Tag Archives: women’s relief corps

Cadwallader Avenue Bridge

July 12, 2016Artwork, Concept, Historical Researchbridge, cadwallader, cadwallader ave. avenue, cobble, Cottle, creeks, decorative, downtown evergreen, evergreen, Evergreen School, evidence, mystery, remnants, san felipe, schoolhouse, settlers, silver creek, stone, stones, street name, township, women's relief corps, WRCevergreen

Pat Loomis once wrote about Cadwallader Avenue’s driving bridge over Thompson Creek that had been washed away in a flood in January 1893 in her series of Sign Posts published in the San Jose News Newspaper in the 1970’s. Today, we all remember the walking paths connecting these neighborhoods. We rode our bikes over wooden planks and metal rails with lush creek beds beneath us as children. I went poking around in the old Dry Creek looking for remnants of the Cadwallader Avenue bridge because I’d been there recently researching San Felipe Road with Judge Jerry Kettmann. Maybe he assumed I knew about the bridge, but I couldn’t envision a bridge in this “S” curved portion of Dry Creek.

The intersection here at Cadwallader Avenue and San Felipe Road is really ground zero for Evergreen. This was downtown Evergreen. The first residents’ homes still stand near ground zero. Keaton Loop, cuddled up next to Thompson Creek, was once part of San Felipe Road. Cadwallader Avenue, however, once met San Felipe Road before 1893. Here, in the map to the right, you can see the “C” of Cadwallader on top of San Felipe Road as it crosses Dry Creek, known as Thompson Creek today.

Here, the Women’s Relief Corps, Evergreen School house and Evergreen’s first dense home development grew off Cadwallader Aveunue. Mr. Cadwallader is fascinating as well. Though he never would call Evergreen home, he was certainly generous towards the Community of Evergreen. Cadwallader Avenue’s lost bridge was a new revelation along the research. It’s neat now when I learn brand new things about Evergreen. This Cadwallader Community seems so secreted away when it used to be at the heart of everything. It’s certainly the second smallest parcels on the map above, a precursor to what Evergreen would eventually become.

Here, I found deer frolicking. I found sun ripened wild berries. I found really old trees. I found the end of Fowler Creek here now under San Felipe Road and graffiti. There is a foot bridge now. This new bridge is the straightest line down the Avenue itself. Today’s foot crossing is certainly very permanent and wide, but a direct line down which didn’t feel true to my materials. I wouldn’t be too sure that’s all it was or created from what was left of the old crossing.

These sand bags would have been from any number of floods through the 1900’s. Sadly, I wouldn’t expect sandbags or burlap to stand up to 120 years of moisture, deterioration, rainfall and overflow. I could be wrong, though. These would’ve had to be treated with some sort of plastic to have survived this long. These bags protect the creek’s fragile lining at this pipe’s opening. Over saturation would result in things beginning to slip into the creek, like the old bridge did. This area was prone to flooding with a huge events as recent as 1969. I do however see lots of rock, thanks to all the unsightly graffiti highlighting them.

This large, metal pole is so random, and literally in the middle of the way creeks crossing. Its placement is so odd that this must be evidence of some sort. But what? Also, observe all the rock around it. That’s weird too. It caught my eye as we were taking cute photos of me gathering research. I took these in street clothes on a return visit because I just couldn’t stop thinking about this pole sticking out in the middle of the creek bed and that driving bridge.

Come to think of it, I was jumping over rocks taking those pictures that day; so much so, I forwent the heels on rocks concept because it was unsafe. It felt like Cottle’s Cobble Stone all over again, starring me right in the face. This pole would support a cobble stone bridge like the one my imagination conjured up. Cadwallader Avenue began with a slight bend, when today’s Cadwallader Avenue crossing is flush with the avenue’s direction, as it reaches Keaton Loop. What would convince me absolutely that this was the collapsed bridge? Another support pole or more cobble stone would prove it to me.

Done and done.

Sadly, the second pole I found also epitomizes the great need for the Evergreen Mural Walk. The general public doesn’t know the history of Evergreen and therefore doesn’t respect the land. It’s so sad to see the vandalism and destruction on school campuses and private properly. It’s a dang shame, but okay. Second pole, in the right place to support the San Felipe Road side of the bridge. Check.

Then as I was leaving, I stopped to admire some giant hundreds year old oaks and enormous 150+ year old eucalyptus trees when I noticed this congregation of rocks. This would’ve outlined San Felipe Road, now Keaton Loop, and protect horses and vehicles from running too close to the creeks’ edge, which often flooded in the early days. This cobble stone also though lines portions of San Felipe Road in from of L. C. Smith’s historic residence and several Cadwallader Avenue properties in the same pattern. This was a connected network of well traveled streets in the heart of Evergreen as one point. This bridge’s significance was bringing South Silver Creek to Downtown Evergreen and further connecting it with Norwood neighborhood and San Felipe Valley. Nearby Fowler Road would’ve also been a popular turn for the interior of Evergreen, as would Quimby Road.

This cobble stone street lining would end where a pump station currently sits, accommodating the flows of the creeks so as not to flood Evergreen. It is my belief this structure, not the current foot path from today’s Cadwallader Avenue, takes advantage of the previous Cadwallader Avenue bridge’s construction. Or at least near the opening of the bridge on the southeast corner of the three way crossing with San Felipe Road.

Jerry Kettmann would explain to me that patrons of his uncle’s bar on San Felipe Road would kiss under the bridge. That makes a lot more sense if the bridge in within view and reach of the watering hole. Down in the creek bed would’ve been a perfect place to hideaway and canoodle.

The sandbags I found are probably a precaution from the bridge having been swept away and ongoing flooding. Cobble Stone is definitely a thing in Evergreen, then and now. It’s too heavy to really haul away and its so quaint. Why bother? I am so glad I took a second look at this crossing. It was really starting to bother me.

Nirum Cadwallader – Evergreen’s generous Mining Tycoon

June 11, 2016Artwork, Historical Researchbusiness, cadwallader, Cadwallader Avenue, california, downtown evergreen, family, generations, Gold Rush, invention, inventor, mining, namesake, nirum, Pat Loomis, patent, quicksilver, school, schoolhouse, Sign Posts, street name, vacation, women's relief corps, WRCevergreen

Nirum’s an awesome name, as is Cadwallader. For the purposes of my research, I much prefer it to Smith, Stevens, Jones or John. However, when looking into Mr. Cadwallader, he occurs all over the map. The fabulous women of History San Jose pulled it all together for me. I’m always looking for a portrait on my Evergreen individuals. This one happens to be in print, not a photograph.

Mr. Nirum Cadwallader, for whom the school is named, as previously discussed donated the lands to both the Evergreen Schoolhouse at the corner of San Felipe and Evergreen Roads in 1860 and to the Women’s Relief Corps in 1887, located on Cadwallader Avenue. The WRC is probably one of these subdivision plots. By my estimation of the 5 acres donated, I think it’s probably 34 or 57. Those are the only ones bigger enough and “on” Cadwallader. At the time, Cadwallader Avenue started at San Felipe Road. Now, there are only foot bridges connecting Cadwallader to Keaton Loop, formerly San Felipe Road. We’ll discuss this in further detail later. No doubt, Mr. Cadwallader helped shape Evergreen as we know it.

The earliest records of Mr. Nirum Cadwallader appear from Birchville, California, because that’s where he initially struck it rich. Originally from Ohio, Nirum Cadwallader would be apart of the Gold Rush of 1849. In an illustrated version of Popular Science in 1866 would bring attention to Mr. Cadwallader’s patent on a technique of compressing air in dynamic to create larger blasts.

Nirum Cadwallader (1833-1890) was the great grandson of Ohio’s Seneca County’s Hopewell Township’s first settler, Nathan Cadwallader. Nirum’s father Samuel Cadwallader and wife Mary would raise 7 children, of which Nirum was the eldest. He would’ve been sixteen as he would’ve heard the news of gold from California. As a young man, Cadwallader would work his way up the chain at the Milton Mining Company, surely getting the necessary experience that took him to his future heights. The Cadwallader family name is quite popular there in Ohio and along the east coast, also spelt Cadwalader. It and the family originate from Wales, being a descriptive term for the Welsh people. The family’s lineage can be traced back to a Welsh King. Chances are the Cadwalladers were well off in Ohio. There are a long line of Cadwallader inventors preceding and succeeding him. The first Cadwalladers would leave England in 1640, arriving in Virginia, and slowly migrating west from there.

As a young man, Cadwallader would work his way up the chain at the Milton Mining Company, surely getting the experience that took him to his future heights. However established, Nirum Cadwallader would break out from Milton and arrive in California in 1855, at the age of 22. Nirum would become a prolific businessman, acquiring stocks and equity in numerous mining, telephone, water and utility companies in Nevada County, California. He was a very rich and well-respected man quickly after coming to California. Mr. Cadwallader would be married twice, but his first wife passed away while he still lived in Birchville. I couldn’t find any records of the first marriage or the children they might have had. After returning home, no doubt to grieve, Nirum would marry the much younger Emma J. Hart (1847-1930) also from Ohio, having 3 children together. Nirum Cadwallader would own 160 acres in Ohio as shown to the left in this 1874 Atlas. Samuel, his father, would live with Nirum for part of the year, probably during Ohio’s colder months.

If you’re mining for gold in Nevada County, California, you would need quicksilver to obtain pure gold and remove other elements from the compound. If you’re a forward thinking man with mining interests and better mining techniques like Mr. Cadwallader, you might look for some quicksilver mines of your own. This is what probably brought Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallader to San Jose for good in 1881. Although it is unclear whether or not he had any part of the Silver Creek Mines before their flooding and abandonment, Nirum Cadwallader would purchase land in the heart of Evergreen in the 1860’s, though they never lived there. This was a second property to vacation from their downtown home, which was located off of the Alameda, in the heart of Downtown San Jose. It’s been torn down. When Cadwallader donated the land because he hadn’t built on it, he made a huge impact on the Community of Evergreen. Mr. Nirum Cadwallader has been rumored to be a very generous man throughout his life.

In 1888, Birchville’s mining industry would dry up as the mines were picked clean. The population of Nevada County quickly shrank. Forward thinking Mr. Cadwallader had already set up shop elsewhere. His patent made him rich, as did his business ownings. Mr. Cadwallader died in 1890, a year after the WRC opened. Mrs. Emma Cadwallade, the widow, would deed a park in his honor. The small park still exists between 1st and 2nd Streets at Keyes Street. It is the cutest wedge of land with palm trees. This crossroads would dictate the direction you were heading before highways were built. Monterey Road was the closest thing to a highway, also being a portion of the El Camino Real. First Street heading North lead you Santa Clara and then the Alameda which turns to the El Camino Real to San Francisco. Heading down Second Street took you towards Oakland via Oakland Road from Thirteenth Street.

In donating the property to the Women’s Relief Corps in December 1887, constructed in 1889, a ceremony was held to commemorate the occasion in Evergreen on April 6, 1889. The WRC took a year and a half to build on Cadwallader Avenue. A mile long precession and banquet hosted by “ladies of Evergreen”, notable ladies like Mrs. E. J. Smith, Mrs. J. J. Jones, Miss Fowler, and Miss McClay. The occasion was celebrated with Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Edwards, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Cunningham, Mr. and Mrs. Lantz (neighbors nearby the WRC), Miss Minnie Keliher and the Chew Family. It was said that Mr. Cadwallader held the event to show off his beautiful wife from Ohio. She later remarried Mr. Taylor in 1910, twenty years later.

Mr. Nirum Cadwallader’s Evergreen property turned into one of the first densely built home developments in the downtown of Evergreen. It was all located around Cadwallader Avenue, named in his honor. Close by Cadwallader Subdivision were the Smith properties and General Store, Andy Kettmann’s Saloon and the Schoolhouse. When the town grew, it did so because people enjoyed having neighbors and countryside in the places like the Cadwallader Subdivision shown to the right. If you worked these farms nearby, you probably couldn’t afford lots of acres of your own. Plus, you were too busy to ever profit off of the land or tend to it yourself. Evergreen’s farming industry took the whole village to harvest. Evergreen School Sessions would sync with the harvest season, because the kids would be home working as well.

Patricia Loomis discussed the WRC’s opening with first person resources in her article “Cadwallader Ave. Has Had Problems” in her ‘Sign Posts’ series, revisiting historic events in San Jose’s history for the San Jose News in October 17, 1975. What I hadn’t realized before I found Patricia Loomis’s Sign Post was that Cadwallader Avenue went through to San Felipe. The road bridge would be washed out in 1893 after heavy rains. At the time, Cadwallader crossed Thompson Creek, formerly known as Dry Creek because it ran dry in summer months. The wash out surely as something to do with the redirecting of San Felipe Road. It’s never been replaced.

Women’s Relief Corps Evergreen Home

May 23, 2016Artwork, Historical Researchcadwallader, civil war, downtown evergreen, evergreen, evergreen people, family, generations, hassler, street name, woman, women, women's relief corpsevergreen

This this project, I have met some amazing, exemplary women from the Evergreen Community. In fact, they have been the silent hands that guide this artwork and this narrative. Colleen Cortese inspires this work with her series of articles “Evergreen Pathways” published by the Evergreen Times, her curation of the Heritage Room at Evergreen Valley College, her historical work with St. Francis Asis Catholic Church on San Felipe Road and with her own kindness and time. Jennifer DiNapoli helped me find contemporary exemplary Evergreen individuals. Winnifred Coe Verbica is an awesome lady who had one foot in the city and one in the countryside. DeEtte Richmond Sipos is helping us look into Women in the workforce and one of the first Childcare services in regards to her great Grandfather’s business. Evergreen Elementary School District’s Superintendent, Kathy Gomez, is one of this projects and this narrative’s strongest allies. Denise Belilse runs a well-known Evergreen business in Evergreen Village Square, the Evergreen Coffee Company. Our Vice Mayor and councilwoman, Rose Herrera, continues a legacy of women leading the way in Evergreen. Women have been making Evergreen amazing, whether these ladies let me sing their praises or not.

There is a Woman’s organization whose been apart of Evergreen’s identity through the years which is undeniably a symbol of Evergreen, though it has long been forgotten. The Women’s Relief Corps Home in Evergreen can be found in publications and books published on landmarks of the Santa Clara Valley as far back at the 1890’s. This historical home on Cadwallader Avenue, then downtown Evergreen, was burnt now so it is an easily overlooked piece of Evergreen’s narrative. That having been said, the WRC is where women really show their leadership in early Evergreen.

Mr. Nirum Hart Cadwallader donated the 5 acres land for the Evergreen schoolhouse on San Felipe Road and Evergreen Road as early as 1860. Cadwallader aslo donated over 5 acres of land for the Women’s Relief Corps, which was funded by the Grand Army of the Republic following the Civil War. The GAR was made up of Civil War Veterans of the Army and Naval forces beginning in 1866. Women’s Relief Corps, recognized in 1883, were established across the United States of America to house veterans, widows and orphans of the Civil War. As time passed, they became hospitals for the chronically ill.

Evergreen’s Women’s Relief Corps Home was opened in 1889 off of Cadwallader Avenue near present day Thompson Creek and Keaton Loop. It was the only hospital of its kind in Santa Clara County. Though Mr. Nirum Cadwallader originally from Ohio continues to be a mystery, his contributions made to township of Evergreen, then a farming community, made it a more connected, hospitable, praiseworthy place. Mrs. Bayington was once of its earliest Matrons. Evergreen’s WRC would take on patients from around the country, seeking sanctuary from the devastation and injuries of the American Civil War.

Another place where the Women’s Relief Corps Home reoccurred in my research was looking into well-known Evergreen families.

Mineola Wheeler Hassler (1874-1958), pictured here to the left was the Home’s manager in 1899. Miss Mineola Wheeler married German immigrant and Evergreen land owner John Hassler in 1902 at her parents home. The Hasslers, after buying up land from Rancho Yerba Buena with the Kettmanns following land disputes, would come to own the ranch which is now known as “The Ranch Country Club” and Hassler Parkway area. The Hassler family’s bright red barn was very notable and even a point of tourism in the 1920’s.

Mineola would be employed with the Evergreen Home in 1896 and then become Matron of the Women’s Relief Corps in 1899 until 1902 when she married Mr. Hassler. She would raise her family where the now vacant fire station stands on Aborn Road.

The Women’s Relief Corps home would burn down in 1920 flames being seen as far as Norwood Avenue. It’s suspected that an ill patient lit the fire that seized the home. With California’s famed Golden Girl, Mrs. Geraldine Frisbie, the Evergreen patients were then transferred to Osborne Hall in 1921 in the township of Santa Clara. Santa Clara’s Osborne Hall, established by Dr. and Mrs. E. A. Osborne, would later develop into Angew Hospital. It would be one of the first hospitals for the feeble-minded, as Dr. Osborne pioneered the field from the 1870’s forward. With the GAR dissolving in the 1950’s, as Civl War veterans, widows and orphans were passing away, it repurposed the valuable sanctuary/hospital hall.

The artwork, in kind, for this piece of Women’s History in Evergreen, has done some developing as the leads get followed and the story becomes clearer. Here are the pieces we’ve worked up for the WRC with the last being the latest.