Of San Fernando and San Luis Rey

Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana, the city of San Fernando and the valley of same are named after King Ferdinand III of Spain who was canonized by Pope Clement in 1671.

Ferdinand, a lay member of the Franciscans, permanently united Castile and Leon, partly through inheritance. He expanded Spanish control of the Southern Iberian Peninsula by capturing the Moorish strongholds of Cordoba and Seville.    Read more »

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Origins of California Place Names — Ceres

Ceres is a 43,000-population city located 80 miles south of Sacramento in Stanislaus County.

Its name is that of the Roman goddess of fertility, fecundity and, not surprisingly, agriculture.

Ceres, the sister of Jupiter – the Roman Zeus —  is the Romanized version of the Greek Demeter, goddess of harvests and seasons.    Read more »

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Where Montalvo Gets Its Name…

Montalvo was once a city in Ventura County. Now its part of the City of Ventura.

It’s named after Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo, the author of  four books titled Amadís de Gaula.

The four volumes, published in 1508, are a “modern” rewrite of chivalrous tales from several centuries before. The books feature prominently in Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote and, given the title character’s fixation with Amadis’ exploits, is likely what drove him bonkers.    Read more »

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The Three-Generation Saga That Created Moraga

The City of Moraga is named after the builder of the 1841 adobe on the knoll above Orinda’s Miramonte High School.

It’s the oldest building in Contra Costa County. And looked every year of it in 1935.

Joaquin de la Santisima Trinidad Moraga, who called the adobe home, was the third generation of one of California’s most notable pioneer families.    Read more »

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Bit of History Found During Rainy Afternoon Garage Cleaning

17th Century Nun’s Prayer

“As we grow O Lord, and we are getting older, keep us from getting talkative and the awful habit of thinking that we must say something on every subject and on every occasion.

“Keep us from the recital of endless details. Help us to get to the point.    Read more »

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$500-Million Highway Program Is Proposed By Contractors

Brown administration officials, legislative leaders and the construction industry have opened discussions aimed at pumping as much as $500 million more into the state’s highway construction program without raising gasoline taxes, possibly through the issuance of revenue bonds.

The construction industry, hard-hit by the sharp reduction in highway construction and stymied by Gov.    Read more »

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Of Mount Lola and Lotta Crabtree’s San Francisco Fountain

At 9,148 feet, Mount Lola is the highest point in Nevada County.

It’s located north of Donner Pass and Interstate-80.

The peak’s namesake is Lola Montez, baroness, collector of men, shrewd entertainer and embellisher of stories, many of which involving her life

Montez portrayed herself as Spanish dancer Maria Dolores de Porris y Montez:

Lola for short.    Read more »

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Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, Page 306…

Helping to raise $1.8 million for Booker T. Washington and his Tuskegee Institute, at which “students are not merely furnished a book education but are taught 37 useful trades,” the 70-year-old Twain delivers a speech at a Carnegie Hall benefit. Twain wonders aloud what knowledge he can possibly impart that a Tuskegee student would not became aware of as a result of their studies.    Read more »

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A County Named For the Reeds of a Vanished Lake

Tulare County, officially named such in 1852, owes its origin to Don Pedro Fages, comandante of California and, later, the second Spanish military governor of Las Californias.

Fages, who accompanied Gaspar de Portola on his first and second expeditions to California in 1768 and 1770, was an exacting and short-tempered commander.    Read more »

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Two Wine Country Locations and a Saint From Ancient Rome

Mount St. Helena in Sonoma County was named some 15 years before the city in Napa received the same name in 1855.

The town, apparently, got its name from the local Sons of Temperance who called themselves the “St. Helena Chapter” after the mountain at the head of the valley.

According to Saints of California: A Guide to Places and Their Patrons, the mountain was likely so named by the Russian settlers at Fort Ross to commemorate the visit of the ship, St.    Read more »

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