Cuneo:  In 1850 by Mexican miners who drifted in this area and started mining in the creeks… in the creek.  Later whites moved in, white people, mostly from Angels Camp came here and worked in the surrounding areas.  One time the population of this town was nearly 1,000.  They had…they had a bank, they had a (___) stable, several fandango houses, and many saloons, but like most of the Calaveras towns, they suffered from fire.  In 1855, we had a large fire which destroyed the whole town and then later in 1865, the town was again destroyed by fire. And…but…some of the buildings fortunately were made of adobe and they survived the fire.  There’s a few of them that still survive here in Calavaritas  this and they’re very interesting to go through; but however, the majority of these adobe buildings lack proper roof and they quickly deteriorated and all we have now is the foundations of them, unfortunately. 

With the large number of people in this area, there was nationally a demand for schools and the first effort for an organized school in this town was started when they decided to hold a ball to raise money known as the Calico Ball which was held in 1858.  People from the surrounding areas came in cart and horseback and even by foot and in those days they’d usually stay for two…over the weekend to make it a real outing.  According to the records, over $400 was cleared on…at that dance which was sufficient to buy the lumber to build a small schoolhouse between Hick Calavaritas and what is known as Fourth Crossing.  The foundation is near the road at the top of the hill, and if you look closely and you know where to look, you could…it’s still there. 

The…formerly the school district was formed in May…on May 5, 1858 and the territory was quite extended and included upper Calavaritas  to Sonora Calavaritas  which runs through the really Hwy 49 on the south.  It included Fourth Crossing, it included French Gulch, it included all of the San Anton Creek area, and Indian Creek area which is nearly to Murphy’s.  It also included Old Gulch area and surprising that over…one of the record that I found…it was over 100….it was…*tape goes blank from 3:33-3:46.*

It’s interesting to note the enrollment that they had here.  In 1859 the record show that they had 101 pupils with…pupils between the ages 4 and 18 and it just all list is a DK Seim, S-E-I-M, as the teacher, so he was kept pretty busy if that’s true.  Then, another listing here was in 1861 the Census pupil show it was 123 when he only one teacher, Mr. Gilman was listed.  This situation continued until…this situation continued until 1888 when the area composed of San Anton and Indian Creek were lost when the Esmeralda School District was established.  (___) District was further cut when the Willow Creek School was started and that…at that time, they took…include the area of Lower Calavaritas (___) and most of Fourth Crossing in that area and the pupils from that area went to the Willow Creek School.  From then on, the Calavaritas School only had from 30 to 35…not over 40 pupils.  When I started school there, in 1912 it was…there was only about, as I recall, about 18 pupils and they came from as far away as four or five miles all the way near San Anton Camp and down by Fourth Crossing, the upper end of Fourth Crossing, there was pupils there that came from what the King Ranch.  They used to walk up the creek and some of the teachers, it was interesting to recall who they were, they were mostly native of this area.  One of them was Grace Bun, she lived near Fourth Crossing, she taught Calavaritas for many years and there was Rita Warrington.  She was raised in the Old Gulch here.  She taught for many years and Martin Hoverty, brother of Walter and John Hovety. Incidentally, he was the teacher when I started Calavaritas  School and he taught for about three or four years.  Those are the most important teachers that I can recall at this time. 

The Calavaritas School finally was dissolved around 1929 and the pupils from this area then went to Calavaritas…eh, to the San Andrea School as they do today.  Peculiar thing about the old school house when they decided to move the school to San Andrea, so they left the building here and it was sold at auction for $90 and that was torn down by Charlie Brown who lives here in Calaveras.  He dismantled it and brought it down and built…started as his home would’ve.  Of course, he’s enlarged it now but the original lumber from this school is in Charlie Brown’s home today. 

In…as I look back at the time that I went to school, we really had very competent teachers.  As I mentioned, Grace Bun, Rita Warrington, they were very dedicated teachers and they drilled us in reading, writing, and arithmetic and spelling, which they concentrated on those basic subjects and I think that we learned just as much at that time as the children do today with all the moderns conveniences.  The school that we…at Tandon was a very small building.  I’d say it was about 12 or 14 feet by about 20 or 22 feet long and the desks were crowded right to the teacher’s desk and then for heat, we had an old wood stove.  In the wintertime it got pretty cold and one of the present things I remember is that we’d get the teacher’s permission to go sit near the fire and all the kids would sit around the fire, around the stove reading their books and pinching each other and our favorite stunt that we did was put the lead pencil on the stove and get it hot and then place against the skin of someone and not suspecting it, they’d be burned and scream and a lot of commotion would occur and as a result the teacher would usually send us all back to our desk and that would be the end of our session around the stove. 

We had a Chinese which was unusual in those days.  A Chinese pupil attended our school.  He was the son of the cook who worked for Mr. Freakowit, Freak-oo-city, and he attended down here at our school and then we…another thing we had two negros that attended our school.  They lived at the Old King Ranch near the San Anton Creek and they walked up each day.  There was a girl, her name was Susie and there was a boy, Julius.  They, as I recall, they were very intelligent.  The girl particularly was a very bright little girl and they moved away and I often wondered where they are today and what happened to those kids after they left here which was many, many years ago.  I mentioned about the Chinese, you know, we didn’t always treat him too good.  I really am ashamed in a way.  Being he was a Chinese, we thought he was different from the local people and I remember one time, he used to ride a white donkey and some of the older boys after school ran around to a field right above the school where this young boy, Chinese, we called him Mark, rode the donkey and so we placed a little…one of the smallest boys in the school out in the road and when he came up, he…we had coast him to say, “Come on I wanna…” he challenged him to a fight.  Well naturally Mark was about three times as big as this little Danny that we asked to pose as a fighter and the rest of the boys were laying in the gutter right at the edge of the road, but just as Mark came to the fence, he was getting off the boys raised up and he quickly jumped on his donkey and ran away and that spoiled the fact that we’re going to work the Chinese boy over.  Now as to these colored people…boy…pupils there, there’s a lot of harassment too that we…and I just point this out this is what happened.  We thought that we were better than they were.  As I mentioned though the little girl and both of them were very intelligent, but the fact that they were colored we thought they were different, and I remember a lot of times we didn’t want to play with them at school; despite the fact that there were only a few pupils in the school and the teacher was created, naturally, a very difficult problem for her and she, naturally, was educated enough and smart enough that she treated those two people, those colored people very, very we…uh, children very, very well and in fact she give us a stern dressing down not to do what we were doing. 

We really enjoyed ourselves at the going to school.  I remember at Christmas time which was a big affair for all of us.  We would take one day off and hike up to the…up the creek (___) five and six, seven miles up to near San Anton Camp.  We would have a picnic and then select our fir tree, place it one of the wagons, and bring it down and we would decorate it with popcorn and tinsel and all that.  That was another big affair and then we all had a program.  We always…the teachers always prepared a program.  We had recitations and we sang and we…some had that would play the musical instruments and would invite all the parents.  It was a big day, and usually…oh I remember one time, they…the…we were going to have Santa Clause so one of the young men in this area who I think was sweet on one of the teachers…on the teacher.  He hid up in the bell up in the attic from morning until the afternoon and then at the appropriate time when he expected Santa Clause to arrive, he very dramatically opened the trap door in the ceiling and came sliding down the bell feed rope that we had hanging through the ceiling. It was very, very exciting and it created a real stir.  That’s one of the most occurrences that I never will forget.

It’s also interesting to note what became of those people that attended Calavaritas  the School.  This…we had some very successful people graduate from our grammar school.  Well to start with the teacher, Martin Hoverty, who was my first teacher, he went on to the University of California, became a professor, became…and he went to University of Davis and was taught many, many years and became an authority on the agriculture; it was known throughout the whole country.  He’s, as I told you, he was the brother of Walter and John Hoverty who still have the ranch near Fourth Crossing.  Some of the people who went on from Calavaritas  to this high school was my…one of them was my brother…my Dan Bascal who he went to San Francisco and became part owner in the flower shop up (___) (___) the well-known flower shop of (___) and Bell Dockey.  He just retired and he…I know…that he made very, very much…a lot…well he inquired a lot of wealth.  Then another one, let’s see, (___) family from Calavaritas  also attended Calavaritas School, Loretta Edridge, wife of Stanley Edridge, of the Water District graduated from Calaveras High School…uh, grammar school and they also…Louise Greenlaw, she went to who now at the Calaveras High School, she graduated from Calavaritas School.  My sister, Gladys who also…what?  Who was Mrs. Julian Rogers of Modesto, she graduated from their school.  Rose Roberts who lives now on the San Anton Creek went to Calavaritas  School.  The Corolla boys; Joe Corolla and Frances Corolla.  Joe still works for the Calaveras and he went to Calaveras High S…uh…grammar school and the people of Calaveras were very down hearted when they decided to close the Calavaritas School but they had no alternative that the attendance had dropped to about seven or eight pupils.  It was too costly and the teacher couldn’t really do a good job with just a few students, so it’s a Charles a long time, he was superintendent of the school of Calaveras County for many, many years. He was instrumental in making the change.  As it worked out, it was a very good move while at the time.  We hated to see our little school disband, but it was all for the good actually. 

Jim Oller: This has been an interview with Fred Cuneo, a retired postmaster of San Andreas and lifetime resident of Calavaritas.  Mr. Cuneo was born in Calavaritas in 1900 and attended all of his grammar school years in Calavaritas along with his brothers and sisters and he then went on to the Calaveras High School in San Andreas and then to UC Berkley where he graduated and went into the postal service as an executive and later appointed to the postmastership position in San Andreas by President Eisenhower under the Eisenhower Administration and continued on until 1972 when he was forced to retire by becoming too old and by a new appointee being appointed to the position. 

END TAPE

General Information

Interviewer: Jim Oller
Interviewee:  Fred Cuneo
Name of Tape:  Calavaritas grammer school 
When:  June, 1972
Transcriber:  Dee-Ann Horn
Transcribed:  6/26/18