Old Time Notes from The Beacon

130 Years Ago Jan. 18, 1890

• B. A. Paddleford’s windmill was demolished by the wind Wednesday morning. A number of fences were also laid low. Tom Griste was severely shaken up Saturday night by slipping off the sidewalk in front of Odd Fellows Hall.

• The Odd Fellows have laid a new walk across Kasten Street, opposite their hall, the old one having been demolished by the flood of water that flowed down that street during the late heavy rains.

• The trustees of the Day School were so well pleased with Miss Nettie Paddleford’s teaching that they have secured the services of that young lady for another term.

• The mail from Ukiah is a tri-daily. It arrives one day and tries the next!

105 Years Ago Jan. 23, 1915

• A number of coast farmers and fruit growers met at Apple Hall here last Saturday afternoon and completed the preliminary organization of a cooperative body whose object shall be the betterment of marketing conditions for the farmers of this coast. H. S. Tregoning was elected temporary chairman and Andrew Escola, temporary secretary.

• Miss Edith Switzer returned home to Fort Bragg Thursday after a few day’s visit here with friends. She was accompanied by her cousin, Miss Switzer of Canada, who is visiting California for the first time and who is astonished at the kind of weather we have here in January.

• George McMurphy of Albion Ridge will leave Monday for Porterville, where he will spend the winter. Mr. McMurphy’s property will be cared for during his absence by Oliver Garvin.

• Louis Gonsalves, the Melburne pioneer, is the proud father of a baby girl which arrived at his home Sunday. Dr. Preston, who attended, reports both mother and child to be getting along nicely.

• Misses Sarah and Lizzie Cavanagh, who were born in this place and have resided here ever since, left Monday for Fort Bragg where they have purchased property and will make their future home.

• The post office at Orr’s Springs has again been reestablished, and Mrs. Elmer Weger has been appointed postmistress.

80 Years Ago Jan. 20, 1940

• Mendocino Lodge

F. & A.M. has just celebrated its 75th installation. The lodge was organized in 1865, the last year of the Civil War, and the original meeting place was the loft of Wm. Heeser’s store, then located at the extreme west end of Main Street near the site of the later City Hotel. The building was destroyed in the big fire of the early seventies which swept everything from the site of Bishop’s present store (Jarvis Nichols corner) through to the lumber yard. The lodge started its present building in 1866. Charter members were E. J. Albertson, William Heeser, George R. Lowell, F. B. Lowell, G. Canning

Smith, R. Coombs, I. Stevens, and W. Booth. E. J. Albertson, who built the hall and made the carved figures that top it, as well as the carvings in the lodge room, was its first Worthy Master.

• Mendocino High School to inaugurate hot lunches. This decision was made as a result of an offer by the Federal Surplus Commodities Commission to supply certain commodities … most of the labor cost will be paid through federal agencies.

55 Years Ago Jan. 22, 1965

• Doreen Rodgers has been named Mendocino Union High School’s 1965 Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow. She scored highest in a written homemaking examination taken by senior girls and is now eligible for state and national honors.

• Flood damage hits $11 Million Mark in Mendocino County. Assistant Civil Defense Director George E. Smith in a report to the Board of Supervisors this week states that flood damage in the county exceeds $11 million. Mr. Smith listed a total of $11,295,000 as damage from rains Dec. 21Jan. 5. The largest figure relates to county roads and bridges damaged or destroyed, where Mr. Smith and Road Commissioner J. Kempe Richardson list $7,500,000 … included are 18 county road bridges washed out during the flooding. Highway 101 reopened to convoy travel, closed since the Christmas week floods. Highway 101 between Laytonville and Garberville was opened for convoy traffic on Sunday. Monday, the Sixth Army Engineers started operating a pontoon ferry across the Klamath River. During the peak of the storm last month, Mendocino bay was filled with floating logs and debris.

30 Years Ago Jan. 25, 1990

• Greenwood/Elk by Ron Bloomquist: My editor handed me a letter, sent care of The Beacon, from someone living in Philadelphia. Seems they subscribe to the Mendocino Beacon out there in the wilderness. They said for me to not worry about Greenwood/Elk being discovered, it already was, and included a clipping from their own local newspaper written by Zeke Wigglesworth of the Knight Ridder News Service: “Elk, between Mendocino and Point Arena, is so small you could miss it if you sneeze. But it has a couple of B&Bs, a restaurant and some very nice scenery. It’s a good place to stop for a picnic, but the public beach is rocky, very small and hard to get to, down a steep trail.” Right on, Zeke, but you forgot to mention the poison oak.

• An hour of storytelling will be presented each Saturday in February at Mendocino Community Library. “Oasis” Darryl Hasten, also known as Oasis the Story jester, will do stories designed to appeal to adult audiences, although children are welcome. A Mendocino resident, Hasten has been a storyteller, actor, director, playwright and dancer for more than 20 years. He was artist-in-residence with the Seattle Public Schools and toured the Western states with Morning Glory Theatre Productions.