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.)

Summer Outing at Dillon Beach - 1920

Here is a photo of members of the Coronado family taking a summer visit to Dillon Beach, CA, a Pacific Ocean beach, about 20 miles west of Petaluma.  The photo was taken about 1920.  They were obviously not dressed to get into the water.

Pictured left to right in the back: Ione & Marion (Dutch) Coronado, Jim Coronado, Marian (Toots) Coronado.  On the right is Louisa & Mariano Coronado.  Dutch & Ione's children are Marion (with the dog) and Helen.

Early Coronado Family Life in Vallejo

Mariano Coronado and his future wife, Louisa Madrid, grew up in the Napa area.  Mariano lived with his family in the foothills of Yountville and for a while in the Salvador area just north of Napa City.  Louisa lived in Napa City and then in the Yountville area.

Although Mariano and Louisa were married in Napa in 1884 and their first child, Marianita was born in Napa in 1885, they were to raise their large family in Vallejo, just south of the Napa County line.  An intriguing question is: why did they move?

Mariano’s good friend, and witness at his wedding, Manual Madrid[1], had moved to Vallejo in 1880 where he worked on the 1,000-acre Tobin[2] ranch.  In his third year there, he was promoted to manager of the ranch and remained in charge for twelve more years.

I suspect that shortly after his marriage and birth of his first child, Mariano worked on the Tobin ranch with Manual.  Mariano and his family may also have lived in a home on or near the ranch.  Mariano and Louisa’s next three children were born in Vallejo[3]: Dolph in 1887, Hess in 1888 and Guadalupe in 1890.

In early 1891, first-born 5-year-old Marianita took ill with tuberculosis and died on 26 January 1891.  Her death certificate[4] said that she died at the Tobin Ranch, supporting my premise that the Coronado family lived on the ranch.  Misery in the family continued when Guadalupe, who had just been born in 1890, suddenly died on 11 April 1891.

I can only surmise that Mariano finally decided through the grief of their lost children that his new family needed a home of their own.  He didn’t look very far and found a good piece of land not far from the Tobin ranch – about 1 ½ miles away.  The land was between the main road that led from Vallejo towards Napa - and the Southern Pacific railway.  It was a long stretch of land, trapezoid in shape – about 3 ½ acres.

On 22 August 1891, M. P. Coronado[5] paid Simon Corcoran[6] $300 in gold coin for the land, likely savings from wages earned working on the Tobin ranch.

The map to the left is the area north of Vallejo and just south of the Napa County border.[7]  The blue arrow shows the strip of land that M.P. Coronado purchased – between the Napa-Vallejo Road and the Southern Pacific railroad line.  The first red arrow points toward one of the Tobin ranches (1,000 acres in size) that was likely the farm where Manual Madrid and Mariano Coronado and families lived and worked.  It is located about 1 ½ miles from the newly purchased Coronado property.  Just southwest of the Tobin Ranch is another red arrow showing the Vallejo Sulphur Springs location.  After 1895, Manual Madrid would manage and then own this Sulphur Springs – renaming it Blue Rock Springs, which became a well-known resort.

This is a detail showing the 3 ½ acres that Mariano purchased[8].  The Napa-Vallejo road and the railroad are the vertical lines that surround the property.  Note that there is a road that intersects the Napa-Vallejo road just south of the family property.  It was called the Sulphur Spring Road – and was the main road that led to the Sulphur Spring resort and passed by the Tobin Ranch.  Mariano would later open a restaurant and bar at this important intersection.[9]

I don’t know if there was a house on the property that Mariano bought in 1891, but my guess is that there was not.  That meant that Mariano may have organized friends and neighbors to help him build his new home.  He would eventually plant the area with trees (eucalyptus along the road, fig, quince, apple, peach, pear and grapefruit), vegetables, and raised cattle, pigs and horses on the property.

To the right is a photo of the first Coronado home, a modest one story, which Mariano built on his acquired land.[10]

Below is a close up photo of the family on the porch.  Based on the ages of the children these photos were taken in 1899.

Mother, Louisa Coronado, holding baby John (Doc) (3 months old).  Hess in
the middle row (11).  Dolph (12), Jimmy (2), Dutch (7) & Louise (6) in the
bottom row.

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[1] According to my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Manuel Madrid and Louisa Madrid were cousins.  I haven’t been able to confirm this, but I know that they lived next door to one another in the 1870 Census.  As further evidence of the close family relationship between Manuel and Mariano, Manual Madrid courted Mariano’s sister, Angelita Coronado, and married her in Napa on 18 July 1886.

[2] James F. Tobin was an Irishman born in 1830.  When nineteen years old he moved to America, and settled initially in New York.  In 1855 he moved to California, first San Francisco and then Vallejo.  His first occupation was as a butcher, but he then moved into farming and stock-raising activities.  By 1880 he owned 3,000 acres in the Vallejo area.  History of Solano County, …, A Full and Particular Biography of Its Early Settlers and Principal Inhabitants, Wood Alley & Co, San Francisco, 1879, page 394.

[3] Church baptism records show the children were born in Vallejo; the records are not specific about the actual location.

[4] Certificate of Death, City of Vallejo Death Records, 1891, page 350, accessed from Solano County Genealogical Society Library.

[5]  Mariano began to use his initials “M.P.” instead of his Spanish first name.

[6]  Simon Corcoran bought land from John Williamson the previous year.  The property he sold to M.P. was part of his larger purchase.  The property purchased by M.P. on 22 August 1891 is recorded in the Solano County, California, land records, Book 112, Page 154.

[7] This map is a portion of the Historical Atlas Map of Solano County, Compiled, Drawn and Published from Personal Examinations and Surveys, By Thompson and West, San Francisco, Cal., 1878, page 46-47, map no. 7.  Current GPS coordinates for the locations on the map: blue arrow (family property): https://tinyurl.com/y2u4gqcu ; north red arrow (Tobin Ranches): https://tinyurl.com/y6qhotlt ; south red arrow (Vallejo Sulphur Springs): https://tinyurl.com/y6hzz6vo  (My son, David, identified these current GPS locations and recommended that I include them.)

[8] Ibid

[9] The Sulphur Spring Road is generally where Lewis Brown Drive exists today along with Highway 37.  What used to be the Napa-Vallejo Highway now follows the alignment of Lincoln Highway or Broadway.  The main highway from Vallejo to Napa is now Sonoma Blvd or Highway 29.

[10] These two photos of the first Coronado home and the family are colorized versions of the original black & white photos in my files.  I used the online My Heritage genealogy website which uses a computer generated method of colorizing photos.  They turn out to be clearer than the original black & white photos.

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.

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 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.