HAPPY
FOURTH
OF JULY!
From your Fresno County Historical Society
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Image courtesy of the Pop Laval Foundation
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Dear Members, Supporters and Friends,
I would like to take a moment to thank you all for your many years of support of the Fresno County Historical Society. Not many non-profit organizations can claim ten decades (plus one year) of service to their communities. For those of you that are members, know you have helped not only to provide educational resources to students throughout the Central Valley, but have also provided the Society funds that allow our 101-year-old organization to fulfill our multi-faceted mission to the community. If you haven’t yet become a member, here is the
link
. During these historic times we are experiencing, there has never been a better opportunity for you to help us preserve what is happening in our world today.
We also wanted to provide you with an update on our fall event at Kearney Park. You may know, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had renamed and expanded the scope of the event, now called
Time Travelers: 19
th
Century America
, to showcase more of the rich history of California as well as the settling of Fresno County. In conjunction with our partners and local community organizations, the newly imagined living history experience will include elements that focus on our Native Americans, the “Wild West” and gold mining, life during and after the Civil War in our state and, perhaps most exciting, the arrival to and settlement of Fresno County by the diverse groups that make our region so unique and special. Imagine walking through the streets of old Fresno filled with the sites, sounds and aromas of our Italian, Armenian, Japanese, Chinese, Hispanic, African American and other neighborhoods that all came together to make the county the diverse and variegated tapestry that it is today.
We believe this pivot to a focus on local history, still within the context of major national occurrences of the 1800s, will even better meet the current needs of our students and will bring a fresh perspective to the many stories yet to be told right here in the Valley.
Recently, our Board of Trustees, in consultation with Fresno County Health officials, has made the difficult decision to postpone our usual October event in light of continuing concerns about COVID-19. While we are disappointed to have to wait to share all the new elements with you and our students in person, we are crafting a virtual experience for this year that we know will help this important and required curriculum come to life for students and families throughout the County.
As our school districts have indicated, field trips for our students will likely prove impossible, but the vital engagement our event provides should not be lost.
Our virtual school tour program will bring America’s 19
th
century history directly to students utilizing 21
st
century technology. The digital curriculum will provide video recording of historic figures doing demonstrations and sharing their stories. Students will learn about daily life in the 1800s, from food preparation techniques to medical care. They will also have the opportunity to join LIVE video chats with historic figures. Additionally, we will partner with local communities to create lessons related to their cultures that share why they came to Fresno County, what struggles and hurdles they experienced in their new homeland, their traditions, music, food and whatever else might foster better understanding and celebration of our diversity. There will approximately be 10 complete lessons developed, digitized and made available to students to access in a distance learning environment and for teachers to use in the classroom. All of these lessons, along with a printable study guide, will be hosted on the FCHS website and made available free of charge. While the exact formula has not yet been determined, know that FCHS continues to be committed to our mission of preserving and sharing the past and present in a culturally sensitive, yet historically accurate, manner to the best of our ability.
History is seen from the eyes of the beholder in the time it occurs and through a differently informed prism as the decades and centuries pass. As we catalog our own collections and read articles, letters and diaries from the past, we often wonder how such content was commonplace in its day. Open any newspaper from 100 years ago and you will be stunned at the number of advertisements that would never see the light of day in 2020. They are, truly, signs of their times. Yet, in reading coverage of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic from the
Fresno Morning Republican
newspaper, you can literally interchange many of the articles from today; they are so eerily similar. Our job at FCHS is to ensure the past and present are chronicled so everyone can determine their own, informed, opinions. I hope you will agree that never has it been so important to learn from our collective history.
Please support FCHS
as we are determined to continue and better facilitate the opportunity to do so for all our Valley and beyond.
Warmest regards,
Elizabeth Laval
President
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“To Avoid Influenza, Wear a Mask.” California State Board of Health and Wilfred H. Kellogg, M.D.
Influenza: A Study of Measures Adopted for the Control of the Epidemic, Special Bulletin No. 31
(Sacramento: State Printing Office, 1919), 16.
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A Horseless Carriage
July 4 Debut - 1899
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Image Courtesy of Fresno County Historical Society Archives.
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Up to 1895 very few people in Fresno had even read of automotive vehicles. Of the strange and foolish experiments as far back as 1869 in France.
Over the next five years leading periodicals began to carry illustrations of buggies having no shafts nor tongues nor trotters. Then one actually came to Fresno - was said to have arrived by its own power. It had high wheels geared with chains, a leather dashboard and mudguards, and oil-burning lamps on the dash frame. It was there for all to see, but about it was a distinct air of unreality. Word flew up and down the streets even ahead of the roar and rattle of its progress. People rushed to the doors and tried to believe their eyes. Horses fled in any direction, they and their drivers glad to escape with their lives.
To Porteus' implement works on Tulare street between M and L the startling news was brought, and J. H. Burnett, superintendent of the foundry, shut up shop and went with his entire force of 20 men to see the marvel of the age. They saw the man with goggles wind up the machine with a crank on its right side and heard a responsive commotion within.
It was not necessary for the driver to open a door to take his place, for the carriage had the low-cut box of all fine pleasure vehicles. He seated himself, pulled a lever on the outside with his right hand, made other mysterious adjustments, and before the eyes of those experienced mechanics the contraption noisily moved away from the curb and rolled down Mariposa street toward Front.
The advance was horrifyingly rapid and observers declared vehemently that no one, either within the car or without, was safe when it was going; that it should not be permitted to ravage Fresno streets in any such fashion.
Members of the implements department also witnessed the demonstration; and for weeks it was a noontime topic of conversation in the Fresno Agricultural Works. Wagons and scrapers and pumps had become tame affairs indeed.
Interest in the subject had not died out when civic plans were being made for the Fourth of July parade. The foreman of the implements made a daring proposition. There were consultations and experiments and, constructed of disassociated fragments, as was the Frankenstein monster, the first motor driven vehicle of Fresno came into being.
Using a low-wheeled farm truck as chassis, the boys fitted it with a gasoline pumping engine, and geared up the steel axles with logging chains. They did not bother about a dashboard and placed the steering mechanism in the center of the front end.
A canopy top in surrey style seemed best suited to their requirements, and this was supported by six posts long enough to give plenty of headroom. No one dreamed of an acceptable automobile design that would require the passengers to crawl to their seats.
Red, white and blue bunting, striped and starred, was freely used for winding and draping and flags were unfurled at every corner.
Two seats in the rear were placed high, in tally-ho style, and their ends and the body were covered with white canvas artistically lettered with the firm name by Frank Fiester, the pioneer sign painter. Bert Cole, wearing a silk hat, was chauffeur - though no American was then familiar with the word. On one side was Charley McAllister, and George Lowry on the other.
In the tonneau were William J. Kittrell, the bookkeeper, and Glenn Willis, salesman, both with tall silk hats. Jack Burnett, boss of the foundry, also had a prominent position.
Next to the ever-popular fire engines in the parade this automobile received enthusiastic applause, and for several blocks it thundered along to the joy of the human crowd and the distress of horses. That the entire procession was not utterly demoralized was a marvel.
The spectacular progress was doomed, however, for there was no filling station at the next corner. The boys had underestimated the miles per gallon, and on the last pint of gas the engine sputtered and died.
In front of the Phoenix restaurant on H street it came to rest. Questions were asked and advice given of a sort that in the ensuing decade become only too well-known to motorists, and finally the helpless car was ignominiously towed home by a team of dependable horses.
The article on Fresno's first horseless carriage is from the Ernestine Winchell file and dates this moment of history as July 4, 1900 and was reprinted in Fresno’s Past and Present in the summer of 1970. Please note: spellings and punctuation from the original article were unedited.
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FRESNO COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
RE-BRANDS WITH NEW LOGO FEATURING COURTHOUSE COPULA
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In March 1874, Fresno County residents voted to move the County seat from the gold rush settlement of Millerton to the rapidly growing town of Fresno. Governmental functions were removed to Fresno and in 1875, a stately courthouse was constructed. In 1892, a larger copper dome replaced the original dome. On July 29, 1895, a fire damaged the courthouse and caused the copper dome to melt and collapse through the upper floors. The courthouse was then rebuilt with a third story, a large front room, and a wider, fireproof dome. A new cupola, designed by John M. Curtis of San Francisco, was set on top of the dome.
The cupola was separated from the dome on March 15,1966 at pricey 12:36 PM and gently placed on a flatbed truck prior to the demolition of the courthouse. The copula was eventually purchased by Leonard Kavoian. Leonard and Rose Kavoian donated the cupola to the Fresno County Historical Society in 1997.
Today the famous copula becomes the mark of the Fresno County Historical Society, representing the Society's mission to preserve and protect the history of Fresno County, it is now prominently featured in the organizations new logo, pictured below.
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It’s that time of year again! We have just completed the third year of our partnership in the Reimagine Educating: American Civics and History Academies for Better Learning and Engagement (REACHABLE) grant partnership with Fresno State. Project assistant Cami Cipolla and I designed five lesson kits around Civil Rights Era topics that have local relevance. Each lesson kit includes primary and secondary resources and a detailed lesson plan. These resources bring national historical moments home to Fresno County. Students have the opportunity to learn through stories that invoke our shared community experience and bring a vital sense of place to the study of history. We adapted the format and delivery of our materials to better facilitate distance learning by moving them online. We added a
Central California Curriculum page to our updated
website. I designed a page for each lesson kit where the resources are easily accessible. Teachers can share the materials directly with their students. We are currently seeking funding to build more lessons in the future. Help us spread the word about this great new resource for local teachers!
We have an update on the materials nominated for
California Revealed (CA-R) digitization in 2019. The digitalization vendors used by CA-R are located in Pennsylvania and they have been shut down by the pandemic. Our materials are safely housed at the CA-R offices in Sacramento awaiting the reopening of the vendors. They hope to proceed with the digitization in the coming months, which will have the materials hosted online sometime in 2021.
Stay tuned for more news from the behind-the-scenes activities of the Fresno County Historical Society Archives. Check valleyhistory.org for updates on reopening the archives.
Archivist Katy Hogue is passionate about local history. Since 2016, Katy has been dedicated to preserving the Society’s collections and sharing them with the public. She has her B.A. and M.A. in History from CSU Fresno where her research focused on the expansion of nineteenth-century culture into the American West before she graduated with honors. Contact her at
archives@valleyhistory.org
for research requests or donation queries.
Photo Credit:
Vietnam War protest in downtown Fresno, circa 1970. Fresno County Historical Society Archives
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Volunteer Spotlight:
Gene Sibley
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Eugene Sibley has been an Fresno County Historical Society Archives volunteer since December 2018 when he and archivist Katy Hogue begin the Parcel Photograph Project. In partnership with Fresno County Library, the first step of the project has been the digitization of our extensive collection of residential and commercial property photographs from the Fresno County Accessor’s Office. These images date primarily from 1955-1975. The images are added to a database that Gene has created to link the photographs to their current physical addresses and property parcel numbers. Gene is a former Fresno County property tax accessor who applies his nearly thirty years of experience to this sometimes complicated process.
Gene is incredibly dedicated. He regularly works 20 hours per week directing the activities of the volunteer project team. A member of the volunteer team recently shared the following message with Gene,
“Thank you so much for being such a good communicator...you keep us all so informed and give us such superb guidance....this project would not have been even started without all your marvelous technical genius. I so appreciate all your patience, and persistence throughout this project.”
The Parcel Photograph Project is nearing the end of the digitization phase and will move into full-time database development in the next couple of months. As soon as we can resume volunteer projects, Gene will be looking for additional volunteers to help to build the project database. This is a work-from-home volunteer opportunity that requires some training and a Windows-based computer. If you are interested in participating, please fill out our
Gene is well known in the local volunteer community for his work mapping and creating
databases for the Fresno County Genealogical Society. The databases cover various sections of Mountain View Cemetery including
Veterans Liberty Cemetery and
Potter’s Field, where the indigent were buried. He has also created a database for the
Memorial Mausoleum at Ararat Armenian Cemetery. When not volunteering, Gene works on his family genealogy and likes to garden at his Mayfair neighborhood home where he lives with his wife. An avid hiker, Gene spends time in the Sierra Nevada every summer. His favorite hiking trip was climbing Kaiser Peak with his daughter and son-in-law in July 2017.
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THE FRESNO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
valleyhistory.org
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