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Remember When Week of September 23

Tidbits from yesteryear

90 YEARS AGO

(From the Index-Tribune files of Sept. 24, 1921)

The Right Reverend Bishop Moreland of Sacramento will hold services at Sonoma’s Epicopal chapel tomorrow evening at 8 o’clock and hopes to revive sufficient interest in the local Trinity chapel so that regular service each Sunday can be resumed. …  E. A. Hoyer for several years with the Associated Oil Company at Napa has moved to Sonoma and opened the former Broadway Service station opposite the high school. … Mrs. Rosa Randolph is contemplating a delightful family reunion with her sister recently arrived from Germany and her niece just here from the old country and now enroute from New York. Mrs. Randolph had not seen her sister for 20 years. … Passengers arriving from points south of El Verano on the evening S.P. trains complain of the lack of light at the El Verano depot. Not only do travelers stumble around in the darkness and have a hard time to identify their baggage but it is hard for those meeting guests to recognize them after they have alighted from the train. … The benefit vaudeville show and dance for Chief Geo. Cause of the Valley, Boyes Springs Volunteer Fire Department, will be held tonight at the Boyes Springs Theatre. There will be attractive vaudeville acts, tire changing contest and dancing to the popular music of the “Syncopated Four” orchestra. … Oak Lawn, the magnificent estate of J. K. Bigelow has been lased for several years for a gold and country club by a number of the leading citizens of the Valley of the Moon. This is one of the greatest undertakings for the development of this section of the country that has ever been brought forward from a commercial as well as a social standpoint. The natural contour of th eland for a gold course is unsurpassed. The grounds consist of 228 acres located on the county road between Sonoma and Glen Ellen.

 

87 YEARS AGO

(From the Index-Tribune files of Sept. 20, 1924)

Following a conference to be held in San Francisco next Monday, the Committee of Nine, engaged in a study of the state highway system, will begin its ninth trip Tuesday, the 23^rd, when it will leave for a tour of a number of the North Bay counties not previously visited. … It is reported on good authority that a big realty deal is pending in Sonoma whereby Picchi & Chelini will acquire the Standard Oil service station property from P. Loustalet, the owner. The Standard Oil Company has a lease on the property until May 31, 1927, with the privilege of renewal. … Professor Herman Schieck of Glen Ellen passed through here Tuesday enroute from Petaluma. Mr. Schieck states that his band meets regularly for practice and is doing fine work. He plans a concert and dance for the late fall. … Arthur Kunde of Glen Ellen is shipping his grapes East and has received $77.50 per ton for Zinfandels on the siding at Wildwood station. … At the conference of Methodist churches this week, Rev. Stephen E. Crowe was again named to take charge of the local M.E. church. The news was very pleasing to both the congregation and to the community where Mr. Crowe has made many friends and is highly regarded by people of all creeds and classes. … The Sonoma Grammar School, the reopening of which was delayed two or three weeks because of the $30,000 worth of improvements and additions made during the vacation period, started the fall terms on last Monday with the largest attendance in its history. The school is a veritable bee hive of industry with the new pupils coming from San Luis under the consolidation try-out which has been inaugurated and with the enrollment of 39 little folks in the first, or primary, class. … The Sonoma Valley Woman’s Club celebrated its twenty-third anniversary yesterday, the afternoon being in charge of Mrs. Will Clewe, program director and Mrs. Charles Cutter, hostess for September. An interesting feature of the program was the club history as gleaned from the minutes of the organization.

 

83 YEARS AGO

(From the Index-Tribune files of Sept. 21, 1928)

A grass fire swept the field opposite Sonoma Grove yesterday morning and caused great excitement in the neighborhood  until the fire engine appeared on the scene and helped extinguish the menance. … From a field of 45 contenders in the tennis championship of Sonoma County playing for a silver cup offered by a Santa Rosa newspaper, the players have been reduced to a field of five, two of whom are from Sonoma. Herschel Hyde and Walter Carter are among the stars to play off the finals, with Carter claimed as a Santa Rosa boy because he attended junior college there. … The Sonoma Valley High School opened with an enrollment larger at this time than any previous enrollment in the history of the school. There are 188 students enrolled, of which 53 are freshmen, 52 sophomores, 48 juniors and 33 seniors. The very large enrollment at the present time is a good indication as to the condition of the school. … Lots of fish have a close shave from being caught, but a 15-pound striped bass swallowed bait, hook and sinker when the local tonsorial artist, Newt Dal Poggetto, went fishing at Turkey Point last Sunday.

 

 

60 YEARS AGO

(From the Index-Tribune files of Sept. 21, 1951)

The Sonoma City Council on Wednesday night accepted the lone bid of the George C. Wendler Co. of San Francisco for the installation of a 50,000 gallon water tank, which will be placed on the Nordman property, off East 4^th Street. The tank will be 24 feet in diameter, 16 feet high and will be made of three-inch select redwood. Bid, installed, was $3,550, about half the cost of a steel tank. … The magic gates to fascinating “Vineyardland” and “Yesteryear” are opening in Sonoma this weekend, courtesy of the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival Association and the hundreds of cooperating residents. Matching the color of the ripening grapes in our vineyards will be the community’s fifth annual Vintage Festival which, as if by a magician’s wand, begins tonight with the wondrous Costume Ball at Little Switzerland. The two-day program actually was previewed as early as Wednesday of this week when most of the city’s store windows swapped modern displays for antiques or wine motifs – windows better than ever. … Residents of the Schellville area were literally “up in arms” following the announcement by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors that a 25-acre portion of the Trappe property in the district has been selected for a valley-wide dumping grounds, where the new cut and fill method is used.

 

58 YEARS AGO

(From the Index-Tribune files of Sept. 18, 1953)

Flowery School students will return to classes for the fall term on Monday, Sept. 28 with assurance received by the building contractor, that the four new classrooms will be ready for occupancy at that date. Heating units, chalkboards and tackboards were to be installed this week. Harold Love was hired as school custodian on Sept. 1 and George Mcincke will again drive the school bus. … Effective Oct. 1, your Sonoma Index-Tribune will be published every Thursday, rather than on Fridays, following the lead of the majority of California weekly newspapers. The Index-Tribune, covering the entire Sonoma Valley, is available at newsstands and leading Valle stores for 10 cents per copy, or can be received through the mail every Thursday for only $3.50 per year. … The mercury-swelling temperatures last weekend took their toll of birds at several Sonoma Valley chicken and turkey ranches. One of the largest losses was revealed at the Nicholas Turkey Breeding Farms, Vineburg. Close to 100 choice meat turkeys, on their way to market, died on Monday morning while enroute. … Sending its wares to all but six of the 48 states is Sonoma Valley’s newest small industry, The Keysco Manufacturing Co., builders of a popular body and fender jack and other body tolls. Keysco, headed by E. M. Zinke, formerly of Oakland, is located in the former National Guard Armory building on Arnold Drive, near Poncia’s corner. It has been in operation since April 1, employing three persons steadily and some part time help.

 

55 YEARS AGO

(From the Index-Tribune files of Sept. 20, 1956)

It looks as though Sonoma Valley Union High school is facing another building program. Either that, or double sessions could be just around the corner. These somber thoughts were noted yesterday with the report by District Superintendent and Principal John Glaese that there are 667 students now enrolled at the high school. This is in comparison to the 541 students attending school when classes ended in June. Further, Glaese fully expects to have at least 680 pupils enrolled by Christmas. The growth note was sounded on the opening day of school, when 227 freshmen, the biggest frosh class is the history of Sonoma high school, were registered. … A tentative map of Mission Oaks Subdivision No. 2, including 16 lots east of Highway 12 near London Way has been filed with the county planning commission. Fillippo and Penast, San Rafael firm, is the subdivider. Plans are to well building sites  of one-half acre lots and to do custom building, the developers said. One home is under construction there now for Mr. and Mrs. Wallis Hozz of Novato. … The large Peter Pan Cleaners firm of Santa Rosa, owned by Sonoma Valle resident, Harry Pappas, will open a branch store in Sonoma at 122 E. Napa St., Monday, Sept. 21. … Homer R. Bosse, Sonoma realtor, will open his new offices at 546 Broadway in the recently-completed Native Sons building Saturday. The office is moving from its present location on First Street West opposite the Plaza, where it has been for 10 years. … Prompt and efficient work by members of the Sonoma volunteer fire department was credited with preventing major damage  Friday night when a fire broke out in Frank Witzel’s Mission Radio and TV shop, East Napa Street, shortly after 10:30 p.m. Proprietor Witzel was loud in the praise of the firemen who he said moved more than 400 photograph records without any breakage.