Liberty High School - Lion Yearbook (Brentwood, CA)

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2 THE HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL was erected in 1856, but I do not think he ever occupied it, as he was murdered in September of that year by jose Moseno and others because of some previous trouble over the payment for services as a vaquero. The Doctor was 52 at the time of his death. A year or so previous to his death a young man called at the ranch and requested to see the Doc- tor. The stranger asked permission of remaining over night. as he was foot sore and it was near evening. No, replied the Doctor. I do not keep a hotelg you will have to go to Antioch, but soon the stranger said. If you knew who I am perhaps you would let me stay. VVell. who are you? Wfhat is your name? Charles Marsh, 'he replied. nx'Vl'lCI'C were you born? VVhat is your mothers name? How old are you? Replies to 'these inquiries came quickly and correctly. The Doctor stood amazed. then sharply said to him, Pull oil your boot. Charles did so and exposed a birthmark on his foot that satisfied the Doctor and he said. all right. you are my son. The mother of Charles was said to have been a Cherokee, or a woman of Indian blood, and had remained in the East when the Doctor broke loose from the border and took trail that led into the unex- plored regions ot' the Indian country :ind the land of the Avtec. :Xt the Doctor's death the Los Illeganos Rancho, with its 131000 acres and 6,000 head of stock, passed by inheritance to Charles and Alice, the daughter by the second wife. The Rancho was sold by the heirs to an enterprising promoter. who devised a scheme for opening the coal mines known to ex- ist on the property. build a railroad to Marsh' Landing. and built up there- on a manufacturing and commercial entrepot. The scheme failed to ma- terialize as projected and the great property became involved in litigation which is not yet closed, though thirty years or more have passed, and fur- ther Deponent Saith Not. -K. G. Dean ....... lr-, Nothing Unusual. Bessie-Wltat makes Jean look so Cross today? Iva--Nothing. it is just her way. She is quite Moody lately. Ray--What is the trouble between Bessie and Harry? Edith-Bessie got too Foxy for h i rn. 3,-ll.. johannah-VVhy is Iva making such wry face today. Edna--She is thinking about her Corn. L. U. I-I. S.-- Girls say-Let Us Have Study. Boys say-Let Us Have Sport. YVillie Cin Geometryl-I know it'9 right but I made a mistake. Freshman-I should think it would kill him to die a death like that. After,they were all killed a great many were arrested. Soph.--I am taking drawing lessons now.

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i. l THE Liberty Union High School Annual Vol. 3. BRENTWOOD, CAL., MAY, 1907 No. 1. SOCIAL HISTORY. It seems appropriate in compiling a High School Annual, there should appear in its columns some historical 'reference to the section in which the school is located. ln taking up the Marsh or Los Megan-os Rancho as a proper subject. we tind it impossible to disassociate its history from a biographical sketch of Dr. John Marsh. His name is indelibly written in the history of the state and country, His name is on our waters And ye may not wash it out. ls the language that Mrs. Sigourney 'uses in pleading for the restitution of 'the Indian names, and it seems proper 'that the Skiano which drains the Black Hills and the eastern slope of Mt. 'Diablo should bear his name as it courses through the Rancho. Briefly, Dr. Marsh was one of Cali- fornia's most comspieuous pioneers- a man of more than ordinary intelli- 'gence and education, a graduate of Harvard. He had served as a school teacher, a physician and an Indian Iagent in NVisconsin as early as 1826, He held a judicial office in the Terri- 'tory of Michigan in TSZS. and was 'once a merchant in St. Joseph, Mis- souri: a Santa Fe trader, and as a 'wandering explorer he traversed the 'wilds of Sonora a-nd Northern Mex- - . . ico and came thence to California. stopping at Los Angeles and practic- ing medicine. From there he trav- eled all over Northern California and seemed to be devoting his life to the gratitication of his noinadic instinct- a purposeless, unstable. Hoating piece of hunianity who found a lodgnient under the shadows of Mt. Diablo, as owner of a land grant, made to one Noricaga by the Mexican govern- ment in 1835. and for which the Doc- tor paid the muniticent sum of S400 00 in 1837, and on taking possession. he built a hut and lived with his Mexi- can associates and began raising cat- tle. He took very little part in pub- lic affairs. or in the political troubles from 1840 to 1847. though for some cause he was arrested in 1841. but not exiledf He lived the lite of a hermit and bore the reputation of being a pecul- iarly disagreeable man, whose notor- ious parsimony kept him constantly in trouble with those he came in con- tact with. ln 1851 he was married to Miss Alice Tuck of Chilmsford. Mas- sachusetts. She was a school teacher and came to California in 1850, set- tling in Santa Clara: meeting the Doctor while on a visit to Contra Costa county, they decided to marry after an acquaintance of two weeks. Mrs. Marshidied in 1855. leaving a daughter, Alice. The Stone House

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THIC HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL 55 SYLVIA COMES TO THE RANCH. They'lI not be expecting us till tomorrow, Sylvia. No, mother, I know it. but that will make it so much more fun. There I11lISt he some way of getting out to their place. A few minutes Iater mother and daughter were standing on the plat- form of the Santa Inez station, look- ing about for some means of getting away from it. Sylvia Hallan's older brother. Jack, had been in California for two years. on a ranch with his cousin, Harry Vincent. His mother and sister had come for the lirst time in these two years. and also to see California. After some ditiiculty Sylvia suc- ceeded in discovering a man who was goin' out that way, and who con- sented to leave them at Tulaeita Rauch. Sylvia in'her pretty tailor- made suit, looked strangely out of place in the rickety farm-wagon, but she and her mother soon settled them- selves as comfortably as possible and they started out on the long winding road. The ride was all a voyage of discovery to Sylvia and she found everything delightful. lt was the early springtime: the poppies were blooming along the roadside. the rows of orchard trees looked like succes- sions of snowdrifts, the scent of the blossoms filled the air. Away to the westward rose the mountain wall, the southern slopes of the ridges gl-ori- tied by the afternoon sun. Sylvia was enraptured. She wanted to know the name of every flower and tree they passed and plied the driver with questions till she was sure she knew all about ranching before the journey was half done. Theres the gate. he said at last, ou the right hand side there with the letter-box just beside. XVhere? Oh, yes. I see. Now don't drive ing just let us out at the gate, we want to surprise them. The driver smiled and did as requested, Sylvia ran lightly up the short road, with the orchard on the other. and nearly fell over the house before she saw it. Then began her disappointment. Jack and Harry live in that packing- house? Impossible! Jack had lived in a brownstone house at home, and this-why there wasn't even any grass around the front door, just plowed ground and one clump of violets. This house was such an insignificant. desolate looking, little affair, and she had imagined a rambling adobe ha- cienda. with a great broad veranda. There was only a tiny porch that you could cross in two steps. Sylvia crossed it in one as she made a dive for the front door. after her lirst dis- mayed pause. ' She tumbled into the room and then stopped short. Jim Kee. the general faetotum, had soon learned that young employers did not approve of too much house-cleaning and was quite willing to Hlet things be. And they were,-mostly on the Hoori Straight