Old Time Notes from The Beacon
130 Years Ago April 19, 1891
• Jake Wallace’s troupe will give a performance in Murray’s Hall this evening.
• A son was born to the wife of Charles Kleinsmith of this place on April 18th.
• Misses Ida and Gussie Percival left on the Monterey Thursday for San Francisco, where they will meet their father, with whom they will probably go to sea. Their return to this place again is doubtful.
• Doc Standley of Sherwood Valley was in town this week, having delivered a band of sheep to Mr. Kent. Mr. Standley announces himself in this issue of the Beacon as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for sheriff of Mendocino county.
• The Mendocino Lumber Company has discharged all its men in the upper camps and will run Nichols’ camp only. We hear that one side of the mill is also to be shut down. The outlook for next year’s lumber trade seems to be very discouraging.
• R. W. Jamison of Ukiah has announced himself as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for county assessor.
103 Years Ago April 13, 1918
• H. H. Brown entered the constantly growing list of coast auto owners this week, purchasing through E. E. Brown of the Fort
Bragg Garage and Machine Company a Buick Light Six. Delivery of the car was made Tuesday. It is a very fine car of 55 horsepower.
• F. W. Stickney passed through here the fore part of this week en route home to Caspar from San Francisco, where he had been for several days, in a fine new Winton, which he purchased while in the metropolis.
• Dr. Peirsol reports the birth of a son Friday at East Mendocino to Mr. and Mrs. O. A. Hamblin.
• The baseball game played at Fort Bragg last Friday afternoon between the Mendocino high school nine and the Fort Bragg high school boys resulted in a victory for the Fort Bragg team by a score of 13 to 11. The boys of the Ukiah high having won their contest with the Lakeport school, Fort Bragg and Ukiah will meet for county honors at Fort Bragg on Saturday, April 20th. The winners of this contest will play the winners of the other Northof-Bay counties games for the Championship of the Northwestern League.
75 Years Ago April 20, 1946
• Mr. and Mrs. Azen Willcox of Rockport are parents of a son, born at Community Hospital on Saturday, April 13. The little fellow has been named Ale Robert Willcox and weighed nine pounds and four ounces.
• Officers and members of the Mendocino Study Club are happy to announce that Miss Delores Stenback of Comptche has been chosen to receive the one-hundred-dollar award for a Cadet Nursing Scholarship. Miss Stenback will graduate from the local high school with the class of 1946. A transcript of her record shows a high scholarship rating and one to be very proud of.
• Mr. and Mrs. Russell G. Foster are the parents of a son, Gerald Miner Forster, born at the Redwood Coast Hospital on Friday, April 12, weighing 6 pounds, 12 ½ ounces.
• Mrs. Katherine Cummings, popular teacher of the Greenwood elementary school, is spending the week visiting with relatives in San Francisco.
• Dr. and Mrs. Harold M. Gibbons are the parents of a son, Harold Marshall Gibbons, born at Redwood Coast Hospital on April 2nd, weighing 9 pounds, and two ounces.
51 Years Ago April 10, 1970
• Herman and Amelia Fayal were notified of the birth of their 40th greatgrandchild, April Lee Johnson, born March 15, 1970. April is the daughter of June (Terry) and Mathew Johnson and was born in Spain where the father is stationed with the U. S. Navy. She is the 24th grandchild of Marie (FayalTerry) Purbeck of Fort Bragg.
• The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors failed to initiate proceedings to form a county service district and passed the buck to town residents at a recent meeting. Sup. August Avila favored the county initiating the action, but was opposed by Sup’s Banker, Barra and Sawyer, who said the town must take the initiative.
• Mendocino Playhouse reopens Friday with Sal Valentino, a strikingly handsome mellow singer of songs to his own guitar accompaniment. The first show begins Friday and
Saturday, April 10 and 11. Admission, $2.00.
• New Noyo River Inn plans grand opening April 17, 18, 19. New manager and operator, Mr. Gregory, stressed the 6,000 sq. foot seating capacity is designed to please the most demanding tastes.
• Ruth Mauk begins in this issue to bring the column “Art Center Rapport” to the Beacon. This column was ably written for a long time by Mendocino’s Barbara Carpenter.
30 Years Ago April 11, 1991
• Elsie G. Shafer, age 64, a Mendocino resident, passed away April 2, 1991 at Sherwood Oaks Health Center in Fort Bragg. She was a native of Spearfish, South Dakota. In 1953 she moved to Mendocino, working locally in several restaurants and raising her family. In 1956 she married her husband, Richard Shafer in Reno, Nevada. For the past 20 years they have resided at Point Cabrillo.
• Two new building projects at the High School, a new Community School and a new Tech Center are underway, with heavy equipment pushing dirt around and doing preliminary compacting. It is of special interest that the architect on both projects is Mark Quatrocchi, who was student body president at MHS in 1976. The general contractor handling construction of the Community School is called “Rainbow Construction,” and they certainly have a pretty sign.
• Local artist David Barnes will be the featured speaker at the April 12 meeting of the Mendocino Study Club. Barnes came to the Coast after graduating from Sacramento State College where he had received an athletic scholarship. While teaching in the Fort Bragg school district and at College of the Redwoods, Barnes furthered his art experiences with study at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico. He is presently developing a body of work for a show of his own. Barnes will share with his audience some insights on how an artist’s work evolves over the years.