January 16, 1968 - The Tuesday Evening Bridge Club celebrated its 39th anniversary at the home of Kate Anderson on Pine Street. Kate, who was 85 years old, was assisted in her hostess duties by her daughter, Lucille Freathy. North elevation of the Packard-Johnson House on Pine Street looking southeast. Master carpenter J. D. Johnson began building this house in March 1891 for the Justin [...]
January 14, 1907 - The steam schooner Sequoia wrecked on the rocks near the north jetty of Humboldt Bay. With a length of 151 feet, this vessel had a capacity of 300 tons and was built near the sawmill at Fort Bragg in 1898 specifically for the lumber trade. The "Sequoia" loading lumber at Grey's Harbor, Washington, 1898-1903. (Gift of Emery Escola) The Sequoia [...]
Given our recent weather, we’re continuing the “dark and stormy night” theme from last week with this article that first appeared in the Mendocino Beacon on August 30, 2007. Captain Orlando "Ole" Lilleland was master of the wooden steam schooner Pomo, which operated along the Mendocino coast hauling redwood and farm goods south and general freight north. Pomo was of modest size, built to be handy [...]
January 10, 1909 - Joe Lenhares married Mamie Jerome at the Catholic Church in Mendocino. Mamie was the daughter of Portuguese immigrants, Antone and Annie (Thomas) Jerome. She was born in her parents’ home on the northeast corner of Calpella and Williams Streets in 1887. Wedding portrait of Mamie and Joseph Lucio Lenhares, 1909 Joe was born at Santa Cruz, Island of Flores, Azores, [...]
January 8, 1973 - The results of a guessing contest were announced at the Mendocino Hotel. The contents of a jar of coffee beans that had been on display for two weeks were laboriously counted out by three judges. The total number of beans in the jar was 11,829, which included two beans which were thrown at “sitters-bye,” who offered “helpful suggestions” to the beancounters. The [...]
The dark and stormy nights we’ve been having here lately inspired us to reprint this column that ran in the Mendocino Beacon on July 31, 2008. “We left San Francisco late in the afternoon of January 9th [1903] bound for Crescent City. When off Point Reyes the wind was coming from the south with a velocity of sixty miles an hour. The sea ran high and [...]
January 4, 1946 - Abram Benjamin Snider, Westport pioneer, passed away at the Mendocino home of his daughter, Mrs. Mamie King, at the age of 92. According to the Beacon, “Mr. Snider was born in Lee County, Iowa, May 25, 1853. When a small child, he moved with his parents, the late John and Mary Snider to Missouri. At the age of 12 years the family [...]
The steamer Protection was one of the original steam schooners built in San Francisco in 1888. She was relatively small, only 281 tons, 130 feet long and 32 feet wide with a depth of 10-1/2 feet. SS Protection at Fort Bragg, 1888. The steamer Protection off the rocks at Fort Bragg, California. Note on back states that the steam schooner "James Townsend" is off shore. [...]
A long-time pillar of the Kelley House passed away in early December, and we wish to acknowledge her work for the museum and the community it serves. Both as a tireless volunteer and a dedicated employee, Megan Coddington Smith did much to make the Kelley House Museum the institution it is today. Megan was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in January 1942, the youngest of four children, [...]
December 27, 1932 - Mrs. Mabel Crawford died at her home in San Jose at the age of 55. According to the Beacon, Mabel “had been in ill health for some time and recently suffered a stroke of paralysis.” Mabel was the daughter of John and Euphemia (Clarke) Thompson. John was a pioneer of the Mendocino coast, arriving from Canada in the 1860s. He worked in [...]