The Havilah Herald
Official Publication of the Havilah Centennial Group, Inc.
aka The Havilah Historical Society and Museum
Havilah California – January 2025
A recognized 501 C 3 Historical Organization (all donations are 100% tax-
deductible) Dedicated to the preservation of the history of Havilah,
the first County Seat of Kern County, CA
Our Purpose:
The purpose of this corporation is educational. The organization has been formed and is maintained to research, document, preserve, and share the historic legacy of the town of Havilah, California, and of Kern County, California. Included in this purpose is the objective to provide for the advancement of education about the history of Havilah and early Kern County to the local community at large and to any and all visitors to the community.
THE PREZ SEZ
For January 2025
Happy New Year everyone! Who knows what the new year will bring, but from our Museum’s standpoint, anywhere we go will trend up because we’re starting from scratch. I’m sure there will be twists and turns along the way but we will definitely be in a different place than we are now. Okay, enough of the prophesizing — it’s time to get to work.
Future tasks:
- Rebuild the museum with an exterior that would look similar to our old one.
- Organize the Schoolhouse in a way that displays some information while maintaining space for our meetings.
- Hazard reduction in the creek bottom and weed control in the picnic area.
The delay in publishing this newsletter was caused by a busy Holiday season for some and computer issues. We will get back on track with the February issue.
Dues are Due!! The end of this newsletter has the application and mailing address for submitting the dues.
Our first general meeting for 2025 will be held on January 11 at 3:00 PM in the Schoolhouse.
Roy Fluhart
President.
OURTHOUSE SITE JUST AFTER FIRE
CLEANUP FINISHED
Unable to load proper picture – will try again
Following is another article from “The Old Timer’s Column” published in the Wofford heights Kern River Review by The Ghost Writer (Edith long, whose parents were Jim and Pearl Bechtel), dated January 29, 1970:
Between Granny Robinson’s house and the Bechtel’s, was a big corral where the Pascoe’s kept their saddle horses and pack mules. One of the town’s ditches ran cross the end of the corral bordering on the main Street in the upper part of town. The hay manger was located just across from the Percy Buber’s home.
The horses and mules would reach over the fence and eat Granny’s fruit and leaves from the trees growing along the south side of her home and also in the back yard. This would make Granny furious and she would come stomping out of her house with arms flailing and yelling threats. The unconcerned animals would only move away from their feasting when Granny threw rocks or was in cane-striking distance.
During the weed and grass growing season, Granny’s back yard was full of the edibles, so there was constant fence-mending being done by the Pascoe’s, under Granny’s supervision.
She also complained about the dust clouds that sailed her way when the Pascoe’s were roping the animals to prepare for the pack trains going into the high mountains and meadows. The animals would race around the coral raising dust and Granny again would stomp over to the the Pascoe Home and insist they do something.
The pack train would usually empty the corral of all animals, but one or two saddle horses, so Granny would “simmer down” and peace and quiet would remain until the next time.
She also objected to Ida B’s chickens getting into her yard. One day she became furious when she found them in her yard again, so she went to Ida B’s house primmed for a battle royal. Ida B had seen her coming down the front walk and knew Granny was mad about something. When she opened the door at Granny’s loud knocking, she invited her in and acted as though this was a social visit.
At Ida B’s friendliness, Granny’s wrath began diminishing, but she did get her reason for the visit “off her chest.” Ida B asked Granny if she would like to have one of the chickens to eat, and if so, she would be glad to give her one. This unexpected kindness took Granny completely by surprise. When Granny left for home, she had her chicken and a new attitude!
LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD
“The Birds of America (1827-38)” by John James Audubon,
(From: “100 Things You Are Not Supposed to Know” by Russ Kick,
And “appropriated” by Al Price, N6ALP)
You all recognize the name of this Giant among bird lovers, John James Audubon, The Audubon Society, and this self-taught artist’s four volume set of life-size paintings of our Nation’s birds in the book(s) listed above. But just exactly how he was able to capture our feathered friends’ likenesses so completely is often glossed over. The Encyclopedia Britannica even fails to broach the subject. In the Audubon Society’s pages on their namesake, it just mentions he loved to hunt. But what they didn’t say was that he killed every bird that he painted in those four loved volumes so that he could use wires to pose the corpses of these hawks, falcons, partridges, sparrows, woodpeckers, and their other avian cohorts, before ever putting brush to canvas.
In one of his diary entries, he mentioned his being able to ‘sneak up on a large group of sleeping pelicans, and only being able to blast two of them with his shotgun before it jammed, and those shots had awakened the rest who were able to fly away before he could kill them all! But when hunting snoozing avians became too much trouble, he merely purchased caged birds, like an eagle one time, and then shot it in the cage before painting it and capturing its likeness.
One of Audubon’s biographers, Duff Hart-Davis, reveals: “The rarer the bird, the more eagerly he pursued it, never bothering to consider that it might hasten the extinction of its kind.”
Over 1,000 beautiful, individual birds appear in the paintings in his set of books, but the actual body-count was much higher. As he stated in his diaries, he didn’t feel some of his kills were worthy of being painted. Then some of his paintings were never presented for display because he didn’t like how they turned out. In another case, he figured that he had already painted a near relative of this bird, so unless it had an intriguing variation, he just blew this one off (didn’t bother painting it).
He also entered in his diaries: “I call it ‘few’ when I shoot less than one hundred per day”
Membership Application
Havilah Historical Society and Museum
6789 Caliente-Bodfish Road, Havilah, CA 93518
(Physical address – see mailing address below)
(Fiscal Year from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025)
$25.00 Annual Dues for an individual or a family membership, or $35.00 if newsletter is snail-mailed (a family is 2 adults for voting purposes). This will entitle members to receive notices via the monthly newsletter, The Havilah Herald, of meetings, functions and events.
Name ________________________________________________________________________
Mailing Address___________________________________________________________
Phone________________________________email_______________________________
Deliver newsletter (check one) by email__________ or by snail-mail__________
Date application submitted___________________________________________
Please mail application to: Havilah Historical Society, c/o Jayne Hotchkiss Price
PO Box 3, Caliente, CA 9351
President- Roy Fluhart
Vice President – Larry Grafius
Secretary – Vicki Porter
Treasurer – Jayne-Hotchkiss-Price
Directors: Bob Porter
Wes Kutzner
Immediate Past President – Jayne Hotchkiss-Price
Newsletter Editor – Janet Kutzner
Website: www.havilahmuseum.org
Annual membership is $25.00 per individual or family when monthly newsletter is emailed. If newsletter is snail-mailed the membership fee is $35.00. The membership year is from January 1 to December 31. The school house is located at 6789 Caliente-Bodfish Road, Havilah, CA 93518. The monthly general meeting is at 3 pm the second Saturday of each month.