Seeking info re: Margaret Cobb (b. 1871) from SoHum

Hi everyone,

I was contacted by someone seeking information on Margaret Cobb, author (authoress ?) of Blaxine , which Cobb published in 1910 (quite a story and I urge you to click the link if you haven’t read my post). 

Anyone out there with stories, documents or photos?  I am confident that anything you have and are willing to share  would be very much appreciated…

If you can help, please email lynette.mullen@gmail.com

Thanks !

~L

Make Your ART Your Business

I am currently helping at the North Coast Small Business Development Center part-time (in addition to the D.A.’s Office) and am organizing “Flights” , which are 7-8 month programs targeting specific types of small businesses.

This has nothing to do with history, but thought I’d take advantage of my blog’s listing on the North Coast Journal’s Blog Watch to help get the word out. You can also email me at the SBDC at mullen@northcoastsbdc.org for more info or to get an application.

North Coast SBDC Art Flight Info

Local homeless camps

Today I took a “tour” of some of our local homeless camps, where I saw ragged tents that served as homes tucked into the brush, tarps stretched over the worn canvas as extra protection from any rain.  I saw nylon cords strung through the trees where faded shirts washed who-knows-where hung to dry on this incredibly sun-shiny day.  I also overheard a woman say she was cleaning up her camp, but was keeping the one ugly tarp hung up in the corner of the clearing because it provided privacy when she “piddled”.

I heard people with beautifully sweet smiles and no teeth explain what they were doing to try to get indoors. To pull their lives together.

I met a woman named Iris with a beautiful dog (that scared the shit out of me at first but turned out to be a love) who explained that she could get shelter IF she gave up her dog. The dog she loved that kept her safe.  Then she described where her camp lie deep in the marsh.

After this I drove back to Arcata and watched a Crabs baseball game.

Newer “artifacts”

All of these things were found at Lyon’s Ranch.

Slash burner thing

Below Weichpec

Obviously, I don’t know the technical term for this huge… thing.  It is just tucked amongst the trees looking very cool on the road below Weichpec.  There is another in the main town of Hoopa, but is doesn’t look this cool…

I took this one for scale

So, my daughter was giving me crap for not knowing the technical term for this thing so I googled “slash burner photo” and found… these.  Guess it is a slash burner after all. 

This was is especially interesting because it is built right over a creek.  Convenient before folks started concerning themselves with water quality and such…

Miniature donkey

Miniature donkey in Blue Lake

This has nothing to do with history–that I’m aware of.

I was just attempting to clear old photos from our camera and ran across this one.   We brought this guy and another into our field last spring to keep the grass down and they did a find job.

And were adorable….

Eureka 1906, The Best at Our Command

Eureka 1906

I know people puzzle over the blatant consumption of our natural resources over the last 150 years, but the caption under this photo really explains it well.  Resources were resources.  The best was at our command.  My guess is that people naively thought (as some still do, unfortunately) that there would always be enough to meet our needs.

On another topic, can you imagine two thousand steamships & other vessels coming into our bay each year…? ! ?

Healthcare bill: Creating a social safety net

 

Those without a dwelling place

 

Months ago I did a post about the lack of a social safety net for folks who needed healthcare but lacked the resources to pay for it.

With the House passage of the healthcare bill yesterday, I thought it was appropriate to run it again, emphasizing that  over 150 years ago, Humboldt County addressed this issue successfully.   It is nice to  see that the rest of the country has finally recognized the need and is taking positive steps to address it.

Original Post October 2009

Yesterday I said that there was no welfare or other social safety net for widowed or abandoned women in the settlement period,  but that wasn’t quite true.In 1855, the Humboldt County Supervisors added a five cent tax for every hundred dollars of property value.  These funds would be used to assist the sick and indigent.  

People wanting the services of a physician needed to be within four miles of the doctor and prove their need.  The Doc was also required to keep a book with the names of the folks he treated and the details. 

By 1857, the supervisors added a caveat that anyone claiming need had to petition their supervisor directly for approval.

As a side note, it is interesting that in a community where the local newspaper gleefully reported that local natives  were “entirely starved out” ,  the county paid $170 to A.S. Baldwin to help Lewis Howard, a “man of color”.   In August of 1857, the county purchased $12.75 worth of clothing for Mr. Howard and in February of 1858, a coffin.

Over the years, the fund was used to pay for room and board, physician services, druggists, as well as funeral expenses and coffins.

Ironically, today we seem much less willing (or able, depending on your views) to care for our sick and indigent.  The New York Times recently reported on California’s budget crisis, and the ensuing cuts to health care and other services for those most in need

While the state’s health insurance program for children, Healthy Families, remains, it was cut by $144 million, meaning thousands of children will probably be on a waiting list for the program ….

In-home services for the elderly and infirm were reduced by several million dollars.

 When I talked about the lack of a safety net yesterday, perhaps I should have been referring to now.

Women, an underprivileged and needing class…?

  

In the 19th century, teaching was one of the few "respectable" occupations open to women

On Saturday I attended a great workshop put on by WEI (Women Entrepreneurs Institute),  which focused on providing local female entrepreneurs with the tools and support they need to build successful businesses.

Before I started researching local history (and even now, I must admit) I tend to bristle at any organization or event focused on helping a particular ethnic group or gender (try having a Male Entrepreneurs Institute or a White Student Union).    Non-traditional or reverse discrimination is still discrimination.

Yet.  Yet… I’m the one who posted info about the feme sole trader laws,  which were needed before women were “allowed” to own and operate their own businesses independent of their husbands.   I’m the one who cited the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C.,  which found that white females earn 73 cents for every dollar earned by a white males for doing the same work. The institute that also found that minority women, such as Latinas, face greater earning disparities, earning, on average 51 cents for every dollar earned by white men.   

Things are changing, though,  and opportunities for women are growing.  Today women own about 40 percent of all businesses in the U.S. and the number of women-owned businesses is growing.  Women also benefit from events like WEI, even while male entrepreneurs,  who need the training and information just as much as women do,  are excluded.

I understand that in a sense, WEI was an affirmative action event*, as are the many small business grant and loan programs that are not available to other (male-owned) businesses.   

Yet, as a woman (and business owner) I look forward to the day when I am not considered part of a special, underprivileged class that needs extra help to achieve the same success as a man.  The extra help may be a necessary evil to address and reverse centuries of disadvantage and discrimination, but eventually we won’t be classified as white, black, male, female and instead we’ll just be people. People working hard to achieve our goals.

  

*The term affirmative action refers to policies that take race, ethnicity, physical disabilities, military career, sex, or a person’s parents’ social class into consideration in an attempt to promote equal opportunity or increase ethnicity or other forms of diversity. The focus of such policies ranges from employment and education to public contracting and health programs. The impetus towards affirmative action is twofold: to maximize diversity in all levels of society, along with its presumed benefits, and to redress perceived disadvantages due to overt, institutional, or involuntary discrimination.

Those in Haiti

I haven’t been ignoring the events happening in Haiti.  I think it is just still too big to get my head around.

My heart goes out to all of those affected by the tragedy.