Women Making History

by Mary Cory

There are so many true stories to tell from El Dorado County’s history. Some of these stories are familiar and have been kept alive by their retelling, such as Wheelbarrow Johnny’s experience building wheelbarrows in Placerville, or Snowshoe Thompson’s epic journeys every winter delivering the mail. However, there are many stories that don’t get regularly told. The El Dorado County Historical Museum exhibit Women of Influence was an opportunity to tell some of those true stories. This special exhibit was installed at the County Museum in June 2019 after months of research and preparation. It was by far our most ambitious exhibit at the County Museum. Even though, as all temporary exhibits must, it was changed out for another exhibit in 2022, parts of the original Women of Influence can still be seen in other permanent exhibits at the County Museum.

After spending time with the County Museum’s incredible collection of digitized historical photographs, over 200 photographs were selected that depicted women in El Dorado County from about 1850 to 1975. The photographs record a special time - showing women working, playing, taking care of their families, and commemorating big events. These photographs date from the periods of time when the act of taking a photograph was an event in itself. We have become so used to quickly snapping thousands of digital photos with our phones, which can be scrolled through with the touch of a finger. Historical photographs were taken with much more deliberation, framed and hung on the wall, kept in photograph albums or shoe boxes, and looked at as a part of passing down family stories. Part of appreciating the past is to ask questions about each photograph itself. Why was it taken? Who was the photographer? What do we know about the people in the photograph? Where did they live? What are they doing?

These questions led to the exhibit Women of Influence and a desire to capture the history of some of the women that lived in El Dorado County. After examining the Museum’s collection of artifacts, textiles, and historical photographs, we highlighted the stories of five El Dorado County women. Many women’s stories don’t make it into the history books. We hoped that this exhibit would help bring some of those stories, big and small, to the surface. We dedicated this exhibit to the many women in the County’s past who met the demands of their times, sometimes pushing boundaries and inspiring us to face the challenges of today.

Women Making History

Part 1 of a series

Margaret Kelley Educator

Margaret Kelley was an educator for over 50 years who touched the lives of many students as a teacher and principal. In most of El Dorado County, a teacher was in charge of a one-room schoolhouse with students ranging from first to eighth grades. According to the law, when there were six eligible students in a region, a school should be established and a teacher hired. The teacher might have training from a “normal” school (a training college for teachers) and would board during the school week with the family of one of their students.

Margaret Kelley, seen below, was a teacher and school principal for over 50 years. Margaret was also a good friend to James Marshall, the “discoverer of gold.” In 1921, she opened the first Museum in El Dorado County at the site of James Marshall’s blacksmith shop in Kelsey, dedicated to the Gold Rush and James Marshall.

Stella Tracy Philanthropist

Stella Ralston Tracy was a prominent figure in Placerville Society and was interested in the preservation of county history. Her parents were “well-todo”, and Stella grew up in Placerville - attending musicales, participating in local theatre productions, and accompanying her mother, who was a professional musician and singer, on tour. Stella graduated from San Jose State College in 1895, and taught school for 8 years.

She married Perry Tracy, coowner of Tracy Shoe Store, and settled into a fine house with many furnishings provided by their parents. Perry Tracy and his brother owned and operated the Tracy Shoe Store on Main Street. Started by their father, the Tracy building now houses the Heyday Cafe.

Stella and Perry’s home was demolished in the early 1950s, along with many others on Union Street, to make way for Highway 50. Stella, by then a widow, moved to a smaller house on Coloma Street where she resided until her death, surrounded by her many antiques and relics of Placerville’s past.

Several of her dresses, furnishings from her home, and her musical instruments, including the guitar pictured above, are on display at the El Dorado County Museum Women of Influence exhibit . Stella remained interested in the county’s history all her life. She was an active member of the El Dorado County Historical Society, a prominent member of the Shakespeare Club, and upon her death in 1968, she left college scholarships for students graduating from El Dorado County High Schools. She left her home on Coloma Street and its contents to the El Dorado County Historical Society.

Many of these items are on display at the County Museum, and at the Historical Society’s Fountain & Tallman Museum on Main Street.

continued from page 13

Lulu Weatherwax Artist

Lulu Weatherwax was the only child of Charles and Sarah Weatherwax, born in Placerville in 1873, three years after her parents were married. Like Stella, she grew up in one of the fine homes in Placerville, located at the corner of Bedford and Coleman St, where the house still stands today. She never married and continued to live with her parents, staying in the house until 1945. Lulu then moved to San Francisco, where she died in 1950 at the age of 77.

In her obituary, Lulu is described as “a ceramist and painter.” Several examples of her oil paintings and painted china are on display at the El Dorado County Historical Museum. She submitted her work to the Pan Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, winning a ribbon. In her 20s and 30s she advertised her painted china in the Mt. Democrat and she is remembered as having one of the first kilns in Placerville.

China painting was a late 19th and early 20th century pastime, livelihood and art for many American women. Most of the work was done by the overglaze process, which involved painting a previously fired hardchina blank, and then refiring it, making the painted design a permanent decoration. China painting was so popular that importers sold a wide variety of blanks, and advertised “the best of all the new shapes in French and German china.” The paints themselves became widely available and could be purchased in shops in Placerville. Instruction books helped disseminate information on china painting techniques and processes to enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, we don’t know what the inspiration for Lulu’s artistic expression was, as there is nothing known in her own words. Her work was probably given as gifts to friends and family, and she entered pieces into competitions. Her studio was a familiar place to many art lovers in Placerville, as was stated in her obituary, published in the Mountain Democrat in 1950. Her signature is a simple “LW” on the underside of a plate or vase. With only the bare outlines of Lulu’s life known to us now, her art is what we now have to remember her by.

Stay tuned for Part 2: More stories of women in El Dorado County’s history.

Mary Cory is the curator of the El Dorado County Museum and has a tangible passion for history and all things El Dorado County.

*All photos courtesy of the El Dorado County History Museum.

The Bright Side

What do you call it when a snowman throws a tantrum? A meltdown

Which is faster, hot or cold? Hot, because you can catch a cold.

Riddle Me This

1. A man went outside in the rain without an umbrella or a hat and didn’t get a single hair on his head wet. How?

2. I’m tall when I’m young, but short when I’m old. What am I?

3. What has many needles but can’t sew?

Riddle answers on page 26

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We think of the pioneers of the Gold Country as long gone, with only scattered headstones and dilapidated cabins melting back into the earth to remind us of their existence. But that is not entirely true. There are living pioneers around us. They are trees brought by the settlers to remind them of home, or to provide food or medicine. Whether they came as seeds, cuttings or saplings, they took root and continued to thrive.

A good example is the Lombardy Poplars (Populus nigra 'Italica') that mark the locations of former roadhouses along the emigrant trail, or the site of a farmhouse. It is almost certain that wherever you see one today a human habitation was once nearby. These Lombardy Poplars, so prized in the 19th century for their columnar shape, hardiness and rapid growth, are most noticeable in the fall, when their leaves turn a bright golden yellow. There are a few to be seen alongside Highway 50 in Placerville, or between the South Fork of the American River and Highway 50 west of Kyburz, where the Riverton Hotel once stood.

The last of the Wakamatsu Japanese settlers is a Keyaki Elm (Zelkova Serrata). It has survived the dispersal of the members of this failed colony and the demise of the tea plants that were part of the purpose of the Wakamatsu Silk and Tea Colony. Today it spreads its wide limbs protectively over the old farmhouse and garden.