By Oliver Finigan, Manolo Platin, & Abe Goodwin
Mr. Seely is a person who took pictures of our lower grade classes. Elmo was born in 1913. He went to Arcata Grammar School for grades 1-4, and then to Stewart School for 5th grade.
When Mr. Seely went to school, the school didn't have bells. They had a triangle to ring.
He had to walk to school. The boys wore knickers and button shoes to school. At recess the boys played baseball and a game called Mumby Peg. Mumby Peg was a game that you played with knives. You had a knife on your hand and you had to flip it up and make the point land pointing down in the ground. Mr. Seely's worst subject at school was math, but he liked reading. He had to bring a bag lunch to school, but the school served milk. His favorite teacher was Mrs. Fletcher, who taught him in third grade.
When Mr. Seely was growing up he had no television or radio. He saw silent movies at the Minor Theatre. He liked to play horseshoes during the summer. He also enjoyed swimming at Shaw's Crossing, about 4 miles north of Arcata. Once, he and his friends were throwing rocks at a tin roof and a man came out with a shot gun and scared them away.
In 1929, Mr. Seely and his family got their first radio. His favorite radio show was "Fibber McGee and Molly". The first job Mr. Seely had was a newspaper route.
There were few appliances back then. Mr. Seely's family did not have a toaster or refrigerator. They did have a cooler to keep food cold. In 1934, Mr. Seely started taking pictures of many school classes in Arcata.
By Toby Dodgen, Alan Kinder, and Pyan Triplett
Mr. Charles Robinson came to talk about railroads. The first CA railroad was in Arcata. In the early days, trains were one of the only ways to travel. Trains were used to carry lumber to the sawmills, too. Two old trains are still here at the Scotia Museum and at Fort Humboldt in Eureka.
The engineers of the old trains were not covered. Sometimes they would turn the train engines around when they had to go through tunnels. That way the engineer wouldn't get so much smoke in his face. If you sat in an open car, you might get holes burnt in your clothes and soot on your face. Today we still have the Arcata and Mad River Railroad. it has two locomotives, and runs right past our school. Another train takes people from Eurekas to Willets. It is a passenger train.
Mr. Robinson brought lots of pictures of different kinds of trains. He said that one of the longest trains has 150 cars. One lumber car can carry as much as 5 trucks can. One coal train has 150 cars, every car is 70 feet long and carries 50 tons of coal! The controls of modern trains are like a computer board and you just push buttons.
Mr. Robinson also brought in a railroad tie, a spike, and a piece of rail. It took two kids to pick up the rail with Mr. Robinson's rail tongs.
By Joe Baraona, Chris Kilkenny, Bjorn Lundeen, Autumn Simas, Tanya Anderson, Amanda Pinard
Many of Arcata's families are buried in the Greenwood Cematary. The cemetery is a very special place in Arcata's history and memory.
Because a cemetery is such an important part of a town, we talked to Del Taylor about the cemetery. He told us some of the history of the cemetery and related events that involved some of the more well-known pioneers buried there. He pointed out many interesting headstones and told us a little about each one. Mr. Taylor told us that we could learn a lot about history from gravestones.
There were headstones that showed that there must have been a serious sickness in some families because many members of the same family died within a few days of each other. Whole families of several generations are buried together. Many children died in the 1800's and early 1900's; some are buried with their families and some buried in a special children's section of the cemetery. Mr. Taylor pointed out that many of the gravestones in the children's section had the same death year, when so many children and adults in Humboldt County were infected with polio. Earlier deaths of children with similar dates were probably caused by outbreaks of measles , diphtheria, or mumps. Birth and death dates will also show that most people died at an earlier age than people do now, and also that some people lived a very long time while other members of their families died younger.
Some of the gravestones have the names of well-known pioneers on them. We learned that there are many local Indian's buried there, also. Some gravestones tell where these pioneers were from, whose children they were, whose parents they were, when they were born, how long they lived, and sometimes even what they did in there lifetimes. There are gravestones of war veterans, some so old that the engraving has been greatly weathered away, and some undated, representing military units from far parts of the United States. Some are elaborately decorated and some include poems to or about the person buried there. We made rubbings of the headstones that interests us the most. Mr Taylor helped us with these, too.
Greenwood Cemetery is located on a flat piece of ground above Jolly Giant Creek just North of St. Mary's Church. A row of Cypress tress border a section of the cemetery where the Minor Mausoleum built by this mausoleum is located. Isaac built this mausoleum for his family in 1910 and 1911, several years before he built the Minor Theater. Minor cut huge blocks of granite stone from the quarry on Fickle Hill. The granite was valued at $40.000. Mr. Minor paid to have a railroad built just to bring granite from Fickle Hill to the cemetery. It might be interesting to ote that Isaac Minor had intended to build a hotel in Arcata in 1914, beau had difficulty getting the money to do it. He died in 1915, one year following the building of his Minor Theater.
Some of Arcata's wealthiest pioneers built mausoleums for their families. These people where Isaac Minor, Noah falk, Thomas Bair, and E.B. Jackson.
On March 1, 1860 the Board of Trustees of the town of Union declared that the spot for the town cemetery would be at the end of J Street. The cemetery was started ten years after the settlement of the town, even though residents had already been using it for burials.
In 1909 the Greenwood Cemetery built an arch at the entrance of the cemetery. Nobody knows how long it was there.
Isaac Minor, a prominent Arcata pioneer, brought in a quarry crew to build the mausoleum for himself and family, beginning the project in 1910. A Mr. James Craig was the contractor for the mausoleum, a stonecutter who had his trade in Peter Head, Scotland during a seven-year apprenticeship without pay.
The tinkle of bells was a familiar sound in Arcata as pioneers turned their cows out to pasture on the Plaza.
Game hunting provided both food and recreation of northern California. From Left to right, Lee Wiley, Rastus Dickerson, Rease Wiley, Walter Wiley, and "Ack" Garcelon pose with there wet dogs and a day's take of ducks. (photo missing)
In A. W. Ericson's forty years of active photography, he recorded the changing face of an expanding frontier. Man and animal power quickly passed to that of the machine before the watchful eve of his camera. Joined to the outside world by the inter coastal sailing ship and steamer, travel within Humboldt County was slow and arduous Mule, horse, and foot travel linked the growing community centers. Here a pack train of 55 mules leaves the A. Brizard Company in Arcata, enroute inland to Hoopa, a town 50 miles in distant.
Oxen teams numbering 16 to 20 animals were a common sight in northern California lumber camps until nearly 1895, as they pulled giant redwood logs from the forests along sid roads made of small green logs. Each ox pair , known as a span, could pull more than 4,000 pounds. Log sections over 10 feet in diameter and weighing over 40 tons, were not UN common. Oak barrels were placed at the edge of skid road, providing a source of water to reduce friction.
In the scene above, J.L.L. Bloemer, the propietor of the Union Laundry Company, poses with his crew in front of his premises. Starting early in the day, Bloemer would make his rounds of Arcata to collect soiled linens and garments to be washed. By mid morning, he would have returned to the laundry, where the washing rinsing and drying took place. Frequently satisfied customers would receive their wash neatly bundled and folded, by early evening.
1. Humboldt County Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INK WELLS & SCHOOL BELLS
2. Humboldt County Schools/California Retired Teachers Assoc., North Coast Selection . . . . . . . . HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY SCHOOLS, VOL. 1, ARCATA AREA
3. Susie VanKirk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . REFLECTIONS OF ARCATA'S HISTORY: EIGHTY YEARS OF ARCHITECTURE
4. Arcata Union. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Assorted special publications
GEORGE ZEHNDER, who donated the statue of McKinley to the city of Arcata, reaps a harvest of wheat on his Arcata Bottom farm, it's approximate location in west Arcata on what is now Brookside Terrace subdivision. The picture was taken August 19, 1893 by A.W. Ericson.
The Students and teachers of the third graders at Sunset School in Arcata gratefully acknowledge the time and assistance given by our resource speakers and those who supplied us with materials.
With the approach of the turn of the century, bicycles became an object of great interest, for they provided both utility and recreation in traveling moderate distances. The Arcata bicycle and one will note that their outings were well attended. In preparation for this picture, several of the club's more agile members climbed the trees at center with their two wheel.
Electronic version prepared by the students of the Arcata High School library staff, under the direction of Barbara Ehlers, librarian, as part of the Blackberry Bramble Network Humboldt History project.
Preparation and online posting by Joyce Farruggia. Copyright (c) 1995 for Sunset School and Joyce Farruggia for the Blackberry Bramble Network.