July 23, 1921 - Frances Buchanan and John Harvey Ferrill were married at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. A few family members and friends attended the small ceremony, and Marie Buchanan, sister of the bride, served as bridesmaid. Frances was the daughter of Hugh and Mary (Donahue) Buchanan of Elk. John was the youngest son of Henry and Annie Ferrill, who operated the general merchandise [...]
July 18, 1899 - Six-year-old Francis Allen and his ten-year-old sister Nettie posed for a studio portrait at Carpenter Studios in Fort Bragg. In addition to photos taken that day, the Kelley House Collection also includes a lock of Francis’ hair clipped in 1899. Stored in the museum’s climate-controlled vault, this curl of brown hair is about 8 inches long and is tied with a dark [...]
July 15, 1972 - A fire broke out in the Silver Walker Jewelry Shop on the second floor of the Bank of America Building at the northwest corner of Main and Kasten Streets. (Out of This World is located on the first floor of this building today.) Jewelry maker Bruce Van De Walker owned the business. Bruce worked in silver and other metals, combining them with [...]
July 10, 1909 - The Beacon reported on an automobile trip made to Ukiah in the brand new Studebaker touring car owned by Mendocino Lumber Company Superintendent J. S. Ross. Mendocino Beacon editor and proprietor Auggie Heeser, Woods Superintendent Ed Boyle, and Miss Irene McLeod accompanied Ross on the journey. A 1909 Studebaker 5-Passenger Touring Car. (Photo courtesy of John M. Daly. More antique auto [...]
June 24, 1893 - The Barry Building was relocated from its site on Main Street to the corner of Albion and Howard Streets. Henry McKenzie moved the three-story building down Main Street to its new location on large wooden rollers. In the 1970s, local historian Nannie Escola shared that her mother had let her go down to Main Street to watch the horses pull the building [...]
Sunday School Picnic at Big Hill, 1931. Photograph of women attending the Mendocino Presbyterian Church's Sunday School picnic at Big Hill. Back row: Susie Walbridge, Molly Valentine, Laura Lammers, Catherine Swanson, ? Silver, ? Hamblin. Front row: ? Hanna, Vernice Brown, Mary Nichols. June 18, 1948 - Mrs. Laura Lammers, cousin of Mendocino Beacon editor and proprietor Auggie Heeser, passed away shortly after midnight [...]
June 12, 1923 - Agnes “Grace” Fisher died at her home in the San Francisco Bay Area from tuberculosis. She had first arrived in Mendocino 15 years earlier, when her husband became the pastor of the Mendocino Presbyterian Church. Grace was born in Trenton, Illinois in 1878. After spending 10 years teaching grammar school in her hometown, she married her childhood sweetheart, Reverend James Melville Fisher, [...]
June 3, 1935 - Former resident Roland Smith died in Sacramento. Roland had first arrived in Mendocino as a traveling evangelist in 1921. At the time, he was visiting towns all over the state, driven by a deep desire to share the old-time Gospel with people across California. In June 1921, Roland held a series of nondenominational revival meetings at the Kelley Baptist Church (where Corners [...]
May 22, 1878 - Fred Kunkel produced 70,000 bricks at his new Mendocino brick yard. The brick maker pressed locally-sourced clay into wooden molds by hand to form the bricks. The process of manufacturing a kiln full of bricks was a months-long endeavor, and the Beacon closely followed Fred's progress. Mendocino Lumber Company Mill on Big River Flat, 1890 - 1898. The third Mendocino lumber [...]
May 16, 1903 - The wagon of traveling salesman Xerxes A. Phillips was broken into while it was parked in front of Switzer & Boyd’s stable, which was located on the northwest corner of Albion and Lansing Streets. According to the Beacon, “A box containing about seventy-five ladies’ shirt waists [blouses] was taken and about a dozen pairs of shoes were missing.” Peddler and Wagon [...]