by Nancy B. Wilson, guest contributor This story concerns some anecdotes about the life of my grandfather, J. Edgar Beard, and his good friend Gaillard Stoney. My grandfather died before I was born, and I have spent much time trying to know him by surviving letters, of which there were many, and other evidence. I […]
Recently, NCHS had the privilege of watching Scott Sedgley receive an award from the Conference of California Historical Societies. The CCHS held its annual symposium in Southern California on June 25, 2016, and Sedgley was honored with an Award of Merit for his service in keeping history alive. He was nominated by Napa County Historical […]
by Marie Bowen In December 1930, 38 years before the Calistoga Soaring Center opened on the abandoned Calistoga Air Field, a group of Napans formed the Napa Glider Club. Organized by Guy Winfrey, an 1898 San Juan Hill veteran, the group included Ernie Mollo, H. Baker, Bob Shearer, Pete Peterson, Phil Dobie, Harry Burrows, Réne […]
by Marie Bowen Moore Creek runs southerly year-round from its source high on the eastern side of Howell Mountain, and joins with Conn Creek before emptying into Lake Hennessey at what is now Moore Creek Park. On the way it passes through Las Posadas State Forest, land once owned by the John Milton Morris family. […]
by Marie Bowen “The Valleys of Napa County,” a May 23, 1998, Napa Valley Register supplement, celebrates the 23 valleys within our county. Eight of the 23, as many of us know, were named for easily identifiable pioneer individuals or families: Berryessa, Brown, Capell, Chiles, Conn, Gordon, Pope, and Wooden. Two more of the valleys, […]
by Marie Bowen Created in 1850, the year of California statehood, Napa County is one of the state’s original 27 counties. By the 1860 census, the county had four townships, or units of local government: Napa (Napa City); Yount (Yountville, Monticello, and Berryessa, Chiles, Conn, and Gordon Valleys); Hot Springs (Calistoga and St. Helena); and […]
This article was published in the Vol. 23, No. 2 edition of Tidings, our quarterly newsletter. To get your copy of Tidings, become a member today! by Marie Bowen In 1854, a 17 year-old Ohioan, Emory Augustus Mount, arrived in Napa. He likely had come to visit his uncle, Joseph Mount, a merchant in partnership […]
What follows is a transcription from a photograph album in the NCHS collections called “The Buildings of Lake Berryessa.” This album was the property of Paul C. Donovan, a park ranger at Lake Berryessa. The document was used for a tour by land and air, possibly on February 21, 1955. All spelling, phrasing/terminology, stylistic flourishes, […]
By Marie Bowen Many Napa County historians concede that George Yount first visited Napa Valley in early 1831 guided by Guy Freeman Fling, the man sometimes referred to as the first American to explore the Napa Valley. They traveled over an old Native American trail from the Sonoma Valley and up Mt. St. Helena where […]
By Marie Bowen Tracing the California Pacific Railroad (later Southern Pacific) tracks across the 1876 and 1895 “Official Map of Napa County,” one often encounters railroad depots named for nearby residents, past or present: Buchli, Thompson, Trubody, Bale, and others, depending on which map you’re viewing. But names of other stations whose origins long since […]
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