Hot off the presses, the newest History Journal, titled Do You Know My Name?, is available now at the MAH shop, cost = $25. The new issue will soon be available online, as well as in local bookstores and at upcoming history-related events around the County.
Mark your calendars for the upcoming kickoff event:
"Authors’ Talk and Book Signing: 5:30-6:30 pm First Friday, September 2, 2016 at the MAH, Auditorium"
Article descriptions for Press Release
Indigenous Justice or Padre Killers (Martin Rizzo)
In 1812, Padre Andrés Quintana, the Franciscan friar who presided over Mission Santa Cruz, was assassinated by a group of indigenous men and women living in the mission. Who were these so-called Padre Killers? What were their reasons, their background, their names, and their fate?
Diaries of Sebastian Rodriguez (source document)
In 1828, a Spanish soldier based in Monterey led two expeditions into the interior of California. They were searching for neophyte Indians who had run away from the missions and for stolen horses, an important item in the Indians’ diet.
He Came From an Indian Kingdom (Martin Rizzo)
Macedonio Lorenzana, originally from Spanish Mexico, settled in the Villa de Branciforte in the early 1820s and became a pillar of the community, serving as Alcalde (or Mayor). How did it happen that after California became a state in 1850, he became an outcast within his community?
Rancho Bolsa del Pájaro: Squatters and Recipients (Joan Gilbert Martin)
In 1860-61 a group of squatters were evicted from the Bolsa del Pájaro rancho (future site of the city of Watsonville), and a different group of recipients were granted title. Who were these “squatters?” Why were they evicted? Who were the “recipients” and why were they the lucky ones?
Quercus agrifolia The Live Oak District (Phil Reader)
Prior to statehood, the Live Oak District of Santa Cruz County, named for the coastal live oak (Quercus agrifolia), was the site of yearly rodeos, where the early Californio settlers, rounded up their stock and celebrated by dancing the fandango at weeks-long fiestas.
The Bostons: A Pioneer Family of Santa Cruz County (Dana Bagshaw)
The Boston family saga began in 1848 when Joseph Boston, an enterprising young man from New York City came west to make his fortune. His family followed, he married, had children, and prospered. With his wife, Eliza, he built a church. Yet under the surface this family was plagued by insanity and early death.
The Children of Evergreen Cemetery (Sangye Hawke)
Children buried in Evergreen Cemetery died from disease, accident, stillbirth, or natural causes. A surprising number of these deaths, fifty percent in 1864, were from natural causes—an incidence that coincided with the use of “soothing syrups” to treat childhood ailments.
Jason Brown: Ben Lomond Mountain Resident . . . (Lisa Robinson)
Jason Brown, the son of abolitionist, John Brown, left the South and politics behind to move to Ben Lomond Mountain. There he lived a solitary, minimalist life in a crude cabin. Yet he had an extensive library and was experimenting with an “aerial” machine in which he planned to fly down and surprise the town.
AKA George Linden (Lisa Robinson)
A man calling himself George Linden arrived in Boulder Creek around 1892 and set out single-handedly to design and build a park, a “beauty spot,” out of a wilderness sloping down to the San Lorenzo River. But after he died in 1901, people wondered: Was he the man he said he was?
“All Well” Entertainment in Santa Cruz, 1900 to 1910 (Conor O’Brien)
Mary Ann True kept a diary recording every single day of her life between 1893 and 1948. Reading this diary we enter into the life of a Santa Cruz family. What did they do to pass the time before there was television and the internet?
Black and Tan Baseball (Geoffrey Dunn)
In 1907, the city of Santa Cruz boasted an all black baseball team, the Colored Giants. Even before then, local African American and Latino ball-players joined otherwise all-white teams. Later these same men would play on all black teams such as the Chicago American Giants. Who were these players? What were their names? What were their stories?
African American Churches in the City of Santa Cruz (Stanley D. Stevens & Joan Gilbert Martin)
In the first third of the twentieth century, three African American churches were founded in Santa Cruz: the AME Episcopal Zion church established in 1905 following Reconstruction in the South; the Missionary Baptist Church that came here in 1947 just after World War II, and the break-away Progressive Missionary Baptist Church built in 1963, a pivotal year in black history. What were the origins of these churches?
Noch and the Kid (Phil Reader)
Not too long ago in the days of Prohibition, tramps riding the rails dropped off at a “hobo jungle” near Schwan Lake, in Live Oak. What happened when Sheriff “Noch” Enoch Alzina confronted hobo “Kid” McCoy on a rainy night by the tracks?
Tragedy on the Cliff (Greg Gardner)
Law enforcement can be a dangerous profession. In 1925, two lawmen, Howard Trafton and Richard Rountree, tried to reason with eccentric loner Paul Woodside in his cliffside shanty above Seacliff Beach. What happened that they were killed?
A Meeting of Woodworking and Art (Frank Perry)
A talented cartoonist and woodworker, George Perry grew up in hard times, dropping out of school and enduring the Great Depression. Refusing to succumb, he and his talented wife, Edith, built a business making toys—toys that brought joy to him and his family, as well as to many generations of children.
Noboru Tanimura’s Camera by Frances (Eiko Tanimura) Schwann
Barely a week after Pearl Harbor, on December 13, 1941, the Watsonville Police Department confiscated a camera belonging to US citizen Noboru Tanimura. Because of his Japanese descent, he and his family spent the war years in an internment camp in Poston, Arizona, where he made numerous attempts to retrieve his camera.
The Inn (poem)
Corrigan’s Brookdale Inn was a gathering place for the men and women of Boulder Creek. During World War II, when the men were all off to war, Harold Pilger wrote this poem recalling the good times at the inn.
Lily the Cat Lady by Lisa Robinson
Lily Christian was a tiny woman with a debilitating illness, but it did not stop her from going out every day to feed the stray cats of Boulder Creek. Being frail, it took her all day to pull her cart of food, milk, and water through the town, always followed by a trail of cats.
Remembering Phil Reader (Sandy Lydon, Desiree Steber, Norman Poitevin, Rachel Mckay, Marion Pokriots, Stanley D. Stevens, and Frank Perry)
Do You Know My Name? was inspired by and is dedicated to the late historian Phil Reader. Seven memoirs describe a dedicated researcher, a remarkable storyteller, and a fierce advocate for the underdog. As Sandy Lydon says, he was “a champion of the working stiffs, those who were born, lived, and died out on the edges.”