Coronado Family Reunion - 1973

We just had a Coronado Family Reunion on March 2, 2024 and had a great time comparing notes and meeting new relatives.

In 1973 it must have been just as much fun and a chance to see family relatives once again.  My mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps and Helen Coronado Jenkins arranged the reunion and celebration of Hess Coronado McIntosh's 85th birthday.  The event was held in Helen's side yard in Napa on Wednesday, July 1, 1973.

My cousin, Catherine McIntosh, reminded me that she took the photo below and other group photos that became a record of Coronado family members at the reunion and birthday celebration. More group photos will be added in future posts.  This photo is the seven brothers and sisters of Mariano & Louisa Coronado who were able to attend the reunion:

Standing left to right: Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Frank Coronado, Marian (Toots) Coronado Orsi, Paul Coronado.

Seated left to right: Marion (Dutch) Coronado, Jesusita (Hess) Coronado McIntosh, James Coronado

This is truly a handsome family grouping!

(This is a corrected post with the correct date of the reunion and photographer who took the photo.)

Coronado Family Gathering - Mother's Day 1935

It was the first Mother’s Day for Louisa Coronado after the September 1934 death of her husband, Mariano Coronado.  Six of her children and five grandchildren were there to help Louisa celebrate the day.  Her brother-in-law, Enos Coronado, was also present as well as spouses and other family members.

All were dressed up for the occasion on that Sunday, May 12, 1935, and my Uncle Jim Coronado, as usual, was the official family photographer.  He must have insisted that before they all sat down to eat their meal of enchiladas, beans and salad at the Coronado family home on the Napa-Vallejo Highway, that they pose for a picture to mark the day.  Gathering all the family and spouses in the back yard of the family home on a bright sunny day, Jim brought out a chair for Louisa to sit in the center, and asked all the family members to gather around with the grandchildren in the front near Louisa.  He set up his Kodak on a tripod and when everyone was ready snapped the following photo:

  

On the left was “Uncle” Enos Coronado, Mariano’s brother, with his hand on his hip.  Marion (Dutch) Coronado stood next to him in the buttoned sweater.  Next was Naomi Coronado, wife of husband, Paul, who is standing next to her in light suit and tie.

Next in line from left to right is my mother, Cecelia Coronado, and my father-to-be, Harold Phipps, the tall guy in the center (they were not yet married in 1935).  Next is Marian (Toots) Coronado Hickey.  Next to Toots is Charlotte Campbell, mother of Dorothy Campbell, and mother-in-law to Frank Coronado (Dorothy and Frank are in the photo on the far right).

To the right of Mrs. Campbell is Juanita Coronado, wife of Jim Coronado, the photographer.  Over Juanita’s shoulder is Frank Hickey, first husband of Toots, and father of Paul and Kathleen.

Gathered around Louisa Coronado, seated in the center, are the grandchildren.  On the right, Juanita, the tall one, is standing in front of her mother; and the twins, Jim and Jane are on the far right and left.  Closest to Louisa is Paul and Kathleen, daughters of Toots and Frank Hickey.

Just after this photo was taken, everyone thought Jim Coronado, the photographer should be included in the gathering – so he stepped into the picture and my father took a second photo.  Then everyone breathed a sigh of relief and resumed socializing, eating and drinking.

Adolph Coronado - The Land Developer

Adolph Coronado, the eldest son of Mariano and Louisa Coronado, was always an entrepreneur.  He was an auto dealer and a boxing promoter.  But later in life, when he “retired”, my uncle became a land developer.  The news article that follows was published in the Napa Journal[1] in 1936 as he was beginning to develop residences in an area just north of the Napa State Hospital, which was a prominent landmark that visitors passed as they entered the City of Napa from the south.

Dolph, as we knew him, would eventually build many houses on the large tract of land he owned.  He named one street Coronado Avenue, which is the street where he lived.  I grew up across the street from him in one of the houses on Coronado Avenue that Dolph built for his mother, Louisa Coronado, her daughter and my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps, and my father.  We moved into the house in 1948.

____________________________________________________

20 COTTAGES CONTEMPLATED FOR

TRACT OF A. B. CORONADO

Early Development of Acreage Seen;

Cost Said to Be $40,000

Plans for development of privately owned acreage adjoining Napa State hospital into restricted residential districts were disclosed here yesterday.

The disclosure came with announcement that Adolph B. Coronado, owner of a tract of 41 acres, has under consideration extensive building plans which he proposes to complete within the next two years.

Coronado’s plans, call for the installation of two paved streets through his tract during the coming spring season, these improvements to be followed by the erection of four modern cottages each year until a total of 20 homes occupy the area.  The site fronts on Imola lane, directly opposite the state institution.

STREET PLANS

At present there are four cottages on the Coronado tract besides the owner’s home.  They are under rental to employees of Napa State hospital and have been continuously since completion.

TO COST $40,000

In disclosing plans for the project yesterday, Coronado asserted that over a period of five years the cost of improvements will aggregate approximately $40,000.

The present tentative plans of Mr. Coronado call for the building a score of detached bungalows.

A NECESSITY

“I feel that the establishment of a residential district in this locality will serve a useful purpose and bring me satisfactory returns,” said Coronado yesterday.  “There is a plan under way, I understand, to provide for the general expansion of the state hospital.  That means that additional living quarters will have to be provided for from three to four hundred employees and if those accommodations can be provided at small cost and convenient to the hospital, the homes will be occupied throughout the year.”

Coronado took over the acreage several years ago and has gradually developed them with much success.  The homes on the tract at present are modern in every respect.  Among the numerous features is the water supply furnished direct from a 220 foot well.

The Development Tract in 1940

AUTO PIONEER

Prior to taking over his present holdings Coronado for years was engaged in business at Vallejo.  Until retirement several years ago he was the second oldest automobile dealer in point of service, having established the first Overland, Willys-Knight agency at the navy yard city in 1910.

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[1] The Napa Journal, February 18, 1936, page 1, column 1

In Memoriam

This is a celebration of the lives of 3 remarkable Coronado family members.  They enriched not only our family but the lives of those around them.  I miss them all.

Harrison McIntosh

In an earlier posting I reported on my cousin Harrison McIntosh, an internationally known ceramicist, who celebrated his 100^th Birthday in September 2014.  We visited him, his wife Marguerite, and his daughter, Catherine, and her family in Claremont, California in October 2014.  We had a wonderful time – it was like a mini family-reunion.  Harrison was in great spirits, clearly remembered a lot of family stories, and enjoyed discussing the details of making ceramics with my son, David.

Harrison died of natural causes on January 21, 2016 in Claremont at the age of 101.

He was born in Vallejo, California, on September 11, 1914.  While in high school in Stockton, California, Harrison and his brother, Robert, developed an interest in art – Robert enjoyed drawing and painting, while Harrison pursued sculpture.  After the McIntosh family moved to Los Angeles in 1937, Harrison set up a studio in his parent’s garage and took ceramics classes beginning in 1940.

HARRISON MCINTOSH
September 11, 1914 - January 21, 2016

Harrison’s education and training was interrupted when he was drafted in 1944.  Around the same time, Harrison’s first wife fell ill and died.

After he was discharged from the Army, Harrison used the G.I. Bill to gain admission as a special student to study ceramics at the Claremont Graduate School.  He met a French student, Marguerite Loyau, while studying at Claremont and they were married in 1952.  In 1958, they built a home in Padua Hills, nestled in the foothills above Claremont, with a pottery studio where Harrison would work for the next 50 years.

Harrison’s work is represented in more than 40 museum collections worldwide and his pieces have been featured in 70 publications.[1]

Betty Orsi

The wife of my cousin and godfather Paul Orsi, Betty Greeott Orsi died peacefully in the presence of her family on October 24, 2015 in Ukiah, California.  She was 83 years old.

BETTY GREEOTT ORSI
April 16, 1932 - October 24, 2015

Betty was born 16 April 1932 in Santa Rosa, California, but grew up in Ukiah, California.  It was in Ukiah that she and Paul met and were married in 1953.  I attended the wedding as a youngster and remember how beautiful Betty was and how Paul was so handsome.  Betty and Paul ran Paul’s Grocery Store in Ukiah.  Later she became Director of Medical Records at Hillside Hospital, now Ukiah Valley Medical Center.  She was actively involved with St. Mary’s of the Angel Catholic Church as organist and, eventually music director.

Betty is survived by her husband of 62 years, Paul; her five children, Janet Orsi, James Orsi, John Orsi, Julie Orsi Rus, Jeffrey Orsi; and 9 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.[2]

Sister Catherine Pelletier

I was recently informed[3] that my godmother, Sister Catherine Pelletier, had passed away on 6 June 2016 at Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland, California at the age of 93.  She was born 2 March 1923 in Fresno, one of seven children.  Catherine grew up in Oakland.  She attended Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California, and entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur community in 1943.[4]

SISTER CATHERINE PELLETIER
March 2, 1923 - June 6, 2016

Not only was Sister Catherine my godmother, but my mother was her godmother.  It must have been fate that brought Catherine into the Coronado clan, for her mother walked up to my mother, Cecelia Coronado, in church and asked her – a total stranger – to stand in as the godmother for Catherine’s baptism.  Our lives were intertwined ever since.

Catherine was a Sister of Notre Dame for 73 years.  She taught at several elementary schools for thirty years and after earning a master of library studies degree, served as librarian for Notre Dame High School in San Jose, California, and as librarian for the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California.[5]  I remember visiting Sister Catherine many times over the years and she was always so wonderful to be around.  She attended two of our son’s weddings, one in California and one on the East Coast.

Our world is richer for their lives and poorer with their deaths.

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[1] American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), 21 Jan 2016, press release; Suzanne Muchnic, Harrison McIntosh, Southland artist who pushed ceramics’ boundaries, dies at 101, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2016, online obituary.

[2] Funeral memorial booklet for Betty Orsi funeral services, 3 Nov 2015.

[3] Letter from Mary Anne Pelletier Moore, 1 Aug 2016, sister of Sister Catherine Pelletier.

[4] San Francisco Chronicle, 13 Jun 2016, online obituary.

[5] Ibid.

Hess & Harry Wedding Photo Explained

My July 31, 2014 web post carried a photo of the McIntosh wedding in 1913 where I misidentified some of the wedding party members, particularly and most importantly where the groom and the bride were standing.

Cousin Catherine McIntosh was kind enough to point out to me in a comment that she thought that her grandfather, Harry McIntosh, was the man on the left in the photo with his bride, Hess, standing next to him and not Dutch Coronado.  She is right.  I did a little more research (with a pronounced red face) and hope to now correctly identify the people in the wedding photo.

The McIntosh wedding party posed for this photo on the steps of St. Vincent’s Church in Vallejo.  It was just after noon on July 14, 1913.  On the steps from left to right is Harry McIntosh; Jesusita (Hess) Coronado McIntosh; Marion (Dutch) Coronado, the best man; and Hallie Osborne, maid of honor.  The flower girls in the front are from left to right: Marian (Toots) Coronado and Cecelia Coronado.  The girl on the fourth step on the right is Alice Anderson.[1]

Hess Coronado was born in 1888 and was the oldest surviving daughter of Mariano and Louisa Coronado.  My mother, Cecelia Coronado, born in 1906, said that Hess helped raised her and her sister, Toots (born 1905), in the large Coronado family.

Harry McIntosh came with his mother, and his sister, Isabella, and brother, Walter, from Quincy Massachusetts around 1910[2].  Harry was a piano tuner[3] and piano player.   He played the piano for Mariano at the Coronado Inn and spent a lot of time with his good friend, Dutch Coronado, at the Coronado property on the rural Napa Vallejo Highway.

“Harry always admired our oldest sister, Hess”, says Cecelia.  “She was tiny.  In fact he found her at the stove most of the time where she was even too small to reach the kettles to stir.  Mama put a little stool there for her.  That’s where Harry discovered his future bride.”[4]

Since Dutch was a good friend of Harry, he was a logical choice for best man at the McIntosh wedding.  The maid of honor, Hallie Osborne, is a mystery to me.  She may have been a good friend of the bride, but I could not find any reference to her in family records or census records.  Any help from family members would be welcome.

Flower girls and sisters, Cecelia and Toots, were born about 15 months apart and look like they could be twins in the wedding photo.

The girl high up on the steps in the photo on the right side is 13 year-old Alice Anderson.  She was the niece of Harry McIntosh.  She came with her mother, Isabella, her grandmother and her Uncle Harry from Massachusetts and settled in Vallejo where Alice and her mother, “Belle” lived.  Her mother ran a rooming house on Georgia Street.[5]

Cecelia says that “since Harry had a job with Papa playing the piano, Alice used to stay with us a lot and I think one time stayed all summer long.  Alice remembers staying with us during the school year too and riding the buggy to school.  Mama used to say to Toots and me, ‘You two girls are fine.  But let Alice come around and she gets you two in mischief’.”[6]

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[1] Coronado Newsletter, Vol 1, No 3, May 1994, page 8.

[2] I don’t think that all members of the McIntosh family came to Vallejo at the same time.  Harry was listed as a boarder living at 332 Georgia Street in Vallejo in April 1910.  According the 1910 Federal Census he was a piano tuner working for a piano manufacturer.  Isabella McIntosh Anderson, her husband, George, and her daughter, Alice, were in Quincy Massachusetts in April 1910 living at 76 Rover Street according to the 1910 Federal Census.  Isabella and her daughter, Alice, probably left soon afterwards for Vallejo because Harry and Alice were closely associated with the Coronado family as Harry was courting Hess.  Isabella remarried in 1916, so either George Anderson died or they were divorced by then.  Ancestry.com database online. 1910 United States Federal Census, California, Solano, Vallejo Ward 2, District 0190, page 3.  1910 United State Federal Census, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Quincy Ward 2, District 1140, page 30.

[3] Ancestry.com database online. 1910 United States Federal Census, California, Solano, Vallejo Ward 2, District 0190, page 3.  By the time of his wedding Harry worked for the Sperry Mill Company in south Vallejo.  Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Coronado Family Memories, Coronado Newsletter, Vol 3, No 3, May – August 1996, page 3.

[4] Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Coronado Family Memories, Coronado Newsletter, Vol 3, No 3, May – August 1996, page 3.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

Remembering My Childhood (Cecelia Coronado) - Part Five

(This is the fifth in a series of posts based on audio recordings made by my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps in 1983.  Here she remembers her brother-in law, Harry McIntosh, and her brother, Dutch.)

Harry McIntosh

Dutch told me years later that he and Harry McIntosh, who married my sister Hess, became good chums, good friends.  They would sleep in the garden in the summertime.  In those days the summertime was real hot.  Hess and Harry were going together at that time and he played the piano for my father.

Let me tell you a little story about Harry. Dutch always had a motorcycle.  Harry was inclined to be rather slow moving.  He was a swell guy.  We all loved him. ... Dutch had the motorcycle going in the back yard and said, "Jump on Harry.  Get on, we're going into town."  Well he thought that Harry had jumped on.  By the time he got into town, which was three miles away, there was no Harry! ...

Harry's mother brought him and his sister from Massachusetts.  She was a widow and ran a boardinghouse in Vallejo.  Alice, his half-sister, was practically raised with us; she spent so much time with us.  One time, Mama said, "Pick a few apples, Alice."  Well, she not only picked a few, she took every apple on the tree.  So there were no apples left on that tree.  We have fond memories of Alice, who grew up almost like our own sister.

Harry & Hess Wedding Day 1913.  Dutch in center with light-colored hat as best man.  Sisters Toots & Cecelia as flower girls.  Alice on steps at far right. (Revised 8/21/2014)

Dutch

Let me go back and tell you a little "ditty" that Dutch talks about.  He was sent to school when he was four years old.  He was a very large boy, big boned. ... He was just not ready for school at all.  Apparently they wore these little sailor hats at that time.  All he wanted to do was hit the teacher with his sailor hat.  He just provoked her so much, that finally she sent for my father.  He came and the teacher said, "He is just not ready for school yet.  All he wants to do is fuss."  The teacher said to let him come back in a year's time, so Papa took him home.  Well, when the year was up, he was certainly ready for school.  Everything then came so easy for him.

Dutch Coronado driving the beer truck in 1914.  Man standing on the truck bed holding the child may be his brother, James.

Dutch, as a beer truck driver, in front of The Coronado Inn

Remembering My Childhood (Cecelia Coronado) - Part Four

(This is the fourth in a series of posts based on audio recordings made by my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps in 1983.  Here she begins to talk about her brothers.)

Doc Coronado practicing the violin

Doc and Paul

Now there was brother Doc.  How he got that name, I don't know.  Someone said they called him "Old Doc Yak". I think that was in the comics at that time.  But that name stuck with him, even after he became a sergeant on the police force. ... Doc was the one in the family who was musically inclined. He played the violin.  Then there was Paul.  He was the one brother who was more quiet and serious – the youngest of the six boys.

Frank

Now Frank was always "tee-heeing" and laughing and smiling.  There was no one to compare with Frank.  He had a constant smile on his face always, where Paul was more serious.

They tell this story about my brother Frank.  Mama and Papa were in the summer kitchen which was adjoining the regular kitchen and they saw a splash in the watering trough.  They ran out there and found Frank had fallen in.  So they pulled him out and dried him off.  He was always doing things.  More things happened to this little guy.  He was a lovable brother.

Since I spoke of my brother Frank, let me tell a few more incidents in his life.  My older brother, Dolph, told me that one time when Frank was real little, maybe two years old, he was sitting on the fence.  Across the road there was a big ball game going on.  Dolph had perched him up on the corner of this fence, because he wanted to watch the game.  Somebody hit a home run and knocked Frank completely off the fence and he was unconscious!  Dolph ran to him and picked him up and brought him home to Mama.  Mama was the all-around nurse and doctor.  What she did only God knows.  She brought him to and he insisted on going back because he wanted to see the rest of the game.  So they let him go back.  That was one of his injuries.

Frank Coronado with his mother, Louisa

In later years, Papa was taking my sister Toots and me to school in Vallejo. One day he was picking us up after school, driving us home, when we went by the high school that Frank attended.  We said, "Oh, something is happening there.  Look, the ambulance has come and somebody got hurt." Well, when we got home, we were notified that it was my brother Frank. He got hit by a ball and was taken to the hospital for a while and then they brought him home.  Poor Frankie – he has had so many injuries.

As he got older, he was going up Main Street hill on a motorcycle, and the darned motorcycle just flipped right over with him and he hit his head on the sidewalk.  That put him out for awhile.

Another injury was when he was in Nevada.  He was driving on one of the streets.  Some kids were playing ball.  Wouldn't you know that the ball came right through the window that he had down and hit him again on the head.  He had a lot of injuries to his head but we loved him dearly.  He was a terrific brother.  We had a lot in common.

This ballpark where Frankie was hit by the ball – I understand that big league games were played there.  So it was quite an important spot around that area.  Also, the first airplanes landed there.  We have pictures to show it – one-seaters with open cockpit. ... I was born in 1906 so that goes a long way back.

Remembering My Childhood (Cecelia Coronado) - Part Three

(This is the third in a series of posts based on audio recordings made by my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps in 1983.)

Mama canned all our fruit.  We kids learned to eat quinces like they were apples.  But she canned everything, not only the fruit, but she made cottage cheese from the cream by putting it in the back of a great big range in the kitchen.  Papa made cheeses.  He was an expert at making these great large rounds of cheese.  They were kept in the pump house.  So we always had plenty cheese of all kinds.  He really did a terrific job of that.

Dutch Coronado, as a beer truck driver

Here's a little story that I wish Dutch would tell you about.  Maybe I can get him to record this.  Some friend of Papa's or just someone he knew had gone across country, clear back east and back with this beautiful horse.  By the time he got back to Vallejo, the horse was completely exhausted, had collapsed, and almost died.  Well the man said to Papa, "Here, you take him Mariano.  Take him.  I don't want him.  He's no good anymore."  So Papa took him and made a canvas sling, like a hammock, and put it up on a hoist on a big branch of this huge eucalyptus tree in the back yard and let him rest his whole body in the hammock.  I don't know how many days the horse stayed there.  But he fed and watered him and put liniment on him.  He took care of him just like a doctor.  Papa was a veterinarian on the side.  He loved animals and understood them.  He took care of this horse for days and days until finally he saw the horse moving a little bit.  He gradually let the hammock down, until his hoofs would touch the ground.  Then, he gradually let him stand on his feet, all the time taking good care of him until he was able to get on his feet again.  He said to the boys one day, "He's alright again now.  I think you boys can hitch a cart to him and let him take you to school.  It was the Blue Rock Springs School that they were going to at this time.  So the horse turned out just fine.  He took the kids back and forth to school in the cart.  Then one day, he was so much better, a horse passed him and I guess he got the racing fever again.  He took off.  His hoofs hit the cart and the kids, maybe five of them, flew in all directions.  So that was the end of the horse being able to take the kids to school. ... Papa said it wasn't safe to take the kids to school anymore.

Mariano Coronado giving a steely eye to his horse in the corral - probably not the horse in the story

 I don't know who made the stilts, if it was Papa or the older boys, but we learned to walk on stilts in the winter time in the sloppy mess in the corrals, adjoining the back fence by the railroad tracks.  I can still hear the suction of those stilts in the mud.

Sundays and Holidays

On Sundays we would go into church at St. Vincent's in Vallejo for Mass.  After coming home, we knew what our job was.  Mama would have all of the ingredients made to fix ice cream in the churner.  Toots and I usually wound up churning it.  Of course we would fuss over it.  "No, it’s your turn.  No it’s my turn.  It's your turn.  No, it’s mine."  It didn't take all that long, but you'd think that it was a great big deal.  Mama made the best ice cream.  If there were fresh strawberries on hand, she would put that in, and good cream and all.  Mmm, boy, it was awfully good.  Fond memories - something like you don't get nowadays.

Of course, on Sundays when the family came home, Mama had made tortillas that were as big as a dish pan.  Nobody in this world could make them that large and not have a hole in them.  She would flip them and they would go way above her elbow.  She would cook them right on the wood stove.  They were so good.  And, of course, we would always have chili beans.  No matter what we had, there still had to be chili beans, even on the table for breakfast.

On holidays, Papa always slaughtered the pigs and calves.  He fed them special food up to the time of slaughtering so that their meat would be nice and firm.  As the older members of the family were married, he would have great big roasts of pork and beef to pass on to them for the holidays.

I can remember our table at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  It was like a huge banquet.  Not only the whole family, but the married kids would come with the grandchildren.  There was all the hired help.  That table was set from morning until night. ... I can see a big suckling pig at one end and a big ham at the other end and plenty in between.  The kids would get through and they would run out to play.  The adults would sit there and talk and drink a little bit.  Pretty soon the kids would all come back to eat again.  This went on all day.  Now this was holiday time!  It was a family gathering with lots of good memories – seeing all the smiling faces.  We all got along swell.