Uncovering Jean MacCallum’s Night

Born on December 4, 1882, Jean MacCallum was Daisy and Alexander MacCallum’s second child. The family moved to San Francisco when Jean was around five years old. She visited Mendocino often with her family and would write letters to her Grandmother Eliza. Jean was described as shy among new company, but always kind. She spent much of her adult life living in San Francisco with her Aunt Elise Drexler, whom she adored. Elise’s husband, Louis P. Drexler, left Jean and her brother Donald $2,500 each in his will when he died in 1899 (a sum nearing $1 million in 2026).

Jean travelled extensively through Europe, and she and Elise traveled to Japan together in 1902. After their mother’s death in 1953, Jean and Donald fought a court battle against Gwenlian MacCallum Yonce, their father’s orphaned niece. Daisy and Alexander adopted Gwenlian when she was a child. Daisy promised her an inheritance, which the siblings disputed. Gwenlian won her share of the estate in 1958, but her relationship with Jean remained rocky. On February 17, 1970, Jean passed away at her Pacific Avenue home in San Francisco, which she had inherited from Elise. She’s buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, CA, the same cemetery her beloved aunt was laid to rest.

In a Kelley House Calendar article from 2015, writer Molly Dwyer wrote that Jean’s life is not well documented. What is written above is much of what is known about Jean. While this remains true, we have uncovered more about Jean in the past eleven years. The Kelley House Archive is home to 26 diaries kept by women in the extended Kelley family, which are now being digitized. Most of the diaries have been identified as Daisy’s (the authors seldom signed their name to the diary, leaving it as a mystery for us), but one small black leather journal belonged to Jean. Dated in her later years, from 1962 to 1968, it’s surprising that so many years fit into one book. Several of her relatives struggled to contain one year into one book. They often included clippings from newspapers glued onto pages, a practice that Jean did not partake in. In neat cursive, Jean would inscribe the date and a short message about her day. In fact, short would be an understatement, as many entries were simply a sentence. “Mar. 22- Rain all morning.” “Apr. 14. Easter.” “Hair washed Aug-19.” If she did have more to say, she would write almost to the direct end of the page. While we cannot know for sure, perhaps Jean wasn’t the most enthusiastic diarist. In the latter half of the journal, her handwriting appears shaky and tighter, making it harder to read.

From her journal, we can see Jean spent a lot of time with her family. She visited Mendocino occasionally but spent most of her time in the city. In February 1962, she visited the coast and planted two apple trees in “Uncle Russell’s garden.” Located on the east side of the MacCallum House, the garden was planted in memory of Russell Blair Kelley, the second of William and Eliza’s children, who sadly passed at the age of 23 in 1886.

Jean lived near her Uncle Otis and Aunt Annie in San Francisco. Her cousins, especially Margaret, James, and Katherine (who was 34 years younger than Jean), visited Jean’s house frequently. In her matter-of-fact way of writing (it’s unknown if she spoke in the same manner) she recorded James’s death in 1962. “June 5. Election Day. We voted early. James passed away before midnight. Margaret was there.” As the only two girls out of eight children, Margaret and Katherine appear to have been very close. Jean would call them “the girls,” and it was rare that one visited Jean without the other.

We hope to discover more about Jean’s life as more of her diary is read, in addition to the rest of the Kelley family diaries.

The Kelley House Museum is open Friday-Sunday, 11am-3pm. The exhibit A Woman’s Place Was Everywhere: How Working Women Shaped Mendocino is open until March 29. Visit the Kelley House event calendar for a walking tour schedule.