MORE ON THE 1958 4H DINNER

At the event were Mr. and Mrs. Roy Merrill. Merrill's Mill on Owl
Creek in Jerseydale, provided employment for many young men returning
from WWII. Dick Estel (provider of this book of information), was
there with his father and mother. Bob Estel worked as an electrician
at the mill and later as a sawyer. Probably the most dangerous job
in the mill, Bob moved into that position as the result of a previous
inhabitant losing an arm in a mill accident. I recall seeing the
log book from the Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Company mill hospital
which recounted many accidents and lost lives and limbs. This book
is now part of the collection in the museum of the Yosemite Mountain
Sugar Pine Railroad in Fish Camp. A great collection of logging
engines and equipment all available for viewing and riding on.

Merrill's Mill had been started on Owl Creek by the Lewis family who
had a methane cooker at the mill which converted sawdust into the
volatile gas which was used to run one of the machines. I am not
sure how efficient it was, for by the time I knew the mill it was run
by steam. Roy Merrill served Mariposa as the District 5 Supervisor
during the 50's. He and wife Ruby had two sons, Dean and Marion
(Mollie). None of the Merrill's was particularly tall but they were
tough lumber men. Father and sons all followed the business for the
extent of their working years. Roy and Ruby lived on a ranch on
Triangle Road and planted many apple trees, many which still produce
on the Merrill Ranch.

Elmer and Annie Frieburg both signed the 4H Dinner book, as did Kit, Poly and Robin Zindel of Catheys Valley. Jimmy Pfeitzner, and his parents
Oscar and Tress Pfeitzner were present. Tressie Pfitzner was a
Scott, daughter of Elmer Scott, who married a Gordon. She had one
son Tom who I went to school with. Elmer had been killed in a lumber
mill accident and she married Oscar who became a significant
developer and builder in Mariposa.
At first Oscar and Tressie ran the Bootjack Store, but then came to
town and built the Mother Lode Lumber and the Feed Store next door.
They also built a number of homes in Mariposa, including a couple in
the Mueller Tract.
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Attaway operated the Western Auto Store in Mariposa
in the space now housing Bob and Carol Shockley's wonderful gallery
and furniture store. Jim and his family lived in Mt. Bullion and did
not like the hardware business very much. He essentially sold the
business one item at a time until all that was left was two folding
chairs and a television. He told me that when those items were gone
he would close the doors. The store did not stay empty very long,
when George and Florence Ernst and their brood came to Mariposa, I
believe from Bakersfield, and set up a completely new Western Auto.

John and Carolyn Anderson would naturally be at the 4H dinner because
John was the reasonably new Farm Advisor. They lived first on Ben
Hur Road, then on Mariposa Street. The Anderson children, young
John, Bonnie and Bruce all were very involved in the community.
Frank and Edna Koch attended. Frank had come to Mariposa after the
war, and with a partner, set up an auto body shop in a garage located
where Castillo's Mexican Restaurant is now. Winnie Williams told me
that this garage had once housed the Model T Fire Truck for the town,
which once had to be pushed to the fire at the Hospital that sat
where the swimming pool at Mariposa Park is. In fact, I believe that
the basement from the hospital was incorporated into the new swimming
pool built in the early l950's. I remember the old basement full of
burned timbers. After the fire, John Trabucco bought the partially
burned building and salvaged the lumber. At that time he had two
Chinese gentlemen working for him. They had installed the water
system for the south end of Mariposa, bringing spring water to town
from Stockton Creek Canyon. I have seen, but do not have, a
photograph of the workers installing the water line on the hill near
the upper athletic field at the High School.

John Trabucco had the lumber cleaned and stacked in the warehouse he
owned downtown. A number of residents in town used this lumber in
new construction, most notably the office now occupied by State Farm
Insurance. The water system served Mariposa mostly from 7th St.,
south and including the Catholic Church, all of downtown and the new
post war development along 6th St, the Grammar School and High
School. At one time there was a concrete cistern behind the High School
but the concrete walls caved in. A series of water tanks served the
Trabucco system, with one concrete tank still in the China Trees to
the south of 6th St, between Jones and Bullion. Because the system
was gravity flow, whenever the tanks filled there was a surplus of
water which ran down Bullion St. The short piece of pipe that is
visible at the end of 5th St on Bullion is part of that system. Use
of the Trabucco Water Company continued well past the creation of the
MPUD and the Schlageter House on Bullion as well as the Trabucco
houses were still connected well into the l970's.

Frank Koch left the auto body business to eventually drive the
Suburban Propane truck around Mariposa for many years. He and Edna
lived out on Hwy 49South, at that time Bootjack Road. When retired they
left Mariposa for lands to the north of California, feeling that when
the county population reached 10,000, that was too many.
At the High School reunion this last June I visited with Joe
Aparicio.
He had been the chemistry teacher at Mariposa High, but left to
relocate near Auburn and raise wine grapes. Mr. and Mrs. Jack Webb
attended the 4H dinner in l958. Jack came to Mariposa to teach Ag.
at the High School but went on to invite the rest of his family to
come to Mariposa to form Mariposa Enterprises. There were John and
Rena, his mother and father, Jack and Pat Ritter, Charlie Morse, John
Rotondo, Paul Halencak, Jacks brother who had the Union Station, Paul
Paige who raised chickens at Perry Joel Ranch, Pat Gorman who shipped
the eggs with Eddie Davis driving, and many more, all with either
ranches or working for the company. Jack Ritter was later my partner
in the Sheep business in Bootjack for about twenty years. I believe
at one time Bill Saye was involved in a feed store with his father
that was part of the old County Schools Building on Hwy 140,
originally known as the Huffsteadler Building.

Charlie Huffsteadler was the Assistant Postmaster in Mariposa when
we first arrived. The Postmaster was Walter Quigley. When Charlie
retired, Art Hatcher, who had been the custodian at the Court House
and wrote the first history of that building, became Charlie's
replacement. Charlie always wore his glasses on the tip of his nose.
I am not sure of the circumstance but his glasses were always broken,
and patched together with Scotch Tape. He would look at inquiries
over the top of those glasses and that was very intimidating to a 10
year old. The Post Office was in the Castillo Mexican Restaurant
building which sat on Charles St., next to the 49'er Club. It was
owned at that time by the Trabucco's and when the grocery part of
their store burned in July of l949, they sold the Post Office
building to Ernie and Ruth Womack who moved it to the present
location on 5th St. The reason for the move was to enable Trabucco's
to build a new grocery store encompassing the Post Office space, the
alley in between and the area behind the granite building in front
that was not damaged by the fire. I assume that Walter Quigley and
Charlie, or at least Art Hatcher moved with the building. Part of
the new Trabucco building was for a new Post Office, and soon it
returned to the old spot in a new building.

Charlie Huffsteadler had his new building on Hwy 140 constructed of
solid concrete. Lessons learned from the fire downtown, I suppose. But
the other lesson was that the best of the builders in town at that
time was Carl Bettencourt who did not build anything less than solid
concrete buildings. Take for example, the new Trabucco Building
itself, the Dairy Del Fountain (Sugar Pine, by the way soon to
reopen. It was interesting to see Carl's handiwork when Carol Posy
had the old restaurant stripped out down to Carl's concrete). Carl
built the Bondshu house that sat where the new Library is now. Not
an easy task to bring down. He also built that part of the complex
that houses Colwell Banker. That building in the middle was
constructed for Oscar Ivey to house his newly acquired Mariposa
Telephone downstairs and a residence upstairs. So, Carl's stamp on
Mariposa may last as long as anything else in town, given that almost
all of his buildings meet and pass the 50 year requirement to be
called historic.
This old, simple register, has made the memories, the faces, the
sounds of voices rush back from the past. Thank you, Dick and your
mother Hazel.

Leroy Radanovich

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Leroy Radanovich

To Read More By Leroy Radanovich:
Leroy Radanovich's Mariposa Life Archives
 

To learn much more about Mariposa County along with
historical photos:
A signed copy of "Images of America" - Mariposa County,
By Leroy Radanovich can be purchased at his web site:
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This is a early day photo of the Mariposa Mine in
Mariposa County that is mentioned in the article to
the left by Mr. Radanovich.

This photo and others can be purchased in various sizes.
All prints are archivally printed on fiber based paper, given a selenium wash which renders the photographs permanent with a warm tone ready for framing
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Mariposa in 1920

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All prints are archivally printed on fiber based paper, given a selenium wash which renders the photographs permanent with a warm tone ready for framing
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Mariposa County Courthouse written by Leroy Radanovich and
Scott Pinkerton is a book about the oldest courthouse in California that is still in use today.
The book is signed by Leroy Radanovich.
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Mariposa in 1860

This photo and others can be purchased in various sizes.
All prints are archivally printed on fiber based paper, given a selenium wash which renders the photographs permanent with a warm tone ready for framing
Radanovich Galleria & Books