SYVHM Spring 2020 Newsletter

SPRING 2020

SANTA YNEZ VALLEY HISTORICAL MUSEUM & Parks Janeway Carriage House

Preserving, interpreting and celebrating the history of human experience in California’s Santa Ynez Valley and Central Coast by informing, educating, inspiring and engaging Museum guests of all ages and backgrounds. deliberations, the Board of Directors and I have identified four priorities for us to address in the immediate future.

These include:

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1. Preparing and immediately implementing a 2020 COVID-19 Re-set Operating Budget including applying for relief funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through an SBA (Small Business Administration) lender, an Economic Relief Disaster loan from the SBA, and a grant from the COVID-10 Relief Fund established by the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Hutton-Parker Foundation, and the United Way of Santa Barbara.

Executive Director, Brian Stenfors, Ph.D. in front of the Yosemite Stage Coach installation.

Dear Members of the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum & Parks–Janeway Carriage House: Although the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum & ParksJaneway Carriage House remain closed due to COVID-19 pandemic (with an undetermined re-opening date to keep visitors, volunteers and staff safe), we are literally and virtually working “behind the scenes” to find our new path forward with our Members foremost in mind.

For our last meeting, the Board of Directors and I held our second virtual Board meeting to conduct both Museum & Carriage House business at a safe distance. In brief, we had a very animated and productive session.

This is clearly “not business as usual” so, as a result of these

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2. Further expand our new Member-friendly user website with increased online presence and educational opportunities.

3. Creation of a Crisis Communication Plan to stay in close touch with all our stakeholders, especially Members, during this challenging time. This quarterly Members’ newsletter (with a monthly electronic Members’ alert) is an integral part of this plan.

4. Implementation of a Crisis Fundraising Action Plan so all of our stake holders are aware of our precarious financial situation and our plans to ameliorate that situation as we move forward.

So, please, as you think of the Museum and the Carriage House, consider ways in which you can be there for us as we navigate this crisis together. We value your partnership and welcome your help, advice and financial support at this time.

Please enjoy this inaugural issue of our Member newsletter.

Sincerely, Brian Stenfors, Ph.D. Executive Director 1

School buildings may be closed, but

Learning is OPEN!

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We have now been implementing distance learning for several weeks at Los Olivos Elementary and will continue until the end of the school year on June 5th. We are using Google Classroom and Zoom as our platforms to convey our curriculum remotely.

Greetings from the Education Corral!

The school year was in full swing with tours and programs scheduled for student and community group visits – now we are adapting our lives to home base and school routines have gone virtual.

Since embarking on this adventure as Curator of Education in 2018, I have fostered a renewed emphasis on the Museum’s mission to educate, inspire and engage our visitors. School field trips and resources are in place to support history and social science state standards, with engaging crafts and activities linked to our collection. Fascinating guest speakers have recently enlightened us as to the mysteries of The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, and nuances of the Campaign Trail with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Last summer’s Wild West Camp provided a blast from the past for modernday pioneers. New collaborative efforts have been nurtured with the Santa Ynez Valley Libraries, WE Watch, the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, United Way, and more.

Our last successful event prior to the Museum’s closure was a real treat as we celebrated Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum with an Eggstravaganza on March 7th. Hundreds of kids of all ages painted, created poetry, sang, and reveled in an old-fashioned clown show. Home-schooled students created a horse-themed art project for display. Guest artists, poets, musicians, and storytellers lent their talents to enliven the event. Over 100 books went home in support of literacy with our free book raffle. We hope to continue this annual tradition next year!

I am continuing to teach one of my favorite units in this fashion, which is our Valley’s history. We were able to start this before we left school on March 16th and continued it in this new fashion. Students worked on their models of special and historical places they chose in the Valley town I assigned them to. They also wrote informational essays on their town’s history as well as their special place’s history on Google Docs which allowed for them to share their documents and I could comment and edit as needed along the way. We then shared our models and essays on Zoom class meetings. Some of the special places that were chosen were Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos, Oak Hill Cemetery in Ballard, and our own Museum in Santa Ynez. Here is a quote from 3rd grader Steven Larner about why he chose the Historical Museum as his special place to research and build a model of.

“The Santa Ynez Historical Museum & Carriage House is special to me because it can teach us about the history of the Santa Ynez Valley. It is a place where children can be educated about the local history and carriages from long ago. Carriages are an important part of the history of the Santa Ynez Valley and the Museum has many on display. Santa Ynez is where the oldest branch library in California is still standing. It was moved next to the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum in 1971. With these old buildings still standing, visitors can get an idea of what it was like in the past. That is why I choose the Santa Ynez Historical Museum & Carriage House and why I like Santa Ynez.”

We plan to have these amazing models and reports on display for a while at the Museum to invite the community to see all their hard work and celebrate. More details to come on when this will be able to happen.

Sharla Branquinho 3rd Grade Teacher, Los Olivos Elementary SYVHM Board Member.

Los Olivos 3rd Grader, Steven Larner’s model of the Samta Ynez Museum.

While events, programs, and displays have been put on hold during the pandemic, we look forward to new opportunities with tours, films, speakers, and additional resources in support of education at the SantaYnez Valley Historical Museum. Your continued support is vital to the mission and continued success of the Museum. I look forward to seeing you once more along the trail!

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Larner

Warmest regards, Theresa Reilly Curator of Education

Spring 2020 Newsletter

Elizabeth Greer brought entertainment to Santa Ynez

By John Copeland, SYVHM Board Member

It was 1860, Elizabeth and John Beadle had left Harpers Ferry, VA, seeking a better life in the West. Now those plans were buried on a dusty desert trail. However, Elizabeth was independent and resilient. She and Della left the wagon train at the first town, putting down roots in Dayton, NV, where she met Henry Greer, a blacksmith, at a dance and married him in 1866. In 1868, Mr. and Mrs. Greer headed to California.

In 1880, Elizabeth and Della were living in the mining town of Bodie, CA. At some point earlier, Elizabeth and Henry separated and he returned to Nevada. Mrs. Greer, with Della in tow, came to Santa Ynez in 1884, becoming early settlers in the town.

Elizabeth purchased /4 of a block, 150x200 feet, from the Santa Ynez Land & Development Company. She first built a restaurant and boarding house. A short time later, Elizabeth opened a store, that she stocked with a full line of dry goods, groceries, hardware and household supplies.

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Santa Ynez had several saloons, a school and hotel, but no place for social gatherings. Elizabeth decided to remedy that. In 1888, behind her boarding house, Elizabeth built Greer’s Hall, the first recreational building in the valley. In her words, “a place for fun and frolic.”

All the public events in Santa Ynez, such as graduation, dances and traveling shows were held at Greer’s Hall. At dances, parents would often fix their children a bed on a chair in the Hall, while the adults enjoyed square dancing. Pioneering residents of the Valley held fond memories of times spent at Greer’s Hall.

Over the years, Elizabeth had persevered and built a better life for both Della and herself. Della married John Todd, a harness maker in Santa Ynez. Elizabeth remarried as well, to John Kane.

She finally sold the Hall and boarding house to Mr. Minetti who also had a restaurant and hotel in Santa Ynez.

Mrs. Greer passed away in 1912 and is buried in Santa Barbara.

The hall was finally torn down in 1945.

Branquinho

Dust blew through the wagon’s bonnet. It was like a furnace under the canvas, the baby was crying and regardless of Elizabeth’s ministrations, her husband, John, was dying. By sundown he was gone. The journey had been a perilous one, including surviving an attack by Indians. The next morning, Elizabeth, holding baby Della, watched stoically as John was buried in the middle of the trail and the wagons rolled over the grave allowing the draft animals to trample it, erasing the scent so wolves couldn’t pick it up.

New SYVHM Board Member, Sharla Branquinho with her husband, Tony, and their two daughters, Cersten and Kylee.

Community Member Profile

Sharla Branquinho Originally from Southern California, Sharla came to the Central Coast to study at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and graduated in 2004. With a lifelong love of learning, she earned her teaching credential in 2005 and began teaching at Los Olivos Elementary School in 2007, where she has been teaching 3rd grade for eight years now.

Sharla enjoys teaching 3rd grade because the children are at an age where they love school and their cognitive thinking has developed enough so that they really start to advance and are able learn more complex concepts. One of her most favorite subjects to teach is history, and for 3rd grade, the curriculum is the history of your local community. In that unit, Sharla teaches the history of the Santa Ynez Valley, the towns themselves as well as Western heritage: farming, ranching and etiquette (hats off in her classroom gentlemen!). An important part of this unit is, of course, a class fieldtrip to the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum.

She is very involved in her community. Sharla is a member of the Santa Barbara Co. Cattlewomen’s Association and was the 2018 Cattlewoman of the Year. In 2015, she was awarded the Agvocate of the Year, for her teaching of agriculture in the classroom. She is also the President of the Los Olivos Teachers Union and recently started a Valley-wide Facebook group for teachers to share experiences and collaborate in this new teaching environment.

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Sharla joined the Museum Board this year and is excited to work on educational projects such as expanding our virtual educational experience. She is such a wonderful addition to the Board because she is a teacher, teaching so much of what we feature in our Museum. We look forward to her experience helping us make your experience at the Santa Ynez Museum even more enriching. Welcome Sharla!

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US POSTAGE

PAID

Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum PO Box 181 3596 Sagunto Street Santa Ynez, CA 93460

Santa Ynez, CA Permit No. 181 Non-Profit Org

Address correction requested.

Karen D Photography

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Mrs. Elizabeth Greer, a Santa Ynez businesswoman of the late 1800s.

THANK YOU

Our sincere gratitude to Nationwide Insurance for Sponsoring our Member Newsletter!

www.nationwide.com HAVE YOUR NEXT EVENT WITH US! Enjoy the ambience of a private courtyard, reminiscent of a Spanish hacienda, distinguished by native landscaping and accented with an arbor and splashing fountain. Or celebrate in the ParksJaneway Carriage House among stagecoaches and buggies from a bygone era. The Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum offers indoor and outdoor event spaces that fit up to approximately 250 guests.

Amplified music is allowed. The Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum hosts all special occasions such as birthdays, corporate events, engagement parties, family reunions, weddings and rehearsal dinners and more!

NEW WEBSITE

For more information, please contact the Museum: (805) 688-7889 x104 • info@santaynezmuseum.org

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Have you had a chance to visit our new website? We are still adding new materials to it but we think that you’ll like the new, clean look. Please take a peek at: