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 [...]
December 24, 1903 - Santa arrived at the large building on the southwest corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets, where The Study Club and many other businesses are located today. Kellieowen Hall (at one time, known as the Temperance Hall) on the southwest corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets in Mendocino, 1920 - 1940. The hall was originally built by William H. Kelley as a skating [...]
When we were young, all we wanted for Christmas were our two front teeth. Once we got them, many of us wanted to sink them into some Dungeness crab legs on that holiday. And for almost 170 years in Northern California, we have been granted our wish. It didn’t seem like too much to ask. But in various recent years, demoic acid, migrating whales, and poor [...]
December 17, 1884 - May Agnes Young was born in Ukiah to Thomas and Emma (Baker) Young. Thomas was a teacher who accepted positions at various schools around the county, moving his family to Branscomb, Willits, and Westport over the years. The third of seven children who reached adulthood, May lived her entire life in Mendocino County. In 1914, May married Homer Sherwood of Westport at [...]
Author Dave Sverko riding his horse and carrying the American flag during the Fourth of July parade of 1976 in Mendocino, California. (Gift of Bill Wagner) When I was about 13, I went to work on the Woodward Ranch, which took in all the area where the Mendocino Coast Hospital is now, as well as the Redwood Health Club and what was later Bolden’s [...]