By Brian K. Crawford William Brown was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1825. Around 1847 he moved to Missouri and lived there for five years, during which he met and married 15-year-old Sarah Cole. In 1853, three days after their marriage, they took a wagon train to California and settled…

By Robert L. Harrison Women have suffered unequal treatment from time immemorial. Under masculine dominated law they were, and in too many societies are still controlled by their husband or male relatives. In America it took 145 years for women to win the right to vote and after almost 100…

By Paul Smith There were several documented fire incidents in the Kentfield area prior to the District being formed in 1921. On the night of the Fourth of July 1905 a fire was reported at the saloon and dwelling of Joseph Escallier. The San Francisco Call newspaper reported that an…

By Carol Acquaviva “ A ‘Home’ may be the noblest of all works of art…” — Frank Lloyd Wright “The reasons I would like this dog house is for the winters mainly.” — Jim Berger, age 12. We are happy to announce that Eddie’s House — the doghouse custom designed…

By Jennifer Christensen Before podcasts like Serial or My Favorite Murder and documentaries like The Jinx and Making a Murderer skyrocketed in popularity, the telling of true crime stories “was long in the province of newspapers and magazines, [and] began making its way into books in the early decades of…

By Carol Acquaviva The first Sonoma-Marin Fair was held in Petaluma in 1866. But it would be fifty years before the first Marin County Fair and Harvest Festival, which was organized in September of 1925 at the site of today’s Redwood Highway and Grant Avenue in Novato. Exhibits and competitions…

By Carol Acquaviva and Jennifer Christensen “That’s a woman’s game,” said the Overland Monthly in 1892. The snark was in reference to the reputation of lawn tennis as a mere pastime than a sport requiring athleticism. The Overland Monthly clarified: “It is, indeed, the…

By Dewey Livingston Note: This is an excerpt from Dewey’s forthcoming book on Point Reyes history. For decades on the Inverness waterfront stood the home and business of the Hom family. Gin Hom (or Hom Gin in China) emigrated from Guandong (Canton) around 1915 and found a job at Mare Island in the Navy laundry. There he met Mashee (Ma) Yuen and they…

By Brad Rippe It’s Tuesday afternoon, October 17, 1989. The Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants are warming up for game three of the World Series at Candlestick Park. Bay Area baseball fans are finishing up the day, getting ready for the game. Among those fans is Kevin Lorne…