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LaVerne Larson was an avid collector of Humboldt History, especially surrounding her county, her family, and the Swedish community. She researched in a group with Andrew Genzoli and others, and taught Humboldt History to her students.
This notebook is her personal collection which ranges from early geology to about 1970. Her major sources were mostly secondary: Irvine, Guinn, Genzoli, newspapers, and some primary research. Complete citations appear at the end of the material.
Content includes text, maps, and pictures. Most of the maps are hand drawn by her and/or Andrew Genzoli. Some photos are from poorly preserved newspaper clippings, and have been improved to the degree allowed by Ofoto, and my limited skill. The text is typed and in the typical errors included which was typical of the days of typewriters, which made it difficult to correct errors. Due to the time which would be required to edit this massive amount of material word by word, we have chosen to circumvent the usual practice of maintaining errors in the material. I have maintained some historic spellings, whenever I recognized them. Some of the students who keyboarded the massive text made every attempt to maintain the original format, and my apologies are extended to them. Others were not so careful and difficulties in the current technology of transferring material prepared in IBM format to Mac format, I have made the editorial decision to "spell check" the material, thus retaining the content of the information.
Much of the material is already in the format of "teaching aids" and can be printed directly for classroom use. Since she was both a student of Humboldt History and a teacher, I don't know if she or Genzoli prepared the material, except for a couple which are signed by him.
An extensive Table of Contents lists most of the topics, but the notebook was not found in order, not all of the listed material is available, and much was added after she compiled this notebook. We have prepared an entire section of material from clippings which were simply slipped into the notebook...mostly on about Willow Creek the area and its people. Prominent topics are: ships, aboriginal peoples, houses, pioneers, businesses, news items, Indian Wars, and logging.
This material can be downloaded into a searchable word processing program. Although it was prepared in MS Word 6.0.1, it was "saved as Text". Therefore, after download and unstuffing, simply open it with your available Mac or IBM word processing program. The images, which will be uploaded individually, may provide problems for IBM users, but Mac users will even be able to imbed them into the text if they wish. MS Word, allows me to "Find" from the Edit menu, and go directly to each site of the material which contains the reference. For instance, if I wanted to write a paper about the history of Kneeland, I could search for "Kneeland" using that method through each segment of the material. Then if I knew the names of some prominent Kneeland resident pioneer families, I could search their names. I could also check the Table of Contents to see if any topics seem to relate, then search for the name of that entry.
Librarians, teachers, and students should find this a good survey course on the History of Humboldt County and the source of some very interesting material for classroom presentations, student studies, and even as a location which might springboard a topic for History Day projects. In that case, other sources would be desirable to extend the information, but articles here might spark an interest through making students and teachers aware of available topics.
Enjoy this material which was compiled by LaVerne Larson and donated by her family after her death for use by the BlackBerry Bramble Network. The original notebook has been returned to them. Students in Roger Elliott's computer lab at Zane Junior High School in Eureka, California keyboarded in the majority of the material.
| Gary Anderson | Joe Fitzhugh | Lindy Hobbs |
| Shawn Lacey | Jackie Miller | Brandi Patton |
| Erica Rosenzweig | Jessica Meister | Marshall Schrimshaw |
| Tyson Beauchamp | Aaron Binnie | Aaron Bryan |
| Hope Cavender | Shannon Cook | Desiree Farnsworth |
| Sarah Holz | Elisha Lawson | Jeremiah Juarez |
| Mandy McLeod | Angela Clark | Clint Dale |
| Chia Her | Jeremy Herskovic | Katrina Moorehead |
| Missy Moser | Tracey Oliver | Eli Perez |
| Josh Stone | Doug Thompson | Crystal Carroll |
| Jesse Trutna | Rhett Baker | Ben Christiansen |
| Jesse Dellay | Gina Gordon | Casey Kelly |
| Tricia Posey | Keng Thao | Peng Thao |
Joyce Farruggia of the Blackberry Bramble Network, edited and prepared the material for online presentation.
Share freely for educational and other non-profit purposes. You may not profit from the work of these students.
© Joyce Farruggia and the Blackberry Bramble Network and the Ziegler family.
Last Updated 12-23-95