I listened to NPR this morning. They reported that on this day, December 30,1906 113 years ago is the anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake.
They played a very rare wax cylinder of a studio reproduction of the quake. It was quite exciting. They estimate that the quake measured 7.5 to 8 on the then nonexistent Richter scale.
Margaret LaVann (Charlies great grandmother) was then age 6 living in Mendocino county. She remembered seeing trees whip back and forth touching ground on each side. I don't think she saw redwood trees, they have a very small root ball and would have been knocked down. They had black walnut trees growing the compound and she probably saw those trees whipping about.
I have written about her before but it bears repeating. Margaret was born in St. Louise in the year 1900. Her father was postmaster there. He wanted to move, so he packed everyone up and headed to Los Angeles probably by train.
They stayed there for a while. Margaret remembered riding on a trolley car way out into the country. She watched the gentlemen on board take potshots at rabbits and what not.
I am not precisely sure how they traveled to the Mendocino coast. There were ships and boats available. I am thinking that the railroad may have been more expensive and not very close to the coast.
At any rate the family settled in for a lifetime. Her mother thought that she had been brought to the ends of the earth. Medical care was nonexistent. But they possessed a book written in the original German "Father Knieppes Water Cure". This book was written by a German Catholic priest. He was very famous in Europe.
The cure consisted of the patient being wrapped in well damped flannel. Then the patient was wrapped in a rubber sheet and allowed to gently steam for the night. This was very effective for congestion and pneumonia. I have seen Margaret wrap herself up to the clear out the toxins.
One of her four brothers fell into the fireplace and burned his face. His mother used cream to treat the burn. It healed perfectly.
One of her older brothers, Tony Faushaur, grew up and shot a total of 365 bear for which the state paid a small bounty.
One day a man named Charlie Hageman came to the ranch to buy a pig. He got acquainted with Margaret and proposed. She reasoned that it would be very pleasant to work for one man rather than four brothers and her parents. She was a very pragmatic person.
The couple operated a dance hall across their main road and advertised food. She would hide behind a counter to accept money and to hide her pregnancy. When she went into labor she caught a local stage coach and traveled alone to Ft. Bragg. The driver stopped at one spot for lunch but she didn't let out a peep. They proceeded and she was admitted to the laying in hospital. She delivered and stayed there for ten days, probably the longest period of inactivity she ever had.
Their home was located a few miles inland on a ranch of about 100 acre. There they raised three young children. They lived in an area known as Little Italy because there were four or five small places owned by Italian families who grew vineyards and made wine. When the market crashed in 1929 most of the families quickly sold out to Hageman. He inherited a 500 gallon redwood wine tank.
Charlie drank all 500 gallons of wine and developed dropsy (edema). Margaret had the job of tapping his legs to drain off the fluid. He eventually died. Margaret was left with three young children.
The wine tank was converted to hold water. It still exists sitting near the road. One of Margaret's task was to periodically empty the tank and give it a good scrub.
One of the young men still living in Little Italy, Victor Giovanetti, began courting Margaret. Finally he proposed to her and told him she would never marry a Giovanetti. So they compromised on a name. He changed his last name to LaVann and they were married.
They eventually divorced. When ever people would ask Margaret where Victor was she would wave vaguely and say he was out to sea.
She was pure matriarch and marched her children and grandchildren around in a no nonsense fashion.
During one visit she had assigned my brother-in-law, Pat, the job of emptying her trash. She used a 100 pound bag of cat food for her well washed empty cans and bottled. He was told to take the bag to the old Fratti place and dump the bag down the well. When he returned she demanded to know where the empty bag was. Pat replied that he had thrown it into the well. Well go bring it back. Pat went to climb down into the well, empty bag and bring it back.
Over all she was a bit imperious and brusque amongst family gatherings. I, however, was to learn that in a one-on-one basis, she was a sweet as pie.
I had never known any woman, family or friend like her. What a woman.
They played a very rare wax cylinder of a studio reproduction of the quake. It was quite exciting. They estimate that the quake measured 7.5 to 8 on the then nonexistent Richter scale.
Margaret LaVann (Charlies great grandmother) was then age 6 living in Mendocino county. She remembered seeing trees whip back and forth touching ground on each side. I don't think she saw redwood trees, they have a very small root ball and would have been knocked down. They had black walnut trees growing the compound and she probably saw those trees whipping about.
I have written about her before but it bears repeating. Margaret was born in St. Louise in the year 1900. Her father was postmaster there. He wanted to move, so he packed everyone up and headed to Los Angeles probably by train.
They stayed there for a while. Margaret remembered riding on a trolley car way out into the country. She watched the gentlemen on board take potshots at rabbits and what not.
I am not precisely sure how they traveled to the Mendocino coast. There were ships and boats available. I am thinking that the railroad may have been more expensive and not very close to the coast.
At any rate the family settled in for a lifetime. Her mother thought that she had been brought to the ends of the earth. Medical care was nonexistent. But they possessed a book written in the original German "Father Knieppes Water Cure". This book was written by a German Catholic priest. He was very famous in Europe.
The cure consisted of the patient being wrapped in well damped flannel. Then the patient was wrapped in a rubber sheet and allowed to gently steam for the night. This was very effective for congestion and pneumonia. I have seen Margaret wrap herself up to the clear out the toxins.
One of her four brothers fell into the fireplace and burned his face. His mother used cream to treat the burn. It healed perfectly.
One of her older brothers, Tony Faushaur, grew up and shot a total of 365 bear for which the state paid a small bounty.
One day a man named Charlie Hageman came to the ranch to buy a pig. He got acquainted with Margaret and proposed. She reasoned that it would be very pleasant to work for one man rather than four brothers and her parents. She was a very pragmatic person.
The couple operated a dance hall across their main road and advertised food. She would hide behind a counter to accept money and to hide her pregnancy. When she went into labor she caught a local stage coach and traveled alone to Ft. Bragg. The driver stopped at one spot for lunch but she didn't let out a peep. They proceeded and she was admitted to the laying in hospital. She delivered and stayed there for ten days, probably the longest period of inactivity she ever had.
Their home was located a few miles inland on a ranch of about 100 acre. There they raised three young children. They lived in an area known as Little Italy because there were four or five small places owned by Italian families who grew vineyards and made wine. When the market crashed in 1929 most of the families quickly sold out to Hageman. He inherited a 500 gallon redwood wine tank.
Charlie drank all 500 gallons of wine and developed dropsy (edema). Margaret had the job of tapping his legs to drain off the fluid. He eventually died. Margaret was left with three young children.
The wine tank was converted to hold water. It still exists sitting near the road. One of Margaret's task was to periodically empty the tank and give it a good scrub.
One of the young men still living in Little Italy, Victor Giovanetti, began courting Margaret. Finally he proposed to her and told him she would never marry a Giovanetti. So they compromised on a name. He changed his last name to LaVann and they were married.
They eventually divorced. When ever people would ask Margaret where Victor was she would wave vaguely and say he was out to sea.
She was pure matriarch and marched her children and grandchildren around in a no nonsense fashion.
During one visit she had assigned my brother-in-law, Pat, the job of emptying her trash. She used a 100 pound bag of cat food for her well washed empty cans and bottled. He was told to take the bag to the old Fratti place and dump the bag down the well. When he returned she demanded to know where the empty bag was. Pat replied that he had thrown it into the well. Well go bring it back. Pat went to climb down into the well, empty bag and bring it back.
Over all she was a bit imperious and brusque amongst family gatherings. I, however, was to learn that in a one-on-one basis, she was a sweet as pie.
I had never known any woman, family or friend like her. What a woman.
