Here's how the Chamber of Commerce wanted to beautify Santa Rosa in 1912. Step #1: Get rid of those big trees lining Mendocino Ave. Step #2: Replace with palms, all the same size and the same distance apart.
(RIGHT: The present corner of Mendocino Avenue and 7th Street looking in the direction of College Avenue, c. 1905. The large house nearest the camera would be the current location of the Trek Bicycle Store. Photo courtesy Larry Lepeere collection)
Santa Rosa has always shown a willingness - nay, eagerness - to trash its own heritage when it stands in the way of progress. Sometimes "progress" is the justification for following a popular trend and as palm trees were quite the rage at the time, the Chamber of Commerce promoted a plan to fill the entire length of Mendocino Avenue with them.
"Mendocino avenue is the main thoroughfare north and south through the city and has on it some of the handsomest homes in the city, so it is only natural that is should be made one of the best so that strangers passing through town will take away a fine impression of the city," the Press Democrat cheered. Apparently PD editor Ernest Finley feared motorists would go home and tell their friends, "Santa Rosa's an alright place, I guess, except there's not enough contrived landscaping to my taste."
This wasn't the first local case of palm tree fever. The year before, the Board of Supervisors endorsed a scheme to plant date palms all along the highway that was then in the planning stage. As Mendocino Avenue would be a portion of this new highway, it makes a certain bit of sense that it should match. But unlike portions of the road that would pass through farmlands, the plan here was to tear out mature trees. Click or tap on the photo to the right to enlarge and some of the trees in the distance must be 30+ years old - and the picture probably was taken years before the palm frenzy peaked.
That image also shows, however, why it could be argued the plan was somewhat forgivable; people were planting palm trees anyway and doing a bum job of it. Three, maybe four varieties are seen in the photo ranging in style from squat to spindly, which together makes it look like a patch of tall weeds (no argument from me there). And this sort of willy-nilly palm planting was underway all over Santa Rosa during the early years of the century; there's hardly a street scene snapshot to be found from this period where there is not some forlorn palm or three to be spotted by the curbside (here's another example from about a block away).
One of the articles transcribed below mentions the work should be done soon in order for the town to look its best for the upcoming Panama-Pacific Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco. This is the first mention of Santa Rosa specifically planning for the 1915 mega-event, and "the attraction Santa Rosa will be for the great crowds of visitors during the exposition year." What "attraction" the Chamber of Commerce hoped would draw hordes of tourists here was not spelled out, but it's a safe bet they were thinking of Luther Burbank. If so, they were about to be disappointed; Burbank's company was planning on advertising "Luther Burbank's Exhibition Garden" near Hayward specifically to lure fans away from trekking to Santa Rosa and bothering the famous man. (UPDATE: A 1913 PD article confirms that yes, the Chamber was expecting Burbank to be the town's star attraction, with tourists also drawn "on account of the fame the city has gained as the scene of many rose carnival triumphs in the past.")
While here, though, out-of-towners could admire our new palm trees, all exactly alike. Visitors could scratch their heads and wonder why a town like this was trying so hard to look like it was next door to San Diego or somewhere else with a semi-tropical clime.
TREES GIVE WAY TO SHOWY PALMSImprovements Being Carried Out on Mendocino Avenue North of College Avenue
Property owners on Mendocino avenue from College avenue to the city limits are planning to improve that street this summer. Already those on the west side of the block from College to Carrillo have removed most of the large elm trees and planted out palms which will make the thoroughfare a palm avenue if the work is continued.
Now the property owners, R. W. Peterson, H. H. Elliott, D. J. Paddock and W. H. Lumsden have begun the work of laying a concrete curb and gutter. This part of the work will be extended rapidly on both sides of the street as the city is assisting in the work by furnishing the gravel required and hauling away the dirt which it is necessary to remove. Other property owners have already signified their intention of continuing the work as soon as the first block is completed.
Mendocino avenue is the main thoroughfare north and south through the city and has on it some of the handsomest homes in the city, so it is only natural that is should be made one of the best so that strangers passing through town will take away a fine impression of the city. With the bitumen from the courthouse to College avenue extended to the city limits the street will be one of the most desirable residence sections of the city and make it a popular drive. At present the street north of College avenue is anything but inviting for driving, owing to its roughness in dry weather and muddy condition in wet seasons.
- Press Democrat, March 21, 1912
PALM PLANTING ENDORSED BY THE IMPROVEMENT CLUB
The further beautifying of Santa Rosa by the planting of palms along the streets, at uniform distance, and of uniform variety, met with very hearty endorsement at the meeting of the Woman's Improvement Club, of which Mrs. Herbert H. Moke is president, held in this city on Monday afternoon.
Dr. P. A. Meneray and Max Rosenberg addressed the Club on the subject of palm planting and pointed out the charms of parking in the beautifying of any city. At the last meeting of the Chamber of Commerce the plan was endorsed.
Mrs. Moke and Mrs. John Rinner were named a special committee to call upon Luther Burbank and ask for his opinion regarding the best variety of palm to plant. The Club will also district of the city [sic] and have committees call upon property owners and solicit their co-operation in the campaign for palm planting. They will ascertain the names of those who will be willing to pay for the planting and purchase of the showy foliage. The plan is to plant one palm every fifty feet so that it can be readily seen that the cost will be very little.
With the approach of the Panama-Pacific Exposition and the attraction Santa Rosa will be for the great crowds of visitors during the exposition year, it is conceded that the making of the city as attractive as possible by that time should commence as soon as possible, and the planting of palms is a good start. With the backing of the energetic women forming the Improvement Club the scheme is sure to be successful.
- Press Democrat, December 10, 1912
WILL PLANT PALMS FOR THE BEAUTIFYING OF THE CITY
A great plan of beautifying the city by the systematic planting of palms along the sidewalks, producing a park effect that will at once be a delight and an inspiration, is to be impressed upon the people of Santa Rosa through the co-operation of the Woman's Improvement Club and the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce. The idea is to have Santa Rosa look as attractive as possible by the time of the holding of the 1915 Exposition when many hundreds of strangers will come within our gates, lured here by the fact that Santa Rosa is the home and work place of the greatest of scientific horticulturists, Luther Burbank, and also on account of the fame the city has gained as the scene of many rose carnival triumphs in the past.
The suggestion for palm planting in Santa Rosa has been urged for a long time but recently was given fresh impetus...the committee decided to recommend the Dracena, commonly known as the "Dragon palm" as the best for sidewalk planting. Another suggestion is that the Canary palm or orange or lemon trees are suitable for the yards so as to produce a tropical and delightful effect.
The joint committee hopes that people all over Santa Rosa will co-operate in this plan for the adornment of the city. They hope, too, that orders for the palms and trees will be left with the Chamber of Commerce. The palms can be obtained at a considerable reduction of cost if purchased to large quantities by the Chamber of Commerce for the purposes named.
Not only is Santa Rosa preparing to beautify for the world's fair crowds but all over the State the same idea prevails and in many other places just such spirit prevails.
- Press Democrat, February 15, 1913
Anyone who lived through that week probably never forgot it. Wildfires were driven by drought conditions and unbearable temperatures, with newspapers reporting some new calamity nearly every day. Thousands of acres burned in separate incidents around the Sonoma Valley and near Petaluma while a large block in downtown Napa was lost in a fast-moving blaze. And that was just the second week of July, 1913.
The most dramatic of the fires happened as that week began. "Shortly before midnight the fire on Mount Tamalpais gained great headway approaching Mill Valley," reported the wire service story that appeared in the Press Democrat on July 9. "[T]he flames are within half a mile of the city boundary. If the wind veers, Mill Valley and Larkspur are doomed." Evacuation orders were issued for Mill Valley, Larkspur, Corte Madera and the little community called Escalle.
The fire had started a day earlier and was not considered a serious threat; the cute little train that putted along the "Crookedest Railroad in the World" continued bringing guests to the hotel and the tavern near the peak of the mountain, one of the Bay Area's top tourist attractions with panoramic views. There was little concern at first when visitors were told the train wouldn't be running for a while because the flames were near the tracks but when the phone line went down and the fire could be seen from the porch, people began to panic. As the sun was about to set and guests were threatening to take their chances walking down the mountain, it was agreed they would try to get through on the train. With the passengers wrapped in wet sheets, the train slowly chugged down the rails with its many switchbacks, now less picturesque as trees burned on either side. The train car caught fire at least once. The engineer stopped and shouted he would no longer take responsibility for what happened and some passengers got off. "Windows cracked and broke," according to a first-hand account that appeared in the San Francisco Call. "Sparks flew in through the broken windows and set fire to clothing. Slowly the train rolled through the banks of fire. Every minute seemed an hour." Two women were unconscious when the train finally pulled into the Mill Valley station after dark.
All Bay Area National Guard companies were mobilized, including Santa Rosa's Company E as shown in the Press Democrat front page to the right. They joined 8,000 soldiers, sailors and firemen from San Francisco along with volunteers. Thankfully the winds calmed, but it still took them three days to beat out the fire using only simple hand tools and wet sacks.
The Mt. Tamalpais fire wasn't the only major disaster in the Bay Area that season. After it was well under control, Lt. Hilliard Comstock and some of the others from Company E were sent to Santa Cruz. They could well have spent weeks chasing regional fire threats. Nor was Tamalpais even the worst; in September about 80,000 acres burned in Napa County, cutting a swath from Lake Berryessa to the Delta - which at the time was the worst wildfire in California history, although now it doesn't even rank in the top 20. It was also the summer that Jack London's incredible Wolf House burned before he was able to sleep in it a single night.
A major cause of the high fire risk that year was California's suffering through a second year of drought, which was particularly bad in the North Bay. The Sonoma County average rainfall - as measured in Santa Rosa - is about 30 inches per season. The 1911-1912 rain year was 18.44 inches, or about sixty percent of normal; in 1912-1913 it was a little over 24 inches, which was down in the low-normal range. (A thorough discussion of local historic rainfall can be found in an earlier item, "WATER CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS.")
For Santa Rosans, the worst of the worst came on the afternoon of Friday, July 11. Everyone was probably breathing a sigh of relief because the morning Press Democrat reported the Tamalpais blaze was contained. Then at noon the fire bell sounded; two houses were aflame on lower Seventh street in the Italian neighborhood. The SRFD was able to save one house but the other was a complete loss. Afterwards, someone checked the city reservoir - and found that fighting those fires had drawn water levels dangerously low to just five feet.
The mayor contacted both the PD and Santa Rosa Republican, asking them to alert the public: No lawns or gardens should be watered through the weekend, and "be as sparing in the use for domestic purposes as possible."
Nearly everyone in Santa Rosa ignored his plea.
"A trip along one of the principal resident streets of the city Friday evening showed that in fourteen blocks there were but three houses in front of which the lawn was not being sprinkled," the Republican grumbled. Those inclined to conspiracy theories apparently thought the mayor was crying wolf because water wagons were still hosing down the streets - essential because many people still used horses - and both papers had to explain the wagons didn't use city water, instead sprinkling what the McDonald Water Company supplied from (what's now known as) Lake Ralphine.
But we shouldn't judge the water wasters too harshly. July 11 was also remarkable for setting the all-time record for the hottest day in Santa Rosa history - 113 degrees at one o'clock, with 126 recorded in direct sun (see historical temperatures). It was hotter in Santa Rosa than Phoenix (110) or Fresno (108). Because of the scorching heat the Petaluma Argus reported hundreds of chickens died; any apples hanging on the south and west side of trees turned brown.
It was an age before refrigeration and air conditioning, of course, and aside from splashing on some water from the tap or garden hose, relief only came from the ice plant at the Grace Brothers' brewery on Third street. The place was mobbed, with five men required to serve the long line of sweaty Santa Rosans. The PD noted, "Many came in autos and buggies carrying 50 to 100 pounds each, while others on bicycles and afoot took 5 to 25 pounds in sacks or wrapped in paper."
The heat wave passed but by the end of the month Santa Rosa enacted emergency water measures, as seen in the notice shown here. It was a throwback to the water rationing prior to 1907 discussed in the link above, except then the borderlines were east/west of Mendocino avenue with watering allowed every day at different times. The new edict was north/south of Fourth street on alternating days which was ever so much better because. Everyone was allowed to go nuts with their hoses on Sunday nights and a few neighbors probably even had water fights, wasteful though they be.
MAYOR MERCIER SAYS USE WATER SPARINGLYThe Supply is Too Low to Trifle With and Irrigation Should Stop For Few days"The city water supply is too low to permit irrigation of lawns and leave sufficient for fire protection and even scant domestic uses."
This statement was made in the office of the REPUBLICAN today by Mayor J. L. Mercier, directly after his return from the noonday blaze on Seventh street. The situation became apparent when water was needed to fight the blaze to which the department had been summoned.
"The reservoir was practically empty at the close of the day yesterday and after the pumps had worked all night there was but 5 feet of depth in our 15 foot reservoir.
"The water is simply--not there. We may as well admit the fact before loss of property--perhaps life--by fire drives the information into our hearts--or pockets."
The mayor wished the REPUBLICAN to inform the people of the facts and beg them in their own interests--for their own protection to USE NO WATER FOR IRRIGATION PURPOSES until Monday at the earliest and to be as sparing in the use for domestic purposes as possible until a full reservoir shall give the property of the citizens the protection of a supply for possible use at fires.
Santa Rosa is not the only city thus situated. Stringent rules have been proclaimed in many California cities and in others citizens have been warned and cautioned--are continued daily.
Your home may be lost if water is squandered in careless domestic use, and, more especially if it is wasted in trying to save a few lawns.
It is up to the citizens and theirs will be the responsibility if serious trouble results from a neglect of this warning.
RECORD FLIGHTS OF MERCURYHot Stunts of the Local ThermometersThe "oldest resident" with his record of long ago hot spells was not around today, or if he was visible nobody met him. Thursday, July 10th, was the "hottest day," with a maximum of 105, but this day, the 11th, at 11 A. M. the small god with the winged heels flew up to 107 degrees above zero. This is the registration of the big mercury machine of Lawson & Rinner on Fourth street, and while the peculiar position of the recording instrument may add two degrees over the government reading, this is the correct heat record on Fourth street, Santa Rosa. Today is the fourth transit of the mercury across the 100 line in this locality this year...The official maximum reported for Friday by the weather observer was 111 1-2 in the shade. In the sun 126 1-2.
[..]
- Santa Rosa Republican, July 11, 1913
WATER WARNING GOES UNHEEDEDCitizens Fail to Realize the Danger of FamineProperty owners of the city who use the city water were very slow to respond to the urgent warning given out Friday by Mayor Mercier concerning the sprinkling of lawns and the general wasting of water. People in general do not seem to appreciate the seriousness of the situation. There is more water available today (Saturday) than there has been for the past two days, but the danger line is not passed by any means, and the city may face a water scarcity that will be of a lasting nature unless the citizens are willing to co-operate with the authorities in the matter of conserving the supply.
The sprinkling of the streets has been carried on an usual, and this has led to an opinion expressed many times that the warning against the waste of water is a cry of "wolf, wolf."
This is not the truth as the city is buying water used on the streets from the McDonald company and is spending money to keep the streets in fair condition and the dust partly laid, that the comfort of the people may not be lacking.
If, on the other hand the citizens will show as much consideration for themselves in refraining from the useless waste of water at a time when danger threatens, the famine will easily be avoided. A trip along one of the principal resident streets of the city Friday evening showed that in fourteen blocks there were but three houses in front of which the lawn was not being sprinkled. As Mayor Mercier tersely expressed it, "Rather your lawn burn than your house." A few days of rest and the thirsty lawns may drink again and in the meantime the people may sleep more securely in the knowledge that the fire pressure will defend their homes.
- Santa Rosa Republican, July 13, 1913
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ICEMAN?He's Kept Might Busy These Days--Several Ice Men on the Job
Grace Brothers ice plant at the brewery has been having a heavy run the past week. Business has been brisk at the brewery itself. Owing in the warm weather beginning the Fourth, there has been a steady increasing demand for ice from all parts of town and the ice man has been unable to keep up with the demand.
For several days past many people have been going to the ice plant personally and securing what ice they wanted and carrying it away. Yesterday the place was fairly thronged and several men were engaged in getting out the ice and waiting on customers.
At 1 o'clock there was a long string of people lined up waiting their turn and no less than five men waiting on them. Yet the line was constantly lengthening.
Many came in autos and buggies carrying 50 to 100 pounds each, while others on bicycles and afoot took 5 to 25 pounds in sacks or wrapped in paper.
- Press Democrat, July 12, 1913
Wanna see a man throw a temper tantrum? Return to 1912 and ask Ernest Finley for directions to the park.
Oooooh, but Mr. Finley was steaming mad that spring, as Santa Rosa voters narrowly rejected a bond measure that would have purchased land for the city's very first public park, just a few blocks east of downtown.
Finley, editor and publisher of the Press Democrat and Santa Rosa's tireless Chamber of Commerce booster, wanted that park with a passion. It stuck in his craw that the town did not have a single one, while Sebastopol had a park, Petaluma had three and even tiny Graton had a park, complete with a dance floor and a funky little zoo that held monkeys and a bear.
"A public park is a great attraction," he told readers in one of several editorials in the months ahead of the May, 1912 vote. "The opportunity is now presented whereby this city can secure one of the finest public parks in California. There is no good reason why there should be any opposition whatever to the plan as now proposed." The PD also printed supportive letters to the editor, articles with testimonials of support from bankers, pastors and other movers 'n' shakers including Luther Burbank.
The property for sale is the current location of the Santa Rosa Middle School on the south side of College Avenue, between E street and Brookwood Ave. At the time it was only the overgrown lot that had been the Pacific Methodist College a couple of decades earlier. Finley's father had been president of that school for many years; now he was on his deathbed - and was soon to pass away, about five weeks after the bond vote - so Ernest had a personal reason to see it preserved and beautified.
"Even in its wholly neglected state - as it has been for many years - the great trees growing untrained and wild, the place is attractive," wrote "Santa Rosan" to the Press Democrat. "And situated in the center of the city that forest grove is a rare feature - the pride of the citizens and the wonder of strangers, who cannot understand how it happens that those woods, under private ownership, have been long conserved."
Newton V. V. Smyth, the former City Engineer, wrote up a survey for the PD. He found there were large pines and cypress 35 years old or more with "a channel of an old creek gracefully winding its way through the tract." He cataloged over 20 large oak trees - several being live oaks - and scores of ornamental trees. He explained, "Years ago, in the flourishing days of the Pacific Methodist College, there was a call for donation of trees. There was a liberal response and native trees of the state were sent in great variety."
The property was then owned by Mrs. Ella Hershey of Woodland, whose late husband David had been a trustee of the Methodist College. (I find no other Sonoma County connection for them.) It's unclear when the college building was demolished, but Hershey subdivided the land into 51 building lots in 1892. One of Finley's editorials explained the town had first approached her about selling three years prior, and the price now on the table was $50,000.
Even though that was about the market rate should the property be developed, Finley rattled on for two months about what a swell deal it was. "It figures something like 57 cents on each thousand dollars" of a property's assessment, he assured homeowners. "If the tract under consideration is not secured now, it will be cut up and sold off in lots, and then it will forever be too late," he ominously warned.
Nor was Finley above twisting facts; he consistently claimed it was ten acres although it was actually under nine. He praised the heritage trees even as he proposed it become a recreational area that would necessitate chopping most of them down: "An old abandoned water-course winds its way through the grounds, and with little trouble or expense this might be converted into a beautiful lake for boating. Lawn tennis courts, ball grounds, swings, etc."
In the Press Democrat never was heard a discouraging word; all that wonderfulness would cost only $50,000 over 25 years at five percent interest. It was left to the Santa Rosa Republican to print an open letter from Mayor John Mercier, who took no position on approval. His Honor pointed out it actually would be quite a bit more expensive and by the end of the bond Santa Rosa would have paid $32,500 in interest. Although Finley promised "the Woman's Improvement Club has offered to take charge of the work of beautifying the place," the mayor pointed out there would be a conservative estimate of $10,000 for buildings and other basic improvements. Add in at least $2,000 a year for utilities and general upkeep and the total cost of the park would be a minimum of $142,500 - well over $3 million today.
As voting day approached, the PD regularly used the front page to print endorsements or to report supporting events. On May Day picnic the school district commandeered the grounds, with a thousand children putting on a show, singing and folk dancing along with a maypole, exhibition garland weaving and "Froebelian* nature games."
The Rose Carnival was coming up and there was an elaborate rose and flower show presented under a tent on Exchange Avenue - the predecessor to our county fair Hall of Flowers. The paper featured a description of one exhibit which was a little park model, complete with a cage of canary "songbirds:"
| It is replete with walks, and trees, a "zoo," and the other alluring possibilities of a park. The idea is suggested by the fact that on next Tuesday Santa Rosa will vote whether she wishes to take a forward step in the march of progress and secure a public park or whether she is willing to miss one of the greatest public improvements any city of its size should acquire. |
And then, voting day: With two-thirds needed to carry, it lost by 48 votes, 1243 to 689.
At first, Finley was gracious: "The Woman's Improvement Club deserves much credit for the magnificent fight," the PD reported. "Poll lists were checked up and a score of autos were kept running all over town to secure women or men voters, and get them to the polls."
A couple of days later, Angry Ernest crawled out. He damned the wards south of the Creek (blue collar workers) and west of the train station (the Italian neighborhood) for the bond's failure. They made a "grave mistake" in not voting for the bond, Finley barked, and he thought they selfishly opposed it because the park was too far away. "It is manifestly impossible to put the park in front of everybody's property. Park sites have to be taken where we find them." Finley did not even acknowledge these were the poorest parts of town and additional property taxes would be a disproportionately greater burden. Nor did he consider those residents might not feel welcome in the upper Fourth street/MacDonald Ave neighborhood where wealthy people like Ernest Finley lived. Italian kids often didn't even venture downtown until they were eight or ten, Gaye LeBaron wrote in her history of 20th century Santa Rosa.
Finley rejected the outcome calling upon the mayor and city council to promptly hold another vote or otherwise "to see that some way is found, and speedily, to have the expressed wishes of the people complied with." But nothing came of his hopes to subvert the democratic process and the park issue seemed dead, at least for the immediate future.
Then, Act II: Upstep the women.
| Have you heard the latest? Four fine parks and a city playground, and a civic center on the banks of the creek! These are the things that are coming to Santa Rosa. The women are in the saddle, and their mandate has gone forth. Civic improvement is in the air, and the odor of the rose and the vine comes wafted in every wind. The music of merry childhood's happy voices is borne on every breeze. The wand of progress is being waved over our city and soldiers of progress are on the march, and the silurians must join the army or be run over by the bandwagon. |
That was the intro to a guest column in the Press Democrat authored by attorney Thomas J. Butts. Read his essay - transcribed below - and decide for yourself if it's a witty W. C. Fields-like jape or the work of someone a little unhinged.
I can only guess what Butts meant by "Silurians" (which he mentions twice) except that was part of the Paleozoic Era, about 430 million years ago; maybe he was suggesting park opponents didn't have the smarts of a trilobite. He certainly did suggest they would be better off dead: "...as time flows on, one by one of these gentlemen will fall away from the busy walks of life and be borne away to the Silent City to the cold and small room that is the last quiet resting place of each and all."
With all his chatter about Silurians and the history of old bridges, Butts never got around to mentioning the actual subject of his essay - that the Woman's Improvement Club was to hold a public meeting in a few days and announce a proposal for not one, but several parks.
Apparently the Club members kept mum about their plans; Butts' column in the PD and two front page stories in the Republican suggest speculation was rife. And Santa Rosans had years' worth of park ideas - the old college grounds proposal was only the most recent to fail. Rehashed were three general ideas:
 | THE CIVIC CENTER Santa Rosa also lacked a city hall, so why not combine a park with an administration building? That idea last came up when the Lebanon Hotel was for sale in 1909. The gardens surrounding the place were magnificent, but apparently the deal-killer was figuring out what to do with its 30-room mansion. No bond was ever proposed. |
| THE WATER PARK It was often suggested to make a park on the banks of Santa Rosa Creek or dam the waterway; the most ambitious was the attempt to create Lake Santa Rosa in 1910. A property owner sued over the dam constructed by enthusiasts (lawyer Butts represented the lake builders) and it was dismantled after a couple of months. |
| THE CLEANED-UP DISTRICT Be it water park, civic center or plain ol' playgrounds, a park was sometimes mentioned as an excuse to wipe out the red light district on First street and Santa Rosa's tiny Chinatown on Second. During the 1908 mayoral election, the winning candidate unveiled an election eve surprise by announcing he had options to buy part of the tenderloin nearest the creek and would (somehow) turn it into a park. Nothing happened; the announcement was just a dirty political trick. |
It's surprising so much of the speculation in 1912 was centered on the tenderloin/Chinatown area - surprising, in part, because the red light district was supposedly abolished in 1909, and these mentions are the first real proof the ladies were indeed still around. And given some of those properties were owned by Santa Rosa's wealthiest good ol' boys (here's looking at you, Con Shea) it's also surprising to find voices calling for the town to just grab them if the owners were not willing to sell. From the Republican newspaper:
| It is proposed to purchase the two blocks occupied by Chinatown and the property of the red light district, if this can be done at a reasonable figure. Failing in this, it is proposed to bring condemnation proceedings to secure the property...It is undeniable that Chinatown is an eyesore in its present location and if it could be removed it would be a splendid idea. |
With all that buzz, the Woman's Improvement Club meeting drew a large audience. Dozens spoke, but the main presentation was by Walter F. Price, a local realtor who was best known as an ineffectual and likely corrupt former state senator. According to the Republican, "Mr. Price stated that he had willingly assisted the ladies of the Improvement Club in obtaining a list of available properties for park purposes. This he did free of cost." Methinks he too loudly proclaimed his charity, and there were certain to be dollars in his pocket should the deal actually go through.
Price's grand solution included the old college grounds (natch) plus three other properties: One near the racetrack (meaning the fairgrounds), another apparently the current location of Olive Park, and one downwind to the slaughterhouse on West College. The three new offerings were simply large-ish vacant lots with no attractive features except for the future Olive Park, adjacent to Santa Rosa Creek - although in that era it was infamous for being the worst smelling part of the waterway because it was immediately downstream from the town's worst polluters. It was a token nod to the neighborhoods which had voted against the bond a few months earlier. And the price tag for that terrrrrrific deal was $62,750.
The next morning the leaders of the Improvement Club held a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, and you can bet Finley was at the table. After a "thorough talking over" it was decided to ask the City Council for a new bond election, this time requesting $75,000, apparently because they thought the voters who didn't want to approve a $50K bond would jump at the chance to pay considerably more.
As Dear Reader can probably guess: Thus endeth another chapter in the Santa Rosa Park Saga.
Looking in about a year later, we find nothing had happened to the old college grounds since the vote, despite Finley's dire warning it would be otherwise sold to developers. An article in the Republican noted the property was in "unkept, unkempt condition" and being used as a dumping ground. "The fine park is getting filled with rubbish; old cans by the cartload are being brought from a distance and dumped into the grounds; all of which is contrary to city ordinances, made and provided."
In his later character sketches of Santa Rosans, Ernest Finley mentioned attorney Butts went on to create an ad hoc "South Side Park," but further details are not known (although I'll bet he had a "Silurians keep out" sign there somewhere). It wouldn't be until 1922 that Santa Rosa officially created a public park, and it was only a picnic area in an unused part of the city's reservoir site, just west of Spring Lake.
| * Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852) created the concept of kindergarten as part of his view that children learned best through play and interacting with their surroundings. It is similar in some ways to the later Montessori Method but less rigid, such as encouraging children to play games for physical exercise instead of performing gymnastics. Where a Montessori teacher might instruct a child "the sky is blue," a Froebelian might ask a child to "find things the color of the sky." A modern comparison of the methods can be found here and a 1912 analysis (when the Montessori Method was very new) is available here. |
SANTA ROSA'S PUBLIC PARK
All sorts of absurd reports have been circulated regarding the terms of the agreement under which it is proposed for purchase the old College grounds for a public park, and for the benefit of its readers The Press Democrat publishes the text of the agreement in full...
...The possibilities of the site from an artistic standpoint are immense. A great number of giant oaks, to say nothing of many large sycamore and other trees, planted there thirty-five or forty years ago, already give the grounds the appearance of a park. An old abandoned water-course winds its way through the grounds, and with little trouble or expense this might be converted into a beautiful lake for boating. Lawn tennis courts, ball grounds, swings, etc., etc., could all be provided and the place made a public playground for all the people. As the Woman's Improvement Club has offered to take charge of the work of beautifying the place, the initial cost of purchase is all that would have to be met at this time.
The price put upon the property by the owners is entirely reasonable, in our opinion, if we take into consideration that it is to be devoted to park purposes. Viewed in this light the many beautiful trees, some of which have been growing for hundreds of years, all possess an actual and tangible value, as does even the old abandoned water-course. There are fifty-two building lots contained in the tract. The present owners purchased the property more than twenty years ago for $20,000. Allowing them five per cent interest on the investment and adding what they have paid out in taxes and for street work, etc., the property has cost them several thousand dollars more than they are now offering to sell it for.
...[History of contacts with the owner]...
...The bonds are to run twenty-five years, and the increase in the tax rate will be so slight that nobody will ever know there has been an increase. It figures something like 57 cents on each thousand dollars, taking the present assessment value of property within the city limits as a basis...
...Every town of any consequence has a public park. Santa Rosa has none. A public park is a great attraction. The opportunity is now presented whereby this city can secure one of the finest public parks in California. There is no good reason why there should be any opposition whatever to the plan as now proposed. If the tract under consideration is not secured now, it will be cut up and sold off in lots, and then it will forever be too late. The opportunity will have passed.
This is our chance to secure a public park and secure a good one. We must not let the opportunity go by.
Work for the public park!
- Press Democrat editorial, April 25, 1912
SANTA ROSA GIRLS DESIGN "PARK" FOR ROSE SHOW
The Misses Ruth and Gladys Hodgson have a striking and artistic exhibit in the Rose Show on Exchange avenue. It is replete with walks, and trees, a "zoo," and the other alluring possibilities of a park. The idea is suggested by the fact that on next Tuesday Santa Rosa will vote whether she wishes to take a forward step in the march of progress and secure a public park or whether she is willing to miss one of the greatest public improvements any city of its size should acquire. The two charming girls who have worked out the scheme have done so faithfully with the use of trees, shrubs, mosses and other embellishments. It is certainly a delightful nook in the exhibit.
The Press Democrat mentioned most of the displays in the rose show on Thursday morning, but then only mentioned them. The display is a delight and all should see it. It is the most delightful ten cents worth you can find anywhere. Flowers and songbirds, the air burdened with the sweetest perfume, and the superb notes of the canaries, the waterfall and the fountain splashing in all the setting of the woodland. The choice gardens and conservatory blossoms blend in color and significant with the wild variety of the woodland...
- Press Democrat, May 3, 1912
SANTA ROSA'S PARKSBy T. J. Butts
Have you heard the latest? Four fine parks and a city playground, and a civic center on the banks of the creek! These are the things that are coming to Santa Rosa. The women are in the saddle, and their mandate has gone forth. Civic improvement is in the air, and the odor of the rose and the vine comes wafted in every wind. The music of merry childhood's happy voices is borne on every breeze. The wand of progress is being waved over our city and soldiers of progress are on the march, and the silurians must join the army or be run over by the bandwagon.
Santa Rosa can no longer maintain her prestige as one of the most beautiful cities on the Coast unless we do something to justify that reputation. Nature has done much for this city, but the people have done little towards keeping the city beautiful. I came to this city forty-four years ago. At that time it had a most beautiful park in the center of the town. But the Silurians of that day, whose highest conception of the Garden of Eden was that of a "truck patch" and a place dedicated to the growing of beets and cabbage, gave it away to keep from taking care of it.
I was in Santa Rosa when the first iron bridge in the state was built over the creek on Main Street. It had been the custom up to that time for farmers to drive down the bank and ford the creek when coming to town instead of crossing the old wooden bridge. When the matter of building the new bridge came up before the Board of Supervisors, one old gentleman, who was a well-known man in this town and was a trustee of one of the colleges here went before the Board to protest against the bridge, and in his speech he said:
"We don't need no bridge and if you put that bridge thar, whar are ye goin' to set yer tire, and whar are you goin' to water yer critter?"
We find the same class among us today, and when the park question comes up they will say: "We don't need no park, there is room enough for us on the benches in front of the Court House."
But these gentlemen will not be compelled to wear out their seats of their trousers on those old benches much longer.
The Woman's Improvement Club is going to provide parks for this city, where these same gentlemen may rest under the shade of the trees, drink in the fragrance of a million flowers while they figure their interest and knock all civic improvements.
And just here recurs the thought that as time flows on, one by one of these gentlemen will fall away from the busy walks of life and be borne away to the Silent City to the cold and small room that is the last quiet resting place of each and all. Their graves may not be marked by monument or stone, but posterity will not be deprived of the satisfaction of knowing that they are dead.
It was an old saying that "If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the mountain." And now the mandate has gone forth that if the parks will not come to Santa Rosa, the women of Santa Rosa will go after the parks. They have started already. They are now on the way with a whoop. So, Mr. Reader, just keep your eye on the women, and you will see them bring home the bacon.
- Press Democrat, September 22, 1912
MASS MEETING UNANIMOUSLY FAVORED PUBLIC PARKSGreat Enthusiasm Shown At The Meeting Thursday Night
Not a voice was raised against public parks at the large mass meeting held in Judge Emmet Seawell's court room Thursday evening, inder the auspices of the Woman's Improvement Club...
...Four pieces of property that could be secured as park sites were suggested by Walter F. Price. These would cost the city $62,750. Mr. Price stated that he had willingly assisted the ladies of the Improvement Club in obtaining a list of available properties for park purposes. This he did free of cost.
The list he mention consisted of the old Pacific Methodist College grounds at College avenue, North, Fifth and King streets, price $50,000; a block of land bounded by Piner [sic - it was Pine street], Brown and Oak streets, price $4750; land at Orange and Railroad streets on the south bank of Santa Rosa creek, price $2000; and a block on College avenue, between Cleveland and Ripley streets, price $10,000, or portions of this lot could be had at $5000 or $6000 respectfully.
A. H. Donovan stated that M. Menihan of Cloverdale had written to him regarding the Menihan property bounded by A, Seventh and Washington streets, which at one time was greatly urged for a park site. This letter came from the owner unsolicited and stated that the price on the property had been reduced from its former price of $20,000 to $18,000 now, the owners being desirous to sell.
A. R. Buckner and others of the vicinity southeast from the court house presented a plan that they are working on that they believe will prove feasible for a public park proposition in that vicinity.
Mrs. Metzger spoke, setting the price on her property at Washington and Morgan streets at $12,000. She had been requested to set a price on that piece of property. Mrs. Metzger was in favor of the city owning several parks in different parts of the city.
Park Along Creek
In response to a call from the chair Attorney Frances McG Martin spoke eloquently of the possibilities of a park on the banks of Santa Rosa creek. She thought that by cleaning up the property adjoining the creek and clearing away the houses up to second street in and near to the Burbank property, would be an ideal park site and would clean out Chinatown. Mrs. Martin also favored parks in other parts of the city.
- Santa Rosa Republican, September 27, 1912
LET THE CITY CARE FOR THE COLLEGE PARK
The Presbyterian Missionary Society held its annual meeting and dinner Tuesday under the pine trees in the old College park. This wooded block in the heart of the city, even in its unkept, unkempt condition, is an ideal place for any kind of an outing, be it baseball game, Maypole dance, or doll party. The Baptist congregation this summer during the repairing of their church building have held Sunday services under those noble trees. Country visitors in the city frequently lunch and rest in that shade.
In view of this convenience, would it not be a fair return for the city to have some care over this big vacant lot? The fine park is getting filled with rubbish; old cans by the cartload are being brought from a distance and dumped into the grounds; all of which is contrary to city ordinances, made and provided. The health officer might there find some problems for solution. By all means, if the city cannot buy the park, let it care for that splendid place.
- Santa Rosa Republican, August 13, 1913
Bad news, auto aficionados; Standard Oil jacked up the price of gas another half cent, raising the 1912 price to around 18 cents. "Speed burners, won't this make you slower?" the Press Democrat asked snarkily.
| 1911 | 16¢ |
| 1912 | 18¢ |
| 1913 | 22¢ |
| 1914 | 13¢ |
| 1915 | 15¢ |
| 1916 | 23¢ |
| 1917 | N/A |
| 1918 | 25¢ |
| 1919 | 25¢ |
| 1920 | 30¢ |
| 1921 | 26¢ |
| 1922 | 25¢ |
| 1923 | 22¢ |
| 1924 | 21¢ |
| 1925 | 22¢ |
| 1926 | 23¢ |
| 1927 | 21¢ |
| 1928 | 21¢ |
| 1929 | 21¢ |
| 1930 | 20¢ |
| 1931 | 17¢ |
| 1932 | 18¢ |
| 1933 | 18¢ |
| 1934 | 19¢ |
| 1935 | 19¢ |
| 1936 | 19¢ |
| 1937 | 20¢ |
| 1938 | 20¢ |
| 1939 | 19¢ |
| 1940 | 18¢ |
| 1941 | 19¢ |
| 1942 | 20¢ |
| 1943 | 21¢ |
| 1944 | 21¢ |
| 1945 | 21¢ |
| 1946 | 21¢ |
| 1947 | 23¢ |
| 1948 | 26¢ |
| 1949 | 27¢ |
True, 18¢ was no small change back then. A dime in 1912 was worth about $2.50 today, so it was actually the equivalent of $4.50 a gallon.
We don't know precisely what they were paying in Sonoma County at the time; price bumps were mentioned in the local papers, but never the cost at the pumps, but it was most likely less than 18¢. A 1913 San Francisco Call article noted the market price in the city was then 16½ cents - 25 percent less than the national average - which meant a gallon of gas was possibly more like 14¢ locally in 1912. Prices were probably lower in the Bay Area simply because it was a major seaport; Shell did not begin operating the Martinez refinery until 1915.
While we may never know the real 1912-1913 gas prices around here, we surely know what they were in remote parts of the country. Open any auto enthusiast magazine from that period and you're bound to find a correspondent kvetching about how much more it cost to fill 'er up in Death Valley, Yellowstone or some other wilderness. The fellow who complained in high dudgeon about gas being 40¢ at Yosemite probably came home with snapshots of gas station signs.
The table at right shows average gasoline prices and was a challenge to assemble. The Energy Dept. has data going back to 1919 but is impossible to access without a Windows computer and a special plugin (I guess it's still 1998 over at the Department of Energy) so the link provided above is to download an archived copy of the spreadsheet. The really old data had to be scratched out of magazines from the time, particularly "Automobile Topics". So until someone replicates my work - or more likely, rips off this data - here is the most comprehensive info on early gas prices found anywhere online.
While doing this research, however, I made the most amazing discovery: Experts on the Internet don't know what they're talking about.
Searching for historic gasoline prices turned up all sorts of results that were wildly wrong; among the honking mistakes from popular websites such as ask.com, "Yahoo! Answers" and answers.com (among others), I was informed authoritatively a gallon cost 7¢ in 1912, 3¢ in 1916, 20¢ in 1920 and 9¢ in 1930. Sources are never given. Of course.
Try it yourself. Enter a search string into Google such as, "how much was gasoline in 19xx" or "price of gas in 19xx". I did a little experiment with years picked at random between 1911 and 1929, choosing the top hit on the search results. Out of a dozen trials, only one was correct (thank you, inflationdata.com).
SPEED BURNERS, WON'T THIS MAKE YOU SLOWER?
J. B. Clifford, the well known travelling representative of the Standard Oil Company in this section of the State, received the following telegram while in this city last night from headquarters: "Advance gasoline, naptha [sic] and distillates half a cent." This means that the price is half a cent a gallon greater than it was yesterday.
- Press Democrat, April 16, 1912
ANOTHER ADVANCE IN PRICE OF GASOLINE
Yesterday J. B. Clifford, the travelling representative of the Standard Oil Company in this section, received a dispatch from headquarters informing him that there had been another advance in the price of gasoline. The dispatch read:
"Effective June eleventh, advance price gasoline and naptha [sic] one half cent. Gas machine gasoline one cent. All points: all deliveries. No change engine distillate."
- Press Democrat, June 12, 1912
Summer's nearly over, so following a long tradition (which started last year) let's pause to gaze navelward and ponder What It All Means.
The last occasion was this blog's 500th entry, where I put together a "Best of the Blog" index of the stories most popular, important or odd. This time, at milepost #550, I'd like to muse a bit about what this project's taught me about misinterpreting history.
My process to create this journal is simple; I read every issue of both Santa Rosa newspapers cover-to-cover, just as people did when the ink was fresh. Every gossip column. All mundane city council reports. Endless complaining and shaming over whatnot on the editorial pages. Santa Rosa's past flows through the library microfilm readers like a boring, torpid river.
Yet all of it is valuable - no event is simply an isolated pin stuck on an historic timeline. For instance, the previous item here revealed the first-airmail biplane in a Washington, D.C. museum may not be the famous aircraft after all. The airplane was sold in 1912 by Ben Noonan, whom I knew was a boyhood friend of pilot Fred J. Wiseman, who made his historic flight a year earlier with Noonan driving the chase car, which was the same auto he used in a 1909 California Grand Prize Race to win $500 by beating Wiseman. Noonan's family owned the slaughterhouse at the corner of College and Cleveland Avenues where the airplanes were stored, and just a few months before they were sold there was great commotion because sausage maker Otto Ulrich caught fire thanks to all the grease on his clothes and had to be extinguished with a hose because his enormous boots kept him from fitting in a tub of water. (Eat you heart out, Marcel Proust.)
Point being, when I wrote that article I probably knew as much about Ben Noonan as the average Santa Rosan at the time. Reading all those the newspapers leading to that single 1912 event provided rich context - and when it comes to history, context is everything. (It also makes Jack a dull boy; never ask me about the 1905 hops market at a party.)
(RIGHT: By 1912 clothing ads were aimed at fashionable young urban adults. Santa Rosa Republican: April 27, 1912)
Consider the rate of progress of those days; it's astonishing how quickly Santa Rosa seemed to bolt forward starting in 1910. By the end of the following year automobiles were everywhere. Sidewalks were no longer rolled up at sundown; downtown was transformed with electric signs up and down Fourth street, including marquees of several vaudeville and movie theaters. Fashions were looking more comfortable to wear and women's hats were no longer great platters of flowers. Technology invaded the newspaper ads, selling phonograph records and Kodak cameras. And another modern switch - more advertising was intended to appeal to women and children.
Contrast that to five years earlier in 1907 when the pace was slower and locals seemed wary of things changing. An article appeared in the paper explaining how to properly speak into a telephone and the banking crisis that year demonstrated many didn't understand dollar bills were real money. Then step back five years further and it seemed Santa Rosa was still a farmtown in the Old West, with prominent ads for horse-drawn plows, oil lanterns and blacksmiths. After several months reading only 1912 and later, I recently did some extended research in earlier newspapers and it was jarring to look at papers from 1902. This is absolutely true: When I displayed the first microfilm pages from that year, I imagined a whiff of something musty and very old.
The contrasts between 1902 and 1912 newspapers were so wide it's difficult to remember they were produced by mostly the same people covering the same town. The difference easily lends to generalization: Santa Rosa 1912 was firmly a 20th Century town just as 1902 appeared to be part of the 19th Century, with 1907 being a waystation in between. That's trite, and I apologize for having made similar comparisons here. While by appearances 1902 Santa Rosans were still mostly living La Vida Victorian, they had more in common with the residents of 1912 than the people who lived here in (say) 1880.
And while I'm on the subject, it's equally silly to view Santa Rosa as being transformed by the 1906 earthquake. Yes, the destruction downtown led to many old-fashioned buildings being replaced with contemporary architecture but for years still the new stores had hitching posts in front, just like the old days. At night in post-quake Santa Rosa it was still mostly dark because few homes had electricity, thanks to rates being about 25 times more expensive than we're now paying.
At the same time, it really does seem Santa Rosa experienced a kind of "great leap forward" in the early 1910s. How to explain that? Again, context is paramount.
Credit had been tight since the Great Earthquake and tightened even further by the Bank Panic of 1907. But beginning sometime after 1910 bankers apparently became eager to loan, which led to a building boom all over Sonoma County. The sticker price for autos was still high (although starting to come down) but cars became affordable as dealerships introduced loan financing.
Suddenly having electricity was a luxury no more, as the Great Western Power Company, a competitor to PG&E, began offering power in Santa Rosa and other communities. Rates were still about 10x more than we pay today, but looked like a bargain compared to what they were a few years earlier. Great Western also pushed customers to buy electrical appliances - paid for on the installment plan, just like cars - while PG&E offered their customers financing to pay for wiring their homes. (Bicycles, typewriters and pianos could also be purchased on "time payments" - seeing a pattern here?)
Once everyone ceased being so uptight about money, Santa Rosa turned out to be a pretty cool place. The 1911 vote on women's suffrage won in Santa Rosa by a wide margin while it was defeated in Petaluma, Sonoma, Windsor and Healdsburg. While many communities were kowtowing to church moralists and outlawing "rag dancing" in public, Santa Rosa's City Council wouldn't even consider a ban. (Petaluma arrested at least two men for disturbing the peace by doing the "rag.") And judging by the uptick in newspaper ads from stores that sold Victrolas or Edison phonographs, you can bet the latest hit record could be heard playing at night from many a home where the lights blazed inside and a new car waited at the curb, everything bought on credit except for the ragtime tune in the air.
To sum: Several factors contributed to make Santa Rosa appear happy and prosperous in the early 1910s, and everything changed quite fast. Consumerism, innovations which created cheaper and better stuff, more affordable electricity and Progressive era political reforms of the banking system after the 1907 panic all helped. But what probably made the most difference was simply ending the credit crunch, which had a ripple effect on all aspects of the economy.
I was going to wrap up it up there, but couldn't stop thinking about the contrasts between the early 1910s and the decade earlier. Why did the former seem like the beginnings of the modern age while newspapers from the 1900s seemed so...historical?
Much of the reason was personal bias, I realized with shame. The earlier newspapers not only had an old-fashioned look, I didn't like them because they're a pain to read on microfilm since the pages were often thick blocks of text in mostly the same size typeface; article headlines weren't large, bold and easy to quickly spot as they were in the 1910s (and today). Those older newspapers were intended to be read quite differently, poured over during breakfast or after dinner. The daily newspaper was a primary source of entertainment and subscribers got their money's worth.
I confess also showing my biases in other ways. The year 1912 just seemed more contemporary because toe-tapping ragtime was the hit music rather than turn of the century sentimental dreck such as, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage." I also made the presumption that the arrival of more technology in the 1910s was a sign of modern times, but a closer look reveals those improvements were really minor and incremental; true leaps of progress using that tech was still years away. Cars were more reliable in 1912 but once a driver left city limits, roads were better suited to stagecoaches; it wouldn't be until after WWI before the state highway system made it practical to travel very far. It was nice PG&E wired homes for electricity but there was little use for it aside from flicking on a light switch. It would be a dozen years before those houses had today's essential refrigerators or radios or furnaces with electric thermostats.
In short: Except for women's suffrage and the improved economy - no small things, granted - the early 1910s weren't so exceptional after all. Those years certainly weren't the Gateway to The World of Tomorrow.
And I was also wrong about viewing the earlier period as historically different. In fact, one can argue Sonoma County truly entered the modern era between 1895-1905, the antique-looking pages with ads for plows and blacksmiths aside.
While there were no autos until later in that period, bicycles were the rage; everyone rode them around town, young and old, men and women, and for many women the "wheel" brought unprecedented independence. (Susan B. Anthony, 1896: "[Bicycling] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.") That era saw other great leaps in freedom to travel; once the electric railway was completed in 1905, it was easy to hop aboard the streetcar and quickly be in any town near Santa Rosa. With the finely-tuned schedules of the train and ferry system, trips to San Francisco took no longer than the modern commute. (It never ceases to amaze me how mobile our ancestors were in the time before cars; every day the papers routinely mentioned locals took the train down to San Francisco or Berkeley for the day or evening.)
Fewer had electricity at home back then, but they weren't living in darkness. Probably every home had a Welsbach mantle which produced bright, odorless illumination. So popular were these lamps that many with electrical service continued to use them to augment incandescent light - my family kept one above the kitchen table until the early 1960s. Too bad about the fuel being slightly radioactive, however.
And while Santa Rosa traditionally voted as if it were some far-western outpost of Dixie, the town broke with the "Solid South" in the 1904 presidential election to vote overwhelmingly for Progressive candidate Teddy Roosevelt, despite the Press Democrat's hot-blooded attacks on him and other Republican candidates.
Thus after reading all those years of Santa Rosa newspapers and writing hundreds of articles about same, my conclusion is this: Conclusions are hard to come by.
It's easy to draw lines around some bit of history and slap a label on it, or say it happened for a particular reason. But the closer one looks at any event in the past, the explanations and categories - which once seemed so easy and obvious - often begin to appear less certain. There is always more context to a story than first seemed apparent.
The great History of California volumes by H. H. Bancroft are a scholar's treasure, but difficult to read. Every page abounds in footnotes - sometimes filling half the page - and the footnotes often reference other volumes. After awhile you find yourself lost in chasing down the footnotes and cross-referenced material, having nearly forgotten the original research topic. About then it dawns on you the footnotes are the real history, revealing the full story which needs to be told. It's important historians never lose sight of that.
An important artifact of Sonoma County history hangs in a Washington, D.C. museum, yet there's always been gaps in what we knew about its past. This is the story of what happened to Fred J. Wiseman's airplane - with a Believe-it-or-Not! twist at the end.
Surely everyone who lived in this area in 2011 remembers the centennial celebration of Wiseman's historic first airmail flight from Petaluma to Santa Rosa and saw a picture of his odd little plane. It appeared delicate and clunky at the same time, hardly looking like an aircraft at all; if anything, it resembled a monstrous IKEA product someone tried to assemble without reading the instructions and abandoned halfway.
But aside from his famous flight, readers of this journal know Fred Wiseman crashed that poor plane like clockwork. Was he just a lousy pilot or was it due to crappy design of his homemade machine?
Certainly, flying was a risky business in the early 1910s, and Wiseman's history of plummeting wasn't nearly as bad as daredevil Charles Hamilton, who amazingly survived around sixty crashes. But at the same time, Wiseman wasn't trying to set records or perform death-defying stunts; he was simply trying to stay aloft for a few minutes sailing over a pasture or fairgrounds. When he made the Petaluma to Santa Rosa airmail flight in January, 1911, it took him two days to travel the 24 miles because he crashed. Twice.
Wiseman made a few more exhibition flights around the west coast that year. He crash landed at least twice more - the worst being a 500-foot fall in Salinas - leading to his retirement as a birdman. He reportedly told relatives he saw "no future in it" because so many of his colleagues were being routinely killed.
It's just as likely, though, Wiseman and his pals were out of money. Expenses mounted with each crash; a new propeller cost the equivalent of about $20,000 in today's dollars and engine rebuilds were frequently required. While fortunes were being made by celebrity aviators who drew big audiences to airshows where they often set records, Wiseman's appearances at backwater county fairs probably earned barely more than expenses - and that's assuming he didn't crack up the plane and add to the red ink.
Wiseman's primary financial backer - and likely the only one - was Ben Noonan, his boyhood buddy who shared his interests in competitive sports. Noonan's family had somewhat of a monopoly on the meat business in central Sonoma county, owning the slaughterhouse at the corner of College and (today's) Cleveland Avenues as well as operating the butcher shop on Fourth street in downtown Santa Rosa. When Wiseman retired the plane was stored at their stockyards. Thus ends the first chapter of our little plane's story with it sitting in a cow lot, its wings probably being used to scratch the backs of cattle and horses with an unreachable itch.
Just a few months later chapter two began with the appearance in Santa Rosa of a 28 year-old Oakland man named Weldon B. Cooke, who was in town to make some money on exhibition flights over the New Year's holiday.
Cooke couldn't know at the time, but he was at the zenith of his aviation career during his Santa Rosa visit. Just a few days earlier he was the first to fly over the summit of Mount Tamalpais, a feat once considered so insanely risky that prize money for the accomplishment had been withdrawn. A few weeks after flying in Santa Rosa he competed in the Los Angeles Air Meet where he set a record for altitude (5,800 feet) and the longest time in the air, winning over $7,000 as a result. And in between these accomplishments he was awarded pilot's license #95 from the Aero Club of America, making him only the second flyer in California with official recognition.
There's no evidence Wiseman and Cooke ever met, but they were cut from the same cloth. Both had brief careers as race car drivers before getting hooked on aviation. Both taught themselves to fly using airplanes built by men who knew nothing about aerodynamics and learned aircraft design from reading magazines; Wiseman's team was auto mechanic Jean Peters, himself and sometimes Don Prentiss, while Cooke's machine was put together by a Sacramento River boat builder and a dredge boat captain. Their finished planes were also nearly identical - both fundamentally rip-offs of the Curtiss design with a propellor at the back and the pilot sitting in front of the engine. (A photo of Cooke's plane, called the "Black Diamond" and now on display at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, can be seen here.)
Before his New Years' visit to Santa Rosa, a reporter from the Press Democrat asked Cooke whether he would try out Wiseman's plane while he was here. Cooke replied he might consider making it part of the upcoming exhibition at the fairgrounds (he didn't). But Cooke agreed to something far more important to the PD; the weekend after his paid-admission show, Cooke would fly over Santa Rosa.
The Chamber of Commerce had been long yearning for a Santa Rosa flyover, so great was the mystique of early aviation. It was strongly hinted Wiseman might do it during an exhibition flight at the 1910 Rose Carnival (he didn't fly at all because of winds) and both town papers swore he would buzz the town during his 1911 flight from Petaluma (he crashed outside city limits). Now that it happened, the PD babbled incoherently, "Santa Rosa was aviation crazy on Saturday afternoon and the flight made by the daring young aviator aroused the greatest interest and admiration of everybody."
But Weldon Cooke wasn't done in Santa Rosa. About a month later he slipped into town and met with Ben Noonan to look over the Wiseman plane. He made a few short test flights, including a 15-minute loop around the Laguna plain. "Well, I certainly guess she will fly all right," he was quoted as saying. A deal was struck for Cooke to lease the plane and it was shipped down to the East Bay, with the Press Democrat waving goodbye with a good-luck-he'll-need-it sendoff: "[T]here is little doubt but that Cooke will make a very satisfactory showing with the machine, which has appeared to hold a hoodoo for Santa Rosans."
Hoodoo or no, Cooke was probably desparate to strike a deal because he no longer had a plane. For reasons unknown, the Black Diamond was packed up after the Los Angeles Air Meet a few weeks prior and sent back to the owner's shipyard, never to fly again. (It's possible they were threatened with a patent infringement lawsuit by Glenn Curtiss - which would have been ironic, as Curtiss was himself being sued by the Wright brothers over his own patent piracy.)
Cooke had extra urgency to secure a plane quickly because in a few days he was expected to appear at a six-day, two weekend aviation meet in Emeryville where it was being advertised he would race Lincoln Beachey, one of the most famous flyers at the time. Cooke showed up with the Wiseman plane, but it was a rout; even with a 90-second head start as a handicap Cooke not only lost, but Beachey literally flew circles around him, executing several "spiral dips" around Cooke so close they nearly collided. On another day at Emeryville his engine stalled and he glided down, narrowly missing a fence.
Cue foreboding music.
That spring of 1912 Cooke became a bonafide barnstormer, crating up his plane and shipping it to the next local fair or exhibition. Part of his schtick was air mail delivery, where he would carry a pouch of mail with aviation souvenir postmarks and chuck it overboard at the local post office. He also dropped local newspapers at a news stand or the rural homes of some subscribers, both stunts Wiseman pioneered in his trip from Petaluma.
In April he flew over Humboldt Bay and Eureka, then had a hard landing that crumpled the plane. It was apparently his first crash in the Wiseman aircraft and his second serious accident, having earlier ditched the Black Diamond in Lake Merritt.
After repairs were made Cooke spent the summer working his way east, where he became "the boy aviator," reported in the papers as being 23 or 21 and only having a few months experience. He was also being credited with creating the airplane; the Salt Lake Tribune reported he "went home to Oakland and built a machine of his own" after being part of Curtiss' crew. In Salt Lake City, by the way, he amazed crowds when he flew above the clouds for several minutes, leaving some to declare he must have been "lifted upwards by unseen hands."
But Cooke was tinkering with the Wiseman airplane, upgrading the engine and tweaking the airframe. The reconstructed airship currently on display in Washington is clearly more powerful and sleeker than the funky kite-like thing that left Santa Rosa in early 1912. It seems most likely Cooke was using parts of the Wiseman airplane - which had to be completely disassembled and crated after every appearance anyway - as the framework for an experimental design that would fully emerge at the end of the year. He hinted as much at the Emeryville air show after he only had the Wiseman plane for a few days; the Oakland Tribune mentioned he hoped to show off "a new principle in plane and wing construction," which he could not have possibly built from scratch.
He set some minor records that summer in his hybrid Wiseman-Cooke, being the first to fly in Idaho and then winning some prize money in Illinois. He was also beginning to appear in the news because of increasingly frequent crashes. In September he wrecked the plane near Chicago. Thrown clear but knocked out, he regained consciousness to find "a large crowd around his machine breaking pieces from it to carry away as souvenirs." Cooke grabbed a "stout club" and held them off until police arrived.
(RIGHT: Weldon B. Cooke flying over Sandusky Ohio, c. 1913, in the Wiseman aircraft showing only minor modifications from the original design. Photo courtesy Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center)
In November he landed at his destination: Sandusky, Ohio, home to the Roberts Motor Company. (The Black Diamond had used a Roberts motor and early on Cooke had replaced Wiseman's 60 HP engine with a 75 HP Roberts.) The company knew him well and was already touting his name in its catalog. Roberts allowed him to use a portion of their facilities to work on his experimental planes while the town of Sandusky was equally welcoming, dedicating an airfield.
He incorporated the Cooke Aeroplane Company and spent the winter building a smaller racing plane he promised could easily clock 75 MPH. Show any aviation history buffs this photo, explain that the aircraft shown was designed 1912-1913, and kindly scrape their jaws off the floor. He was years ahead of his time.
Cooke also unveiled the "Flying Dutchman," his new aircraft for exhibition flying. This was an elegant rethinking of the Wiseman/Black Diamond designs, with a simpler tail assembly and no canard at the front. With possibly the widest wingspan of any biplane it would have been graceful to watch, but not fast. Presumably the Wiseman plane was mothballed at this point.
Another advantage of the new plane is it could be equipped with floats and used as a seaplane (Cooke called it a "hydroplane"). Many of his 1913 exhibition appearances were with the Flying Dutchman configured for use on water.
Few newspaper articles about Cooke crashing can be found for 1913, but we don't know if he was flying less or because the new plane was substantially safer. He did have a bad time of it that summer while doing shows at a county fair in Canton, Ohio. On one landing his airplane overturned, breaking struts between the wings; on another day his motor died and the plane crashed, catapulting him out. Shaken but undaunted, he said his show would resume in a couple of days after he telegraphed back to Sandusky to ship him "another biplane of much heavier type," according to the local paper. Presumably that was the old Wiseman plane.
Cooke built yet another type of aircraft that year: A "flying boat" that could hold three passengers and probably scooted along only a few feet above the waves. Of all his various projects, he apparently saw this as offering the best chance of commercial success. He helped a colleague start a St. Petersburg-Tampa passenger service using his plane, and talked about operating a fleet based in Sandusky fanning out to other towns and cities across Lake Erie. He applied for a franchise from the upcoming Panama-Pacific Exposition to run an airboat shuttle between Oakland and San Francisco. Alas, his dreams were bigger than his bank account; the Cooke Aeroplane Company went bankrupt in 1914.
He returned to California and piloted flying boats of someone else's design for a short-lived air ferry service across San Francisco Bay. Despite a promise he had supposedly made to his mother to quit barnstorming, he took the Flying Dutchman back out on the exhibition circuit. On September 16 in Pueblo, Colorado, he was performing a fine show when the thousands in the audience heard a faint explosion when he was at an estimated 2,000 feet. "The biplane careened and like a shot dropped sheer from the clouds," the wire service reported. "It was almost one minute before the aeroplane hit the ground with a sickening crash."
Cooke was dead and the Flying Dutchman was a "tangled mass of junk," according to accounts, but the Wiseman plane was presumably still crated up back in Sandusky. The boxes were sent to Cooke's brother in Oakland, who kept them in storage at home until 1933 when the Oakland Airport asked to borrow it. As an example of an old biplane, it was put on display for years near Cooke's earlier Black Diamond. The tale would have ended there if not for the Smithsonian Institution's declaration in 1947 that Wiseman had made the first official airmail delivery, an incredible story of an accidental discovery told in an earlier article appearing here. The Wiseman-Cooke airplane was finally restored between 1983-1985 and now hangs above visitors at the National Postal Museum with a mannequin Fred J. Wiseman at the controls.
But here's the Believe-it-or-Not! angle: The airplane on display is quite possibly not the one that made the famous flight.
There were two Wiseman biplanes. The first machine, designed and constructed 1909-1910 by Wiseman and Peters was built under a tent in a Windsor pasture. The other was made at a Petaluma planing mill in the late summer of 1910 as they continued flying practice in the original. The new plane was intended to be easier to take apart for shipping and was also some 200 pounds lighter than the prototype, which weighed 670 pounds (lengthy description here). It's doubtful Wiseman ever flew the old plane again, as long as the newer one was in working condition. He certainly would have used Model B on his airmail flight.
Given the choice between the older, often-crashed beater and the new, improved model, Cooke would have picked the latter - if he had the option. But Noonan had already sold one of the aircraft a few weeks earlier.
"NOONAN SELLS HIS BIPLANE", was the hed of a Santa Rosa Republican article appearing the same day Cooke was making his New Years' exhibition flights at the fairground. There it was reported the purchaser was "Lieutenant Jack Handy of the U. S. A." Lt. Handy attempted to make a test flight, but - predictably - crashed, causing him to make immediate repairs.
The buyer was actually Army Lieutenant Courtland Waite Handy. For Fiscal Year 1912, Congress authorized the U.S. Army Signal Corps to purchase a few aircraft and it was reported they bought five, although only three manufacturers were named. But which airplane did Noonan sell the government? With no other buyers on the horizon, presumably he sold the one worth the most money, and that would have been the newer plane with the improvements. Regardless, Weldon Cooke had no choice when he showed up six weeks later on his shopping trip, desperate to buy/lease an aircraft for the Emeryville competition just days away.
Evidence that Cooke was using the earlier plane points both ways. One of the changes with the Model B was it being a "knock down" machine for easier shipping, and Cooke certainly often packed and unpacked whichever version he used during his 1912 barnstorming. But Model A could be disassembled as well; it was carted by wagon from Windsor to Santa Rosa (and to at least four different locations around town) and then to Petaluma. When Cooke cracked up the Flying Dutchman at that 1913 county fair and switched to "another biplane of much heavier type," it suggests he had the Wiseman Model A, which weighed considerably more even before Cooke added a larger and heavier Roberts engine.
So is the historic airmail plane on display at the museum the real deal? Alas, further research here is above my pay grade; an answer may be found by prowling through the National Archives. Certainly the Army Signal Corps would have required Lt. Handy to describe precisely what he purchased - although what I'd really like to read is the report to his C.O., explaining how he bought an expensive biplane and immediately managed to trash it.
NOONAN SELLS HIS BIPLANEArmy Aviator Buys Machine Built for Wiseman
Ben Noonan has sold his biplane to Lieutenant Jack Handy of the U. S. A., and the latter attempted to make a flight in the machine Sunday afternoon. Owing to the sweater the aviator was wearing catching in one of the levers of the biplane, an accident occurred which did considerable damage to the aeroplane. The biplane had just risen from the ground on its way for a flight when the accident happened, and the front part of the aeroplane dived into the ground. The engine continued to go and the propeller revolved at a fast rate, the aviator being unable to stop the engine. Lieutenant Handy has charge of the army aviators.
It is stated on good authority that Ben Noonan got a good price for his aeroplane. However, the price he got for his air craft does not anywhere near clear him of the expense he has been to by being mixed up in the aviation game, It was planned Sunday that Aviator Handy was to fly out to the race track and make a double attraction for the afternoon. The accident to the machine prevented the second biplane giving the exhibition. Luckily Aviator Handy was not hurt in the accident.
Mr. Handy was in San Francisco on New Year's day getting a new propeller and other parts to replace those injured Sunday. He will return today.
- Santa Rosa Republican, January 1, 1912
LADY WILL MAKE ASCENT HERE WITH AVIATOR COOKE
Word was received from Aviator Weldon B. Cooke late yesterday afternoon that the aeroplane would arrive in Santa Rosa early this morning and that he himself, instead of waiting until tomorrow morning as he had at first thought would be the best he could do, would be on hand on the 11 o'clock train, as to be sure that everything would be ready for Sunday's flight. One of his mechanicians has accompanied the car from the time it left Elmhurst, to see that nothing went wrong.
Carries Lady Passenger
One thing has been definitely decided upon, namely, that a popular and daring young lady of this city will be taken up as passenger, probably the first day. Although she does not want her name mentioned as yet, she expressed her delight at the prospect of really "going up in the air," and said she hoped Mr. Cooke would go high enough so that she could see all the surrounding country from an aeroplane. Cook has already carried many passengers, including his wife and sisters, so that he has no fear about being abole to take up the young lady here.
May Try Wiseman's Machine
It has been rumored that on one of the two days Cooke, after making all of the flights as he had planned there on his own machine, which he knows he can fly, might also take a chance with a local machine formerly used by Aviator Wiseman. Cooke said over the long distance telephone that if he did try to make such a flight he would assume no responsibility for its success, and would not consider it except in the light of a possible incidental feature of his regular program with his own machine. However, there are undoubtedly many local people who would be interested in such an exhibition.
Spectacular Flights
In speaking of the prospects of flying Sunday and Monday, his manager, who has been in the city the past few days promoting the meet, said that if weather conditions were at all favorable, there would certainly be flying to please the most critical. Mere cloudy weather will not prevent the bird man from going, and if it should rain after any tickets had been bought so that he could not fly, rain checks would be issued to purchasers entitling them to admission on the first favorable day following. This is a new feature in conducting aviation meets which will be much appreciated.
The program as outlined at present will include exhibitions of bomb throwing at which Aviator Cooke has demonstrated that he is an expert; passenger carrying on both days; mail carrying, and including the taking up of mail bags at full speed as well as dropping mail, an entirely new "stunt" in aerial navigation; attempts at speed and altitude records; and an exhibition of all the flights required to secure pilot's license, such as quick starting, cutting figure eight's, etc., the first opportunity anybody in Northern California will have had to see these flights. Cooke does not plan to make only one flight each day, but to make three or four, each illustrating some special feature in flying in heavier than air machines. Moreover, the flights on the second day will be entirely different from those made on Sunday.
- Press Democrat, December 30, 1911
AVIATOR COOKE WILL GIVE FREE FLIGHT OVER THE CITYWeldon B. Cooke, who made very successful flights here Sunday and Monday in his aeroplane, has been secured by the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce for a free exhibition over the business section of town next Saturday afternoon.
This is a feature which will no doubt bring a large crowd to town for the day. General Passenger Agent J. J. Geary of the Northwestern Pacific railroad has agreed to give a round trip rate of one and a third fares to Santa Rosa from all points north on regular trains for that day.
Mr. Cooke has proved that he can and will fly when he says he will if the weather permits, and now that he has shown the public his ability to fullfil this promise there is no doubt but that he will be watched by the largest throng which has ever gathered on the streets of Santa Rosa. There will be no charges of any kind and any one who is on the streets will be able to see all there is to see without money and without price.
- Press Democrat, January 3, 1912
VAST CROWD SEE COOKE'S DARING FLIGHT SATURDAYBirdman Reaches an Altitude of 2,500 Feet EasilyWith thousands of people gathered in the down town district in Santa Rosa on Saturday afternoon to witness his daring, Aviator Weldon Cooke made one of the most anticipated and successful flights ever attempted in aerial navigation in the State. He crossed and recrossed overhead and rose to a height that at times made him and his big aeroplane look like a speck on the horizon.
Santa Rosa was aviation crazy on Saturday afternoon and the flight made by the daring young aviator aroused the greatest interest and admiration of everybody. To the majority of the people in the vast assemblage, the aviation was a novelty, and they were fortunate in seeing the true art of aerial navigation as their introduction to the sport. Cooke is a wonder and he richly deserved the compliments that were showered on his daring.
Cooke reached an altitude of over 2,000 feet while flying over the city. He estimated the distance at between 2,000 and 2,500 feet. Principal Searcy of the High School made a calculation which fixed the altitude at something slightly over 2,000 feet. Press Smith, who had a surveying transit at work in the country, turned his glass on the aviator while he was flying and made a calculation of about 2,2500 feet.
Many will be interested in knowing that the aviator can't hear anything after he gets a few hundred feet from the earth, owing to the noise of his motor. The noise is so great that Cooke fills his ears with cotton to deafen the sound. He said last night, while discussing the flight, that he looked down while directly over the Court House and waved his hand to the crowd below, but his height was so great it could not be seen from the ground.
While the wind was light from the southwest on the ground at the altitude he was flying, it was blowing about 15 miles per hour from the north, he says, and that explained why he appeared to fly so much faster when going south, and why he always climbed higher as he went north. It is easier to ascend in the face of the wind, he says. A feature of the flight was that he circled both to the right and left with equal ease. The motor is set slightly to the right, and the aeroplane turns to the right much more easily than to the left.
Several times during Saturday's flight the aeroplane had to buck rough air currents. Those familiar with weather conditions saw this at the time and remarked it. The starting and alighting are the most interesting features of aeroplaning. This the crowd missed Saturday, but the finish was as spectacular as any part of the flight. Cooke landed as easily as he flew through the air. Those interested can see this feature today by visiting the race track during the afternoon, when more flights will be made.
Cooke does not wear leather clothing, but simply adds more garments between his pantaloons and under his coat he places layers of newspapers which keep out the wind just as well as the heavier leather clothing.
- Press Democrat, January 7, 1912
COOKE MAKES FINE FLIGHTSurprises People by Flying in Noonan MachineWeldon B. Cooke, who established himself as an aviator of considerable ability a few weeks ago, when he flew over this city, surprised and added to his popularity with the people of Santa Rosa Sunday, when unannounced he came to this city on the morning train and drove to the Noonan field, where the former Wiseman biplane has been stored, and after a few trials around the field in the morning, he took the machine in the afternoon, arose in the air and flew for about ten minutes. After coming to the ground and adjusting his carburetor the better to enable the machine to gain more power, he again arose in the Wiseman machine and made a handsome flight for a period of fifteen minutes, and made a grateful landing.
On alighting from his flight Cooke said, "Well, I certainly guess she will fly all right," and it certainly did.
In an interview after the flight he stated that he had found nothing wrong with the airship in any way whatever, claiming it was a better balanced ship than his own, and that he thought it very good. He said, "The machine has hardly power enough to make any great speed, but after I became better acquainted with the working of the engine, I expect to increase its power. Although the air seemed very quiet on the ground today, I found that it chopped when I had arised [sic] about three hundred feet. I will take the machine to Emeryville during the week, where I am to use it in the meet that is to be held there commencing next Saturday, and lasting for ten days. In my contest with Beechy [sic - Lincoln Beachey] I expect to use this airship, unless something goes wrong."
Cooke is building another airship, but does not expect to complete it until after the Emeryville gathering is over. He has leased Noonan's biplane and will use it in exhibitions that he will give around the country.
There was not a very large crowd at the field as Cooke, in his unostentatious manner had suggested that nothing be said of his coming by his mechanics, who are handling the machine for him here, Bob Schieffer and Al. B. Cooper. Those who were present to see the fine flight were attracted there by the humming of the engine, or had seen him testing it out in the morning. All were loud in their praise of the daring flight he made on his second attempt to leave the ground in this strange machine. On the second flight he traveled first to the north and skirted the foothills about Fountaingrove vineyard, and flying west about four miles. He was about three hundred feet in the air on this flight and remained up over fifteen minutes, making the turns in a very graceful manner and showing his faith in the engine by removing one of his hands from the wheel and waving to the cheering crowd below. Mr. And Mrs. Cooke returned to San Francisco on the afternoon train.
- Santa Rosa Republican, February 12, 1912
SHIP BIPLANE TO WELDON COOKEThe Wiseman Airship Sent by Southern Pacific to Oakland Yesterday AfternoonThe Wiseman aeroplane which has been stored on the Noonan property at the foot of Carrillo street for several months was taken down, packed and yesterday shipped to Oakland over the Southern Pacific to be used by Weldon B. Cooke at the Emeryville race track during the aviation meet beginning Saturday.
Robert Schieffer and Al Cooper accompanied the machine and will look after it while Cooke is using it. After the successful flight here Sunday afternoon there is little doubt but that Cooke will make a very satisfactory showing with the machine, which has appeared to hold a hoodoo for Santa Rosans.
- Press Democrat, February 14, 1912
GETTING READY TO BUILD AN AIRSHIPWiseman and Peters Will Construct New Bi-Plane in Petaluma Within Thirty DaysThe Wiseman-Peters airship people have secured the use of the building on Copeland street Petaluma, formerly occupied by the silk wire factory and there they will make their headquarters for the next thirty days, during the construction of their new airship. The huge machine will be constructed at the Camm & Hedges planing mill near by, but the wire works building will be used as the headquarters of the airship people and for storage, assembling and other details of the big task which is before them.
The new airship will be different from the present machine in many details and will be an improvement on the one now in use. It will be a "knock down" machine and will be built in sections so that it can be taken apart, crated and thus shipped in the baggage car of trains, on steamers, or in vehicles. From this plan it can readily be seen that the owners intend to do some travelling and will not go on the road with their exhibitions.
In the meantime aviator Peters will practice flying every day and the old machine will be kept at Kenilworth park for that purpose. He intends to increase his flights daily, both as to distance and elevation and some sweet day in the very near future he is going to surprise the natives of a distant city. --Petaluma Argus.
- Press Democrat, August 6, 1910