Summary:
Mabel Bowbeer and her husband Earl moved to the Daley Ranch in Lafayette in 1928. The entrance to this ranch was located near the El Charro restaurant. The depression hit soon after they settled here, and Mabel recalls that there were usually “extra children” — those whose families were without seated around their table. In the interview she recalls shopping when there were only two stores in town, selling pots of chili beans at the Lafayette Horse Show to raise money to build the town’s first tennis courts, and volunteering with the PTA, the Garden Club, and the Woman’s Club. In 1941 the Bowbeer’s purchased a ranch on Deerhill Road where they lived for many more years.
Oral History:
The following autobiographical interview was held on November 14, 1977 with Mrs. Mabel Bowbeer (Mrs. Earl), past president of the Lafayette Woman’s Club. The interview was conducted at the Bowbeer home, 3232 Deer Hill Road, Lafayette. The interviewer is Angela Broadhead, Oral History Committee, Lafayette Historical Society.
Mabel Bowbeer: I’m very honored to have this interview with Mrs. Broadhead and I hope I can give her some information about the old days, as I call them.
Angela Broadhead: Would you like to tell us your first recollections of Lafayette?
MB: We arrived here in September of 1928 and this last September we celebrated 49 years. I think that’s quite a long time. And I’m telling you right now that I’m going to stay right here on the ranch, if I possibly can. We just love it; it’s home to us. We raised our four children here. They are all settled in Walnut Creek now.
AB: What was it like in Lafayette when you came in 1928?
MB: I always tell my friends that I’m so glad we came here when Lafayette was a little village. We used to go down and do our shopping at one or the other of the two stores that were here in Lafayette. Right in the middle of Mt. Diablo we would just make a U-turn and we didn’t have to watch out for traffic. If we were caught I the middle of turning, the people would stop and let us continue on making our turn. There were no set rules; we were on our own. We all got along just fine.
Sometimes we shopped in Walnut Creek, but we usually traded at McNeil’s (the Pioneer Store) and at Stark’s (Meat Market) and at a little grocery store further on Mt. Diablo Boulevard. We just had one barber shop, Mr. Bray’s.
AB: How did you happen to come to Lafayette in the first place?
MB: We had relatives that had moved out from Oakland to the little town of Saranap. They came to visit us in Petaluma and were telling us about this rancher that was selling out because he wanted to move to a larger dairy ranch in Point Reyes, Marin County. My husband was looking around for a small ranch. We settled on what was called the Daley Ranch (between Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Moraga Boulevard). The entrance to the ranch was where the El Charro Restaurant is now on Mt. Diablo Boulevard. The ranch consisted of between 70 and 75 acres. The old house that was down there was real comfortable. My husband bought cows and we had chickens. I raised turkeys and it was more fun! People would come to buy them year after year at Thanksgiving and at Christmas, too.
1928 was just before the year of the Depression and it was kind of sad to see so many families where the husband had lost his job. They were on what we call welfare now. It was hard times for everyone. With us, we had lots of eggs, butter, meat from the calves that were butchered by my husband. So we had plenty of meat on the table and it seems that every night when we sat down to dinner we had three or four extra children. They were all welcome. To this day my children often think of something funny that happened over there at the Daley Ranch.
AB: Were all of your children born at the Daley Ranch?
MB: No, I had my son after we arrived in Lafayette. He was born in Walnut Creek in 1930. Mrs. Wilson, who was the mid-wife, was the mother of Norman Wilson, the first deputy sheriff from Walnut Creek.
I have met several children, now grown up, who used to come over and play at the Daley Ranch. And they all said they’ll never forget the fun they had there. One of these boys, Austen Whittacker, told me before he moved back East that he would never forget that Daley Ranch. He said that children nowadays don’t know what fun is. Everything has to be supervised. We used to go up there on those hills and push a big hay rake wheel down those hills. He said that as he got older he realized how dangerous it was because the wheel went down so fast. The road was down there and if anybody had come along that wheel would have killed them.
AB: You mentioned the road. Did that mean when you went from the Daley Ranch to Lafayette, you first went in the direction of Mt. Diablo Boulevard?
MB: Yes, that’s where our family orchard was. There were a lot of nice fruit trees and they were for our own use. You went through this gate and then along further there was another gate into the big pasture. The road just wound around the creek there.
AB: How many cows did you have, Mrs. Bowbeer?
MB: At one time we had about 25. We separated the milk and sold the cream. We shipped the cream by way of the train at East Lafayette where the gravel yard used to be. That was taken away many years ago (in the mid ‘50’s). There were other ranchers, too, around up in Happy Valley. There was a family by the name of Alexander and they lived near Phyllis Peterson’s home. He had a big ranch with lots of acres, probably 50 or 55 acres and ran a big dairy. There was another dairy off St. Mary’s Road owned by Manual George. It was a large family and some of the children are still in parts of this country.
AB: Before we go onto another subject, would you please describe the Daley House when you lived there?
MB: It was a two story house with two bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs. There was a living room and a big back porch where we would eat in the summertime. It was right alongside of the creek. The creek used to get pretty high in the wintertime. Sometimes it would run over the banks. I like to tell about the little foot bridge on wires that hung from tree to tree by cables. Of course, the children had to walk across that bridge to get to school. They walked to the Lafayette Grammar School and they walked over to East Lafayette to catch the train to go to high school (Mt. Diablo High) in Concord.
AB: Do you remember some of the names of the teachers that taught your children in Lafayette School?
MB: Mrs. Clara Christian was principal and taught the eighth grade; Mrs. Olive Gates taught the seventh grade. There also Lilian Berta, Mabel Burk and one of the Welldon girls. Their home was up where the Tunnel Inn was and that is now called Petar’s. They owned quite a few acres which extend up Happy Valley Road. They had beehives and always had honey for sale.
AB: Who were some of the children who went to school with your children?
MB: There was the Soares family up in Happy Valley. There was also the Stanley’s, the Whittaker’s (Shirley Medau), the Peterson’s and the Armanino’s.
AB: Would you like to tell us about some of the town activities while your children were growing up?
MB: While they were in school I worked with the PTA. I could also tell you about our first tennis courts in Lafayette. You have probably heard of the horse shows we had in town. At that time Mrs. Heatherton lived up on St. Mary’s Road and she decided we ought to have some tennis courts. She went to all the organizations in town and told her story. So we began to make money by having a booth at the horse show. The PTA and the American Legion decided they were going to sell choli beans. We made pot after pot of chili beans and sold them at the horse show. Other organizations sold different things. That’s how we made money to build the tennis courts.
There courts were build alongside the Lafayette School. Later they were replaced by tennis courts over at Stanley School. The children loved it. I think there were two courts, but it provided recreation for the children.
AB: What other recreation was there?
MB: Not much more. There were church activities. The church tried very hard to do things with the young people.
I think Mrs. Michaud was the town’s telephone operator in the post office building. The post office was on one side and the telephone office was on the other side of the same building on Mt. Diablo Blvd.
AB: While we are talking about activities, would you like to tell us about the activities of the Women’s Forum?
MB: I’ll read from the Lafayette Women’s Club roster. It says that the Forum was first organized August 8, 1936. Here is the list of past presidents of the Forum:
Mrs. E. F. Zinke—1936
Mrs. G. B. Sturgeon
Mrs. Claire Hamilton
Mrs. D. O. Powell
Mrs. H. M. Smitten
Mrs. K. R. Pape
Mrs. F. V. Vollmer
Mrs. J. M. Burk
Mrs. D. R. Court
Mrs. A. B. Hood
Mrs. B. D. Blackwood
Mrs. L. I. McKim
Mrs. Ernest H. Hasse
Mrs. R. H. Locke—1954 and 1955
The Lafayette Women’s Club was federated in 1956.
AB: When were you president of the Women’s Club and what did you try to accomplish as president?
MB: The first time I was president was 1964-1965. We helped a lot with the Design Project. We gave them money towards beautification of Lafayette. We maintained the little Plaza Park. That was one of our projects.
AB: Did the church members go out and work in the park like the garden club members do now?
MB: The Design Project hired someone from the county to come in and to do the hard work. The planning was supervised by the women of the club. One woman, Ruth Bacon, who lives up in Happy Valley, took such an interest in the park. She just loved that little park. She would go down there and tell the man from the county how to plant and she kept her eye on what was going on. In the spring there were daffodils and later the summer and fall colors were featured.
I want to go back and tell you about what we used to call the Garden Club. There were very few organizations in town, as I told you before. A lot of the women didn’t even belong to the Forum. There was a group of us who decided we ought to start some kind of a club so that we could get together once a month and the was called the Garden Club. Dolly McNeil was the first president. Her name is Dolly Coleman now. This was really a nice little club and we had lots of fun. It was a place to meet and to see each other. We had a secretary and treasurer and Mrs. M. H. Stanley was the first secretary. We paid dues. It was more of a social organization. We played cards… whist. Every once in a while we’d have a party and had a real nice time.
I was going to tell you that the little Plaza Park was nothing but a weed patch. If anyone of any importance passed away the town members would get together and decide if we should put a plaque in the plaza.
There was no doctor in Lafayette. Dr. Leech was the only doctor in Walnut Creek when we came here. He delivered lots of babies in Lafayette. In fact he delivered my son. When Dr. Leech passed away, this club put a little plaque in the park with his name on it. I wonder where the plaque is now? There was also a plaque for the first soldier that was killed in World War I. He was from an Italian family up in Happy Valley.
We thought the park looked so bad that every one of us that belonged to that club went down and cultivated the park and planted the park in petunias. It was a gorgeous sight. In the 1930’s people would drive out from Oakland to see the park. Dolly (Coleman) go over and water the plants and they bloomed all summer long. Jack Hageman used to put up the flag in the park every morning.
AB: A little while ago you talked about the importance of the Design Project. What do you remember about them and their influence?
MB: I remember that when I was president of the Women’s Club everybody from all the organizations in town sent representatives to their meetings. We also sent a representative to see what was going on and then to report back to our club. They planted trees in Lafayette in the 1950’s; they were interested in beautifying the town. We helped beautify a piece of land at the western end of town. Maryann Keathley brought up the subject and wanted to know why we didn’t get up there and do something about this property that was just an eyesore. She took it upon herself to take care of that and she plated some flowers and shrubs. The club must have bought these for her and she fixed it up real nice.
Another thing we did was to have someone build some flower boxes in front of the Town Hall. We planted flowers there and made the hall look a little better.
I remember that one of our members would get up at the Forum meetings and tell about when she first arrived here in Lafayette. She said there wasn’t a thing here… not an organization that she could go to. It hurt our feelings to hear her say this.
I’d like to tell you more about the school here in town. When Mr. William Ellis took over the job of being principal at the Lafayette School he would have a little chart out in the entryway of the school. It would show how the attendance had increased.
Mrs. Clara Christian had been principal for years when we arrived here. As the school got larger, the trustees thought it was time to make a change. It was quite a shock to everyone when there was the announcement that they were going to make a change because Mrs. Christian was loved by every family in town. Their intention was to keep her on as a teacher, of course. They had a big meeting down at the Town Hall against the trustees. My, that was a heated argument! They were not going to have Mrs. Christian railroaded out of that position at school, but the trustees went ahead and they got this young man, Mr. William Ellis. Well, it just turned out to be a beautiful thing because Mr. Ellis was well-liked by everybody, too. He was the right man after all. He was coolheaded and he came in and took over.
Mrs. Christian was now teaching the fourth grade and it was quite a drop for her. Mr. Ellis was very calm about it and he said that as the years went by they were the best of friends. He thought an awful lot of her. He was a fine man for that school. Before he retired he was made superintendent of seven schools in Lafayette.
AB: Mrs. Bowbeer, while we’re having our tea, which looks absolutely lovely, won’t you tell us how you happened to leave the Daley Ranch and move up here to the Bunting Place?
MB: We lived down on the Daley Ranch for 13 years (1928-1941). Mrs. Daley, who owned the ranch, was living with her daughter at the time of her death. Her daughter’s husband was Mr. Thomson who ran the blacksmith shop in Lafayette. She lived to be way into her 80’s. After she died the property was sold and the property divided between the heirs. So they were going to sell the place and they offered it to us for $70,000. It was 60 or 70 acres, but my goodness, we didn’t have the money in those days. We were raising a family and putting the girls through school and we just didn’t have the money It was a wonderful opportunity because that was a very good price.
However, this place was for sale by Mr. and Mrs. Bunting. In February of 1941 we bought and moved to the Bunting Place. Mrs. Bunting didn’t like living at the ranch after Acalanes High School was built. She and I were very close friends and since she didn’t drive I would pick her up and drive her to the Forum. When they were ready to sell out she came over and told me that they would love to have us buy the place. So that’s how we came to buy those 20 acres.
We had two or three horses to plow the land when we put in crops. We also raised chickens. We bought 500 chicks at a time from a hatchery in Petaluma. We sold the broilers and raised the pullets for egg production. I had an egg route and I also sold cream which I had separated from the milk. Generally we had two milk cows and about 20 white-faced beef cattle on the range.
AB: What would you say were some of the major changes during the 49 years your family has lived in Lafayette?
MB: I would say the Caldecott Tunnel, the East Bay Water, the Acalanes High School, BART and Lafayette being incorporated. I have always been unhappy about his. I wanted Lafayette to remain rural. Call me selfish!
AB: The Lafayette Historical Society thank you very much, Mrs. Bowbeer, for telling us these interesting facts about the 49 years your family has lived in Lafayette.
Mabel Bowbeer was born in Petaluma, California, on September 7, 1899.
Mabel Bowbeer is my father’s mother which makes her my grandmother. I’m so glad to find this interview and hear her voice again after all these years. I’m almost as old now as she was when she recorded this.