Pescadero Memories

Story by John Vonderlin

email John: [email protected]

Hi June,

I thought you might be interested in hearing about my one and only trip to the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Pescadero. I did that as a part of the Pescadero Walking History Tour a few years ago. While it’s true I didn’t think the guide’s recountings would bring the subjects alive, I did find myself whistling as we passed through the cemetery’s entrance gate.

For 15 minutes I absorbed some begats… perished froms..and other familial genealogical revelations before moving off to satisfy my interest in gravestones. That’s when I photographed Mr. Ralston’s unusual, and to me, appealing epitaph, that I sent to you earlier, as well as a number of other tombstones and grave markers. They ranged from a pathetically funky, paint-blistered, foot tall wooden plank cross with a broken brick at it’s base to a corroded metal sheet with a keloid scar-looking lettered epitaph for a young baby burned into it with a welding torch to more conventional and vastly more expensive stone monuments.

Besides taking pictures of gravestones, I had a mission that originated with a newspaper column I had read a few weeks before in the San Jose Mercury. The columnist, Mike Cassady, had written a story about a woman, Ada Parsley, from San Jose, who, while visiting the Mt. Hope Cemetery on a whim, had noticed the extremely humble grave marker of a teenage girl.

Not knowing the dead teenager, or how she had died, Ada Parsley decided to be a Good Samaritan, and pay for a more substantial headstone. Which she did.

Unfortunately, the girl’s name was misspelled in the epitaph. It seemed a sad case of “If it wasn’t for bad luck, she wouldn’t have no luck at all.” But, the story further related that a craftsman, an engraver of gravestones, was willing to donate his skills to correct the error.

I just had to see this headstone, knowing that viewing it would peel off at least a few layers of the cynicism I’ve built up to protect myself from this world of harsh realities we live in.

A few minutes searching and I found the young woman’s grave with the headstone Ada had bought for her. The engraver hadn’t yet corrected her misspelled name, nevertheless it stood as a thoughtful reminder of a life departed and a stranger’s caring.

As I read the epitaph, trying to divine Ada’s philosophy of life from the words etched there, my proofreading habit kicked in, and I thought the word “planning” had been misspelled. Or perhaps, “planning” hadn’t been meant, but rather “planing” as it was engraved. Contextually, the former certainly made more sense, but epitaphs sometimes refer to planes of existence, although not usually so obscurely– so I wasn’t sure.

Later that day I emailed Mr. Cassady and asked him. I was most gratified to hear from him that it was an error and that it, along with the misspelled name, would be corrected. I hope it was done, but don’t think I’ll return to find out. Because since then, with great sadness and anger, I have learned the story of that murdered young girl and her killer and want to hold onto the glimmer of hope that the story of Ada Parsley’s caring provided me. Enjoy. John Vonderlin

The Steeles, sturdy American farmers, possessed excellent business instincts and were among the very few people Loren Coburn didn’t [and couldn’t] push around.

In 1864 Coburn offered the Steeles  title to the southern portion of the Rancho Ano Nuevo in return for a $5000 loan (that Coburn used for a second mortgage on the rancho) and an option to buy which the Steeles quickly exercised.

Notes: During the 1860s the Coburns lived off of the receipts from the Stockton Street livery stable and from renting land at Pescadero to tenant farmers. Loren was becoming the single largest landowner and most litigious individual in San Mateo County. He also purchased 10,000 acres near King City; 1500 acres in Merced County and some building lots in Merced.

In 1866 it was time for a long deserved vacation and the Coburns traveled to the East Coast where they stayed for two years. Perhaps Loren was planning his next move; he did visit his brother Lemmuel, who owned a business that manufactured trolley tracks. Lemmuel had a son called Arzo who would later come west and rent a small house in Pescadero.

To read story, click here

From the “Half Moon Bay Review,” August 1966

“Three crewmen aboard a navy trainer were saved by helicopters Friday after ditching their flaming plane in the ocean off Pebble Beach.

“Witnesses, seeing the plane skim along the water and then sink, called the sheriff’s office. At first there was no indication whether the occupants had survived.

“But later a flare ignited by the victims was spotted on the water. It was learned that the crew had inflated a life raft just before the S-2 training plane sank into the ocean.

“A Coast Guard plane flew over the life raft and spotted the survivors, who fired off more flares. Then, two helicopters arrived.

“One helicopter used  a rope ladder to rescue one of three men, according to sheriff’s deputy Lyle Arnold. The other helicopter landed on the water and picked up the other two victims.

“They were flown back to Monterey. The plane had come from a naval auxiliary field there, and was on a test flight.

“Rescued were the pilot, Lt. B.R. McClosky, Lt. D.B. Darnauer, student pilot, and M.R. Walsh, jet mechanic.

“Rosemary Conway, a teacher living in Cupertino, and two brothers from Chicago, Edward Curtin, 15, and Timothy Curtin, 12, said they saw the red-and-white craft coming from a northwest direction with smoke pouring from its right side or tail.

“It glided on the water ‘as if on a runway’ for several hundred feet, and then stopped and sank ‘within 15 seconds’.”

To read thee story, click here

Email John: [email protected]

From: Coastside Cultural Resources of San Mateo County

(Photo of Saint Anthony’s by John Vonderlin)

“The village of Pescadero is one of the most historic areas in the County and has the most distinctive character of any community on the Coastside.

“Along its streets can still be seen a variety of 19th century architectural forms and styles which developed during a time of prosperity between the forms and styles which developed during a time of prosperity between the 1860s and 1890s when the town served as a major produce and lumber center and summer resort for San Francisco.

“The spires of St. Anthony’s and the Congregational Church rising above a cluster of houses and commercial structures give Pescadero a resemblance to a trim New England village. Although this image has lessened in recent years, as a result of fires, new construction and alterations which are not in character with the town, Pescadero still retains essentially the village it must have been in 1890.

Continue reading →