Old Time Notes from The Beacon

131 Years Ago March 23, 1889

• O. M. Stone will sell pianos and organs, cheaper than any traveling man out of San Francisco. He has no traveling expenses to pay and can sell on the cheapest margin.

• For fashionable millinery of all kinds call on Mrs. M. A. Kupp. Hats and bonnets trimmed in the latest and best style.

• Pictures framed in every style, at J. D. Johnson’s undertaking establishment, Lansing St., next to Masonic Hall.

• Blacksmithing of all kinds is done better and cheaper at T. W. LeBallister’s than in any shop on the coast.

• J. J. Ward has opened a new barber shop in Westport. Hot and cold baths. Give him a call.

• First- class horseshoeing and general blacksmithing at Jacob Stauer’s shop, Mendocino.

• Bever Bros. have purchased from Wm. Heeser the block of property just north of the block purchased sometime ago by C. W. Denslow from the same party. There is a good deal of real estate changing hands here, and the vacant lands in the suburbs of the town, are being cut up into town lots and being turned into comfortable homes.

• The Mendocino branch of the Portuguese Union of California has purchased a lot from Wm. Heeser, and will shortly erect a hall for fraternal purposes.

106 Years Ago March 21, 1914

• James Gurley has in his possession a large pearl which he found some time ago in an abalone. It is perfectly spherical in shape, a half inch in diameter and if polished will undoubtedly make a beautiful gem.

It is one of the largest pearls ever found in an abalone on this coast.

• Miss Alma Schultz of Mendocino and Herman R. Nolte of Albion were joined in the bonds of wedlock last Monday at San Francisco.

• It is not generally known, still it is a fact, that the Noyo River Apple Co. has the largest apple orchard under one management of any in the state. They have 175 acres in one orchard, says the Willits News. In the Sebastopol and Pajaro districts a 20-acre orchard is a bonanza ranch, while most of the orchards vary from five to ten acres.

• Wm. S. Anderson, well-known on the Mendocino coast, and in Humboldt County, where he had worked for many years in the various mills as band sawyer, was fatally injured in the Greenwood mill on the 16th inst.

• The Navarro ferry crossing is free to travelers from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but before or after a charge of 50 cents payable to the ferryman will be made for every rig that crosses.

78 Years Ago March 28, 1942

• Ms. Wm. Eggers, living some miles out on the Ukiah road, had the misfortune last Monday evening to lose her home, when sparks from the chimney ignited the roof. Driven by the heavy wind which was blowing, it was not long until the house was burned to the ground.

• A wedding originally scheduled to take place today was advanced a week and performed in San Francisco last Saturday when Miss Barbara Woodhead, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Woodhead, became the bride of Joseph La Brie, Jr. The advance in date was necessitated by orders for the groom to report for army duty March

30.

• The Point Arena grammar school only has an enrollment of 73 children since Gene Talbot transferred and Lila and Robert Pinole transferred to Rockport.

• Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Permenter, were much surprised to receive a letter from their son, Donald, who was in the Philippines last year. They had not heard from him since last September; he wrote that he was well.

56 Years Ago March 20, 1964

• Funeral services were held for Mrs. Rebecca Ainslie, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 98 years. Aunt Becky, as she was usually called, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, but lived in Mendocino County most of her life. Her home is on Mill street, where she had lived alone for many years. She had been active, walking to the stores now and then for shopping and working in her flower garden. Until quite recently she planted a big vegetable garden every spring.

• The 18-acre tract purchased by the late George Paddleford from the heirs of Louis C. Larsen was this week sold by Mrs. George Paddleford to Herman Freudenberg of Fairfax. This is one of the very attractive spots in the suburbs of Mendocino on the East Mendocino road — the original road to Little Lake — ( Willits). It represented Tract 1 in the subdivision laid out by the California Apple Land Company some 30 years ago. It lies adjacent to the headwaters of Jack Peters gulch and the south form of that stream. Mammoth redwoods once covered most of it and some still remain. Mr. Larsen after his retirement from the Mendocino mill, following its close, built an attractive cottage there which Mr. Paddleford enlarged and improved.

31 Years Ago March 23, 1989

• Manchester resident William James Stornetta, 63, passed away on March 14 at the Community Hospital in Santa Rosa, after a sudden illness. He was born, raised and educated in Manchester, where he has been a dairyman and was an avid fisherman and hunter. Stornetta was a U. S. Navy veteran of World War II, serving in the South Pacific, and was a lifetime member of Veterans of Foreign Wars.

• Professor Hans Jenny of the University of California, Berkeley, was honored by his department at a reception on campus March 12 on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Professor Jenny and his wife Jean are well-known for their efforts to preserve the Pygmy Forest. At their ranch in Comptche, they frequently host parties of soil scientists who come to study this unique phenomenon. Many acres of Pygmy Forest have been preserved by the Jennys’ efforts.