History
Underground Echoes: Aaron Rice: The final chapter (1880-1906)
By JOSEPH & JUDIE PALMER Martinez Gazette Contributors From our last column, we discovered Aaron had siblings. Although his sister Judy Schlesher (58) was never found, (nor could we find any record of her) his older brother William (62) and family, were located living in McKinney, Collin County, Texas. We additionally found them enumerated in […]
Underground Echoes: Family: Love, loss & found
By JOSEPH & JUDIE PALMER Special to the Gazette When we last left Aaron and his family, they were living blissfully. They had become in a relative short period: property owners, industrious entrepreneurs, founders of Napa’s AME Church, ardent voters and proud US citizens. As proof of their accomplishments an announcement published in the Napa […]
Underground Echoes: Life on the family farm: Aaron Rice (1860-1871)
By JOSEPH & JUDIE PALMER Special to the Gazette Picking up Aaron’s story from where we left off, William Rice still had custody of Nathaniel while the rest of his family was free. They finally get to celebrate the holidays without following someone else’s rules. This included their first ever Thanksgiving as it was not […]
The move to California: Aaron Rice (1819-1860)
By JOSEPH & JUDIE PALMER Martinez Gazette Contributors We apologize for not writing since last May, but circumstances arose that put our column on hold. In celebration of Black History Month, we wanted to complete Aaron Rice’s story. However due to the time gap, we thought it best to summarize his saga in a few […]
New Year traditions vary around the world
The start of a new year, whether it’s celebrated Jan. 1 or on some other date, often is accompanied by some form of ceremony or tradition, no matter where in the world a person happens to be, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, a publication that dates to 1792. Many of these traditions resemble each […]
Christmas, holiday imagery and customs from many sources
The annual festival called Christmas has grown to be one of the world’s largest celebration. It’s observed by billions of people, not only by Christians who use it to remember the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, but by those who observe it on a secular, rather than religious, level. The name “Christmas” comes from the […]
Accident starts era of Santa-tracking
A mistaken printing of a telephone number in a department store’s advertisement could have been a calamity. Instead, it launched an annual event through which children can track Santa Claus as he makes his worldwide Christmas Eve journey to deliver presents. In addition to watching the global excursion of a jolly elf and his team […]
Our Town: A city without a city hall
By CHARLENE PERRY Reprinted from January 1985 Editor’s Note: Due to the pressures of time, energy and upcoming knee surgery, this writer will return from time to time to reaching into the treasure chest of Charlene Perry’s well-researched columns from the 1980s and 90s. This piece, from 1985, will be the introduction to a forthcoming […]
Our Town: Celebrating Martinez’s movie fame
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor CARTER WILSON Martinez Historical Society Photographer Last week this writer thought she’d written the last story about Tucker: The Man and His Dream but then Carter Wilson, photographer of homes on the annual Martinez Historical Society Home Tour, brought over a handful of images of the Saturday’s film party […]
Our Town: Tucker movie true to creator’s past
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor The special screening of the restored Francis Ford Coppola film, “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” will be held Saturday, August 11 at the Shell Club House. Doors open at 6 for hearty hors d’ oeuvres and a silent auction and the screening will begin at 8 p.m. James […]
