05
Aug
Aug
On August 19, Mary Ellen Pleasant was born. Her birth year is disputed, and while most sources say 1814, her grave in Napa denotes 1812. She lived into her 90s, […]
Category Archives: California History
African American History, Ask A Librarian, California History, Napa, St Helena
Ask a Librarian: The KKK in Napa
01
Aug
Aug
Is it true that there were KKK rallies in Napa? The Ku Klux Klan saw a great resurgence after its reestablishment in 1915, heralded in part by D. W. Griffith’s […]
African American History, Asian-American History, California History, Calistoga, Wine and Viticulture
Pruneville
01
Aug
Aug
Horace Lockwood Gibbs was well known in his day. Born in New York about 1851, Horace married Wisconsin native Nora P. his same age. In 1881, Gibbs had a vineyard […]
30
Jul
Jul
The Port Chicago explosion on July 17, 1944, was the tragic result of ordering undertrained men into “manifestly unsafe working conditions at the base where only blacks were assigned the […]
28
Jul
Jul
This is an excerpt of an article written by Nancy Brennan, local historian known as “The Cemetery Lady” for her Tulocay Cemetery Tour. It was first published in the Vol. […]
18
Jul
Jul
Where did Kearney Street in St. Helena get its name? Kearney Street in St. Helena, California, is one of the older streets in the city. Although it contains mostly modest […]
17
Jun
Jun
Today the Los Angeles Times ran a fascinating article about Ernie Pyle, the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist. He was most famous for his articles covering the US involvement in World War […]
10
Jun
Jun
Edward and Susan Hatton arrived in Napa County in the mid-1850s, where Edward established a barbershop. He also worked as the Napa and Vallejo agent for The Elevator and Pacific […]
10
Jun
Jun
On March 30, 1870, just five years after the end of the Civil War, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, granting all citizens the right to vote regardless of race, ethnicity, […]
05
Jun
Jun
If we had a “colored school” in Napa, did we also have an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church? Churches were the first Black organizations to develop in Northern California, and […]