Curb Appeal

by Mitch Shindelbower

Title

Curb Appeal

Artist

Mitch Shindelbower

Medium

Photograph

Description

Curb Appeal.... Storefront Ferndale California.Before American settlement, Ferndale was a glade of giant ferns reaching more than six feet, surrounded by alder, willow, Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, coast redwood, swampy land and windswept prairies. The area was populated by the southern Wiyot people, centered along the Eel River where they caught lamprey eels, salmon and sturgeon in iris leaf fish nets, collected shellfish along the river and at its mouth,[7] while cultivating only a California species of tobacco[8] until settlement by Willard Allard, Seth Louis Shaw and his brother Stephen W. Shawi established the town the summer of 1852.[7]

Early settlers[edit]

The marble Centennial Plaque for Ferndale, California, on Main Street in Ferndale, erected in 1952.
In August 1852, Allard and the Shaw brothers borrowed a canoe from the Wiyots in the Table Bluff area and rowed it across the Eel and up Francis Creek to arrive with their supplies to the approximate vicinity of Main and Shaw streets.[7] In September 1852 they cleared a five-acre area of ferns and began building a cabin near the base of the Wildcat Road even though Allard was sick with the ague.[7] By January 1853, twelve men were living in the Shaws' cabin including Seth Kinman, who provided the group with meat, and Joe Russ (1825-1886), whose later holdings included the Fern Cottage Historic District.[7] About this time, Stephen Shaw painted the portrait of Wiyot elder Kiwelattah (or Ki-we-lah-tah)[9] and kept a detailed journal of two years of trying to grow plants in cold coastal fog.[10]

Seth Shaw settled in the area now marked by Main and Lewis streets where he began construction of the now-historic Shaw House on his property in 1854.[11][12] The Shaw House served as the area's first polling place in 1854,[7] post office[13] in 1860[14] and courthouse in 1863.[7] Seth Shaw was justice of the peace and postmaster,[15] and his home served for many gatherings although it was not finished until 1866.[7] After having been away from the area for two years, Stephen Shaw sold his holdings in 1856 to Welsh-born Francis Francis (1818-1877) who later established the city's water system[16]:67 through pipes laid initially in 1875.[7]

Other small towns were established around Ferndale, including Centerville, Port Kenyon, Waddington, Grizzly Bluff and Arlynda Corners. Produce from Ferndale was shipped out via Centerville and transferred to ships at anchor offshore prior to the opening of docks at Port Kenyon in 1876.[7] In 1865 the first shipment of coal oil from the Union Mattole Oil Company was shipped through Ferndale to San Francisco.[7]

While the earliest settlers were English speaking from England, New England, Canada or Ireland, waves of immigrants arrived in Ferndale from Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Portugal and China.[7]

European immigrants[edit]
Danish settlers founded and built Our Savior's Lutheran Church in 1899 and dedicated Danish Hall, which had been built as a warehouse by Arnold Berding in the late 1880s, on October 10, 1929.[7] The Swiss who settled in Ferndale from Italian- and German-speaking families included the Oeschgers who moved to Ferndale in time for Joe Oeschger to play baseball at Ferndale High School before going to a career in Major League Baseball. A later influx of Romansh Swiss included the ancestors of College Football Hall of Fame coach Len Casanova.[7] Sausage, salami-making and wine-making can be traced to Italians who arrived later than the Danish and Swiss, beginning around 1897.[7] The Germans arrived early, the first was businessman Arnold Berding in 1857.[7] Most Germans worked on ranches or were dairymen, but at least one owned the Milwaukee Brewery Depot Saloon. Congressman Don Clausen is descended from German settlers of Ferndale. German settlers organized St. Mark's Lutheran Church in 1906.[7] Except for three Portuguese brothers who arrived in the 1870s and a few from mainland Portugal, most came from the Azores islands between 1900 and 1915. Ferndale Portuguese have celebrated their traditional Festival of the Holy Ghost since 1924.

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May 6th, 2016

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