Here are some more pictures i like, from various sources as credited.
The J.A. Dudley place, two miles upstream from Petrolia. From the Hum. Co. Dept. of Public Works, possibly donated by Lyn Chambers
Jacob Allen Dudley, a son of James Newton Dudley (who had the sawmill at the mouth of East Mill Creek) owned land in the SE quarter of Section 11, T2S, R2W… that is, across the river, roughly, from where Alex Cockburn now lives and perhaps on the spot once called “the Raiches place” where Sterling now has a trailer. George Cummings had the land by 1911, and later it was marked Sam Adams. Probably this was Samuel F., or Frank, Adams, who was married to Addie Maud Burgess. Her brother was the photographer who took this photo. It’s a good one to zoom in on. I love the detail… how very tidy the buildings are, and how much work must’ve gone into felling those trees.
The Petrolia Hotel after the 1906 earthquake. Photo, by Eakle, from the online Bancroft Museum collection
There were other pictures of a “Petrolia Hotel” on the Bancroft site, but it turns out they were taken down south, not in a town named Petrolia, but maybe in the Coalinga area. However, i am pretty sure this is our hotel, the one that was on the path south from the square toward the cemetery. This back (west) wing is an addition since some of the earlier photos, but must have been rebuilt after the earthquake damage, for in the photo below, eight years later, it is a full-on two-story extension.
Downtown Petrolia looking south-southwest, 1914. Courtesy Dave Stockton
You can see the Reynolds place (later the Maude and Gib Langdon place, up near Mary Etter’s/now Jim Groeling’s), the bright white hotel with its back “ell” off toward the west (right), the corner saloon, the old Rudolph, then Hunter, store; the Hart and Johnson store, which burned down in the 1992 earthquake; and the livery stable on the site of today’s Fire Department.
Honeydew School in 1915, courtesy Tom Slack, son of Janice Peers Slack
Another beautiful old building that went down. Janice Peers’ mother, Verna Hawley Peers, was a teacher there in 1915 (see previous post about Shinn house). It was on what’s Alex Moore’s place now, the old Shinn home… or at least, the schoolbuilding’s ashes are. I heard that when he learned that we knew it was there, Mr. Moore torched it immediately lest the Preservation Police came and took away his rights. Pretty unlikely considering it was already just a pile of rotten wood…
And speaking of schools:
Mattole Union School Chorus, 1934, courtesy Velma Hunter Childs Titus
Front row: Bernardine Hunter, Gwen Fox, Dora Mae Clark, Carmen Davis (Gill), Velma Hunter.
Back row: Barbara Albee, Doris Johnston (Clark Loudermilk), Ellen Reynolds, Elaine Albee, Virginia Hunter.
I would like not just a picture, but a recording of their voices raised in song!
Cape Mendocino, from an old postcard print. Courtesy Hum. Co. Dept. of Public Works
An oldie but goodie. Note the wooden fences following the winding road up “the Wall.”
My greatgrandfather David LeRoy Eby had a hotel downtown prior to 1900, wonder if this could be it?
Hi Rae, The hotel pictured second from top, above, was built in the early 1880s by John Walsh, and his family lived there (probably gradually taking on more boarders) as in a family home until he opened it as a hotel. He partnered with Modest Giacomini at one point, and later with Ellis Hunter, who owned it into the mid-20th century.
I think the hotel your great-grandfather ran was the one on the southwest corner of the square, which burned in 1903. It was opened by Charles A. Doe, as far as i know, in 1869 or before.
Glad to see you on this blog… thanks for commenting!
The Jacob Allen Dudley home was enlarged shortly after this photograph was taken. I have a photo taken in 1898 of the family in front of the home and also a photo taken post 1910-1920. The home eventually burned to the ground. I know that in the 1980s was still standing the tall chimney on the west side of the board. Denis Paul Edeline
Hi Denis,
Thanks for your comment. I have a photo that i believe came from you, maybe from 1898, of the J.A. Dudley family in front of a larger home–the girls in white dresses and bows– which i thought was associated with the sawmill across the river (north side), on the banks of East Mill Creek. Maybe it was, and so was this one, if it was an original part of that later white clapboard home.
I have always wondered about the house pictured here, thinking if two miles upstream it must’ve been on that property named for J.A. Dudley as described on the photo description above.
Do you know for sure if it was on the north side near Mill Creek, or over on the south side (near where the county road used to cross over to head upstream on the old steel bridge which collapsed in 1957, i think)? The spot i’m thinking of would be on the right of the present county road, after climbing up, then down, a minor but noticeable hill after the bridge near the old Hideaway (if you were driving southeast toward Honeydew).
Thanks for your help!
~Laura
I went their once with Nanee (Orlena Dudley). After we left Petrolia, driving to Mattole, it was on the right side of the road. There was a tall chiminey standing (ca1977), we just pulled off the road and it was right there…maybe about 100 ft from the edge of the highway…it was in kind of a flat area. Even though in their childhood the father took different jobs (price creek, port kenyon, ferndale,) they always returned to the same Petrolia area homstead home. I never researched the property, but just from what I remember Orlena telling me. I know for sure that the chimney was the location of the 1898 photograph. Email me at denispaul2@aol.com and I can send you the other photo showing a partial of the home (taken in the 1920s or so).