This is a Cinderella story.

What does that mean? The heart of a Cinderella story is that the underprivileged, long-suffering, usually virtuous female protagonist is given a leg up, and all her dreams come true, lifting her from the poverty she knows. The poverty may be material, but many stories reveal it is also familial. In more fleshed-out versions of the story, she is identified and chosen especially for her beauty, both inside and out. The virtues matter.

Flora is a ferret. In many hierarchies, we do not get much lower than that on the mammalian ladder. The ferret’s figure makes a perfect model for the setting and its Roaring 1920s fashion.

This is a picture book.

And the illustrations are lush! Oh my. Personality, humor, depth, color, joy, whimsy, serious fashion gravitas, and the deco, oh, the art deco! I watched a watercolor demonstration at ARCH art supplies in San Francisco, and the artist painted the dining room scene of a grand 1930s hotel. It was just like this.

I want to walk around these illustrations in real life. Art gallery in the lap, check.

The fashion, did I mention the fashion? This is my favorite historical time period. I am an avid old movie watcher. Shekels hit it just right. These are not the stereotypes of the time period; she captures the real thing. The costumes just happen to be draped on a variety of animalia instead of the rougher species of the era: the bootlegger and flapper.

What kind of ferret fairytale is this?

Fractured, or fleshed out, fairytales

The modern criticism of fairy tales, particularly the princess fairy tales, is that the reward comes too easily. Everything works out with the snap of the fingers for the protagonist. The Cinderella story by Perrault, from 1697, is as simple as it gets. As storytelling media evolve, writers try to answer the question: What motivates her? Why does she stay?

Flora is employed in the hotel. This is not a family affair. She is where she is for financial reasons.

“With a song in her heart…” Shekels describes and illustrates Flora’s inner life deftly and beautifully.

I like the newer versions of fairytales that still believe in the original story, but fill in the gaps. Grimm Brothers. The 2015 Disney live-action remake of Cinderella. The 1998 Ever After. Even the musical, Into the Woods, sits well with me for this story.

This is a traditional Perrault-style fairytale, swift in its telling, swift to its close.

I do not know how much this influences my enjoyment of this story, but I am married to a musician. The swift and happy ending came too easily for me.

If good narration brings us to a moment where all is lost, we care about the character and the resolution. I’m not sure I’m buying this retelling.

A well-known band would not be trying to work out a song the night of the performance; they would do a well-rehearsed set. They might add in new songs, but not that new, not so new that they did not realize vocals would be just the thing.

She has a song in her heart, but no vocal training, so it is unlikely that she would be such an immediate sensation, so much so that they are ready to sign her, then and there, and take her on tour.

There could have been more.

There could have been more. Maybe a little more of a backstory, so we know from where that experience came. Even the Phantom of the Opera wasn’t training up a blank slate.

Does Shekels know this, I wonder. Did she know she was bringing it in swiftly, and that’s part of the fun of a familiar story?

Some time has passed since our initial reading. There are books you read through, delighting in the language, holding your breath until that wonderful finish (An Orange for Frankie). There are books you read without interruption, ready to catch any joke (My Awesome Summer by P. Mantis). There are books you sing and laugh through, of which any interruption would spoil the rhythm (The Gruffalo). But there is another class of picture books. They are good. They are classic. They are in the canon of books I would not want to have missed. But they are strange. They are incomplete. They invite the commentary and the interruption and, dare I say, the humor of those reading them irreverently inserted.

My husband reads The Runaway Bunny as a horror story. The jokes are endless for us as well with Guess How Much I Love You. And yet we love these stories. As our oldest children entered their teens and new babies came again, we happily purchased them again.

They become part of us as we become part of the story. It’s a bit like The Neverending Story, I admit, but it becomes a beautiful shared secret among those who read it, with a chuckle and a sidelong glance that we know the real story —the story our silly parents read to us, the story our children tolerated as we read it aloud. They loved the picture; we loved the unity of an inside joke.

The illustrations: 100%. I would own this book for this reason alone.

The story: it fills the last category for me. I know there will be jokes, comments, insertions, and, hey, even some important conversations with my older children about how success and/or fame do not come easily.

Life is not a fairytale, although it speaks of the dream. It speaks to the truth of the dream. Sometimes, for a story, that is all we need.

This book is for:

The family led by a hopeless romantic who reads Jane Austen.

The family led by the artists.

The family looking for a simple, enjoyable read-aloud with beautiful language, that does not require long discussions, but invites it, the readers so wish.

I came to My Type of Holiness: Striving for Sainthood with the Temperament God Gave Me as an interested-in-the-subject person of the book. I learned about the temperaments in college, immediately found it applicable to my life and in seeing the comments, - finally a book on holiness for phlegmatics – I thought immediately this is the book for my husband, ahem, me!

In all fairness, when it came, my non-reader husband immediately wanted to take a look at it. I first encountered Rose Sweet through a divorce ministry an acquaintance asked me to volunteer with, leading small group discussions following video segments. She struck me as intuitive, intelligent, rational, and on the money as to people’s wounds. When I saw her name attached to this title, I was hooked.

I have never read anything by Rose Sweet.

Like many self-help style books from Our Sunday Visitor, the tone is conversational, but this one comes as well-informed. There are the obligatory reflection questions and speculation about saint temperaments at the end of each chapter, but they are ancillary to the meat of the chapter.

I wanted a book on the path to holiness as it applies to temperaments. But much of the book is really an introduction to the temperaments.

Such an introduction is needed, I grant you, and a well-balanced update to the archaic literature we might be using.

Sweet hits all the important points. And she actually hits the psychological literature, too.

What a temperament is.

And what it isn’t.

And how these other factors influence how we present. The temperament is the thing we’re born with. The personality is the nature/nurture thing that develops early on. Spot on.

Life circumstances bring out particular aspects. Life circumstances lead us to mask certain aspects.

Family systems.

Rose Sweet gets it in a modern, updated way.

She gives it as a life and relationship coach who is clearly dishing out this information regularly.

And that means, she has very few sources.

This is my great lament of books like this. There are some references, but for the most part, her information is very much integrated in her own mind so as to flow out as easily as a coaching session, but the reader does not have the benefit of the sources from which she first learned it.

Nevertheless, this is the absolute best introduction to the topic. And by the last third, she really does touch on holiness in an enlightening and remarkable way.

I wish there were more.

Personally, her balanced, well-rounded, all circumstances explored look at the temperaments was personally enlightening for me, a person well familiar with the theory.

I have a child who is a sanguine.

As a no-nonsense, let’s get this done choleric/let’s be quiet, read, and think deep thoughts melancholic, his personality has been a challenge both in parenting and during the homeschool day.

Many a behavior we thought, Why is he like this? What is wrong with him?

It turns out, a great lot of us are temperamentally… quiet.

And he is not.

So she has my interest piqued.

But it isn’t a deep dive by any stretch of the imagination. And I’m left wanting more.

The other revelation is her articulation of the weaknesses each temperament will fall into, and their strengths when living a life of virtue.

I said to my husband, whose advice on holiness has always been pray more, lead more, attend mass more – what if you just tried to focus these God-given abilities towards patience, kindness, peacefulness to God, and asked him to guide you in them? And there was silence.

Because when we hit on this path, this is something about the way God made us, and maybe he loves us and wants him for himself, but maybe we’re also okay, just the way we are, there isn’t much response except silence – wonder and awe.

So I recommend this book. Wholeheartedly. To all who will read it.

Attendees shared recollections of scouting campouts, cooking, service projects, Cub Scouts attending in the basement of the Hughson Baptist Church, bike rides down the Oregon coast, and the many efforts to earn those badges, including a few mishaps.

Special guests Richard Worley and Melissa Worley spoke about local Scout troops and their history with the programs.

Richard Worley leads the Hughson Scout Troop 27. Worley shared his recollections about Troop 27 and their projects, and showed his Scout uniform, explaining the meaning of various badges and symbols.

“I started at eight years old, and I'm now 72. It’s taken a long time, but I've had a lot of fun and enjoyed meeting many people. I'm an eagle, class of 1965, my son's an eagle, class of 1993, and my grandson is now a Cub Scout,” he said.

Currently, the scout troop has five boys and four adults. “Our troop is, as little as it is, probably one of the more active units in the district right now. Last summer, with summer camps closed, a family member had a cabin, and the boys went down there. They planned their own campout, did their cooking, went fishing, hiking, did all the stuff they would normally do at summer camp and had a great time.”

Worley shared Boy Scout books from several decades, “When you first join, you get a book you go through different steps. Each book has all of requirements that you need—the requirements of changed over the years. For instance, I think in one of these, you’re are supposed to know how to stop a wild team of horses. They also had to know Morse code, which I had to know from scouting, but that has been discontinued with the GPS situation in cell phones.”

Service forms an important component of Scouting. Worley shared, “We're down to a little bit smaller amount of scouts, but we're still doing service projects. We've helped Tammy Lee with the Christmas baskets for the last couple of years by counting out rice and beans and doing whatever to fill the baskets that they give out at Christmas. That's been a joy for us to do, as well, in the future, we're still talking about going to Hawaii for summer camp. We're going to try and start our tri-tip barbecue Fundraiser dinner again on the 29th of April. Be looking for that if you would, and we would enjoy serving you.”

He said, “There are over two and a half million eagles in the United States. If you average a hundred hours of service hours for each project, that adds up to a few. It's a wonderful program.”

Melissa Worley’s presentation focused on levels within Girl Scouts, the various badges and Girl Scout Cookies. When the Girl Scouts first began selling cookies in 1917, scouts made the cookies themselves. Troops receive the cookies during President’s Day Weekend and sell them during the next four weeks outside local stores and door-to-door. For every box sold, $4 goes back to Girl Scouts supporting camps and the local troop itself.

She explained the troop votes on what they will do with the profits from cookie sales. For one service project, the girls purchased books, went to a local preschool, read the books to the students, and then they donated the books to the preschool. They recently toured and donated to Hope’s Chance Horse Sanctuary, a local nonprofit that rescues horses.

Melissa said, “I love hearing all your stories about it. The rewards are not always seen. Hearing your stories and your memories of it helps me know that I am making memories with the girls.”

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on March 2, 2022. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications and is committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209-358-5311.

Stockton Diocese Bishop Myron Cotta celebrated the mass. A reception followed with food provided by parish ministries. In the background, a slideshow displayed photos from the parish directories over the years.

Portuguese and Italian immigrants founded the parish in 1922, naming it after a saint beloved by both cultures, St. Anthony of Padua. He was a Franciscan friar, doctor of the church, patron of the poor, born in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal, and died on June 13, 1231, in Arcella, Verona [Italy]. St. Anthony was canonized in 1232.

According to the parish, “In January 1918, Father James Delahunty celebrated the first Mass in Hughson, in the home of Mrs. A.J. Serpa. Catechism classes followed. For two years this mission community moved from home to home celebrating the sacraments until Father James Galvin rented Northway's Hall in Hughson for Sunday Masses and a Sunday school. This generated enough enthusiasm among residents that they began planning for a church. The mostly Portuguese community pledged enough money for a new church, where the first Mass of this young parish community was celebrated on Christmas Day, 1921.”

Phillips served as the first pastor of the parish.

The church was dedicated on Christmas Day 1922. Designed by Phillips it was an “A-frame building with stucco exterior, metallic sheeting and wooden wainscoting interior, it measured 90 feet by 42 feet.” The parish occupied one acre. On the remaining space on the property, there was alfalfa for sale.

Janet Camagna, the President of the Hughson Historical Society, remembers attending mass with her grandfather at the old St. Anthony’s. Camagna and her grandfather walked from their ranch across the high school to the church and attended mass. “I remember doing this, everybody was so big and I didn't quite know what was going on.” Afterward, they walked to a neighbor’s house. “They would have donuts or they would have various pastries and you would walk in the back door and there was this wonderful room.”

That tradition continues with coffee and donuts after Sunday masses today, although instead of a house down the street, it takes place in the Hughes Hall on the parish campus.

“For people who lived in Europe,” Camagna explained, “if there had been wars if they had been uprisings, famines, whatever, big families they had nothing to give the other children in the family, you had to look for something else. In the case of my own family on my father’s side, my grandfather was one of six children. There were no jobs. Father was working two different jobs and so then they had to look to see what else was going on. He heard land was being given in Canada to people that would make the trip like we did in this country giving land to people who would come across settle and work the land. That was very intriguing so that people would pull their money together. The appeal of getting land, getting a start was something that was irresistible.”

In 1967, the church building was completed along with a church hall with kitchen facilities and three classrooms where the Holy Family Sisters and lay people gave religious instruction to the children. Other facilities have been added since. In the 1990s, a chapel for daily mass and adoration was added to the parish rectory. After the COVID-19 shutdown, daily mass moved from the chapel to the church to allow for more spacing between people.

On May 29, 2022, Cordeiro opened a new chapel for prayer within the parish office. The chapel was designed by Cordeiro with a tabernacle from Mexico and artwork made from wood to represent a mountain range referencing Mount Sinai and the three Persons of the Trinity, Cordeiro said. Those who would like to visit the chapel may contact the parish office, 7820 Fox Road Hughson, Ca 95326, for more details.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on June 13, 2022. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications and is committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

Though much of the Starn family history is recorded in a 1971 booklet created by the family, the delay in holding the dinner due to COVID-19 has allowed additional time to gather information. Starn has acted as contact man and historian as his family pieces together their family story for the presentation at the annual dinner. Starn shared with the Hughson Historical Society a collection of documents he found in the process.

Starn opened his presentation with a brief overview of family dates. Most family members began immigrating to the Central Valley at the beginning of the 20th century. Starn held up a picture postcard of Swanson’s in Hughson in 1911. He pointed out that there were “not too many buildings that make note of. In fact, there's not too many trees either. It's kind of barren.”

Attendees were unable to identify the location of Swanson’s in Hughson as one of the earliest buildings.

Starn then handed out a history of the Women’s Improvement Club written by his grandmother, Lula Starn, in 1959 for its 50th anniversary. “There were Women's Improvement Clubs in a lot of towns up and down the valley. They had a statewide association, which they belonged to,” Starn explained. He said the clubs disbanded in 1971, but from the time of their founding until then, they were integral to the City of Hughson. Historical Society members agreed.

“When you read the history, it's really interesting because from 1909 through 1959, the history of the Women's Club parallels the growth and development of Hughson, and you can see exactly how important this club was to Hughson's development,” Starn said. “You have to remember, in 1909, the government wasn't giving out money left and right. It was up to the community themselves to make all the improvements and raise all the money to do all the work. And, of course, who does all the work in most communities?”

Attendees answered, and he agreed, “The women.”

Starn pointed back to the original photo he showed, “Do you notice in this picture it’s devoid of any trees? One of their first projects in 1909 was to plant trees.” Members recalled town events surrounding Arbor Day. Trees were planted and watered by hand before irrigation was in place along the town's main streets.

Carrie Shrader, a member of the Women’s Improvement Club, advocated for tree planting in the park now named after her.

Other activities in the club included aid toward school equipment, school embellishment, school sanitation, school and community library, a community center home, home gardening, holiday celebrations. “The women took on more and more responsibilities in their plan for a more desirable home place.”

Women’s Improvement Clubs still exist around the county and began as part of a national Women’s Club Movement based on the idea that women had a responsibility to help transform public policy and improve social conditions where they lived. In the 1960s, membership waned as women found other opportunities for socializing. According to Martin E. Comas, writing for the Orlando Sentinel, longer work hours and children’s extracurricular activities continue to impact the ability of young women to participate in such organizations.

Hughson continues to enjoy the benefit of fraternal organizations including the Odd Fellowes who recently opened membership to women, the Young Ladies Institute for Catholic women or Knights of Columbus for Catholic men, the American Legion and Sons of the American Legion, the Hughson Lion’s Club chartered in July 2018, and Citizens for a Healthy Community.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on July 20, 2022. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

The Tractor Rodeo and Implement Show began in 1950 through the efforts of Hughson's young homemakers and young farmers. The young farmers went as delegates to a convention in Oregon in 1949. They returned with plans to bring such an event to Hughson, the peach capital of the world, to help the farmers find equipment and learn about new equipment.

Frank Patterson, a former chapter advisor, suggested the Tractor Rodeo as a possibility. Implement and truck dealers brought equipment to the show and added a “rodeo” demonstration. The rodeo was open to all persons, male or female, high school age or over.

The Hughson Tractor Rodeo featured tractor implement dealers. Farm implements were placed along the football field.

A parade was held down Main Street.

It started as a one-day affair and grew to two days. It included a free “bean feed” donated and cooked by local farmers and homemakers in enormous pots purchased from a Portuguese dealer in a nearby town. The beans were baked and served with canned peaches and whipped cream. During the Hughson Tractor Rodeo, four giant pots of beans served the community meal to 2000 people in 20 minutes.

According to Hughson Historical Society Members, people looked forward to the community meal. Some came with their pots to take beans home. After getting through the line, some visitors took their full plates right to the back of the line and ate in line while waiting to go through again.

The Tractor Rodeo included farm clinics, welding clinics, farm safety demonstrations, horse-pulling contests, a street parade and more. The day closed with the presentation of the Dairy Princess Contest Winners.

As one of the youth involved in the Tractor Rodeo, Former Mayor Dave Spears said to the Hughson Historical Society, “The beautiful thing about the Tractor Rodeo was the young farmers. The young farmers developed us as young people, and it put a lifetime tie between all of us.

“I was a peach picker. They were the peach growers and owners, but we were still all family. They taught us a lot of skills and a lot of things to do in and around the community. They taught us skills that the school didn't know how to teach us, but they did it from the ranch: how to communicate and how to come along and work together. They hired a bunch of us because they saw we were willing to get up early and stay late to work and help because we were willing to learn. A lot of the success that went into the Tractor Rodeo goes to all of you people because it was you, as your husbands, your sons, who came alongside us and supported and helped us.”

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on April 24, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

Leticia Cavazos presented, representing the Carranza family, who opened Carranza Pharmacy in 1986, to share about the family.

Cavazos said she comes from a family of 13 children, “My younger brothers and sisters have been very successful, and I think that we couldn't have done it if it wasn't for the older brothers and sisters. We stand on their shoulders.”

The Carranza children of Rosa and Ignacio Carranza are Dolores, Maria de Jesus, Martha, Amador, Ignacio, Maria Luisa, Flora, Amparo, Rosa, Jose Luis, Javier, Leticia, and Alida.

Cavazos described her mother as a firecracker, 4’ 4”, and widowed in 1961 when Cavazos was only four years old and her youngest sibling was nine months old.

According to Cavazos, Rosa said, “We need to go to America to get a better future to give my kids an opportunity.” And so she packed up 12 of her children and one daughter-in-law, and the family went to Tijuana to arrange for their papers to enter the United States. Cavazos recalled the different jobs held by other family members and spoke of their strong work ethic. "Everything you do, you do well. Be proud of the work you do,” she said.

The last of the siblings were able to enter the United States from Tijuana in 1963.

With family in Redwood City, the Carranzas tried to find jobs in the Bay Area, but not everyone could find work. A family member recommended they pick peaches in Hughson. When they arrived, Charlie Bogetti helped them with housing. She recalled that Ignacio worked with Martin Pohl and recognized the roles of Ed Little, Heraldo Chiesa, and Floyd Zeiger, who helped the family get established and find employment. "It was a very welcoming community, for the most part."

Two of her sisters left school to work, giving the younger siblings a better chance. A teacher named Mr. Williams encouraged Jose, the founder of Carranza Pharmacy, not to give up his education to work. "Don't give up on me," he said. Williams found a job for Jose with Bud and Verna Vierra at the pharmacy sweeping up or running the register.

Cavazos said her brother observed what the pharmacist did and realized it was something he also could do one day. People in his life thought it impossible but his response was always, "I'll find a way." Jose attended classes at MJC, starting his day at 4 a.m. to work in the fields and then go to school. He dreamed of opening a bilingual pharmacy. That dream became a reality after graduation and ten years of working at Long’s when Jose opened Carranza Pharmacy in Hughson in 1986.

Cavazos attributes the family’s closeness and successes to what their mother did for them and taught them. "We were the poorest of the poor, but we never felt it," she said. Rosa emphasized the importance of family, a strong work ethic, pride in your work, and always doing your best.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on June 10, 2023. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

And so, in place of the first Tuesday of the month Historical Society Meeting in November 2024, the Hughson Historical Society joined together with the American Legion, Hughson residents, and family members of Howard Hiram “Hi” Hughson in the Pioneer Cemetery at Lakewood Memorial Cemetery and Funeral Home for the long-delayed headstone dedication of Hughson.

Danee Hutsell, pre-planning advisor at the Lakewood ceremony, led the service. In 2023, Hutsell joined the cause and researched how this could have happened. Through their research, Hutsell and Camagna discovered Paul Memorial in Pacific Grove, with Hughson’s niece, Hetty Eddy, handling arrangements for Hughson’s burial in 2006. Hughson’s will expressed the desire to be buried at Lakewood. When Paul Memorial could not reach Eddy by phone to approve the headstone, the design and placement went unapproved. Eddy returned to her home, away from the town, and was told by a family member that the headstone was in place. Over time, the grass began to grow.

When Ken and Carol Lundell discovered Hughson’s uniforms in an antique store in Monterey, they contacted the Historical Society to donate the uniform, a memorial book of photos and other memorabilia from Hughson they found in the shop. This set Past President Janet Camagna on the hunt for more information. She visited Lakewood Cemetery to photograph the gravesite and discovered that for 18 years, no headstone marked the grave.

“It was the Lundell family’s donation of military artifacts and photos, which they gifted the Hughson Historical Society, that sparked my interest in finding his gravesite which led me in a quest to put the wheels in motion to accomplish the goal of giving him the headstone he so richly deserved,” Camagna said.

Howard Hughson was born on September 15, 1918. He was a Navy captain during WWII, and he survived 29 battles in the South Pacific, including Pearl Harbor. He received five silver stars, four bronze stars and a Purple Heart. For 44 years, he lived in Pebble Beach and worked as a banker in Monterey prior to retirement. He died of complications related to cancer on March 26, 2006.

Hughson Historical Society President Cindy Spiro said, “His life journey took him all over the world, and yet he desired to remain in eternal rest in Hughson, California, named after his grandfather. Hiram Hughson. Perhaps he has fond memories of being a young boy visiting his grandparents on the farm. Or maybe he fished at the river, just down the hill. Nobody knows the reason for his decision, but for 18 years, his presence here was unknown.”

Hughson’s cousin, Melinda Garratt Nichols, offered a history of Hughson and his great-grandfather, interweaving the historical narratives that link these two men together across generations in war, injury, and wisdom.

Hughson grew up in Woodland and Piedmont, California, before attending UC Berkeley and law school at the University of Oregon. On February 28, 1941, Hughson was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He was assigned to the destroyer, the USS Maury, in Pearl. Harbor, Hawaii. On the Pacific, Hughson was “a true example of superb leadership,” she said. “Howard had the ability to use his talent, skills, and emotional intelligence to mobilize people to a common cause and make a difference in their lives.”

But it was Eddy’s testimony that highlighted the heart within the man.

Without his own children, Hughson had a warm and kind relationship with his niece. With her and others, “Uncle Hi” was jovial, kind, friendly, and lit up a room with his presence. When he corrected employees, he did it in such a way “that made them strive to do better. He was a person that he could get along with anybody.”

His legacy was passed on to another generation. As Eddy’s son came into adolescence for the first time, Hughson began to share the stories of the battles he had seen and the experiences he had. “My son was very grateful for that,” she said. Time does heal some wounds.”

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on November 19, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications and is committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

The Boggeri Family

Sandro and Arolido Chiesa came to the United States in 1903 from Selvangassi, Italy, encountering New York City and culture shock. According to their great-granddaughter, Angela Pajaro, the two brothers were amazed at the number of churches…and at aerosol cans, subsequently covering the backseat of the car with shaving cream.

Victoria was known for her kindness and compassion, still talked about generations later.

The family worked together to dig out the basement in the Boggeri Hughson farmhouse, leading to legendary stories of family gatherings in that basement centered on food in true Italian tradition.

But on ordinary days, the women worked at the cutting shed. The men worked tirelessly. “Every success they accomplished, they accomplished together.”

Of the 13 descendants of Louis Boggeri, eight still live on the original acreage purchased in 1918.

The Pohl Family

Deronda and Alice Pohl, along with her brother David Pohl, moved from Prussia to Missouri, to Texas, and finally, to Hughson. One move was motivated by neighbors who threatened violence against their dry-goods store during World War II because of their German accent. The family survived the depression by sewing sacks for beans in exchange for free beans each week.

Deronda Pohl played piano, even on the rooftop, while another well-known Hughson resident, Sam Vaughn, played bass.

Martin Pohl designed a peach grader and made other advancements for large-scale farming. Janet suspected her ancestors might look at the advancements and say, “My goodness, son, what have you done with our farm!”

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on August 27. 2019. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

To subscribe to the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch, a print-only weekly newspaper, call 209-358-5311

The Hotel Hughson is not to be confused with another hotel in Hughson’s name built by Luella Hughson, the widow of Hiram Hughson, who opened The Hotel Hughson in Modesto.

Hughson Hotel’s history begins in 1907, when the Gillette Hotel was moved from Ceres to Hughson by Charles Flact and Charles Minniear. The two-story structure was cut in half for the five-mile move along Whitmore Road. The first half was moved by two 65-horsepower island engines and 60 two-headed mules over three weeks. The second half was moved by mules alone and took half a week.

An additional floor was built under the hotel after it arrived on the northwest corner of Hughson Avenue and Third Street. In 1908, the $25,000 three-story Hughson Hotel opened. “It housed drummers traveling through the area and provided lodging for teachers, salesmen, etc. Every room had an outside window view, with the coast range on one side, snow-capped sierras on another, and the endless sweep of the beautiful San Joaquin Valley in front and back.

In its first decade, the town showed outdoor movies projected onto the hotel's wall. James V. Date, Hughson’s first fire commissioner and manager of the Hughson Hotel and next-door livery stable, sponsored the movies to promote local shopping. He built an annex to the left, connecting it to the hotel. The annex housed a barber shop, real estate office, pool hall, and soda and snack concessions.

After 117 years, the Hughson Hotel is still standing. It is now the Odd Fellows Hall at 6943 Hughson Avenue.

The IOOF was chartered in Hughson on April 28, 1922, 102 years ago. Today, you’ll see their mission, “to improve and elevate the character of mankind,” carried out by philanthropic projects and social activities for the entire community to gather and form relationships.

The IOOF was organized in Hughson in 1944. As an international fraternity, the Odd Fellows have existed for centuries, with the earliest documentation from 1730. It exists as one of the oldest fraternal societies. Internationally, its membership totals millions.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on August 4, 2023. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

Vernon and Lawrence “Bud” Vierra shared the family's known history with humor and nostalgia, painting a portrait of the heart and strength of their success, especially from their mother, Eathel. The family legend shares that Frank Oliver's father immigrated from the Azores as a stowaway in a boart. "By the time he got here, he was captain of the ship," they said. The family ended up purchasing land on Clinton Road, though how they arrived in Hughson, the brothers could not say.

Their maternal grandmother lived in the Midwest with her husband and five children. He sent her and their children to Humboldt County and told his wife, "I will follow you in two weeks," Bud said. "They never heard from him again."

From Fortuna to Patterson, the family moved and settled until Eathel met Frank and convinced him to sell the ranch and settle on 6th Street. Vernon was born in 1938, and Bud in 1940. Bud's actual name is Lawrence, but he earned the nickname Buddy when Vernon could not pronounce "brother," so he stayed until he shortened Buddy to Bud in college.

Camagna asked the brothers if specific teachers inspired them to become pharmacists. Bud responded emphatically, "No teachers inspired me," before relaying several stories of his experience at Hughson High School.

"Who inspired you?" Camagna persisted.

"It was Eathel," Vernon said.

The brothers shared that after the owner of Hughson Pharmacy would not allow their mother to purchase a prescription on credit, she determined her two sons would become pharmacists.

Describing life and mischief in Hughson, Bud said, "We knew everybody, and everybody knew us." Those connections down the line impacted their family and the town for generations. In college, Vernon roomed with Ronny Clements, who planned to open a pharmacy. After graduating from UOP, Vernon bought a share of Ceres Drugstore and used the money from Ceres Drug to open Vierra Pharmacy in 1968. Seven years after making his first offer, he purchased Hughson Pharmacy. The Vierras hired Jose Carranza and employed his siblings after he left for college. Carranza would later open Carranza Pharmacy, which still operates in Hughson today.

As the pharmacy landscape changed and health insurance companies heavily impacted the ability of independent pharmacies to earn a profit, the brothers decided to sell the pharmacy and work for larger chains until retirement. They closed the pharmacy in 1992. Bud worked until he turned 80. Vernon worked for twenty years in north Modesto.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on August 4, 2023. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

The Hughson Institute was chartered on May 15, 1949, and remains an active and vibrant part of the parish. Its members range from age 14 to 95.

YLI was founded in San Francisco on September 5, 1887, by Mary E. Richardson, Emily Coogan and Annie Sweeney. Sweeney lived with another young woman who contracted tuberculosis and had no other support than her friends.

The women rallied together to help her.

That decision led to the idea of a society of young Catholic women who could provide material and social assistance to other women. Under the guidance of Fr. John J. Prendergast, Vicar General of the Archdiocese, they petitioned their friends to meet at Washington Hall, 35 Eddy Street in San Francisco. One hundred fifty women came.

Soon, eight institutes were erected in San Francisco, Grass Valley, Nevada City and Benicia. Twenty-five delegates attended YLI’s first convention in St. George Hall on Market Street in San Francisco in April 1888.

Small-sized institutes facilitated members’ ability to provide personal care and service to one another, caring for sick sisters and even assisting with funeral expenses. YLI ran a relief station following the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, utilizing the funds held by the Institute until banks reopened. They helped women with clothing and other material goods. During World War I, members joined the Red Cross and formed the largest unit in San Francisco. They established Catholic centers in neighborhoods of large military camps.

YLI institutes spread to Central California, where the largest concentration of membership exists today.

In Hughson, Mary Pimental, Hazel Genzoli and Doris Mays were among the charter members of Antoinette Institute #193. The local parish priest initiated it, seeking out Pimental to present the idea. He recruited more women from the parish. The group of young women met twice a month and pursued those same ends, material and social support, as the charter members of what is now known as YLI Grand Institute.

Institutes follow Robert’s Rules of Order for their meetings and are led by a president elected annually and officers. The same structure is mirrored at the national level. In the early 1980s, the Grand President initiated the first Grand President’s Program to create ways to address the needs of the local church.

Genzoli’s daughter, Dyan Hollenhorst, is an active member today. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch spoke with Hollenhorst, who said, “It was all founded on the idea of women helping each other.” Today, as during their founding, the heart of their work was to ask, “What does father need? How do we support the community? How do we support each other?”

The Institute produced a monthly newsletter called the “Yak Yak,” which included pregnancy announcements and other news.

Hollenhorst grew up surrounded by that social network. Recalling “a childhood of Christmas, swim parties, and family picnics hosted in conjunction with Knights of Columbus.” She said, “That was where our parents socialized.”

While a branch of YLI exists for Catholic Men, called the Young Men’s Organization, at St. Anthony’s, Hollenhorst said YLI has always been linked with the Knights of Columbus. Wives joined YLI, husbands joined the Knights of Columbus, and the families supported parish life and Catholic action. With this partnership, the women’s only organization did not feel like a group that excluded men because they were “men and women working together for a common mission.”

Hollenhorst joined at 16. “I remember, as a teenager, one of the women having cancer. The other women came together and helped her. I was so young I just knew what YLI was. It was always part of my world.”

When someone died, or a baby was born, other members brought food. “That’s just what you did in their time of great need.” She said, “I knew that’s what we did, but I never understood the impact until it was my mother we were burying, and this group of women just came together and carried me through this life event.”

As a young mother, she said, “It was the idea of experiencing an evening out with women friends that attracted her back to the institution.”

Charter member Mary Pimental drew Hollenhorst into serving as an officer. “One of the beautiful things about YLI is the leadership and opportunities for leadership and growth that it gives.”

As Hollenhorst’s children grew, she returned to college and graduated from California State University Stanislaus in 2002. She earned her masters from the Franciscan School of Theology in 2008 and became Chancellor of the Stockton Diocese in 2018. Without the leadership skills she learned in YLI, Hollenhorst said she would not be where she is today.

The women’s organization, where “We can be wholeheartedly unapologetically ourselves,” started as a sisterhood of young women and has evolved into an intergenerational organization. You can have sisters, aunts, surrogate moms or grandmas; we span all the generations. The young ones keep us young and can help with some of the activities we used to do but, physically, maybe we can’t anymore. We share the wisdom that we’ve gained. We’ve learned from each other.”

YLI Grand President Esther Vasquez attended the anniversary celebration in Hughson.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on May 21, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

The Hughson Post boasts over 220 members. Roy Santiago, Past Post Commander and Charter Member of the American Legion Scranton & Qualle Post 872, described the American Legion as ”a community within a community.” Because it was chartered east of Santa Fe Avenue, members include those from Denair, Salida, Riverbank, Coulterville, Waterford, Hickman, and beyond.

The four highlighted the service of many of Hughson’s heroes. “People today might be indifferent because it wasn’t high profile. We go where we’re sent. We do the job we’re tasked with, and we try to provide honor to our community and family,” Santiago said.

The American Legion was founded in 1919 by an Act of Congress by World War I veterans in Paris, France. It is open to all branches of the military regardless of combat experience. “One day of service makes you eligible,” Santiago said.

In Hughson, September 11, 2001, inspired the gathering of 22 veterans at the home of Bank of the West manager Janice Pimentel. The post was chartered in May 2002 as the Scranton and Qualle Post 872. While other names were suggested, those of Scranton and Qualle, who came from Hughson and served together in the army in World War II, fought together in the Philippines in the Battle of Bataan and survived. The two returned to Hughson and owned businesses in town. “They were totally committed to the town itself,” Santiago said. “Other names were brought up, but the two combined because they were so well-known together. It was a no-brainer that the membership voted that way.”

When chartered, John Taylor was the first elected Commander, followed by Roy Santiago, Stephanie Early call me, Steve Severn, Roy Simmons, Steve Bridgeman and Craig Cook. Taylor and Santiago would go on to be elected as 12th District Commander. In 2007, The American Legion Rider, a “club within a club,” was formed for motorcycle enthusiasts. In 2015, Keith Early made his historic ride on his motorcycle from Hughson to Baltimore, Maryland, to raise money for legacy scholarships.

Stephanie Early was one of the first female members and quickly became the first Vice President to represent Area 3. Early now resides in Florida.

The Sons of the American Legion Squadron was founded in 2007. In 2015, the Squadron was nationally recognized for donating more than $2,500 to child welfare foundations.

An American Legion Auxiliary Branch was created in 1919 for the male and female spouses, grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and direct and adopted female descendants of members of The American Legion. As its membership in Hughson waned, the Auxiliary merged with the Ceres chapter and now meets in Modesto.

The American Legion's foundation is called the “Four Pillars”: Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation, Americanism, Children and Youth, and National Security. Having established the US Flag Code, the American Legion helps to educate citizens on the appropriate handling of the American Flag. The organization has presented on Americanism in Hughson schools.

In 2015, Roy Santiago received the National Veterans Advocate of the Year award.

The American Legion donated State Caps from awards won to the Hughson Historical Museum and invited members to attend the Laying of the Wreath at the Hughson Veteran Memorial at 8 a.m. on May 27. “We lay a wreath just like they do at Arlington. We will honor the veterans from our town as long as there are people to remember,” Santiago said.

“It’s a labor of love to do some of these funerals, burials, and the ceremonies of Memorial Day. Some of us still live with a lot of issues,” Santiago explained, including spiritual, mental, and physical disability, and “survivor’s guilt over those who died on our watch.”

The Legion advocates for veterans and their families. Although nonpartisan and nonsectarian, its speeches and memorials display a strong religious emphasis; as Santiago said, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”

While material support and policy advocacy are important parts of the work of the American Legion, each presenter spoke movingly of the “brotherhood” that arises when veterans gather together, whether or not they speak directly about their military experiences.

“It’s a brotherhood you can call on. I’ve been the recipient of phone calls in the middle of the night when someone is at their darkest moments. I’ve been fortunate to talk some people out of that scenario,” Santiago said.

“I’ve seen things that I wish no one would have seen,” Ball said. Simmons and Ball spoke of the experience of living with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and the help of other Legion members and volunteer work to help them keep going. “We all have our issues, and we all come together and talk to one another, and that is what brotherhood is all about. We’re there for each other,” Simmons said.

And despite the challenges, members expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to serve and their willingness to do it again for the sake of their country.

After the presentation, Historical Society President Cindy Spiro said, “Thank you so much for your dedication to the service and to Hughson. This has been very meaningful for all of us who have family who served—for what you’ve done to protect our country to protect our way of life.”

For more information on the American Legion Scranton & Qualle Post 872 or to donate, contact Roy Santiago by phone at 408-891-6835, email at prhman@yahoo.com, or via PO BOX 178 Hughson CA 95326.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on May 21, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

Presenting the life of their mother, Barbara and George connected the details of Jo Eda Harcrow’s life to historical information, adding richness and vividness to their presentation. The eulogy, written by Ada Maria Harcrow and read by George Harcrow, conveyed the deep love and affection felt by many family members. “She had been Nana to more than we can count,” George read.

Harcrow was born in 1920, the year that women were given the right to vote, as one of five children in Texas. Her father was a working cowboy. To pay the doctor following their baby’s birth, her father bartered to break in a new horse for the doctor.

At age 14, Harcrow met Shands Harcrow, a friend of one of her older brothers. He said to her, “Don't pay any attention to the other guys because when you grow up, I'm going to marry you.” And that he did. In 1938, the two eloped when she was 18 years old. They were married for 53 years before he died.

The couple, with their first child, relocated to California, driven out of Texas by the severity of the Dust Bowl. Harcrow would live in Hughson for 70 years before her passing.

Together they had five children, Ada Maria, Don, Joe, George and Shands.

In 1942, Hacrow joined the “millions of Rosie the Riveters,” supporting the war effort and working in a shipyard as a chipper burner. George recalled seeing scars along her shoulders and chest where shards of hot metal fell from the area of a ship she was cutting.

George and Barbara recalled Harcrow’s rocking chair where she sat and hummed “Jesus Loves You” or “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” When you heard the “de dum” of the chair, they explained, “you knew you were loved.”

Harcrow was a founding member of the Southern Baptist Church in Ceres. “She did everything but drive the bus — and I did that!” George said.

“Nana’s family were her friends and her friends were her family,” Barbara said shared how she could hear her mother on the monitors in the weeks before she died praying for the family by name and friends she encountered.

Harcrow was a pioneering spirit who never stopped taking the initiative to learn new things. To learn piano, she studied through a mail-order program. She took up the organ and volunteered as a church organist for 32 years. She taught Sunday school to three generations.

Barbara highlighted “Twenty interesting things about Jo Eda “Nancy” Harcrow” and displayed the different facets of her life as wife, mother, musician, cook, maker of greeting cards, cake decorator, Sunday school teacher, seamstress, quilter, crocheter, and traveler.

Barbara played three short recordings that illustrated her mischievous and adventurous childhood and playful humor in her final days. These recordings, photos, memorabilia and colorful, dynamic stories introduced Jo Eda “Nancy” Harcrow in a personal and striking way to those present who may never have met her. Barbara concluded, “She was my most unforgettable character.”

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on November 15, 2022. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

Each year, the dinner honors prominent or longstanding residents of the City of Hughson. Honorees create displays of family photographs and artifacts and present their families' history in Hughson. Sarah Cunningham presented a longer version of their history at the dinner.

Ham Cunningham was born on August 6, 1930, in Knob, Arkansas, the eighth of nine children, to sharecroppers Jess and Lee Cunningham. There, they grew row crops on 40 acres with two mules. The farm is still there, although the house is no longer. Dick recalled his grandmother spent time canning, preserving. They had livestock: cows, pigs, and chickens. Whatever cash came in from the crops was used for the bare necessities.

In 1937, the Dust Bowl “drove them all out.” The family moved to California in a truck owned by Lee’s brother, Owen. Lee did not know how to drive, and Owen drove the Cunninghams and some neighbors to Waterford, California.

There, Ham attended grammar school until the family moved to Empire, where his father went to work at the Lucksinger farm. He then attended Modesto High School. In his spare time, Ham worked at the farm with his father, especially during the summer, harvesting fruit. He also worked for Max Foster, then a turkey farmer, before Foster Farms entered the dairy business.

In 1946, while traveling back to California after visiting family and friends in Arkansas, Ham drove. According to Dick, Ham must have gotten tired, and Lee took over. “He probably was not a good driver,” Dick said since Lee had little experience of it. Lee and one of his daughters died in a car accident. Ham and his mother survived with injuries.

To help support his mother, Ham quit high school as a senior to go to work. His first job was at Borden's Creamery in Modesto, stacking milk cans in boxcars, earning $0.60 to $0.90 per hour.

Lorraine (Willson) Cunningham was born March 9, 1932, at home in Empire, California, to Louie and Lena Willson. Louie farmed and raised turkeys and chickens. Lena worked in the Empire School cafeteria. Lorraine attended elementary school in Empire and then graduated from Modesto High School.

Ham and Lorraine married at The Church of The Brethren in Empire on February 12, 1950, and lived in a one-bedroom house on Scenic Drive in Modesto on a farm leased by Lorraine's father.

Ham worked at Olsen Brothers Eggs as a truck driver, picking up eggs from the farm and then later delivering the eggs to stores. Lorraine worked as a secretary at the Pontiac dealership in Modesto. In 1952, Ham and Lorraine bought their first home, a three-bedroom house on Cloverdale Avenue in Modesto. After their sons, Kenneth Stephen and Richard Paul were born, they moved to Service Road in Hughson, where Ham and Lorraine leased a one-bedroom house and a chicken barn to raise chickens for JS West.

“We couldn’t wait until we got out of the chicken business because we were all in it as kids. We got to gather eggs,” Dick said. “We didn’t have the privilege Dad had of shoveling manure.”

Cindy Elaine was born in 1957. Three years later, Ham and Lorraine became full-time almond farmers and started an almond shelling business.

The kids attended Gratton School. Ham and Lorraine volunteered for the Gratton PTA and the Gratton Pit BBQ. “They were both very proud of the success of the Pit BBQ,” Dick said.

The family moved to 11131 John Fox Road in 1967, where a new almond huller was built. Ham planted almonds on the former dairy on John Fox Road and managed the farms of others, including George Foster, who farmed all of Foster's almonds.

Ham would spend many hours helping to expand and improve Hughson Youth Baseball. Dick remembers his father coaching some attendees at the meeting before he was young enough to play. Ham continued to coach, even after his children outgrew the program. Dick and his father coached one team side-by-side. Sarah Cunningham, Dick’s daughter, is current the president of Hughson Youth Baseball/Softball.

Ham was a founding board member of the California Almond Hullers Association, now known as the Almond Alliance. Ham served on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Vista Family and Child Services for 25 years. Lorraine was involved in the Hughson Methodist Church and was a founding board member of the Hughson Family Resource Center and the Hughson Historical Society.

“My mom was dedicated to her family most of all,” Dick said. “For 70 years, the Cunninghams have been part of Hughson.”

Historical Society founding member Jean Henley said to Dick at the close of his presentation, “One thing about your mom, Lorraine, if you lived in a community, you got involved in the community, and that was Lorraine.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “that was mom.”

Lorraine died in 2011. Ham now lives in Missouri.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on July 9, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

In his presentation, Vito Chiesa, who also serves as the Stanislaus County Supervisor, spoke of the “Italian colony in Hughson” and admitted his family does not have the roots so many other long-standing citizens can claim, like those who came on wagon trains over a century ago. Instead, the Chiesa family, led by Aroldo Chiesa, planted its roots in Hughson in the early 20^th century in California when 27-year-old Aroldo Chiesa, an immigrant sponsored by his aunts and uncles, driving his newly purchased Ford, met 15-year-old Mary Chiesa at the California Ballroom.

Before that, Vito described his family in Italy as “survivalists,” living in the hills, bartering for the essentials they needed, having little else, not even a bicycle. Caught up in the war, Aroldo was a boy sent up farther into the hills with the family cattle, crying himself to sleep as Mussolini’s army took the remaining cattle, attacked women, and stole whatever other resources they could along the way.

When Aroldo came to America at age 23, “America was like Disneyland,” he said.

After twelve months in his new country, he purchased his first automobile.

“My dad was a proud American,” Vito said. He did not teach them Italian but rather left his native language behind. He learned English and Spanish and, in his last days, reverted to speaking Spanish again rather than his first language.

American roots go farther back on Mary’s side, with ancestors fought for the Union and for the Confederacy. “But that’s history,” Vito said. Mary graduated early, married, and had three children in quick succession by the time she was twenty. The Chiesas farmed, connected to relatives and other Italians who came from nearby and raised the children with the virtues and values they brought with them.

Vito spoke humbly of his accomplishments and those of his siblings. “We’re just riding the coattails of our parents. They laid the groundwork for us and gave us the opportunity to succeed, and it's our job and our kid's jobs not to screw that up.”

After he finished his brief outline of the family history of Hughson, Historical Society member Betty Schweiker said, “That’s the story of every family here: born of poverty, knowing how to work, knowing how to do without and willing to make a change to make your life better whether you’re Portuguese, Italian, Oakie, whatever —we’re all the same. We all came from that same hard rock, hard, tough people.”

“When you think about these immigrants,” Vito said, “There are a lot of people being persecuted around the world, and some people say, ‘close the border,’ but look around this room.” Vito estimated that every person in that room had a parent or grandparent who came to America for the same dream. “Those people come here for a better life, to work, and they work hard.”

Vito said he and his family are trying to pass these values on to the next generation, the American dream of hope and possibility. “You have to keep that dream alive for people. There’s a place to start, and there’s a place to move onto.”

For a deeper glimpse into life before and during the Second World War, Vito recommended Mark Sullivan's book “Beneath a Scarlet Sky” (2017). It reflects the experience of a young man the same age as Chiesa’s father.

Vito’s presentation preceded the Hughson Historical Society Long-Standing Citizen Appreciation Dinner on August 17 at 6 p.m. at St. Anthony’s Hughes Hall, 7820 Fox Road in Hughson. Following the dinner, the Chiesa and Cunningham families presented their family histories to nearly 200 attendees.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on August 20, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is a weekly, print-only local newspaper. To subscribe, call 209–358-5311.

Hiram Hughson grandson of a Revolutionary War veteran (George Hughson III, d. 1836), and the son to Nicholas M. Hughson (b. 1801), a farmer, schoolteacher and county treasurer in New York. Nicholas married Charlotte Duncan from Edinburgh, Scotland. Together they had ten children. Hiram was the fifth. He was born in 1830 in New York, Middleburg, Schoharie County. At 12, his family moved to Chenango County, New York when he was 12 where he attended public schools and finished at the Norwich Academy. At 16, Hiram moved to Elmira, New York, where he worked as a clerk at R.E. Covell Land Company, a dry goods general store, for four years, then at a general merchandise dry goods store in Norwich, New York, with his brother.

One of his brothers’ grandsons, William “Billy” L. Hughson, opened the first Ford dealership in San Francisco in 1903.

Luella Rosalie Avery was the daughter of farmer Demas Avery (b. 1822) and Mary Maria Reed (1826-1914), a descendant of Mayflower pilgrims. Together, they had seven children, three of whom were born in Lee County, Iowa. Luella was born in 1850. She came with her parents and brother, Norman Mortimer, to California by covered wagon. The six-month journey brought them to Stockton, California. In 1856, they moved to Columbia, Tuolumne County, where Demas mined for gold. Luella’s two sisters, Ida Mae (b. 1857) and Emma (b. 1860) were both born in Columbia.

In 1857, Hiram Hughson left New York for California on the “Star of the West” steamer, crossing the isthmus of Panama and taking the steamer “John L. Stephens” the rest of the way. He arrived in San Francisco, California, after five months and worked in Marysville as a clerk at a dry goods store called Kirby and Burns.” As Hiram worked in the store, he saw many men come fin from the mines with gold. He decided to go and dig his wealth out of the ground.”

Hiram began digging outside Grass Valley and Downieville in the mountains of Forest City and Monte Cristo. He bought an interest in the Keystone Mine, which was worked by a tunnel running 1000 ft back into the mountains. The mine was a failure.

Hiram left San Francisco for the Fraser River mines in British Columbia. The mines failed again.

He returned to San Fransisco.

In 1859, Hiram worked for George Walton on his ranch for six months before being hired by John Cambel to deliver beef cattle to the mines of Monte Cristo. Now successful, he went into the cattle business himself.

At his brother's urging, he returned to New York to take over the dry goods store. The money could not compare to his earnings in California, so in 1860, he sailed back to California, settled in Stockton and rented farmland. He put in a crop, plowed 120 acres with a single plow, and sowed it half wheat and half barley. When it matured, he harvested, hauled and stacked it. Hiram paid 10 cents a bushel for Tom Marshall to thresh it using a horsepower machine. For his workers, Hiram provided room and board. The wheat was sold to Sperry’s Mill, now Sperry’s Flour Mill, in Stockton.

In the winter of 1861-2, Hiram bought 100 head of cattle from Henry Post, paying him with money, a wagon horse and outfit. The Great Flood of 1861 wiped out all but one dozen cattle.

He rented farmland again, grew and harvested barley, and sold mining supplies to mountain settlements. His wagon train traveled to Sonora and Columbia, among other mining towns.

At this time, Luella was a schoolteacher in her teens at the Old Red Brick Schoolhouse in Columbia. “One time when Hiram’s wagon train passed through Columbia, he caught the eye of 15-year-old Luella Rosalie Avery,” Garrett said. “It was love at first sight.”

When the railroad came through, Hiram abandoned the teaming business. He rented 1,500 acres of land from Al Wood, working it until he bought his first ranch in 1863 five miles southeast of Stockton on Hogan and Sonora Roads, purchased from and within the “Rancho Del Campo de las Franeeses” 48,747 acres from a, 1844 Mexican Land Grant. Today, it is known as French Camp.

Demas and Mary Maria moved their family to Stockton in 1864. There, Hiram and Luella were married on November 21, 1867.

Hiram farmed his first ranch, where six of their eleven children were born. The family lived there for fourteen years until 1876. Beginning with the birth of their first child, Bell, in 1866, the couple welcomed a new child each year for eleven years.

In a farming accident in 1871, Hiram lost his left arm “from a spring of his mowing machine,” Garrett said. “He was thrown against the scythe. An unfortunate happening, just like what happened to Hiram’s grandfather, George Hughson III, who lost his arm in the Revolutionary War. It was recorded that Hiram Hughson said in later years after he had made his million and was rated one of the most successful ranchers in the valley ‘that he never had been able to make a success of anything until he lost his arm, when he commenced to use his head a little, instead of his strength altogether.’”

The next year, he purchased an additional 500 acres for $5000, just $10 per acre, farmed it, made improvements and sold it for $25,000. Four years later, he sold his first ranch.

The advent of the combine harvester in 1880 was a boon for Hiram, who used his mule teams to pull it. At times, he owned as many as 60 mules to pull the combine, which cut, threshed, and stacked the wheat as it went over the field, covering 40 acres per day. Mule teams hauled the grain to the town of Keyes, where it was shipped by train.

In 1884, Hiram began to build his family farmhouse on his 5000-acre ranch. The two-story, white Victorian farmhouse still stands at 3423 Tully Rd just outside Hughson’s city limits. To build it, Mary Hudelson Stetson, related to Hiram by marriage, helped build it. The Stetsons lived in the house from 1884 to 1886 before Hiram and his family moved into it, hauling their possessions from Stockton by wagon in 1886, where they would remain for 15 years. The Hiram Hughson house would then pass to the Raitts from 1902 to 1908 before T.B. Michaels bought it. It would remain in the Michaels family for approximately 100 years.

“The house was a mansion in those times. 3,700 square feet, six bedrooms, 5 ½ bathrooms, large rooms, numerous built-ins, lots of closet storage, solid redwood frame with lath and plaster walls. Luella ordered two large gold leaf orate wall stand-up mirrors from New York that traveled to California via ship, then train to mule-driven wagons to the Hughson Ranch House,” Garett said. Those mirrors remain in place today.

Once a year, Hiram bought a train box car full of supplies for his family, including cloth, flour, sugar, coffee, etc. His granddaughter, Evelyn, recalled visiting the Hughson Ranch House. “Hiram would meet her at the Train Depot with a horse-drawn carriage. She said, ‘it was such a fun time out in the country, and Grandpa always gave me a silvery dollar.’”

In 1888, Hiram and Luella’s eleventh and last child, Lester Roy Hughson, was born.

In 1890, the ranch increased to 7,000 acres, all south of the Tuolumne River. Hiram drove his 10-mule team to one of the properties and back each day, plowing and harvesting seven acres a day.

In 1899, Hiram donated one-acre plot of land at Tully and Whitmore roads for the construction of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1908, the church relocated to Locust and Second Street.

In the early 1900s, the San Joaquin Railroad purchased land from Hiram for their tracks. Hiram gave 100 feet wide right of way through his acreage plus a plot of land for the train depot to be built. The train depot and station became known as the “Hughson Stop.”

Hiram would say, “Water was the mother of growth in the San Joaquin Valley, and the father was the railroad.” Garrett said. “Hiram helped lay out his namesake town of ‘Hughson’ with wide streets so that a huge wagon pulled by four horses hitched could make a u-turn when necessary.”

The Hughson township was founded in 1907. It was incorporated in 1972. Hughson placed his land in the hands of the Hughson Town Company under the direction of Charles Flack and C.W. Minniear. John Tully, who owned as section of land south of Hughson, opened his land for settlement. Both land transfers allowed the town of Hughson to be born.

The rail remained an important part of the town fo Hughson, bringing people in and shipping food in and out. The rail brought mail multiple times a day, and took passengers from Hughson to Modesto and back. The Hughson Train Station was torn down in the 1950s.

The children of Hiram and Luella continued to spread out. Hiram ranched, bought, and sold grain with his son George Washington Hughson, who acted as a private banker lending to individuals and business firms. He died in 1911 at 72 years old.

In 1913, Luella bought a 50 x 110-foot lot at the northeast corner of Tenth and J Streets in Modesto for $10,000, and she planned to build an elegant hotel, which she would name “The Hughson Hotel.” It was the largest hotel in Modesto and the “finest in the San Joaquin Valley.”

It opened in 1914. It is a six-story building with a basement and garden on the roof and a 36-foot redwood flag pole from which the American flag flew every day. The flagpole and flag now stand at Modesto Pioneer Cemetery as a monument.

The lower level had a dining room and grill. The mezzanine floor overlooked “the gracious lobby with ladies’ parlor, writing room, hairdressing and manicure parlor.” There were 110 rooms with 40 private baths. The entire Hotel Hughson provided steam heat, and all rooms had hot and cold water. The hotel had an elevator, and half of the top floor was devoted to an immense ballroom. There was a swimming pool in the basement.

Luella occupied two rooms in the hotel until 1926.

Luella was honored as “Queen of Modesto” during the Modesto Centennial Celebration. In 1950, she was quoted in the Modesto Bee answering the question, “How to live much longer than a human’s normal lifespan?”

She answered, “Possibly the way things were in my day…no washing machines, no electric lights, no automobiles, no vacuum cleaners, no ‘sitters’ for children…naturally made one healthy, if not rugged.”

On October 25, 1951, Luella died at age of 102.

Hiram and Luella are buried in the Modesto Pioneer Cemetery.

The Hotel Hughson was torn down in 1998. In its place stands Tenth Street Place, home of the new City Hall and County Building.

In 1907, the Gilette Hotel was moved from Ceres to Hughson by Charles Flact and Charles Minniear. The two-story structure was cut in half for the five-mile move along Whitmore Road. The first half was moved by two 65 horsepower island engines and 60 two head of mules over three weeks. That was too troublesome and unnecessary. The second half was moved by mules alone and took half a week.

An additional floor was built under the hotel after it arrived on the northwest corner of Hughson Avenue and Third Street. In 1908, the $25,000 three-story Hughson Hotel was open. “It housed drummers traveling through the area and provided lodging for teachers, salesmen, etc. Every room had an outside window view, with the coast range on one side, snow-capped sierras on another, and the endless sweep of the beautiful San Joaquin Valley in front and back.

In its first decade, the town showed outdoor movies projected onto the wall of the hotel. James V. Date, Hughson’s first fire commissioner and manager of the Hughson Hotel and nextdoor livery stable, sponsored the movies to promote local shopping. He built an annex to the left, connecting it to the hotel. The annex housed a barber shop, real estate office, pool hall, and soda and snack concessions.

After 117 years, the Hughson Hotel is still standing. It is now the Odd Fellows Hall at 6943 Hughson Avenue.

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on June 18, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

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Painting Wonder: How Pauline Baynes Illustrated the World of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by Katie Wray Schon is Waxwing Books’ latest release, hitting bookshelves on April 1, 2025.

Like many, I had never heard of Pauline Baynes, who died in 2008 after a long, full artist’s life. She was born in 1922 and moved to India, where her earliest memories took place. The illustrations by Katie Wray Schon are sweet and simply drawn, imagining the places and girlhood of Pauline Baynes. The story itself reads as many picture biographies of illustrators reads. The illustrator in question lived and experienced wonder, darkness and rediscovered beauty and the world through art and books.

What makes this story of Pauline Baynes worth telling other than her claim to fame in connection with Tolkien and Lewis?

What can Wray Schon add to the bookshelves of biographies?

Wray Schon allows the reader to bask longer in the wonder of books, inviting the reader into the interior wonder of the subject. The concept that reading takes us places is no surprise to any reader. But by slowing down the story with, sometimes, a mere five words on a page, the author invites us to be present and stay a moment and face the challenges of school isolation, of not fitting in, and then comes the wonder of story books.

Wray Schon takes us places through her illustrations as her titular character visits the faraway lands in storybooks. The book is rife with rabbit trails, as Sarah MacKenzie calls them. Readers may walk away with a library list to read Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Dr. Dolittle, inspiring books from an older era, along with Lewis and Tolkien, though if they have the excitement my children had about this book, they are already well acquainted with Narnia and Middle-Earth.

Personally, I like the emphasis on The Jungle Book, which takes place in India. Not only is it a source of imaginary travel for the titular character, but also at homecoming, and that familiar quality of story books is so important over a lifetime. When we return to a book, we feel we are returning to something familiar, comforting, and good. Books not only take us places, but they can also give us a sense of home when we have been taken from our homes or grown so old we can no longer visit the places of our childhood hearts.

We see Baynes begin her career like so many, and that time was interrupted by World War II, as it was so for many. Wray Schon communicates to the reader that this interruption is not an obstacle to be overcome but something that fuels her career later. If the readers are primarily interested in this artist because of her work with Lewis and Tolkien, they will be particularly interested in the fact that she illustrated maps for the British Navy during World War II. The work we do can feed our passion and enhance our skills, leading us to the breakthrough an artist needs to reach Bayne’s level.

“They fly from past to present from her hands all the way to yours. Book in hand, you only need to open it a crack to let a burst of wonder from Pauline's pictures shine through.”

That is the story.

Because of what books did for her, we, the readers of Narnia and Middle-Earth, can experience the same gift of books taking us to faraway places. It is a timeless gift that has been passed on. These are the messages that Wray Schon draws out of the life of Pauline Baynes.

My children love the little dragon courting for Lewis’s attention. They love the nuggets of stories in the illustrations that connect them to Bayne’s, like a mutual friend. As the parent reader, what I loved best was the back matter, more about Pauline. She meets the love of her life late in life, and they marry, but they are unable to have children.

Ten years later, he died.

But one day, his daughter “whom he lost track of during World War II in Germany, contacts Baynes.” Baynes became close to Fritz's children and their children. Through them, she received the gift of a family she never thought she would have.

“It was,” she said, “like something magical coming back at me through a wardrobe.”

Here, more than anywhere else in the story, I think we experience the final conclusion of what Katie Wray Schon is about in this story.

Books take us places.

They introduce us to a timelessness of magic that is unthinkable outside of them or outside of God and spirituality.

We enter the wardrobe through a picture book. We return back home again.

But with our imaginations in life and the world inside, the wardrobe comes back to us even apart from the book.

Painting Wonder paints a path into the world of dreams.

Katie Wray Schon dares to make the connection of these fantastical stories to everyday life. It is a connection we need to remember. Fantasy stories are not meant to be merely an escape from life but an invitation to live life deeper. And that is the wonder of it all.

If this is so, then When Grief Comes Home: A Gentle Guide for Living Through Loss While Supporting Your Child by Jessica’s House Directors Erin Nelson and Colleen Montague is the book that can help you process what you're tasting as you begin to swallow the bitter pill of grief.

But first, what is Jessica’s House?

Jessica’s House seeks to support “children who have experienced the death of a parent or sibling by providing a safe place for healing and expression. The death of a parent or sibling before the age of 18 is known to be one of the most traumatic and challenging experiences for children and adolescents and is associated with a range of adverse outcomes. Unsupported grief carries many risk factors, which is why Jessica’s House is focused on providing opportunities for connection and shared experiences through our unique peer support groups.”

Jessica’s House began in 2012 to bring grief support to the community through peer support groups for children grieving a loss. In 2021, Jessica’s House opened its new permanent home in Turlock.

There, 800 individuals from 38 surrounding cities have the option to participate in one of nine specialized peer support groups as well as a school group program at various school sites in Stanislaus and Merced counties, including in Hughson Unified School District. Grief Support Groups include parent loss, sibling loss, hope after suicide, hope after homicide, hope after accidental overdose, COVID-19 loss, grandparent loss, HeartStrings (pregnancy loss, infant loss and stillbirth), and groups offered in Spanish.

The tone of everything from the generous staff and volunteers is gentle, kind, and expansive, helping the speaker make space by modeling the action of pausing, taking time, and listening.

Decades of learning how to work with children and their parents, decades of facing personal tragedy and loss, has led to this masterpiece of not so much a self-help book, as a companion and guide through the process of grieving in book form, as if they distilled all those talks and actions from those peer support groups and presented them here to take alongside your grief, something to help it go down.

When Grief Comes Home is a book to help put into words the experience you are facing in grief.

When I receive a book to review, I approach it with the goal of speed, get it read, get the review read, get it posted.

–– This book cannot be read that way. Not if you have known grief.

I read, I sat, I waited to be ready to read again.

Chapter Four: “When You are Grieving Your Child”

“Studies on bereaved parents show that yearning is the primary emotional response.”

Yes.

Chapter Three: “When You are Grieving Your Partner”

“You may feel untethered.”

Yes. This is the exact word my widowed friend used to describe her experience a year after his death.

• Learn the vocabulary.

• Experience the sense that others have trod this path before.

• Gain some coping skills expertly described – I know, I’ve tried teaching and writing out how to practice deep breathing. They do it better.

• Try out some low-effort/big-impact activities for you and your child.

• Reflect with questions, pause with a poem, “benediction” at the end of each chapter.

“My family has known grief,” I tell strangers when I need to introduce something I am about to say related to my daughter Celeste, who died during birth from anencephaly, after months of waiting for her birth and death.

I was lucky. Because my son had already come so harrowingly close to dying, because they could see I was not doing well, the hospital connected me with a counselor from palliative care who taught me the skills to face those dark emotions, walk through that forest of the unknown, discover the treasures therein, and come out the other another side, marked by the experience –yes, but made new through it as well.

Most people do not have the support I had.

And Jessica’s House is here. We did not access their services. I learned from a Child Life Specialist named Adrian, who sat on the hospital room floor with my children while Celeste lay without the breath of life in her and painted rocks with them, making space for their grief, however, they might process it. Adrian talked me through how to talk to my children.

Most people do not have the support I have.

And even though centers like Jessica’s House are growing in number and services are free, they are still too little known and may still be too far.

Now, their wisdom is here, a book to help you through the process of grief, to understand it in all its different iterations. It begins by identifying our unique grief, whether for a partner or child, and goes on to help the reader process the many steps and challenges of grief for both the adult reader and his or her child.

I want every grieving parent to have this book.

Even now, on what would have been my daughter’s eighth birthday (March 2), I realize as I finished Chapter 16, “Enlarging Your Soul” that I have some work to do today to get back in touch with that place of feeling in my heart, a place I often wish I could silence because of its intensity, both in joy and sorrow.

Please consider picking up a copy today, either for yourself, for someone who you love who has lost, or to have at the ready should you find yourself in need of a way to show love to someone you love.

When Grief Comes Home: A Gentle Guide for Living Through Loss While Supporting Your Child is sold at all the major booksellers. Proceeds will go directly to the support of Jessica’s House.

The former Yesterday’s Books spent an hour going through plastic bags of old covers people brought in and paid pennies on the dollar for a third of them. Lightly Used Books will take up your spines and pay you nothing.

I do not know what happens next in the process at Lightly Used Books. At the central check-out kiosk stacks of books act as a wall between spaces. Owner Jenni Brannan has handed the keys to another who works by day, posting Instagram bulletins and blurbs about the shops, answers and attending to customers, but lacks the cheerful familiarity Brannon brought to the business. And although she seemed disinterested when I suggested relocating of my favorite author from general to classics, during my next visit, I saw the move was made. The 1930s Nobel Prize winner, Sigrid Undset, was where she belonged, with the classics.

Lightly Used Books is the place for the hunt, a place with low stakes to try something new. I bought more poetry there than anywhere. I do not know where it comes from. Where are these great poetry lovers. Perhaps it is the fruit of a university town of frequently a bookshop in a university town.

There is plenty of general fiction, old cookbooks and decorating books and a large religion section with Christianity's greatest megachurch hits. The children's section is the place where you can fund unexpected treasures and give-a-way drivel, but few of the new prize winners.

It is a destination worth setting, even if I miss seeing Brannon’s smiling face and the way she called my children “love” and made them feel loved just by the way she answered the questions.

Bookstores are more than books. They are community spaces, research destinations and third spaces ripe for a relationship, be it the meet-cute, the budget date or the budding friendship. However, this favorite place of mine evolves, I’ll be back to travel along with it.

This piece originally ran in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on January 28, 2025, a weekly print-only newspaper committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with permission.

Updated to add:

On February 15, Lightly Used Books announced it is closing its doors for the last time on March 30. The cost of rent, the construction blocking its entrance for what would have been three of its busiest months, and the challenges of running a business that sells low-cost goods in this high-cost world, have made it impossible to continue operations in a brick-and-mortar location. The business will continue online only.

Lightly Used Books sales dropped after the opening of Bookish in Modesto, and with these factors, along with almost no in-house events, foot traffic continued to remain low.

It’s a point of sorrow to me that a region with over 300,000 people cannot sustain two used bookstores. Stay tuned for my thoughts on bookstores role in the community and some ideas on what might be their saving grace.