Founded December 22, 1933. Incorporated 1955.P.O. Box 3576, Salinas, CA 93912. (831) 757-

The MontereyCounty Historical Society

News from

August 2005

In late June, Arcadia Publishing released anew book in their Images of Ameri-

ca series—Early Salinas!The book was written byGary S. Breschini, andTrudy Haversat, boardmembers of the MontereyCounty Historical Society,and Mona Gudgel, the Soci-ety’s Director.

From the Introduction:The history of Salinas beginsat the Big Bend in the slough,when an entrepreneur namedDeacon Elias Howe acquiredeighty acres of land and builtan establishment at the junctionof two stage routes. Situatedhalfway between Monterey andSan Juan Bautista, it soon becameknown as the Half Way House.Business boomed as it became apopular stage stop, beating out thecompetition at Natividad, whicheventually closed. Howe was able toattract customers by serving the bestbrandy in the area and setting upbets on which stage would arrivefirst. The winners would receive freebrandy.

A New Book on the History of Salinas!

Charley Parkhurst was frequently the win-ning stage driver. Whole cases of whiskey werebet on Charley’s prowess. Only afterParkhurst’s death in 1879 was it discoveredthat “Charley” was actually a woman by thename of Charlotte Parkhurst.

After owning his successful Half WayHouse for only 18 months, Deacon Howe soldit, and the surrounding eighty acres to AlbertoTrescony. Born in Italy, Trescony had a fasci-nating career prior to his arrival in Monterey in1842, and his life history has become some-

what of a legend in Monterey County. One ofhis skills was as a tinsmith, and he was able tosell his wares to prospectors for high prices.Within a short time he saved enough to startpurchasing properties, and he acquired hotels inboth Monterey and San Juan Bautista. Near theHalf Way House, at the edge of the slough, hebuilt a small hotel, general merchandise store,blacksmith shop, and stable. This expansionmarks the true beginnings of Salinas—the smallwooden hotel stood on the site of the futureAbbott House, later the Cominos Hotel. For

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Contents copyright 2005 by the Monterey County Historical Society.

This 1876 Cox map of Monterey County shows Salinas-area land grants (ranchos) and the begin-nings of the town at the big bend in the slough. Important land grants are Rancho Nacional, thesite of Hilltown; Rancho Llano de Buena Vista, where Spreckels and the famous sugar factorywere built; Rancho El Alisal, site of Hartnell’s first college and the country home of Gov. JuanAlvarado; Rancho El Sausal, site of the Sherwood/Castro Adobe and major portions of Salinas to-day; and Rancho Rincón del Sanjón, west of Salinas, the site of the Boronda Adobe.

years this hotel dominated the 100 block ofSalinas and formed the heart of the communi-ty—until it was demolished in 1989 to makeroom for a parking lot.

As Salinas grew, it became the economiccenter of the valley, fueled by agriculture andeventually encompassing several outlying com-munities such as Natividad, Santa Rita, and thesite of Salinas’ first post office, Hilltown.

Trescony hired Austin Smith and CharlesMcFadden to manage the hotel in the early1860s, and Smith accepted the job as postmas-ter when the Salinas Post Office was moved

from Hilltown in 1864. Later, Smith and Mc-Fadden operated the general merchandise store.

The initial expansion of Salinas coincidedwith the drastic reduction in the Spanish-stylecattle industry, partially due to the growingavailability of American beef in the late 1850s.Then, on December 24, 1861, heavy rains be-gan that lasted for nearly a month, and manycattle drowned. John Steinbeck included agraphic description of cattle washing down theSalinas River in the opening chapter of his clas-sic novel, East of Eden. The winter was severeeverywhere, and snows were frequent; even

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James McDougall was one of the earliest Salinas pioneers. He is pictured here hauling water fromGabilan Creek into Salinas. His brother, John, wrote an extensive diary titled Looking BackDown an Old Trail Through the Eyes of a Pioneer. This diary, which was originally published in35 installments in the Salinas Index-Journal in 1930-1931, contains many important details, andsome very entertaining stories, concerning early Monterey County history. It will be published bythe Monterey County Historical Society in the near future.

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This 1897 photograph shows Main Street, facing south from Gabilan Street.

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The James Bardin Hospital was built by James Bardin II shortly after the earthquake of April 18,1906. It stood at the corner of John and South Main streets, and accommodated 22 patients.

Below: The Abbott House, with the opera house to the right.

Monterey experienced six inches of snow.Then, in 1863 and 1864, the valley was struckby a drought. Within two years, the cattle pop-ulation dropped from between 70,000 and100,000, to only 13,000.

In spite of the disastrous effect on the Span-ish range cattle, a few foresighted individualssaw where the future would lead. In about1865, William Bardin, Sr. noted that very soon,dairy cattle would be brought into the Salinas

Valley and there would be a great many farm-ers. True to his vision, in that same yearCarlisle S. Abbott, a well-known dairymanfrom Marin County, drove 500 dairy cattle tothe Salinas Valley. He rented 9,000 acres ofland in the area of Rancho Llano de BuenaVista, southeast of Salinas, including the areawhich would become the town of Spreckels. By1875, he was milking 1,500 cows and produc-ing 200,000 pounds of butter annually, and he

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This September 1911 photograph features the students of the Spring School with their teacher,Amelia Bottcher. From left to right they are (front row) Helen Nissen, Darold Hitchcock, LouiseNissen, Bert Foreman, Bertha Brunken, John Nissen, Harry Kita, and Walter Giottonini; (sec-ond row) Johnnie Church, Elton Morehouse, Matsu Kita, William Church, Arthur Fenton,Leroy Hitchcock, Jimmie Giottonini; (third row) Cecil Breese, Bruce Church, Clarence Church,Bertha Foreman, Elsie Anderson, Elsine Nissen, ? Yoshita, Howard Holmes. Back row: GeorgeFenton, Henry Brunken, Ruth Smith, Amelia Bottcher (teacher), and Fred Brunken.

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This photograph of Main Street (looking south from Market Street) is undated, but is probably

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from the early 1930s.

owned the land. Abbott was not alone; as earlyas 1869 there was a total of 30 dairymen with5,500 milk cows. The wharf at Moss Landingallowed products for the first time to be shippedlong distances, and the acreage planted in grainsincreased drastically. The sheep populationaround Salinas declined, but up the Salinas Val-ley where land was cheaper, huge herds contin-ued to prosper. Monterey County was the lead-ing wool producer in the state in both the 1870and 1880 censuses.

By 1869, Bardin was able to write to afriend that

Now you see extensive fields of grain inplace of immense herds of stock. Nearlyevery acre of arable land of the mouth ofthe Salinas River and full width of thevalley to the stage road leading fromHilltown…to Natividad is under culti-vation and most to…Soledad…and occa-sionally a farm…for twenty miles [be-yond]…in one or two years…all theland on Salinas [Plain] will be farmed.

Leese sold the rest of Rancho El Sausal toEugene Sherwood in either 1859 or 1860.Sherwood converted the rancho to farming andraised wheat. He leased all but 2,000 acres ofthe original rancho and became an active leaderin the development of the now prosperous agri-cultural region of the Salinas Valley.

The same year, in a move precisely oppo-site that of Sherwood, Alberto Trescony soldhis Salinas property—the Half Way Houseand about 160 acres—to developers A.B.Jackson and Alanson Riker. He wanted toconcentrate on ranching in southern MontereyCounty.

Sherwood entered into a partnership withthe new owners of the Half Way House, and in1868 they laid out Salinas City on adjoiningportions of El Sausal and Rancho Nacional,granting a road right-of-way and land for a de-pot. This persuaded the Southern Pacific Rail-road Company to locate their tracks and depotin Salinas, rather than in Santa Rita.

No sooner was the town laid out than set-tlers began to arrive. The first new businesswas Michael Hughes’ Harness Shop. The I.J.Harvey family, arriving in 1868, counted only12 to 14 buildings, some not yet completed.They were the American Hotel, a livery stable,two blacksmith shops (one with a residence), abutcher shop, two saloons, two general stores(one unfinished), and three other buildings. Bythe end of the year there were 125 buildings,with half again as many under construction.Ford & Sanborn’s lumber mills were hard-pressed to meet the demand. But the expansionwas uneven. A visitor in August of 1869 re-ported 17 saloons, with another being built, butno church!

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Two unidentified young girls.

The Society has hundreds ofphotographs in which thepeople are unidentified. Ifanyone knows the identity ofthese young girls, please con-tact us.

We will be including addi-tional unidentified pho-tographs in future Newslet-ters.

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MEMORIALS

Donor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .In Memory OfMarie M. Cheek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tom F. CheekJohn and Rita Muller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Donald Davies

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THENEWSLETTER WELCOMED

The editors of the Newsletter are alwaysseeking photographs, historical recipes, articles,and other items for these pages. Please contactus if you have any appropriate materials.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

Barbara & Derek Brown Lu DiazEade Family Ranch Andrea Brooks

Mike Ford, Jr Marjorie McCarthyMatthew Hammer Frank Muther

Mrs. Louise Angulo

WEBSITE

Gary Breschini continues to upgrade and toadd new material to the Society’s Website. Thesite has generated researchers, new membersand many donations of artifacts for our archivalvault. And we have a new website address (ourown personal domain, which hopefully is easierto remember). It is:

http://www.mchsmuseum.com

MUSEUM UPDATE

Finally, we are ready to begin constructionon our asphalt roads, new parking lot, handicapramp to the Adobe and landscaping. We cannotthank John Silva of Ausonio Constructionenough for his diligence in working with thecounty to obtain the permits (there were sever-al different county permits that were required)in order for us to proceed. It is time-consumingand requires a special person with patience thatgoes above and beyond the call of duty. Thankyou John!!!

WELCOME ABOARD

Please welcome Barbara Brown, our newAdministrative Assistant. Barbara is a long timeSalinas resident, retired after 22 years of ser-vice with the Salinas Elementary School Dis-trict. She supervises visitations for non-custodi-al parents that have been court ordered for visi-tations, and she is currently chairperson for therestoration of the historic Santa Rita Chapel lo-cated at North Main Street in Salinas. With herexperience working with youth and the public,she truly will be an asset to our office.

THANK YOU

A warm thank you to Joyce McBride whospent an entire month working with the burialrecords at the archives of the Diocese of Mon-terey. Joyce input burials from the records ofSanta Rita cemetery and the Calvary cemeteryin their computer to be placed on the cemeterysites of the Diocese, with records also comingto the Society to help complete the research forboth cemeteries.

We also thank Brother Lawrence Serivani,SM, archivist for the Diocese, for his expertiseand taking from his busy schedule to providerecords and assist in the on going project. TheSociety will be referring inquiries on burials tothe Diocese and once the work is completed wewill be placing a link on our web site to the Dio-cese web site; this is the beginning of a workingpartnership with the Diocese of Monterey.

Autographed copies of this newbook are available from the society.

Local Promotion Circular. These color letter-size sheets were provided to businesses by local Chambers ofCommerce. Businesses then printed their letterheads on the opposite sides. This particular example was onthe back of a letter dated February, 1932.