September-October 2025

Volume 5, Issue 5

Class picture, New Monterey School, 1898

President's Desk

Mary Christina Jacks Atlas

An email from a thrift shop visitor led us to unexpected treasures that are now in the Mayo Hayes O’Donnell Library. We initially were notified that a geography book that belonged to Romie Jacks was available, and we immediately bought it as we have never found anything attached to Romie, not even a photograph. On a second visit, we noticed another book nearby that was also about geography but is older, 1857.

There are no notes or signatures on the front pages, but at the rear of the book we found a very interesting handwritten note in the hand of Maria Christina Soledad Romie, the future Mrs. David Jacks. We promptly acquired this book as well for the library.

Maria was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1838, the daughter of John Frederick Romie and Maria A. Frohn, who as natives of Germany emigrated to Mexico in 1835. Maria’s parents came to Monterey in 1841, where John Frederick set up a tailoring business.

In 1861 Maria married Mr. Jacks in San Luis Obispo and made her residence in a small house on the property of Joseph Boston, who owned the Casa del Oro at that time. Mr. Jacks worked for Mr. Boston clerking at the Casa del Oro and would later buy Mr. Boston’s residence and build his home on the three acres of prime land next to the Presidio (across the street from the current location of the Mayo Hayes O’Donnell Library).

It isn’t clear when Maria became Mary, apparently before marriage. After David’s death in 1909, Mary governed the trust set up by her husband for her and her children, and this corporation oversaw their generosity in providing money, collections of art and books and land until her death in 1917. Mary is buried next to her husband in the Protestant cemetery in Monterey, the Cemeterio El Encinal.

The note in the back of the Atlas is difficult to read, so it has been enhanced to make some of the writing stand out against the background. The note seems to have been made before she married David Jacks. She seems to be planning names for her future children and thinking about what her future name will be. I have attempted to interpret what Mary wrote. You are welcome to offer alternative interpretations. If you see something that I didn’t, please let me know.

- Gary Spradlin, President, Monterey History and Art Association

MHAA_ member supported and volunteer driven since 1931

Mary's 1857 Atlas Photo of Mary C. Jacks

Mary's gravestone

Enhanced image of Mary's note

An interpretation of Mary's note

William Constable Adam (1846-1931)

William was born on August 29, 1846 in Tweedmouth, England. According to the Scotland Census of 1861, he was a resident of “Campside House” at Cathcart in the County of Renfrewshire, just west of Glasgow, with his teacher-father, George Diack Adam, his mother, Jane Constable Adam, six siblings, several boarders and a servant. After primary school the artistic son took classes @ the Glasgow School of Art. At 19 he travelled to South America & lived in Buenos Aires & later in Montevideo. While there he studied art, learned Spanish & found employment with a produce broker.

After a few years he returned to Scotland where he was an early member of the Glasgow Art Club. He continued his art training in Paris with Auguste

Joseph Delécluse. William married Ada Rebecca Robertson in 1876. In 1881 he resided with

Ada, her sister and a servant at 1 Albert Road in Cathcart; his profession was listed in the Census as artist: landscape & figure. The couple emigrated to the USA in 1893. They had one daughter Dorothy Constable Adam who was born on February 23, 1896 in Boston. Sadly she died from cholera the following year on August 20, 1897. The couple divorced soon afterward. While in Massachusetts he joined the Boston Art Club & later moved to Lowell where he was elected president of the Lowell Art Club.

Circa 1898-99 he relocated to California & by 1901 he had moved to the Methodist colony of Pacific Grove. In the April 12, 1902 Pacific Grove Review one reads that “Wm. Adam, the well-known artist, has just completed a studio in the edge of the woods on Willow street, where he is now busily engaged in painting pictures of the beautiful scenery which is seen on every hand in this vicinity…His studio is open to the public every afternoon and it ought to prove a source of great attraction to residents and visitors to the Grove.” On September 26, 1906 William Adam married Mrs. Mary Taft Sleuman in San Jose, California. After the ceremony the newlyweds left for Pacific Grove where a recently completed bungalow & studio awaited them. In the November 2, 1906 Pacific Grove Daily Review one finds a description of their new home: “William Adam, the artist, has just completed a handsome residence and studio on the corner of Central Avenue and Twelfth Street. The structure is so located that there will always be a fine view of the beautiful bay of Monterey and Greenwood Park. The studio is a room of ample dimensions and upon the walls are displayed in artistic style dozens of striking and beautiful pictures of scenes in both this country and Europe. Among the pictures are bits of scenery in Scotland, the sand dunes of the Pacific Grove peninsula, a street in Paris at night, aged cypress trees, scenes in Pacific Grove’s Chinatown both before and after the fire, Monterey’s old Custom House, etc. The display is both beautiful and interesting.” In the 1909 California State Fair, Adam was awarded a gold medal & blue ribbons for several of his paintings. In 1910 his oils & watercolors were displayed in San Francisco’s Helgesen Gallery @ 2239 Fillmore Street. The SF Call said the following about the exhibition: “There is a wide range of work in this view, the first Adam has ever held in California, his scenes in oils and watercolors including marines and landscapes around Carmel and Monterey and even more striking studies off the coast of Scotland and throughout France. All of these are strong and vigorous in treatment in a very true, bold note, his marine studies being specially praiseworthy for their life and motion.” In 1912 Mr. & Mrs. Adam were in Hawaii where the Kilohana Art League held a reception for the public to view both his Californian & Hawaiian paintings. In 1913 Adam & his assistant Everett Smith designed & painted the scenery for 2 local productions: Belshazzar’s Feast & Queen Esther. The June 15, 1914 Pacific Grove Daily Review reported: “Several moving pictures were taken in the Grove the first of the week. One of them was taken @ Lovers Point and another shows William Adam, the artist, painting a picture in his garden. The reels will be shown @ the Colonial Theatre in a few days.” On 12/1/1922 Mr. Adam completed his final paperwork in Salinas & became a naturalized American citizen. In the 3/28/1927 Artists’ Cozy Nook we learn that the octogenarian “Mr. Adam sells perhaps more pictures than any other artist on the Peninsula, having sold 120 last year & 160 the preceding year. His work has always found a ready market which keeps up with his unusual ability to produce.” Four years later on October 17,1931 the 85 year old William Adam died. A large crowd of friends & admirers attended his funeral @ the Paul Mortuary.

Locally, his work was included in these Carmel Arts & Crafts Club juried exhibitions: Inaugural Exhibition (July, 1906), Seventh Annual Exhibition (June-July, 1913), Thirteenth Annual Exhibition (June-August 1, 1919), & the Fifteenth Annual Exhibition (July 22-September 15, 1921) and the Carmel Art Association Inaugural Exhibition (October 15-December 1, 1927).

Casa Serrano is delighted to have one of his paintings in its collection.

Written on the painting’s verso:

“There is this swirl in the sand dunes just off the north end of Moss Beach close to Asilomar. We often rode horses from the Presidio of Monterey across this particular spot in the 1920’s and can visualize our horses’ hoof prints here in the sand. And, in the Summer of 1916 we would walk out here across the stile at the end of Laurel Avenue in Pacific Grove with a group of other young picnickers. The water just north of Pt. Joe (17 Mile Drive) and off Moss Beach is now called Spanish Bay.”

Michael Mazgai

Above photo: William Constable Adam (photo credit Monterey County Historical Society)

Casa Serrano's William Adam painting

450 Central (William and Mary Adam House)

William & Mary Adam (Photo credit ancestry.com)

William & Mary Adam tombstone Taft Cemetary Gouldsboro Hancock County Maine (Photo credit findagrave.com)

Local People

Peter Hiller

Peter Hiller, along with his wife Celeste Williams, made the fortuitous decision to leave the greater Los Angeles area for the Monterey Peninsula in 1981. Peter realizes he is still a newbie to the area, but along with raising their two, now grown, sons here, they have not regretted the decision for a minute. This is the best place to live and Peter and Celeste have been to all 50 states.

Peter loved his almost forty-year career as a grade school art teacher primarily at All Saints Day School in Carmel Valley. It was there that he discovered, in a cabinet, copies of Jo Mora’s prints Evolution of a Cowboy and Indians of North America. It is fair to say that this changed Peter’s life as it added another dimension to his interest in art, teaching and history including leading to joining the Monterey History and Art Association.

Becoming totally captivated by Jo Mora’s multiple artistic skills as an illustrator, painter, cartoonist, sculptor, graphic designer and author, Peter was mesmerized by the style, quality and subject matter of Jo’s art including a mutual interest in the cultural material of the Hopi and Navajo. One result of a small-town lead to a friendship with Jo’s son, Jo Jr. thus Peter had the good fortune to have access to the Mora family archive as he became the, now former, Jo Mora Trust Collection Curator – perfect for scouring primary source material for Peter as a researcher increasingly interested in Jo.

It was a pleasure for Peter to bring his students and coworkers along on what became an extensive Jo Mora ride eventually featuring Peter curating multiple exhibits of Jo Mora’s work, speaking publicly many times about Mora and his artistic prowess and writing in numerous publications about Jo’s life and artistic achievements including the comprehensive biography The Life and Times of Jo Mora: Iconic Artist of the American West published by the Book Club of California and Gibbs Smith. At this time, he has accomplished everything within his control on his Jo Mora ‘to do’ list and is thrilled and honored to have done so.

Filling in some additional highlights in Peter’s life finds he is extremely pleased to have lived to have a loving wife and two children, to have created art and send it out into the world, to have volunteered in meaningful ways, to see a 360-degree sunrise over both land and sea, to have lived in the United States during the presidency of Barack Obama, to witness Humpback whale’s lung feeding in Big Sur and bubble feeding in Northern Cal., to have seen the edges of the continent from Baja, Maine, Florida, Alaska, and Tofino, and lived to be overwhelmed by the number of grains of sand on earth and by the depth of outer space along with humanity’s creativity in exploring it.

If you have a friend or relative that would like to share their story about living in or around Monterey, please contact Monterey History and Art Association at MHAA.org1931@gmail.com

Peninsula Diary

Mayo Hayes O’Donnell wrote this article for the Monterey Peninsula Herald on May 26, 1965.

Mariano Vallejo

The Solano County Historical Society has invited the Monterey History and Art Assn. to assist it in a proposal for a commemorative postage stamp to focus attention on Mariano G. Vallejo, for whom the city of Vallejo was named.

Our association assisted the society last summer in urging President Johnson to name the latest Polaris submarine to be built at Mare Island the “Mariano Vallejo.”

Submarine SSBN 658, now under construction, is to be named the U.S.S. Mariano G. Vallejo. It is expected that this vessel will be commissioned in the summer of 1966.

Gen. Mariano Guadelupe Vallejo played a significant and many sided role in the affairs of Northern California during the 83 years of his busy and rewarding life.

Born in Monterey, July 4, 1807, he was the son of Ignacio Ferrer Vallejo, a native of Spain who in his youth came to Guadalajara, Mexico. In 1774 the elder Vallejo was a member of the expedition of Capt. Fernando de Rivera y Moncada, which explored much of Northern California.

A good student and avid reader, Mariano Vallejo became a cadet in the Monterey company of the Mexican army and secretary of Gov. Luis Arguello at the age of 16. In 1831, while only 24, he was placed in charge of the Presidio of San Francisco and in the next five years helped organize the first town government for San Francisco.

The presence of the Russian colony at Fort Ross posed a threat to Mexico’s role in California. In 1835 Gov. Jose Figueroa selected young Lt. Vallejo to command a group of soldiers at Sonoma as a buffer against the Russians to the north.

Vallejo held the joint title of military commander and director of colonization on the northern frontier. He laid out the largest plaza in all California and made this the center of the town of Sonoma.

His orders directed him to preside over the secularization of San Francisco de Solano Mission, the only one of California’s missions established under Mexican rule.

In this latter assignment he attempted to be as humane as possible. He allotted portions of the mission lands and cattle to the Indian neophytes and launched them as independent ranchers.

A section of Solano County, Rancho Soscol, was granted to him by the government in 1834. Between then and 1844 he built a large adobe house, Rancho Petaluma, where on 66,000 acres he constructed a vast operation involving the growing of fruits and vegetables and raising cattle.

Vallejo’s first home in Sonoma, Casa Grande, faced the plaza. In 1851 he completed Lachryma Montis, a larger residence a few blocks away. The Latin means “Mountain Tears”; it was chosen for springs of hot and cold water on the 250 acre estate. There he lived for 40 years and upon his death in 1890 he was buried on an eminence overlooking the estate.

Although Vallejo was loyal to his Mexican superiors, he was beset by dissenters who wanted to get a foothold in California. On the morning of June 14, 1846, 33 Americans seized Vallejo at Casa Grande, 10 weeks after he had advocated annexation by the United States.

He was held at Sutter’s Fort during the brief life of the Bear Flag Republic. With the raising of the American Flag on July 9, 1846, U.S. troops replaced those of Vallejo in the Sonoma Barracks. He was freed in August 1846.

Vallejo gladly embraced the cause of the United States. He served as one of the eight California members of the Constitutional Convention in Monterey in September, 1849, and was the first state senator from Sonoma County. Through his efforts the state Capital was located from 1851 to 1853 in Vallejo, a city named for him.

Strikingly handsome even in his advancing years, he was tall with erect carriage of one disciplined to bear arms; gracious in manner, he was a brilliant conversationalist and an eloquent speaker.

Mariano Vallejo circa 1841

General Mariano Vallejo

LIBRARY NEWS

The library was visited earlier this week by a history teacher from a local High School. He was very interested in our collection of used books and bought a large number of them to share with his students. We spoke with him about hosting his class at Stanton Center to see some of our art and history exhibits.

The library welcomes book donations during our open hours – Wed through Sun 1:30 – 4 pm.

Volunteers continue to scan our Game and Gossip magazines and material from the Organ Grinder donation.

Casa Serrano

A Rosemary and Thyme hosted a lovely garden tea in the afternoon at Casa Serrano's garden. There were 40 in attendance enjoying petite tea sandwiches, scones, pastries and premium teas while Dot Findlater explained the history of the tradition of tea in the afternoon. A good time was had by all, and the garden is another lovely space to consider for your special events at Casa Serrano.

The lovely Casa Serrano Garden

Steinbeck in Monterey

Now – December 14

Join the National Steinbeck Center for a deep dive into John Steinbeck and Monterey with the 2025 exhibition “Steinbeck in Monterey” now open at the Monterey History and Art Association Museum.

The City of Monterey was Steinbeck’s stomping ground through his childhood and into his thirties. Here, he had some of the foundational experiences of his life that appear in his writing, again and again. This exhibit explores the interplay between living and writing.

Monterey Screening – Stanton Center

Arthur Tress: Water’s Edge

Friday October 10, 2025, 7 p.m.

MHAA members are invited to a special screening of the documentary Water’s Edge, about the life, career and creative processes of renowned photographer Arthur Tress. 84-year-old Arthur Tress is mostly known for staged surrealism photography, but he also excels in street, urban exploration, landscape, and other genres. Tress lived in Cambria for 25 years before moving to San Francisco several years ago. The gorgeous 80-minute documentary premiered in 2023 at The Getty Center, in connection with a retrospective of Tress’s early work, also at The Getty. This screening is the first time the film will be shown on the Monterey Peninsula.

The screening is presented jointly by Monterey History and Art, and Center for Photographic Art in Carmel. Mr. Tress will participate in a Q&A session on stage after the film. Leading the discussion will be Ann Jastrab, Executive Director at Center for Photographic Art, and Stephen B. Lewis, the filmmaker.

In connection with the screening, Center for Photographic Art is hosting a one-week, free “pop up” exhibit of Tress’s photography. The exhibit will blend recent work with a mix of older work, including some of his most iconic prints.

To learn more and to purchase tickets go to the Monterey History and Art website. Tickets are $10 for members and $20 for non-members. The member code is TressLewis

Rental Opportunity

Approximately 1000 sq. ft. is available for rent in the Doud House at the corner of Scott Street and Van Buren Street. This space has been used as office space and as an art studio in the past. If interested in knowing more, please contact MHAA using the association’s email: mhaa.org1931@gmail.com. Thank you.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL REMINDER

Our membership year is October 1 to September 30; please remember to renew your membership to continue receiving our newsletter, invitations to lectures and events, and FREE ADMISSION to Monterey History and Art at Stanton Center.

Come visit our exhibits at Stanton Center.

Free admission for MHAA members!