School was built in 1866 Santa Rosa had extended its boundaries and eight townships, including Rincon Valley, had public grammar schools. Today Santa Rosa has 24 Unified School Districts, with a separate secondary school administration. This fall there will be the ground breaking for the Dona Maria Carillo High School in Rincon Valley.

Elinor Clow - Vineyard District Meeting - March 1995

ST. HELENA CFWC California History and Landmarks

Here in St. Helena we are still in LaFrontera Del Norte, but barely. I haven’t come across a single Vallejo in-law and only one Spanish name. Once again, General Vallejo ignored orders from Monterey and in 1835 awarded a huge land grant to an Englishman and his medical officer, Dr. Edgar Bale. He raised grain and built the Bale Grist Mill north of St. Helena. In the 1960s when the Calistoga Club was so active, I remember Ivy Loper urging us at Convention there to join the campaign to preserve the Bale Mill. It is now a State Park, but I don’t know if the Sunday corn-grinding is still in the budget.

In the 1840s Dr.Bale’s Carne Humana Rancho started breaking up when he transferred land to John York and David Hudson. In the public cemetery established in 1856 there are headstones going back to the 1840s.

In 1853 the Methodist preacher, Asa White, brought his blue tent and his family to St. Helena for tent meetings. With his wife, two sons, eight daughters, six sons-in-law and 30 grandchildren, he was sure of a congregation. Just north of St. Helena is a marker that reads “Site of the White Church, the first church in Napa County. Marked by the Federated Women’s Club.”

The name, St. Helena, is credited to the Russians. In 1853 a copper plate was found on the mountain with the name that had been placed there by Russian soldiers in 1841. It is believed that Princess Elena Gagarin, niece of Czar Nicholas I suggested it when she visited Fort Ross with her husband, the governor from Alaska, in 1841. St. Helena was the patron saint of the Empress for blessing the grapes and there may have been a French connection, for early monks had brought her bones to the monastery near Reims, where she protected the grapes and where Don Perrignon later developed champagne.

In 1852 a Mr. Alstrom built White Sulphur Springs, and John Wolf’s St.Helena House, built in 1857, was the first legal use of the name. In the 1850s a journal of the U.S. Geological Survey described St. Helena as a pretty little village with about 50 neat white houses and commented on the smelly water and dusty road.

In 1878 the Seventh-day Adventist Church established a Rural Health Retreat near the town and it grew into the present outstanding St. Helena Hospital. The Church founded Pacific Union College in 1880.

St. Helena was incorporated in 1876 and the wine industry was already growing. Spanish missionaries had planted grapes as early as the 1780s and early settlers had family wineries. But Charles Krug is credited with the first commercial wine operation when he sold 1200 gallons to a Mr. Pachett at Napa in 1861. He started his famous winery in 1868 with two matching stone buildings, one for wine and one for horses. It was operated by two generations of the family and is reputed to have had the first mechanical press to crush grapes instead of the traditional foot tromping. It closed down with prohibition and was sold to the Mondavi family in 1943.

In 1875 Krug’s Forman, Jacob Berringer, left to join his brother Frederick and build a winery a few miles away. The famous limestone tunnels built by Chinese stoneworkers were still used for storage after three generations, when the family sold to Nestles, in 1969.

Nearby, Greystone-Christian Brothers had its beginning in 1888 when William Bowers Born set out to build the largest stone aging cellar in the world with some of his Grass Valley gold mining fortune. The winery was family operated until 1950 when Christian Brothers bought it to supplement Mont LaSalle. In 1989 Huebline bought the vineyards and in 1982 Greystone was sold to the Culinary Institute of America. They plan a restaurant seating 150 to open in 1996.

Because it was built by a Scot, Captain Colin McEarchan, a small winery closer to Calistoga was a favorite with Robert Louis Stevenson. It closed in 1890 and was idle until the mid-1970s when Benjamin and Rose Falk bought it and updated it, using the name Alta Vineyard Cellars. It is now owned by Schramsberg and the winery is idle.

Every community has its popular celebrity and in St. Helena it is Robert Louis Stevenson. However, I became annoyed when I would read, “Stevenson and his bride honeymooned in a bunkhouse at Silverado”. or “R.L.S. and his wife summered at Silverado Mine……. I really had to dig to find her name mentioned. Now Fanny Vandergrift Osborne was a real person, a talented woman. She deserves her own place in Women’s History. She is a classic example of the quote, “Behind every successful man there is a woman.”….. for without her we might never have had the wealth of literature he produced.

Robert Louis Stevenson met Fanny in France, in 1875, where he had gone from Scotland for his health. He was 30 and she was 40, with a son and daughter, trying to make a living in art after a failed marriage in California. He followed her to Monterey in 1879 while she was getting a divorce. She surmised he had tuberculosis, though doctors said malaria, and she determined to get him away from the foggy coast. Her divorce came through in January, 1880, and they were married in May. Hardly a respectable time for Victorians. She knew what she was taking on, but they made the horse and buggy ride to St. Helena and found the bunkhouse. Her first chore was to cut out a big limb of poison oak that had grown up through the floor. She did that and much more through all their travels and the years in Sonoma, where he died in 1894.

St. Helena has a special Robert Louis Stevenson Room in its museum and I urge you to visit it. See the picture of Fanny in her muumuu, smoking a cigar.

Elinor Clow - CFWC Vineyard District Convention- April 25, 1995

SONOMA CFWC California History and Landmarks

Since we started these talks at Benicia over a year ago, you have already heard a great deal about Sonoma's history. You know that the last of the Franciscan Missions was established here in 1829, but was closed when the missions were secularized by Mexico in 1834. You know that General Vallejo was sent as Commander of the Line of the North (La Frontera del Norte) in 1853 to colonize the area north of San Francisco Bay as a buffer against the Russians and that he saw its future with the Americans. He gave them land grants and co­operated in the Bear Flag Rebellion and the establishment of the California Republic. You know that the first grapes were planted by Franciscans. Now I will add that in 1857 a Bavarian named Auguste Haristede became the father of the California wine industry by planting new grape varieties and founding the Buena Vista Winery. When he left to become involved in Nicaragua politics, his nephew carried on with the winery and it operated until it was badly damaged in the 1906 earthquake. It remained closed until after prohibition.

If you attended Vineyard District's first two-day convention here in 1980, you were taken on a wonderful walking tour through the historic sites around Sonoma Plaza. The mission building, which had only been used as a storehouse when it was badly damaged in the earthquake, was restored as a museum and state park and other buildings have been restored.

My first visit to Sonoma came in 1941 when I brought a group of honor students from Anderson Valley High to a CSF convention in Sonoma. We were taken on a memorable bus tour of historic sites, winding up for tea at Jack London's Beauty Ranch. His widow Charmian London was a gracious hostess and I had a pleasant conversation with her. Jack London's name pops up so often in Vineyard District that I decided this time to talk about him and Charmian and a recent article I read about a horseback trip they took.

Jack London's name first appears at Benicia in 1889. He was hardly 15, but was already working as an oyster pirate, living on a barge and spending his evenings at a waterfront bar. He returned to Oakland to finish high school and attended one year at UC, but after that, was self-taught. In 1897 he joined the Klondike stampede and when he returned to Oakland, he started writing the stories and novels that would make him famous. He met Charmian Kittrege when he brought one of his first stories into the Overland Monthly where his Uncle Roscoe was the publisher. She will be today's "Woman in History."

She was five years older than Jack and was at first turned off by this rough, untidy young man. They soon found that they had much in common, though they came from very different social backgrounds. Born in San Francisco, both of their fathers had left; he was raised by his mother and a stepfather, while Charmian's mother had died and she was raised by her Aunt Netta. They both were involved in the socialist movement, believed camaraderie was more important than love in a marriage, enjoyed nature and reading Rudyard Kipling. She had shocked society by refusing to ride sidesaddle and had designed a divided riding skirt. They had a Saturday date to go riding when Jack suddenly left a note saying he was marrying the actress Minnie Maddern's niece, Beth, to give him a steadying influence. They had two daughters, but the marriage failed and he turned again to Charmian. After a bitter divorce, he and Charmian were married in 1904. She called him "mate man" and he called her "mate woman" when they moved to Glen Ellen and bought Beauty Ranch.

On the morning of April 18th, Charmian wrote that "the ground shook like a dog shaking a rat." After it had settled, they rode up Sonoma Mountain. Nearby they could see dust rising from a collapsed building at the State Mental Hospital. From the top of the mountain they could see smoke from San Francisco's fires. To the west they could see both dust and smoke from collapsed and burning buildings at Santa Rosa. Two weeks later, they set out on horseback over what Charmian called the magic trail to see what had happened to the north.

In her "Book of Jack London" Charmian wrote that they set out over the Rincon Valley Road. The magazine writer complains that no such road appears on any map, so it must have been the Calistoga Road from Highway 12. She was right, but at one time it was known as the Sonoma Road and Santa Rosa considered changing the name of Sonoma Avenue to avoid confusion.

They felt several aftershocks before they turned off at Mark West into Healdsburg, but did not tell of any damage. From Knight Valley, they took the hair-raising steep stage coach ride which Jack used for an episode in "Valley of the Moon." At the Geysers resort, they felt a strong aftershock before going on to Highland Springs in Lake County. As there was no direct road, the author suggested they took the stage back to Healdsburg, but I think they took the Geyser Road that comes out north of Cloverdale, then took the winding state road to Hopland and then the toll road to Highland Springs. From the hotel they could have taken another winding road down to Lakeport. In the Lakeport Museum there is a letter from a woman who remembers as a child seeing the Londons on horseback. Charmian wrote of sailing on Clear Lake, but this letter is the only mention of them. As they rode past Blue Lake, there were vivid scenes of wild lilac and iris. The road then went through Coyote Valley and is now under Lake Mendocino, but there is one spot where a short bit can be seen through the trees.

In Ukiah, they stayed at the Cecil Hotel, now the site of the old Rexall. The visited with their friends, Dr. John and Grace Hudson, whom they had come to know at the Overland Monthly. Low Gap Road, where Jack and Dr. Hudson had often hunted, was now too muddy and Willits had been badly shaken and damaged, so they rode out to the lumber camp at Alpine. From there, they rode over what would become Highway 20 to Fort Bragg, where buildings had 'collapsed like cards.'

Their ride down the coast, with rhododendrons and wild iris in bloom, is also used in “Valley of the Moon." They lunched at the Albion Mill and saw it was still working. They crossed the Navarro River at deserted 'crazy Navarro' and spent the night at the wrecked Greenwood Hotel. From Greenwood, now called Elk, they rode over the mountain and lunched at Philo, probably at the stage stop which is now the Pottery Barn. A school girl who gave them directions to Boonville, told later how elated she and her brother were to learn they had met the author of "Call of the Wild." The Londons stayed that night at a country hotel, probably the Boonville Hotel, which is still operating. They left Boonville May 11 and nothing is said of a stop in Cloverdale.

They stopped last at Bourke's Sanatorium at Mark West Road. Its founder replaced Uncle Roscoe on the Overland Monthly and also was Aunt Netta's husband. It was May 13 when they rode home by way of Santa Rosa, then through redwood forests and mountain canyons to Beauty Ranch.

Jack had a strict regime of writing 1000 words each day except Sunday. They had been gone 13 days, so he said he would write on each Sunday for three months to make it up. If he dallied with guests, Charmian had only to step into the room and he would excuse himself to write.

Elinor Clow - Vineyard District Meeting - January 1996

UKIAH VALLEY CFWC California History and Landmarks

Here in Ukiah, the Saturday Afternoon Club is the most northerly Vineyard district Club in La Frontera Del Norte. In 1845 the Mexican governor, Pio Pico confirmed the Yokaho Land Grant to Cattiano Juarez, who also had a grant in the Napa Valley. In 1852, when Juarez petitioned to the U.S. Commissioner, his claim for the land was denied. Juarez appealed to the U.S. District Court which reversed the denial and this was upheld by the Supreme Court. It caused concern in the Ukiah Valley because there were already settlers with farms, orchards, sheep ranches and Ukiah was a busy community.

The first settler, Samuel Lowrey, had built a log cabin in 1856 and a year later had sold out to A.W. Perkins. There were two saw mills and a flour mill on Mill Creek was operated by John Barr. By this time, most of the land was owned by two Americans and they offered to buy up the claims for $2.50 an acre, but some settlers could not make the payments and had to leave.

When the first settlers came, they found the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church Missionary Society were already there. As early as 1855, led by L.C. Adams, they were holding monthly services in Anderson Valley, Little Lake, Potter Valley, and Ukiah. Eleven Ukiah members bought ten acres for camp meetings and in 1862 built their first church. The first Catholic Church was built in 1870 and in 1874 Thomas Wilson, the agent for the Pacific Coast Presbytery, came and founded the First Presbyterian Church.

Most of the early settlers came by wagon train and scattered across California. In a tribute to Judge Garvey, a writer in the 1880's said, "They came across the plains in wagon trains on trips that took seven months. Today they could ride in palace cars and make the trip in seven days. How amazing is progress." There are so many interesting pioneers; so I have tried to choose a few whose names might be familiar.

I have a personal interest in the first one. I have known Rea Needs ever since Lasoname and Sonoma Districts merged; but it was just a few years ago that I learned that she was born in Ukiah and her great-grandfather was Alexander Burke. It happens that Opal Burke was my sister-in-law. Alexander Burke aroused a great deal of interest when he came in 1858 with a wagon of a type that had not been seen here before. He settled on farm land and orchards along the Russian River south of Ukiah. Later he added land for sheep farther south - hence Burke's Hill.

Daniel Gobi was an immigrant who came by boat to San Francisco from Italy. He operated a couple of grocery stores there until coming to Ukiah in 1860. He bought land about half a mile south of what was then the town. He left the farm to go to Little Lake, then began speculating in cattle. He divided his time between Oregon and Ukiah for a number of years returning to Ukiah to settle in 1868. In 1870 he donated ten acres to a group that planned to establish a seminary. They built a four room brick building but the project failed for lack of patronage. In 1871 the Ukiah School District bought the property for an elementary school on what is now Seminary Drive.

Another memorable pioneer was A.O. Carpenter. He had come to the gold country in 1857 with his wife, Helen, and their small daughter Martha. In 1859 he bought a farm in Potter Valley and in 1860 he joined with E. S. Budd to publish Ukiah's first newspaper, the Herald. He was a restless man and while he kept the farm, he would often take publishing jobs in San Francisco and a variety of county appointments. He was in San Francisco in February 1865 when the twins Grant and Grace were born in Potter Valley. He returned home and accepted an appointment as U.S. Assessor for the area. He was returning by stage from the swearing-in ceremony in Santa Rosa on April 13, 1865, with news of the fall of Richmond, when he missed the connection at Cloverdale. Rather than wait three days, he chose to walk and still brought the news before the stage.

He moved his family to Ukiah but kept the farm. Taking a variety of county appointments and occasionally returning to San Francisco as an editor, he later opened a photography studio in Ukiah.

Meanwhile, Grace was showing talent in art. When he went to the city in 1874, she was enrolled in art school. She was awarded a gold medal at 16, for her full-length drawing of a statue of Achilles, by the San Francisco Art Association. At 19 she eloped with William Davis, but they were divorced the next year and she returned to Ukiah where she planned to teach art.

In March, 1889, young Dr. John W. Hudson came to Ukiah to practice medicine. They met at a Presidential Inauguration Ball and soon were seen frequently together. They had complimentary interests with her skill in anatomical painting and his interest in anthropology. In June he was appointed Ukiah resident physician and surgeon for the San Francisco-Northern Pacific Railroad, which had just been extended to Ukiah. There had been problems with that project but Ukiah was committed to build the station. To raise funds, tickets at $2 each were sold for a drawing on a two-story house and lot. Sales were slow, so the committee chairman went to San Francisco to sell tickets, taking the raffle money along. He was last heard of on a boat bound for Australia, but Ukiah built the station. Dr. Hudson and Grace were married in June, 1890.

After receiving a medal and much acclaim for her painting of an Indian baby at the Minneapolis World Fair, Grace made it her goal to preserve the life and culture of the Pomo people in her paintings. She was acclaimed by Indian people and art critics throughout the country and abroad. One of her paintings is hung in the Smithsonian.

In 1911 they built the Sun House, a simple California arts and crafts bungalow on South Main Street, which was their home and studio until they died; he in 1936 and she in 1937. It stayed in the family until the city of Ukiah acquired it in the 1980's as a museum of local history and Pomo culture with an additional museum and park.

Elinor Clow - Vineyard District Meeting - October 1995

VALLEJO CFWC California History and Landmarks

No doubt you know that Vallejo was named for General Vallejo and that it has been the location of the U.S. Navy’s Mare Island Shipyard. Now, among other things, we are going to fit it in as one of California’s first capitols.

General Mariana Guadalupe Vallejo was Commandante of the San Francisco Presidio in 1836 when he was named Commandante General of region north of San Francisco Bay to the Russian zone. He was “numero uno” in LaFrontera DelNorte from the Petaluma Adobe to the Carquinez Straits. He was sent with his bride, Benicia to colonize the area, which included his 99,000 acre land grant. He settled at the Sonoma Mission but his Suscol Rancho extended to the Straits, where he determined to build, not just a town named for his wife, but a town named for himself, as well.

He got along well with the Suisun Indians and although he had orders not even to sell provisions to Americans, he saw advantages in being friendly to them, even to surreptitiously selling them land.

When the Bear Flag Republic was established in 1846, he cooperated with them. When California was admitted to the Union in 1849, he was invited to the constitutional Convention at Monterey and he became a U.S. citizen. When the temporary capitol was set up at San Jose, he was elected to the State Senate

A dozen cities and towns bid to become the permanent capitol. Sacramento offered a million dollars, but General Vallejo offered 156 acres where he would build not just a capitol, but also schools, a university and museums. One version tells that he wanted the town called Eureka, but grateful citizens insisted on calling it Vallejo.

Unfortunately, his dreams surpassed his finances. When the legislature arrived in January, 1852, the capitol was unfinished and the men had to stay on the steamer, “Empire”. They tired of sitting on boxes and barrels to work and one day took the boat to Sacramento to finish the session. Then a disastrous fire sent them hurrying back to Vallejo.

The new capitol was inaugurated at a grand Christmas ball. The legislature met there in January, 1853, but in February moved to Benicia. There it met until April, 1854, when it made its final move to Sacramento.

So, we have Monterey, San Jose, Vallejo, Sacramento, Vallejo, Benicia and Sacramento -- and 140 years later they still can’t get their act together! [Note: This report was given on the morning the legislature broke its deadlock and elected Willie Brown Assembly Speaker.]

The new town was saved from obscurity, for in 1853 the U.S. Navy purchased Mare Island for its west coast shipyard. The Spaniards had named it La Isla Plana, Flat Island, and it was part of Suscol Rancho. A cattle ferry overturned in a sudden squall and some of the animals swam ashore, including Vallejo’s prized white mare. He found it a few days later grazing on the island, which he renamed La Isla de la Yegua, Mare Island. His wife loved the island, so he gave it to her. She sold it for $7,000, but it was resold for $17,000.

General John Frisbee is considered by some to be the true father of Vallejo. He directed the layout of the town with the east-west streets named for states and the north-south streets named for counties. He made donations for schools and parks and organized the first City Council. He sold lots for businesses, but had problems proving titles for land transferred to him by Vallejo.

Meanwhile, the fortunes of Vallejo were changing. He had trouble with squatters on his land and was an easy mark for wild business ventures. One of his granddaughters said that the American lawyers were better than the Mexican lawyers and Grandpa had to sell more land to pay the lawyers.

General Frisbee was able to get Vallejo incorporated in 1867. Its first town hall disappeared when the Sacramento Street area was re-developed some years ago. Vallejo’s first elected mayor was Joel Harvey, who served one term from 1900 to 1902.

We come into the twentieth century for today’s Woman in History, Florence Douglas, Vallejo’s first and only woman mayor. She served eight terms from 1963 to 1979. She never disclosed her age but was probably born before 1910. She came from San Francisco to Vallejo and was a successful business woman before she ran for mayor. As mayor, she was an honorary member of the Vallejo Federated Women’s Club. She promoted many projects for Vallejo’s citizens; among them the establishment of the senior citizens center. In her honor it is named the Florence Douglas Senior Center. Following her 16 years as mayor, an ordinance was passed that no mayor or council member could be elected for more than two consecutive two-year terms.

The fortunes of Vallejo and Mare Island grew together. From the building of the U.S.S. Saginaw in 1859 to the launching of the attack submarine U.S.S. Drum in 1970, more than 500 ships were built there.

General Vallejo’s fortunes faded and he became almost a forgotten man. At last he was honored with a ship bearing his name. In October, 1964, his Great Granddaughter christened the wonder ship, the nuclear submarine U.S.S. General Vallejo at Mare Island in a gala celebration. Now the ship has made Vallejo its last port of call before dismantling.

Elinor Clow - CFWC Vineyard District Convention –

January, 1995

Elinor Heath Clow

A native Northern Californian, Elinor Heath Clow was born in Los Molinos in 1915. She grew up in San Francisco and Washington, graduating from Seattle's Franklin High School in 1933. As a teen-aged student at the College of San Mateo, the exhaustive bibliography she compiled on the Indians of the Santa Clara Valley was accepted at the Smithsonian Institute. Elinor graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1937 with an honors degree in European History and Spanish. After receiving her teaching credential from San Francisco State College she obtained a teaching position at Anderson Valley High School in Boonville, Mendocino County, where she met her future husband, M.C. "Bub" Clow, a fourth-generation member of a pioneer ranching family that had helped settle the valley in the 1860s. Elinor had begun to lose her eyesight to retinal disease as a college student and after six years of teaching at Anderson Valley and Healdsburg High Schools during the "war years", she was forced to give up her classroom work. Undaunted, Elinor became a news reporter for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Anderson Valley Advertiser and Ukiah Daily Journal. She was also a leader for over five decades in several community organizations, including her local Methodist Church, Federated Women's Clubs of California, PTA and the Anderson Valley historical Society, which she served as publicity chairman. Because of her active community life, many people did not even realize she was almost completely blind. In 1981 Elinor published her first book, an oral history of Anderson Valley's Con Creek School, spanning four generations of students at the one-room schoolhouse which had become the town's museum. With the devoted help of Bub, who served faithfully and tirelessly as Elinor's eyes for more than half a century, she lived a full and active life as a wife, mother, grandparent, teacher, author, historian and respected community leader until her untimely death in 1998 at age 82.

Elinor - May 6, 1915-January 30, 1998;

Bub - January 11, 1910-November 30, 1998