Los Gatos Weekly-Times Writers played a role in local history By Kathryn Morgan In honor of the Town Library's 100th anniversary, I'd like to offer a collection of some human-interest stories about a few writers who pioneered, lived, or frequently visited Los Gatos. Likely one of the first people who passed through Los Gatos who could write was a Franciscan friar called Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. He wrote about a pioneering trip he made coming back north over the Santa Cruz Mountains toward Los Gatos. He was coming back from exploring a site for the soon-to-be-built Santa Cruz Mission. The Ohlones showed him a shortcut. He described this new route in a letter, which became part of his writings: "Shorter and more direct, but rougher." This certainly sounds like what it became, the future route of Highway 17. Another early writer was one of the first residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Lyman Burrell. Amid the vineyards on Summit Road near the intersection with San Jose-Soquel Road is the beautiful little red Burrell Schoolhouse. That old school was named after Lyman's family, who had property and orchards just down Summit Road near what is now Highway 17. Burrell kept diaries that became The Burrell Letters, and a descendant, probably Lyman's son Birney Burrell, wrote Reminiscences of an Octogenarian. These were not bestsellers; about 100 copies were made. But a published book is a published book, I say. So we had missionaries and diarists keeping diaries in Los Gatos' early days. What about professional writers? In the 1880s and 1890s, there used to be a kind of salon in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Alma. This cultural cottage stood near Call of the Wild, which used to be a mountain stop on the South Pacific Coast Railroad. Called Monte Paraiso, it was owned by a lady romantic short story author named Josephine Clifford McCracken, who entertained writers there like Mark Twain (in his San Francisco journalism days). She also frequently entertained Ambrose Bierce. Let us pause to consider that formidable author, Bierce. He was brilliant, cynical, and known by his friends as "Bitter Bierce." He first came to public attention for his short stories, especially "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," a Civil War story of such power and psychological shock--well, if you have never read it, or don't recall the breathtaking ending, please read it. Bierce also wrote novels with titles like The Fiend's Delight and Cobwebs From an Empty Skull (his own, presumably). He came out west and became a journalist for the then "boy publisher," William Randolph Hearst. His finest piece was a damning exposé of the Big Four railroad barons of the Southern Pacific, accusing them of lies and bribery. It was investigative journalism at its most merciless. Probably his most quoted book is The Devil's Dictionary. Here are some tidbits from it: "Death: the greatest good for the greatest number. Death is not the end! The settlement of the estate follows." "Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another." "History (noun): an account of events, mostly unimportant, brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools." Bierce disappeared in the revolution in Mexico in which Pancho Villa played a starring role. Did he die down there in a siege? Was he shot by a firing squad while fighting on the side of Villa, a man he greatly admired? Before his mysterious disappearance, besides being entertained at Monte Paraiso, Bierce really did sleep here in Los Gatos. He lived from 1889 to 1890 at the El Monte Hotel, which was on the corner of E.Main Street and Pleasant Avenue, right next to what would become the high school. The Oakland-born adventure writer Jack London also spent time in Los Gatos. In 1898, he stayed with a lady named Ruby Howes in a cabin at the corner of Union Avenue and Los Gatos-Almaden Road, where the Union School District office is now. There he carved his initials over the door in the frame. Apparently, like all writers, he wanted to leave his mark. According to a Bob Aldrich article in the Weekly-Times in 1991, London owned a ranch up in the Santa Cruz Mountains named "Call of the Wild," after his best-selling novel. Still Los Gatos landmarks are the estate and cat statues just out of town on Highway 17 above The Cats restaurant. The house and statues were originally owned by writers Charles Erskine Scott Wood and Sara Bard Fields. Wood was born to a distinguished military family. His father, William Maxwell Wood, was a friend of Ulysses S. Grant. Grant created the post of Surgeon General of the Navy for Wood. His son, Charles, was appointed by Grant to West Point. Two years after graduation from the Military Academy, Wood became an aide to Gen. Oliver Howard in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana. There he witnessed a scene that changed his life. After recording the surrender of the 1888 Nez Perce Indians who were led by Chief Joseph, Wood later learned that promises made to Joseph were broken. Instead of returning near home to Idaho as they had been promised, the remnants of the tribe were shipped to Kansas, where 67 of them died of malaria, then on to barren Oklahoma. To quote Wood: "I think that, in his long career, Joseph cannot accuse the government of the United States of one single act of justice." Wood gave up the military life, and later scandalized Portland by divorcing his wife and marrying poet and journalist Sara Bard Field. In 1919 Charles and Sara found the 34 acres of wood just above Los Gatos. His first act on the property was to plant a vineyard in defiance of Prohibition. In 1924 he built his hillside retreat and continued his writing career. He had contributed articles--"dialogues," he called them--to socialist John Reed's magazine, The Masses. Wood wrote a tribute to the Nez Perce tribe, an epic poem called "Poet in the Desert." In his introduction he wrote, "I think even more important than being an artist reverent to art, is to be oneself." Sara Bard Field wrote poetry here in Los Gatos, with titles like "The Pale Woman," "Barrabas" and "A Darkling Plain," for which she won a gold medal in 1936 from the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Kathryn Morgan is a Los Gatos High School teacher and member of the town Planning Commission. This is the first of two pieces she put together for the Los Gatos Weekly-Times based on a lecture she gave as part of the festivities surrounding the 100th anniversary of the library. The second part will appear here next week. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 4, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.