Senior News August, 2002 Vol. 21. No.  8

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Ferndale celebrates 150 years: Two residents are enjoying early and later years there

Remembering Spirit - Rachel Windsong

SCSEP sets record: Local senior employment ranked seventh in nation

Ferndale celebrates 150th

Legislative inaction endangers nonprofits

Del Norte-spend two days with authors

Eel River Alzheimer's Resources

HSRC August Events

Eel River swimming hole guide available on web

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Ferndale celebrates 150 years
Two residents are enjoying early and later years there
by Barbara Clark

Descendents of Ferndale settlers Maylane Chamberlin, left, and Betty Genzoli sit out on the lawn of the Seth Louis Shaw house, now a popular bed and breakfast. Photo by Barbara Clark

When Ferndale celebrates its 150th birthday Aug. 23 and 24, two residents will take a personal measure of pride in the town celebration-their great grandfathers were early settlers of Ferndale.

It was a time when people were riding sailing ships from San Francisco to the gold rush on the Trinity River and using ports of call along Humboldt County shores as the way to get there.

Betty Genzoli, great granddaughter of Seth Louis Shaw, said he and his brother Stephen William and friend Willard Allen settled at Table Bluff in 1852 and saw the site that became Ferndale across the river. They walked up the Salt River (now a silted-in remnant with a bridge on the road into Ferndale) to Francis Creek (which still runs along Main Street), followed the creek and built a cabin at the foothills which became a way-station for travelers. His second home, built in 1854, is the oldest structure in Ferndale and is now a bed and breakfast known as Shaw House Inn. Seth was the first justice of the peace and postmaster of Ferndale, the first Humboldt County coroner, the first master of the Masonic Lodge; and he directed the 1870 census.

Maylane Chamberlin's great grandfather was Arnold Berding who came to Centerville in 1857 from Germany. He settled at Centerville where the cattle were driven along the beach at low tide from the Mattole Valley to be shipped out. Berding established the first store and a hotel. President Lincoln named him the first postmaster in Centerville, and people would come at low tide to stay in the hotel. In 1875, Berding came to the area where Ocean and Main streets are now and built his big house on Ocean Street, now known for the huge "gumdrop" trees in front.

The two aren't the only resident descendants of early settlers. Blanche Grinsell and Grace Gwendolyn Shaw are both great grandchildren of Francis Francis, for whom the creek was named. And Jack and Joe Russ are great grandsons of Joe Russ.

Word of mouth traveled fast, Betty said. Portugese, Danish and Italians heard of the lush pasture lands on the river delta, and dairies thrived from the 1870s.

Both women lived outside the area and returned. Maylane graduated from high school here, then lived with her husband in Berkeley until he retired in 1979. "Then it was our turn to be in the house," she said. They lived in the house on Ocean until the big earthquake in 1992 knocked it off its foundation, then moved into the carriage house where she still lives. Her sister Virginia Cabrera moved into the big house recently where she still lives.

Betty, a twin, was born and raised in Piedmont in the Bay Area, but was the only one of eight grandchildren of Joe Shaw, only child of Seth Shaw, who looked forward every summer to her months of fishing with her grandfather and teas with her grandmother and her friends while growing up. "I could hardly wait for school to be out so I could come up," she said. Just after her graduation as a Registered Nurse at Merritt Hospital, her grandmother became ill, and Betty moved here to care for her until she died. After some years working in Oakland, she returned to Ferndale and met Andrew Genzoli, well known Humboldt County historian and author who wrote the column Redwood Country 30 years for the Eureka newspaper. They married in 1951, and she has lived for 52 years in the same house on Main Street, a short block from the Shaw House her great grandfather built.

Each woman treasures the artifacts handed down from generation to generation. Betty's pride and joy is the iron kettle that came to America on the Mayflower and is handed down to the Elizabeths in her family. She has a great deal of her great grandmother's furniture in her home.

Maylane has the bed she was born in. She's the fourth generation to be in the house, with the fifth and sixth generations to follow her.

Vivid memories attach themselves to a place. "I can remember great times since I was four years old," said Betty. "We had a marvelous childhood on our ranch," said Maylane.

"I'd love to have my great grandfather back for just half an hour to ask him a couple of questions," Betty said. "Wouldn't we all?"

Barbara Clark is editor of Senior News, srnews@northcoast.com.