Tag: Harriett Burt
Down ‘Memory Sidewalk’ on Court, Estudillo, and Alhambra
Courtesy Martinez Historical Society Contra Costa Gazette paper boys are shown in 1933. They covered Martinez, Pittsburg, Concord, Pleasant Hill among other communities receiving $10 a month salary and 10 percent of what they collected from subscribers who paid 50 cents a month for the subscription. Bill Sharkey III, who had a route from Alhambra […]
Barbara Woodburn
Barbara Woodburn December 5, 1940 – April 12, 2019 Barbara Woodburn, former Martinez City Councilmember and community activist, died at her home in Eureka on Friday, April 12, 2019 after a long illness. She was 78. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, April 25. Ms. Woodburn was born in Washington, […]
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: Semple of Benicia, Smith of Martinez, Alike in many ways
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor Editor’s Note: This is the second part of an article about Robert Semple of Kentucky, the founder of Benicia, who made it possible for another ambitious American from Georgia to found Martinez. Written some years ago for the MHS Newsletter by the late John Bonnell who, in retirement, used […]
Our Town Special Event: “Tucker: The Man and the Automobile” returns to town 30 years later to benefit MHS
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor Editor’s note: A showing of the recently restored Francis Ford Coppola film “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” is scheduled for Saturday, August 11, 2018 at the Shell Club House. The benefit for the Martinez Historical Society will take place starting at 6 p.m. A small portion of the […]
Our Town: Benicia’s Robert Semple set the stage for William Smith’s Martinez
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor Editor’s Note: Martinez residents and businesses tend to identify with Contra Costa County in many ways and have especially for the past 6o years since ferry service is no longer needed for us to reach Northern California and beyond. But Benicia is actually Martinez’s “big sister city” as our […]
Don Ignacio Martinez: Rancho Culture
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez Gazette Contributor In the little more than 25 years that Mexico ruled over the southern and central coast and neighboring inland area of California, the mission system was replaced by the land grant rancho system where over 600 grants of vast land holdings were made from San Diego to Petaluma and […]
IASA: There’s often more to the story than we know
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez Gazette Contributor Last Sunday’s historic tour of the Italian fishing community in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century was sponsored by a group unfamiliar to this writer – the Italian American Studies Association. Founded in 1966 by a group of historians, educators, sociologists and other interested persons, […]
Our Town: The Gazette moves to Pacheco
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor Happy New Year 1859 to readers of the Contra Costa Gazette/Martinez News-Gazette. 1859’s first news is about the establishment of an annual County event now beginning its 160th year. January 1, 1859 – Contra Costa Agricultural Society formed at Lafayette. First County Fair was inaugurated October 11, 1859, and […]
Our Town: Headlines from the earliest issues of the Gazette
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor “The establishment of a newspaper in Contra Costa County was an important factor in its upbuilding and development,” stated the publisher of the Historic Record’s 1926 History of Contra Costa County. He was introducing Chapter XVIII, entitled “Gleanings from the Files of the Contra Costa Gazette, 1858-1926”. Not only […]
