This
is the regular monthly meeting of the Tuolumne County Historical Society.
Tonight we are meeting at the Memorial Hall in Sonora, The date is September
27, 1980. Sharon Merovich, President of the society, is the presiding officer.
(Large number of people, all talking simultaneously from 00:23 to
01:15)
MEROVICH:
Good
evening everyone. I think it’s time to call our meeting to order. It’s a little
after 8 o’clock, and I’d like to welcome you to the September meeting of the
Tuolumne County Historical Society. I’m Sharon Merovich, President of the
Society, and I trust you all had a pleasant summer. We didn’t have any meetings
in July or August, so this is our first one since June. What we normally do at
this time before we get too much into the program is to ask people who are
either new members or guests of members to introduce themselves so that we have
a chance to meet you. And I’d like to start off at this side of the room if
there’s anyone who is a guest of a member, please member introduce that person
and if you are here for the first time, we’d also like to hear from you.
MARSHALL:
(Faint) I’m Manuel Marshall, I’m one of the old timers
who used to be here. I’m a newcomer now, I only moved back to Tuolumne County
three years ago. I’m relatively new. This is my first meeting of the
association.
(Applause)
MEROVICH:
OK, Is
there anyone on this side who’s new or a guest or here for the first time?
PICKUP:
My
name’s Ron Pickup. I was born in Melones in 1938
and I just came back to visit my folks, and I read in the paper that Teddy was
going to do this.
(Applause)
MRS.
BIRD: I
guess I’m here for the first time too. I’m Lirleen
Bird, wife of the speaker for the evening.
(Applause)
LARSON:
This is
Mildred Larson, and I’m Warren Larson. We’re guests.
(Applause)
MEROVICH:
OK.
Excuse me. Yes, Steall?
Unknown 3: I’m not really new, but I’m
not really an old-timer either. But I am a new member of the association and
this is my wife, Thrace.
(Applause)
ANDERSON:
My
name’s Richard Anderson. We’ve been members a year but we’ve never been able to
meet with you so I’m happy to be here for the first time.
(Applause)
MEROVICH:
Alrighty.
What I’d like to do now are a few housekeeping items before we get on to the program.
First item on the agenda that I’d like to discuss with you is the brunch. Those
of you who have received you monthly newsletter are aware that on October 19th
the Society is having its annual October brunch. It will be held in Angelos
Hall and it’ll start at 11 in the morning. The cost is $5.50 and for that you
will be provided a hearty, old-fashioned breakfast followed by a program on
“Early Day Automotive Travel” by Stewart Laidlaw. Mr. Laidlaw lives in Murphys
and he restores old cars to their showroom condition. And he will be our
speaker, and those of you who are old car buffs who will be coming please come
in your old car and wear your old car clothes so we can all have a chance to
see them. The way to make reservations is to either use the tear-off sheet in
your Historian [newsletter] or send a $5.50 per person to Violet Ellenwood at
the Society’s box, which is 695 in Sonora. And reservations are required. We
had the brunch there last year and although I was unable to attend I understand
it was very nice and that’s one of the reasons why we’re going back to the same
place. Item that we should discuss next is the book sale. And I would like to
turn the meeting over to Larry Stuman who will
tell us about this.
STUMAN:
Well, next
weekend will be the third book sale that we’ve had (Interrupted
by rustling noise) years (Noise stops)
third annual. We expect to have about eight to ten thousand books and for those
people who have been to the book sales before, they really have a lot of
excellent books. They’re one every kind of topic imaginable, there are a lot of
collectors’ items, and this year Sunset Magazine has donated over 200 copies of
their books that they have published, and so we have those in addition to all
the regular things that we normally collect. This year we’re going to have a
Preview Night on Friday night, a week from tonight, from 7:30 to 9:30, and
we’re going to charge $1 for the preview night. And if you’re interested,
especially in some youth books I’d recommend that you come to the preview
night, because a lot of these things do go right away. Last year we had people
lined up two hours before we opened. This year, as in last year, we need some
volunteers to help us out. And so I’d like to help out, I’d like to circulate
this list and if you can give us a few hours of your time any of the three days
– Friday night is 7:30 to 9:30, Saturday and Sunday are from 10 in the morning
to 5 at night. And the morning hours are when we need people usually the most.
So I’d like to circulate this list and please sign up if you can. People can
help (Noise is back for a few momnts) desk and
help just sort of straighten out and just miscellaneous things. And it should
be a lot of fun. Thank you.
MEROVICH:
Thank
you, Larry. I’d like to bring you up to date on some of the things that have
occurred over the summer. I intended to put a lot of these things in the
Historian but it just got filled up and so I thought I would mention them this
evening and maybe put them in subsequent Historians. Those of you who read the
Union Democrat saw that last week we, the Historical Society was awarded a
Certificate of Commendation for the preservation of local history by the
American Association of State and Local History. This is a nationwide
organization and the competition for this award is rather fierce. We
submitted a sort of an application or a portfolio really, in April at the
request of ??? ??? who is a State Historic
Preservation Officer. He was here in April to be the speaker at our annual
dinner, and thought that the Society was, well he was really quite impressed.
The man had wonderful things to say about the Historical Society. So he said
you should submit an application for one of these awards and just see how you
come out. So he was quite instrumental in getting us to do that and we survived
the competition at the state and regional level and the award was decided at
the American Association of State and Local History annual meeting in New
Orleans. And there were several of these certificates issued and it is really
quite an honor. And it speaks very well of the society and the early organizers
of it who put the organization together in 1956. They laid an excellent
foundation so that those of us who are new can carry on in that same tradition.
We have not received the certificate yet but when we do I will bring it to one
of our meetings so we can all see it. The next item relates to the United
States Forest Service. We have been working with the Forest Service over the
last several months relative to cultural resources on the National Forest in
the wilderness areas. As many of you know, there are cabins and other historic
structures that are in the wilderness areas and they have not had the degree of
protection that they deserve. I hear horror stories of these buildings being
torched and so on, and there are fewer and fewer of them. The most prominent
one that most of us are familiar with is the Fred Layton Encampment, and those
of you who may have visited there know of that area and what an important part
of our heritage it is. And I can tell you that the Forest Service through
Blaine Carnell who is the supervisor here said that there will be no
destruction of those in the immediate future and that if the Forest Service
does have any plans related to those structures, the Historical Society will be
notified. Now, this may seem like a rather small step forward, but I just wish
to tell you that in terms of the Forest Service this is a very big step forward
because they like to think that they are taking care of our heritage and that
we needn’t worry and sometimes we do worry when we see that these things have
disappeared over the years through their policies and practices. So we’re
pleased that they have seen the importance of these structures in the wilderness
areas and indicate that they wish to be cooperative to some degree.
MEROVICH:
The next
item relative to the Historical Society is the Tuolumne County General Plan.
And starting last year, the Historical Society put together a landmarks
inventory. We solicited the help of the public and our members and our
Landmarks Committee and the Ward and we put
together – it was really a preliminary survey. But it has many of the landmarks
in the unincorporated area of the county that we all care very much about. And
so the purpose of doing this list was to get it included in the General Plan,
so that when decisions are made on land use that here was a list of places,
sites, structures and so on that deserve some degree of protection. And so that
list and some very good statements about historic preservation did survive the
general plan process and are in the General Plan. And I was quite pleased at
that and so was our board and the Landmarks Committee, because we didn’t really
know what we were in for when we started that. And so in any event the next
step is to put into practice some of the things that the General Plan says
about landmarks, mainly creating historic districts and other protection for
them. And we intend to do that. And relative to that, there is a four-county
inventory of historic resources presently underway. There’s a planning group in
Altaville that received a state grant and they will be inventorying all of the
historic landmarks and cultural resources in Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador and
Alpine counties. And the purpose of that is to provide more protection for the
landmarks that we do have here. And the Society will cooperate with them on
that. The preliminary one that we did will be a big step forward for them when
they come to Tuolumne County and try to get it organized.
MEROVICH:
The next
item – there’s some good news and some bad news, and that’s the Historic
Building Code. Your board endorsed the Building Code and suggested that the
county and the city of Sonora adopt the code. Well, we made very good progress
with the county. The staff was very supportive, and the Historic Building Code,
which offers a great deal of protection for historic buildings has been adopted
by the board of Supervisors. Unfortunately, the bad news is that we were unable
to get the city Council to go along with this and the staff, the three that are
important, were 100% against the Historic Building Code. So, I would say to you
that if you see your councilman – Larry Rotelli, Louie Pound, Don Calbert,
Stanley J. Churchill or Ron Stern, or even Homer Curothers, please put in a
good word for the Historic Building Code. It is something that can protect and
help with these old buildings and when we try to make them adapted to modern
use. It’s a worthwhile piece of legislation that is not more bureaucracy,
rather it’s the kind of things that cities and counties can adopt that help
property owners.
MEROVICH:
And the
next quick item before we go on to our program is the courthouse. You may have
read in the newspaper that the Historical Society had appeared before the Board
of Supervisors trying to get the board to understand the significance of the
courthouse, and to do some restoration work in there. This is called for in
their master plan, the building program that they are embarked on. We only ask
that they implement the master plan as they have in the two previous steps that
they have undertaken. They don’t want to do any restoration there and they
merely want to get the district attourney and the probation office into the
courthouse as quickly and cheaply as possible. So, we were not able to get them
to follow the master plan, and even though they did adopt it in 1977. So what
we are doing now is to work with them on a Citizens’ Committee, to see that
what work does go on in there is at least compatible with the historic nature
of that building. We don’t want to see any more bad things occur in that
structure. And so yours truly is on that committee as one of two citizens, the
other citizen is Charlie Genoa. And serving on that
committee would be the Board’s Courthouse Committee, which is Bud Hatler and
Billy Marr, and then the two department heads who would be going into the
building, Eric Duchample the DA and Jim Rigler the probation officer. And then
Steve Zaley the Administrative officer, and the architect Robert Hart. He’s the
gentleman who designed Caulfield Park and the third floor of the County
Hospital, converting it into a mental health department.
MEROVICH:
It’s
time for a brief commercial before we go on to the program, and that relates to
the Historian. We are always looking for ways to help support our budget
without increasing dues, and we feel that one small way that we can help is to
sell advertising in the Historians. So at your board’s last meeting we endorsed
the idea of selling space in the Historian. Historian is the monthly newsletter
of the Historical Society. We have a monthly mailing, or nine mailings a year
of approximately 600. We feel that that reaches over a thousand members because
of the way we sell our memberships, one membership could have ten people. It’s
a membership rather than individual members. So many of you may own businesses
or work for businesses that would like to have the message of their product or
their service carried to a thousand or so people who share an interest in
history. And so we are selling space that’s roughly 2.5 by 3 inches for 36
dollars, that’s four dollars an issue and it will run in each of the nine
Historians for 1981. So that will bring in a little revenue and help to
underwrite the cost of the Historian. So if there’s anyone here who wishes to
purchase an ad, please let me know after the meeting, and I’ll be happy to sign
you up.
MEROVICH:
Now it’s
time for our program. We are fortunate to have with us this evening Ted Bird.
Ted is a native of Melones and lived there until he was 16 years old. His
impressions of growing up in that community during those very important years
of his life he has brought with him this evening; He’s also fully prepared to
discuss all of these tools that he has here – when Ted comes he is – he’s
ready. So I would just like to introduce Ted Bird, and ask him to present our
program. Thank you.
(Applause)
BIRD:
I want
to reset my recorder to preserve this for posterity, of course.
(Misc.
noises and indistinct talking in background)
BIRD:
Thank
you Sharon, and thank you all for inviting me to this meeting. My purpose – My
purpose is to tell you things that you probably could not read in books. And
these are some of the experiences that I had as a child. I was born in Melones
in 1908. This was the year that they built the bridge to replace the ferry, the
Robinsons’ ferry. They had it all constructed, all the forms constructed. The
river rose, and washed the whole thing away. I wonder how many of you ever
heard of that. That’s a fact. Now, the first settlers in Melones were Mexican
miners in search of gold about 1849. A Mexican woman found some gold in the
river, and it was shaped like melon seeds. And this is true, because I have found
it myself. Melones is the word for “melon” in Spanish. So the town was named
Melones, but it first was called Robinsons’ Ferry, because of the ferry service
established there around 1850. Now there are two other names that you probably
never heard of. And these are Spanish Diggings and Slumgullion.
BIRD:
I think
some very famous people lived in Melones, and I name among them Archie Ste???ull. He was a man way ahead of his time. Friend of
mine lived just across the street from us. And he did so much for the people
down there, you wouldn’t believe it. The bridge is certainly a fitting monument
to him. Ghiradelli lived in Melones. He was a Placer miner down there. You know
what he went on to do! The manufacturer of Ghiradelli’s chocolate. James Fair was
26 years old when he came to Carson Hill, bought the Morgan Mine, married
Tessie Rooney there. He purchased the Yutuca mine in Angels Camp for 37,000
dollars, became the Comstock silver king. Well you know he built the Fairmont
Hotel too, incidentally. Mark Twain was a frequent visitor to Melones. He lived
for a short time on Jackass Hill. His cabin is there, but not really. It’s a
replica. I helped dedicate that when I was a young boy. Now I’m going to brag a
little bit. I have to name my brother. Marlow Bird, my oldest brother, who is
now 85 years old. He was the assayer for the Melones Mining Company. Went
on to Stanford University, became a top engineer for Standard Oil. He was sent
to Germany to negotiate with Hitler’s Germany to build a refinery in the
Persian Gulf. If you heard the news tonight, you know how important that was.
BIRD:
Now I
think I’ll tell you a little bit about the tools that my father used when he
came (Rustling noise) Came from Kansas, moved to
Point Richmond. My uncle was a carpenter, and was a – my uncle was a heavy
construction carpenter, invited my father to come to Melones to help expand the
Melones Mill. At that time it had 60 stamps, and he wanted to expand it to 100.
And my father was one of the head carpenters on that expansion, which was
completed in about 1902. These are tools that he used in Melones He was a
foreman, called a Top Foreman, later. And timekeeper. He had charge of most of
the operations above ground. He was over a large maintenance crew, and he was
an expert constructionist. He knew how to handle heavy timbers. He built
gallows frames all through the Mother Lode, down in Quartz, Stent, up in Bodie,
Angels Camp, Jackson, Sutter Creek, and these were the tools that he carried
with him. This is an adze. Used for framing timbers. You stand on a timber, and
you frame it between your legs. Well, you better be accurate.
BIRD:
I was
fascinated by the blacksmith in Melones. And they were excellent craftsmen. The
blacksmith that I knew was Billy ??Mullett??. And Lyle, he lived pretty close
to where you live. Just at the top of the grade, when you’re coming down to
Melones, as you go down the hill there’s a foundation off to the right there,
coming towards Tuttletown. That was Billy Mullett’s home, and he walked clear
to Melones and back after working about a 12-hour day. And these were things
that he made. This is an ice tong. This is a hay hook. This is a caliper. Well,
this is an all-purpose hook probably used for hanging meat or something like that.
This is a smaller caliper. I was fascinated by the blacksmith. I spent a great
deal of time in his shop. These are nails, square nails made by a blacksmith.
This is a drawknife my father used for shaping an edge of a timber. And he
sharpened these tools on the same hone that he sharpened his razor on. And they
were razor-sharp, believe me. This isn’t quite so sharp now. This is a plumb
bob, used for getting a stretcher perpendicular. Some of those gallows frames
were probably 80 feet high. And they had to be perpendicular otherwise they’d
fall over if they got a strain on them. I wonder if you ever saw an angled
chisel. There is a round chisel. Of course, this is a piece of equipment
used for one of these augers. I have probably a dozen of these augers, and I
wonder sometimes why they made them so long. But I think the timbers were 16 by
16s. So that’s one reason, it had to be that long to get through the timber.
Another reason I think is because they had to reach into far places. Or in
holes. This looks like a saw, and it is! But what kind of a saw? Art said it’s
an ice saw. And this is what it is. It is for sawing ice. The iceman came to
Melones from Angels Camp, his ice wagon loaded with blocks of ice, the lady of
the house would go out and per her hands on it, you know, “this much, this
much” and he’d whack it off. And of course you’re going to use the ice tong to
carry it in the house.
BIRD:
You
probably would call this a big chisel. And it – in a way it is. But the real
name of it is a slick. And believe me that thing can do a job on a timber. It
is just razor sharp. This of course is a wooden mallet used with a chisel. This
I am quite sure is handmade. It hadn’t been made by a machinist. But if you get
a good look at it you will see that it’s crude enough that it was handmade.
And it is a machine for boring a hole through wood. It has, it’s a
tapered piece here and you bored a pilot hole and then by turning it it forces
itself down into the hole and these are cutters, which are adjustable for any
diameter. I think you would have a hard time finding one of those in a hardware
store.This is a wooden plane with of course a metal blade in it. It’s my
favorite plane today, I like it better than all of the steel ones. One unusual
thing about it is that the blade is angled. Most blades are 90 degrees. This is
about a 45. And believe me it does a good job of planning. And I still use it.
Well, this is what the miners used in the mine. Originally they used candles
and a candlestick and there would stick these things into the timber. This was
an instrument, that was a dangerous instrument and it was used for stabbing
purposes. And I saw a man stabbed with one of those once. I don’t know if I can
get this thing to work or not but we’ll try. (Clicking
noises) This is a little (Interrupted by
applause)
BIRD:
There’s
water in the top, calcium carbide in this section, and these, by regulating the
water flow, you regulate the flame. And then this is the cap of course, And
this was part of our uniform in the Angels Camp Miner’s Band. And we could play
night or day. ((Applause)) And we played quite a
bi-
30:40
– END OF SIDE A
General Information:
Interviewer: n/a
Interviewee: Bird, Ted
Name of Tape: My Life in Old Melones
(bird_t_0)
When: 1980
Transcriber: Alden (2/27/08)