Odd Old News: The Diary of a Young School Teacher— Part two

Stone Lagoon image taken in 1949. [Photo from HSU’s Library Humboldt Room Photograph Collection]

Once again Odd Old News pays tribute to teachers with more Ethel Tracy diary entries from her early days of teaching at Stone Lagoon in 1903. (See an earlier post about her here.)

Eleanor Ethel Tracy was born into the family of Joseph and Harriet Tracy of Eureka. Joseph Tracy owned the first stage and express route between Hydesville and Eureka, served as County Sheriff, farmed, and was the Humboldt County Treasurer for a number of years. The family was well to do enough to send her siblings to college but Ethel chose to go into teaching and was a dedicated Humboldt County teacher for decades. Her socio-economic class and city upbringing made for some initial culture shock in her new surroundings, but over time she adjusted and enjoyed exploring the natural beauty of the area.

In this week’s diary entries Ethel goes agate hunting at Dry Lagoon, one of a number of agate hunting locations along the coast north of Eureka. Ethel knew of the hazards of the steep Dry Lagoon beach. The Lost Coast Outpost’s 2018 warning about the dangers of agate bearing beaches still holds true:

Some of the steepest and most deadly beaches are found around the lagoons such as Big Lagoon, Dry Lagoon, and Freshwater Lagoon. In the past 15 years, 10 people have died on these beaches because they got too close to the water and were pulled into the surf. Other dangerous steep beaches around Humboldt County include Agate Beach at Patrick’s Point and Black Sands beach at Shelter Cove…Flatter beaches are better choices.

Ethel Tracy stayed on at Stone Lagoon until the school year let out in late June of 1904 and then went back to her family home in Eureka to look for teaching jobs in the city. Teaching positions in the city were generally taken by old women, so she took a position in Harris which was further from Eureka than Stone Lagoon but to her joy had a daily stage with letter deliveries. Following her teaching stint in Harris, Ethel taught in progressively larger schools, spending four years at Kneeland, nine years at Scotia, until 1920, where she moved into Eureka and taught first grade at the old Lafayette school at 11th and M streets. Eleanor Ethel Tracy’s teaching career spanned four decades, by all accounts she was an inspiration to many, and well loved as a teacher and a person.

A SCHOOL MA’AM’S LETTERS
Blue Lake Advocate
June 18, 1964… continued
…..I was telling you what I did yesterday. In the afternoon I washed my head. It got very dusty on my ride up here; then I took a scrub (in my wash bowl) and dressed up. By that time it was almost evening.

Have I told you about Mr. Bush? He comes up from Arcata about twice a week with supplies and takes orders on his return trip. He is a big jolly Irishman. He always stays here overnight, so I see him quite often. Last night he brought with him an Arcata boy by the name of Schleidler who has been working up here and is going home to go to Business College. We couldn’t alight upon common ground until I drummed “Romeo & Julliette” on the piano. Then he wanted to know if I knew it, and we got along nicely. He learned it at Little River from Margaret and Belle Murray and Grace Monroe! When they left this morning, Julius (the big boy here) went with them, so we are now one less.

This is a very savage neighborhood. Since I have been here there have been two fights. The latest is when a young man asked his father for wages and his sister (a grass widow*, age 20) hit him in the neck with a piece of stove wood! So you see it is really a dangerous place!

At school I have inaugurated a crusade against thistles. The yard is full and so I get the boys to cut them down, and I throw them out in the road. Tomorrow I expect 5 or 6 more pupils. I hope they are mild.

Dear Edith: Monday –Today 3 more children came to my school. The Huntleys are part Indian and prettier, brighter children I never saw. Jessie is my oldest pupil, a neat girl of 14 who looks like Anna Wythe did. I think we shall get along nicely.

I took a buggy ride around the lagoon (which is lovely) .The sun was just setting over a hill that shuts off the ocean, and it made me think of sunset over the Marin Hills.

Did I tell you how I went horseback one night after school, and rode up on the hill to see the ocean, and saw a great full rigged ship out at sea?

If you have time and can find them, I wish you would send me some pictures of Asia to use in Jessie’s Geography lessons. I am going to mount those I have now as soon as I have time.
—
Blue Lake Advocate, November 24, 1966
“A School Ma’am’s Letters” Written by Eleanor Ethel Tracy
Compiled and Annotated by Harriet T. De Long
Saturday, August 17, 1903

Dear Mamma: There is so little for me to write that I have put it off until the last minute. I am getting along nicely at school. I like the children very much. Yesterday the district held a tax election, so I had a holiday. I did my washing in the morning and in the afternoon rested.

If it is pleasant tomorrow we will go either to the beach or to Orick. I am very anxious to pick up some agates for myself. I have seen some very pretty ones, and they are thick on the beach.

If any of you see anything about thistles, will you please send it to me before next Friday! I promised my children a thistle story.

The people here killed a hog yesterday and today are making lard, etc. I had lovely crispy fried liver for breakfast, and other dainties. Heart and spare ribs are now in order. So you see I live high. Also, I have apple pies and apple and plum sauce almost every day, and of course, on a dairy, lots of milk, butter, and eggs. I am very well fed, indeed.

Last night Edna and I composed a piece for the Arcata paper. It contains all the news items from Stone Lagoon.

Mouth of Redwood Creek in 1966.** [Photo by Katie Boyle in the HSU Humboldt Room Photograph Collection] 

Monday, August 19, 1903 Dear Edith: I didn’t get any letter today. I don’t know whether it was that nobody wrote, or because there was a dance in Trinidad, and the Postmaster wasn’t sufficiently recovered to sort the mail right.At any rate, everyone got the wrong mail today, and I didn’t get any.Yesterday, we hitched “Old Flopper” to the buggy and went over to the beach—about a mile and a half. (Note 10: The beach referred to here is what is now known as Dry Lagoon State Park.) The beach is quite different from that opposite Eureka. It is covered with coarse sand and pebbles. It is among the pebbles that we find the agates. We got quite a handful of agates—some quite pretty ones. There is one tiny one that is a bright scarlet, and as clear as jelly. It is easy to pick up agates, as they seem to glow and catch all the sun away from the other pebbles. But there are so many pretty stones that you would want to take them all—quartz, red and green stones, and many odd mottled ones. They are all small and round and smooth.The beach next to the ocean is steep, and the waves break right at the shore. It is a dangerous place, and no one dares wade, of course. It was there that the Walla Walla boatload came ashore. (Note 11: On January 2, 1902, the “Walla Walla”, a steam powered passenger freighter with 144 passengers and crew aboard, collided with the French bark “Max”, 10 miles west of Cape Mendocino. Most of those aboard the “Walla Walla” were able to get into life boats and rafts before it sank. Some were rescued by passing ships, while several boatloads floated with the currents for a day and a half before drifting ashore along the coast of Northern Humboldt. The “Max” was towed to San Francisco Bay.)The beach is about 1 1/2 mile long. Then the coast is steep and rocky, the waves beating against the high rocks. In the north we can see the point at the Klamath, dim, like you see Trinidad from Samoa. Out at sea—7 miles—is a white rock, which the first time I saw it, I thought was a full rigged ship. To the south is the Big Lagoon Beach and Patrick’s Point—the next promontory.On the rocks there one can see sea lions. I saw a whale out at sea, and a seal, too.

Late in the afternoon we called on a family who live on the marsh back of the beach. Two of the boys are in school. They are pleasant people and have a nice farm, but indoors, oh my. The father and the boys were barefooted, and evidently none of them had on any undershirts. The house was so barren and squalid! The baby had but one garment on—it looked like an outgrown nightgown. They had a nice orchard and garden, he showed me his onion beds, where he raised onions; none are less than 3 inches in diameter. After giving us a sack of onions and filling our hands with sweet apples, they let us go. It seems rather needless for them to live so, as they have a good farm, and four boys at work helping, besides the 3 little ones, and no girls to support. Today Dr. Sinclair and family came up, so they tell me. The Doctor likes to rusticate here at the hotel over on the Lagoon.

Stone Lagoon Hotel 9/26/1909 Humboldt Times advertisment

(Note 12: The Stone Lagoon Hotel, and the ranch surrounding it, was owned at this time by Hans Hendriksen and was operated by the Baxter family. It was located on the north side of the Lagoon, about ½ mile from the present Little Red Hen. It was a large, 2nd story building, catering to vacationers and travelers. It was a landmark until the ’20’s, when it burned to the ground.)

As we are all invited out rowing tomorrow night, we may see them. The Lagoon is perfectly safe. Lots of people bathe there and go out in boats. It is a great duck hunting place, too.

It is the ocean beach that is unsafe, and I will not go in there. Indeed, I don’t want to. The sea is entirely too savage.

I am tired tonight; I have been on my feet all day in school—have played anti-over all recess, and have worked on tomorrow’s lessons ever since, except when I ate supper and then took a walk to refresh myself. Goodnight, now Ethel

*Grass widow: a woman whose husband is temporarily away from her, usually do to work.

**Please note: we incorrectly identified the image initially and have now corrected it.

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many more, but here are the most recent:

• The Third Wave of the 1918 Pandemic in Humboldt County
• The Flu Season in Humboldt County in the Winter of 1919-20
• Mountain Lions Come Too Close
• It’s a Gas–A Look at ‘Oil Springs’ and Fuel ‘Escapes’ in Our Local Area
• Mrs Mills’ Bonnet
• Beware the Calathumpians
• Sea Lions Eating Cattle and Exploding Mules–The Stories Seem Mighty Tall Around These Parts
• From Cloverdale to Eureka by Stage
• School Ma’am Letters