Picture from the Past
Religion is alive and well in Santa Cruz Mountains
By John S. Baggerly
The freestanding bell tower, above, complemented the Skyland Presbyterian Church in the 1880s and '90s. The story is told by Billie J. and Reece C. Jensen in their reprint of A Trip Through Time and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Santa Cruz Mountains settlers brought so many varied religious beliefs with them that it took time to organize a church. Until the late 1870s, the father figure of each household probably read from the scriptures, prayers were said before meals and people opened their homes for Sunday meetings. Schoolhouses also did double duty as chapels for Sunday school meetings and regular services.
Finally, two churches were built: Skyland Presbyterian Church in 1887, and Wrights Presbyterian Church in 1893. Both were founded by one Rev. Mitchell. Many local residents contributed their time and materials to the construction of the buildings.
Mountain resident and landowner Stephen Payne relates an amusing story of pickets donated by Walter A. Young--reluctantly, as he was not an avid church-goer--for a fence around Skyland Church. When the fence never went up and the donated fence material was nowhere in sight, the donor peeked inside the building one day to find his pickets being used as stove fuel. He apparently never went inside the place again.
Young was in the transfer business early in this century in Los Gatos. He later moved his family into a home on Saratoga Avenue not far from N. Santa Cruz Avenue.
According to local history, Rev. Mitchell ran off with a married woman, or so the story goes. The distraught husband disappeared as well, after his house burned in a suspicious fire. No bones were found in the ashes, so the mystery persists to this day.
The Jensens' account of Rev. Mitchell "running off with a married woman" was somewhat mirrored years later. In mid-century, a divorced woman with ex-husband problems was advised by her attorney to consult with her church pastor. That she did; they were married and then moved away.
Names of other local mountaineers listed by the Jensens include Adams, Allen, Bassett, Bean, Burrell, Chamberlain, Fidel, Goldman, Gould, Gray, Hadsell, Harlow, Hanks, Jones, Knox, Martin, Maynard, McCracken, McKiernan, McEwen, McMurtry, Meyer, Miller, Montgomery, Morrell, Norton, Ranken, Rapp, Rogers, Schulthies, Slaughter, Stetson, Thompson, Wright and Young. Some of these names are still known today, some belonging to actual individuals, others merely to street signs.
When former Campbell mayor Jeanette Watson wrote a book on that city, the publisher said the most difficult chore for the author and publisher was obtaining and returning photographs to lenders. That indicates the many hours the Jensens spent playing phone tag and driving to people's homes to illustrate their book of mountain history. The same was true with banker Clarence Hamsher, who drove far out of town to borrow photos for what became the photo collection in the Los Gatos Library.
Early church pastors often had busy schedules. For example, Rev. James Corwin was a traveling pastor in 1869. One Sunday he'd preach in Los Gatos at 11 o'clock and ride by horse to the summit for a service at 4 in the afternoon. The next Sunday morning he'd preach two sermons at Union School House and one at New Almaden in the evening.
John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly-Times archives.
|
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
The original bell of Skyland Church in the Santa Cruz Mountains was photographed during its April 1987 centennial.
