This book is presented to Elmo Seely for sharing, so generously, your time and personal historical accounts of life in Arcata, to assist the Third Grades at Sunset School in the writing of this book, ARCATA, Vol. 1, in 1990
ARCATA BY THE 1989-90 THIRD GRADES SUNSET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 2400 BALDWIN STREET ARCATA, CA. 95521 JUNE, 1990 Vol. 1
This book is dedicated to all those who have ever or will ever call Arcata home. the class of 1989-90 and teachers. Winnie Trump and Charline Crump
Few rural schoolhouses in America could boast of a giant stump playground upon which to enjoy a rousing game of "King of the Mountain" like this one. A.W. Ericson frequently took advantage of these natural features in posing subjects for group portraits, and many of his views retain their charm even today. While schools were first constructed in the communities bordering Humbolt Bay, they soon followed the settlers eastward in the expansion. (Image of Stump by Erickson, missing)
The third grades at Sunset School produced this history of Arcata as a social studies project. The focus of the third grade curriculum is continuity and change. We chose to write about the continuity and change in our own community. This book is the product of our research and writing. It reflects what we have learned about the history of our community, Arcata. As explorers gathered information about the Humboldt Bay area, they noted the many compelling features of this place; the relatively mild climate, the abundance of game, edible vegetation and trees for building, the ease of access through the bay to and the friendliness of the Wiyots. Later, gold-seekers would come to Northern California, the beginning of a massive movement west. Needing the services of suppliers, lenders and transporters, the miners spread the word about the ideal conditions and opportunities for wealth to be found here, opening the way for rapid settlement by people wishing to move west.
History should be a story well told. It was in the oral tradition, from one generation to the next, that the indigenous people, the Wiyots, passed on their history and culture. But with the rapid loss of so many of their people following the influx of settlers, much of the evidence of Arcata's (pre-European) history has been left unrecorded. We were fortunate to have been able to interview one of the surviving descendants of these earliest of Arcata area residents. As a result of this we were able to record a small bit of what is known about their ancient culture. In an effort to preserve a part of Arcata's comparatively brief (European) settlement period, the third grades at Sunset School have captured here on paper the oral recollections of life in Arcata that were related to them by some of Arcata's longtime residents. People willing to give interviews and share their experiences and memories with us were contacted. The interviews that resulted were video-taped. The students took notes as they viewed the tapes and then, working in pairs or small groups, composed what is written here. Since history is a story never fully told, this book is not meant to be the complete history of Arcata, but, rather, the beginning of a continuing yearly project to involve future Arcata students in this same process of historical discovery and preservation.
1. Cheryl Sneider (The Wiyot) 1-4
2. Alex Stillman (The Plaza) 5-7
3. Lois Arkley (Early Arcata) 8-9
4. Ruth Chapman (Growing Up in Arcata) 10-11
5. Wally Appleton (Brizards/Jacoby Creek) 12-13
6. Earl Moranda (Ranch Life) 14-15
7. Katherine Bates (Early Arcata) 16-17
8. Dr. J. Olsen (Ship-Building) 18-19
9. Jim Fabbri & Steve Zorich (California Barrel Co.) 20-21
10. Lucille/Woodrow Miller (Arcata memories) 22-24
11. Louanna Kinsey (Minor theater) 25-27
12. Elmo Seely (Arcata memories) 28-29
13. Charles Robinson (Trains and Railroads) 30-31
14. Del Taylor (Greenwood Cemetery) 32-35
By Tanya Anderson, Amy Leen, and Manolo Platin
Cheryl Seidner came to speak to us about the Wiyot Indians Tribe, because the Wiyot Indians were the first people that lived in Arcata.
The word Wiyot means "where the rivers meet." Their villages were at Indian Island, Blue Lake, Little River, the South and North Spit, and Table Bluff. The Wiyot's neighbors were the Yuroks in the north, the Sinkone to the East. Ms. Seidner's family grew up in Table Bluff.
Wiyot houses were made out of redwoods which they felled by hand. They had cutout canoes which they really cut out. First, they felled the redwood trees and cut them in half. Then they burnt out the middle, and shaped, it with parts like a human.
The Wiyot ate acorns, hazelnuts, huckleberries, elk deer and bear, and many seafoods. They used baskets to cook and eat with. They also cooked with baskets and ate with them. Ms. Seidner showed us some of the different kinds of baskets. They were made from hazel and willow sticks, maidenhair ferns, bear grass and porcupine quills. The Wiyot men ate with fancy decorated wooden spoons. The Wiyot women just ate with mussel shells.
Ms. Seidner showed us necklaces made of shells, glass beads, and pinenuts. They were used on special occasions by young girls, and for trading. The Wiyot sued clam shells and dentalium for money. They also used periwinkle shells. But Cheryl called them "pennywinkles", because a penny is money and so were those shells.
Ms. Seidner said that the Wiyot women had the some rights as Wiyot men. They did not have to walk behind the men. Ms. Seidner's great grandmother was a judge for her tribe. Some important women wore a tattoo on their chin that looked like "111."
In 1860, six white men planned and committed a massacre on Indian Island. Most of the women and children were killed. after that only a few Wiyot Indians were left on Humboldt Bay. Today we know very little about them.
Cheryl Seidner herself three quarters Wiyot, believes no full blooded Wiyott exists today.
Although this photograph was probably taken after 1900, the baskets that she is shaping are traditional to the area. The largest of these, seen at right, is the burden basket and was used for carrying wood. The three baskets to her left were (clockwise from top) a meal tray, sifting basket used in the making of acorn soup, and a carrying basket to hold white grass used in her weaving. Note the patterns on the carrying basket. Mad River Annie lived for part of the year in the sand dunes near the mouth of Mad River, for many of the reeds and grasses needed for weaving grew at that site. (Image of Mad River Annie, missing)
By Holly Vandever & Ronald Richards
Ms. Stillman came to tell us about the Plaza and how it's changed. Arcata was established in 1850. It was started because people wanted a closer place to send supplies, like food, to Trinity mines.
At first the buildings around the Plaza were all made of wood. many of them burnt down because the fire fighting equipment was not very useful. The streets were made out of dirt and back then the sidewalks were made of wood. The street lights burned gas. There was a wooden fence around the middle of the Plaza to keep the cows in. Mule trains leaving for the gold mines used to be packed up on the Plaza. It was used for many celebrations.
The Arcata Hotel is one of the buildings on the Plaza. It was built in 1914. It was made of yellow brick and it had diamond shaped tiles to cover up the bolts that fastened the floors together. Bolts were used so the building would not fall down during earthquakes. When the Arcata Hotel was finished Arcata had a parade.
City Hall used to be across from the hotel. All of the bars were close together so that if something happened the policeman would get to them quickly. A wharf with a train on it used to run from the bay to where the post office is now.
The green area of the Plaza had a gazebo in the middle, but they took it to the Redwood Park area when Mr. Minor put up the statue of President McKinley in 1906. Back then they planted many palm trees around the Plaza, but now there are only two left. The statue of McKinley is still here in 1990, and now many buildings are being remodeled to look like they did when Arcata first began .
Because of the San Francisco earthquake the statue of McKinley arrived in Arcata late for the plan unveiling ceremony schedule for May 1, 1906. When it did arrive it was almost unceremonious hoist to its pedestal by the late Byron Smith, who was born in Arcata, and Severb Jacobson, a saloon keeper. The men used a tripole and a block and tackle.
By Bambi King & Manolo Plantin
Did you ever wonder what it was like to live in early Arcata? Mrs. Lois Arkley gave us an idea. She told us about her school and what she did as a child.
Her school was called Stewart School. Girls could only wear dresses, the boys had to wear short pants. They had one pair of school shoes. At recess they played hopscotch and jump rope. They had played on the monkey bars, swings and other things like that .
When school got out, the children would go up to the ice cream shops and buy ice cream, but there were only three flavors: strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. (Mrs. Arkley said vanilla was her favorite) Ice cream only cost 5 cents.
There were no refrigerators or washing machines when Mrs. Arkley was growing up. A scrub board was used to was the clothes and then they were hung on the line to dry. Wood stoves were used for heat. Milk was delivered in the mornings from the ranches. The fish man came on Friday. If you wanted to buy fish, you had to go out of your house and buy it from him. There were 3 doctors in Arcata then. If you were sick, you could call and the doctor would come to your house.
The telephones worked differently too. You would pick up the lever and the operator would say, "Number, please." Mrs. Arkley remembered a phone number that was "162." She said that she thought the way the telephone worked was magic when she was little .
Mrs. Arkley brought some coins and her old first grade reader with her. The penny was solid copper and the quarter, silver. Her reader had no colored pictures.
By Jennifer Norris
Mrs. Ruth Chapman was born in 1906. She came to talk to us about when she was little in Arcata. Mrs. Chapman lived on 11th St., a few blocks away from the Plaza. They had dirt roads then. There were no refrigerators, only ice boxes, and only wood heat. If you wanted to go to Eureka, you had to go by train. Most people walked everywhere. The moms made all of the clothes for the girls.
Mrs. Chapman remembered shopping on the Plaza, where all the stores were. Brizard's was the big store. They had everything. You could walk to the store or ring your order in. If you lived in town they delivered twice a week. If you lived in the country, you got things delivered once a week.
People would go to the movies at a theater near the Jacoby building. Then they would go to the ice cream shop and get cones for 5 cents. A chicken dinner at the Arcata Hotel only cost $1.00. Mrs. Chapman was only nine when she first ate there.
Mrs. Chapman and all of the other kids in Arcata went to Arcata Elementary School. They had no school buses. There were no field trips because there was no way to go anywhere. Grades 1-4 were on one side of the school. Grades 4-8 were on the other side. The students had to march in a line up the steps as the teacher rang the bell. To play with, they had a sandbox and swings. They had games like jacks, hopscotch and jump rope. Mrs. Chapman learned cursive in first grade. She was best at spelling.
By Michael Sumner & John Miller
Mr. Wally Appleton had some neat pictures to show of the Jacoby Storehouse. He told us about the Brizard family business, and how it came to be in that building.
Alexander Brizard was born in 1839 in France. His parents heard about the gold mines up here. They came by boat in 1849 and landed in San Francisco. Then they came to Arcata and worked in the Trinity gold mines for awhile. Alex Brizard was ten years old.
When he was twenty-four, Mr. Brizard began his own store. He sold food, clothing and hardware. His first store was next to the Arcata Hotel. In 1875 it burnt down in a big fire. Mr. Brizard started the business again in a barn behind the Hotel. Later, he bought the Jacoby Storehouse and moved his store there. It has been there for over 100 years now.
Mr. Brizard sold things to the people of Arcata and to the miners in the Trinity Alps. Mule trains also brought supplies to the miners. The mule trains were owned by Mr. Brizard. They supplied clothes, food and equipment to them and brought them their mail. The miners traded their gold for the supplies. Their gold would be sent to San Francisco by ship, and the miners would receive money or credit in return. In 1904 Mr. Brizard died. Then his three sons took over the business.
The first part of the Jacoby Building was built in 1857 by Augustus Jacoby. Mr Jacoby built it out of bricks made in Arcata and stones dug up behind HSU. It started with only one story. In 1907 two more stories were added. Now it is 133 years old.
By Christopher Merz & Terra Jo Davis
Mr. Moranda grew up on a dairy farm, and he was born in 1937. His family raised jersy cows and he had 50 or 60 cows. (Today we use holstein cows for most of our milk.) His chores were milking the cows, and taking the milk into the milk house. Then the Golden State Creamery would deliver cheese to them in the mornings.
Mr. Moranda's family did not have machinery to bail hay with, so they did everything by hand. They bought very little from the store. Mr. Moranda raised chickens and ducks, and pigs too. One time the pigs got loose and he and his friends had to chase a pig through a house.
Mr. Moranda enjoyed fishing and hunting. His favorite place to play was at Jane's Slough. He went to Stewart School in Arcata. He said he enjoyed growing up on a farm.
Mr. Moranda remembers playing with his toy fire truck and dreaming of becoming a fireman when he was a boy. When he grew up, Mr. Moranda worked in the fire department for 31 years as a volunteer fireman. (He was also an Arcata policeman for many years.) Arcata's firemen used to use bells, now they have beepers to tell them that there is a fire. The California Barrel Company used to blow a whistle to tell the town's people that there was a fire.
Mr. Moranda is still a volunteer fireman. He covers fires in McKinleyville, Manila, and Arcata.
By Corinne Bevis & Melissa Lowery
Mrs. Katherine Bates came to our class to talk to us about what it was like when she grew up in Arcata.
Mrs. Bates was one of six children. She lived on an 80 acre ranch across from the Eureka Airport. They produced most of their own food on their ranch, like beef, chicken, butter, ice cream and milk. They would go to town to buy 100 pound sacks of flour, beans and rice. Mrs. Bates remembered that her mother made wonderful dough nuts.
Mrs. Bates always spoke Italian at home. Her mother was from Italy, and her father was from Switzerland. She spoke only Italian when she began going to Worthington School. Many of her classmates couldn't speak English either. There were 60 kids in a classroom, and most of the other kids lived on ranches also. The playground was cut in half. One side was for the boys and one side was for the girls.
Mrs. Bates and her sisters and brothers would take a horse-drawn wagon across the fields to the road, then the kids walked. The kids went to the same school for 8 years. Mrs. Bates' family got their first car when she was about 14 years old. It was a big "Maxwell". It cost about $300. Not everyone could fit inside at once, so it was a treat to get a ride. Mrs. Bates remembered that the doctor came to your house if you were sick. Telephones had cranks. When you lifted the receiver, it rang 5 times.
Mrs. Bates started at Humboldt State Teacher's College in 1932. She graduated with only 10 other people in 1936. She became a teacher at Ferndale Elementary School. Teachers weren't allowed to be married then. She lived in Ferndale and only went home on the weekends. Her brother took her back and forth. Later, she went to night school to become a principal. She told us she would go get kids who weren't At school in her own car. She was a principal for many years.
By Heather Farmer & Ryan Triplett
Dr. Olson came to Arcata from Seattle. He went to the Eureka cemetery to find out about his great grandfather. He found out that his great grandfather and his great grandfather were shipbuilders here. That's how Dr. Olson got interested in ships.
Ships were built on Humboldt Bay from the 1890's to the 1930's by several companies. It cost about $30,000. to build one. They built the ships out of "Humboldt Pine" . Some of the boats weighed 500 tons. They had 3 or 4 masts that were 160 feet tall. When the ships were empty, rocks were put in the bottom so they wouldn't tip over. Dr. Olson showed us a picture of one of the biggest ships, called the "Vigilant". It was built in 1915 by his great grandfather.
It would take 20 men six months to a year to build a ship. It would take eight men to put 8 ribs in. It would take them a whole day. They worked 12 hours a day. The men were paid clothes and a place to sleep the first year they worked. The second year they got clothes, a place to sleep, and $50. The third year they, if they promised to work the forth year, they got $1 a day. The forth year you got paid $3 or $4 a day.
When a ship was launched, there would be about 400 people on deck to celebrate. They would pour a glass of rum "down the hatch" for good luck.
The ships built in Humboldt Bay carried wood to San Diego and South America. They picked up coal in Australia and sugar in Hawaii. One of the ships built in Humboldt Bay is in the Maritime Museum in San Francisco.
Mr. Steve Zorich and Mr. Jim Fabbri came to our school to tell us about the old barrel company and how it was to live in the old days in Arcata.
Mr. Zorich and Mr. Fabbri both worked in 1902, across from the Golden State Creamery. They made wooden kegs, and lids for "lugs". They also made wooden barrels for oil that went to Japan. Most of the barrels were of nails, powdered milk from the Creamery, or sugar from Spreckels in San Francisco. The type of wood they made them out of was fir, and they steamed it to soften it. CABCO cut all of their own wood.
In the summer, about 1,200 people worked for the barrel company. That is more than all of the people that worked in the mills. Whole families worked there. Children and older people would work as sweepers or watchmen. Women weren't allowed to work after 10:00 p.m.
Mr. Fabbri went to work at CABCO in 1937. He worked from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.. He was paid two "bits" an hour and made $1.25 a night. He started in the cover department making lids for orange and lemon boxes. He also made the tops and bottoms for kegs, and barrel parts.
Mr. Zorich started working at CABCO in 1937. He worked in the Green Department. He said that he could work as many hours as he wanted. He could make $4.30 a day. They both said that they liked working at CABCO very much.
Mr. Zorich and Mr. Fabbri told us the prices of many things back then. Bread cost $.10 a loaf, gas was $.06 a gallon, and a car would cost around $600.00. Mr. Fabbri's rent was $17.00 a month. Things were pretty cheap.
CABCO closed in 1956, because people started to make paper boxes, and steel drums for oil. When they closed, most of Arcata was out of work for a while.
By Alaina Ricardo, Stormy Slay, & Frank Lake
Mrs. Miller was born in 1914, the same year the Arcata Hotel was built. She was born in the Trinity Hospital and she has lived here all of her life. She grew up in the Arcata Bottoms on a dairy ranch. Mrs. Millers parents owned the town Gasquet, and she remembered that it took all day to get there.
Mrs. Miller went to the Arcata Grammar School. Girls were only allowed to wear dresses. Kids wore brown, high-top shoes with heavy socks held up with garters. Most children only had one pair of shoes at a time. One day, Mrs. Miller saw some green sandals. She really wanted them , so she asked her mom, but her mom said, "No." Then her dad said, "Let her have them." Mrs. Miller was the only girl with green sandals. She wore them all of the time, even when they wore out.
Mrs. Miller used to go to matinees at the Minor Theater, and to the Delta ice cream parlor. She liked Green River drinks for 5 cents and a banana split was 25 cents. When she was 9, she saw an ad in the paper about a monkey. She asked her dad if she could get it. Her dad said, "Okay." One day her monkey bit her on the arm and she started to run from the monkey. She threw sticks at the monkey. The monkey picked up the sticks and threw them back.
Mrs. Miller worked at the California Barrel Factory as a "slicer". It was hard on her fingers. She was paid 55 cents an hour.
Mr. Miller was born in 1914 in Georgia. He came to California in 1945. He left Georgia because a friend promised him a job in Phoenix, Arizona. But when he got there, there was no job! Then he came to Humboldt County, where he was promised another job. It took him eight days to get here, and he got eight flat tires on the way. He and his friends slept on the ground at night.
Mr. Miller worked in the Hammond Lumber Yard in Samoa for many years. He moved from Eureka to Arcata when he met Mrs. Miller.
Mr. Miller brought several interesting pictures of Eureka and the trains long ago to show the class.
By Tanya Anderson and John Miller
Ms. Kinsey is a speech therapist at our school, She is an owner of the Minor Theatre too. She had some things to tell about Isaac Minor and his theatre.
In the 1600's, the Minor family came to America from England. Mr. Isaac Minor came to Humboldt and became a lumber baron. He and a man named Noah Falk were friendly rivals. They wanted to see who was the richest .Isaac decided to buy a bunch of land from Noah so he could build a hotel. But Isaac spent $10,000. On the land, so he didn't have enough money left to build a hotel. Then Mr. Falk built one first. Poor Isaac he didn't have anything to build.
Then Mrs. Pettingill a lady who owned two nickelodeons, said "You know what we need? a movie theatre- not just one of these nickelodeons, a real theatre." Isaac did have enough money to build a theatre, so he bought the materials and hired the men to build the theatre. Many parts for the theatre had to be shipped here by boat, and it took a long a long time for the theatre finally open. I t was built in 1914 the same year that Arcata Hotel,the railroad and Humboldt State were built, and it was called Pettingill's Minor Theatre. On opening night, which was December 3, 1914, they released pigeons inside the theatre. As many people as they could fit were in there. Two shows were sold out.
Plays were put on in the Minor Theatre too. There were dressing rooms under the stage, and they're still there today. Houdini the magician once performed at the Minor too. Ms. Kinsey said that Houdini made a trap door in the stage floor for one of his tricks.
Issac was 80 years old when he built the theatre. He died in 1915, when he was 81. Mrs. Pettingill left six months later. After Mrs. Pettingill left, a man named Mr. Mann took over for a while. The Minor Theatre closed in 1938, the same year the Arcata Theatre was built. It opened again in the 1950's and was still owned by the Minor family. Then in the 1960's the theatre closed again because of T.V. It opened back up in1972.
Some people say that the ghost of Mr. Minor is in the theatre right now.
To be continued in Trump, part 2