No, Not That Murrieta — the Crime Fighting Murrieta

The residents of Murrieta in Riverside County, hometown of former GOP Senate Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, have been good sports for the last 128 or so years.

No, they patiently reply, the town was not named for Joaquin Murrieta, the Gold Rush era bandit, but for local pioneer Juan Murrieta, a sheep rancher and avocado grower.    Read more »

More

The Origin of the Name of One of California’s Oldest Cities

Founded in 1850, Antioch is one of California’s oldest cities. At the time though it was known as Smith‘s Landing after two of its first residents, Rev. Joseph H. Smith and his brother, W. W. Smith.

They initially homesteaded what was called New York Landing, roughly today’s Pittsburg, on 10 riverfront acres apiece given to them by the first American settler in the area, a Dr.    Read more »

More

The Origin of One of Several California Civil War Place Names

Alfred Pleasonton was born in 1824 in Washington D.C. He graduated from West point in 1844 was commissioned a second lieutenant and served with the 1st Dragoons, a heavy cavalry unit, on “frontier duty” in Minnesota, Iowa and Texas.

He fought with the 2nd Dragoons in the Mexican-American War and was promoted to captain in 1855.    Read more »

More

Looking for Something Really Special To Do Valentine’s Day?

Why not consider lunch with Sen. Elaine Alquist, a Santa Clara Democrat, in the Governor’s Room at the Sutter Club?

Tres romantique.

The invitation says she is running for Secretary of State in 2014, which might be true.

Under the state’s campaign finance laws, a termed-out lawmaker can only raise money in their final term if they are running for higher office.    Read more »

More

California’s Capitol on Capitol Public Radio

(Editor’s Note: On January 6, the chief correspondent of California’s Capitol appeared on Insight to discuss Josiah Royce, a turn-of-the-20th Century thinker whose “philosophy of loyalty” Gov. Jerry Brown said in his inaugural address was what Californians should embrace to break the stranglehold of partisanship. Fortunately, also involved in the discussion was Gary Noy, a professor from Sierra College who offered a bit more breadth than the chief correspondent was able to cull in the 72 hours since he first heard Roye’s name in Brown’s speech.    Read more »

More

Another Historical Allusion in Gov. Brown’s Inaugural Speech

Near the beginning of his inaugural address on January 3, Gov. Jerry Brown thanked his GOP predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, for his “tireless efforts to keep California the Great Exception that it is.”

The Democratic governor may have been giving a tip of the hat to a 1949 book by author, journalist and lawyer Carey McWilliams called, California The Great Exception.    Read more »

More

Not a Name That Commonly Surfaces in Inaugural Addresses

For many Californians, Josiah Royce, whose concept of loyalty Gov. Jerry Brown cited in his January 3 inaugural address as the key to overcoming partisanship, might be almost as familiar a name as Thomas Starr King.

Said Brown:

“One of our native sons, Josiah Royce, became for a time one of the most famous of American philosophers.    Read more »

More

Who Is Thomas Starr King and Why Doesn’t He Seem Happy?

As the pedestal says on the attached modern day photo, what’s pictured is a statue of Thomas Starr King, a famous abolitionist from the Civil War.

A gifted orator and zealous churchman, Starr King left the East Coast in 1860 to head the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco.

He raised $1.5 million for the national Sanitary Commission, predecessor of the American Red Cross, which treated wounded soldiers.    Read more »

More

What Places in California Are Named After Saint Onophrius?

San Onofre State Beach, through which soon-to-be-leaving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to run a six-lane toll road and San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant both get their name from Saint Onophrius.

Onophrius, Humphrey in English, supposedly lived as a hermit in the Egyptian desert for 70 years, dying around 400 AD. The power plant opened 1,568 years after the saint’s death

The story of the life of Onophrius comes down the ages through an account by Paphnutius the Ascetic who also became a saint.    Read more »

More

Which Saint Raymond is the City of San Ramon Named After?

San Ramon in Contra Costa County — smack dab in the heart of the San Ramon Valley and the headquarters of Chevron and 24-Hour Fitness – has a population of more than 65,000 and isn’t named after Saint Raymond of Pennafort.

Saint Raymond of Pennafort, a Dominican friar, is the patron saint of lawyers.    Read more »

More