Trinity County Biographies

Gertrude �Gertie� (Bailey) Shannon

Submitted by BClayShannon@aol.com; Jan. 2006

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


(Gertie Shannon�s autobiography/family story)

My Birth and Childhood
Topeka, Kansas was the place of my birth, on January 24, 1883, and the following 
year found us many miles west in California. My parents and grandparents settled 
in a little town near the moist green coast in Northern California. My immediate 
family located at Hydesville while my grandparents lived a few miles distant in 
Carlotta. I had one sister and one brother. My sister, Effie, who was three 
years older than me; and my brother Edgar, who was five years younger than I 
was. I lost my sister January 26, 1952 and I lost my brother June 21, 1953. 

When I was only seven I went to live with my grandparents. My grandmother soon 
became mother and grandmother to me and I owe much to her. I used to follow my 
grandfather all around and I would lead the horse for grandfather when he 
plowed. When it came time for grandfather to go fishing, I dearly wanted to go 
with him, but as I was just a little noisy creature, I was not invited. This 
left me wondering, but now I realize that he must have enjoyed this opportunity 
to be alone to meditate. Sometimes he used the worms that I proudly picked up 
for him while walking in back of him as he made fresh furrows in the fields.

We walked two miles to school and this was my mode of transportation until I was 
sixteen years old. I had one teacher Mrs. West, who helped in so many ways and I 
even stayed with her often.

I remember as a girl the making of all of our soap, which is completely foreign 
to the young folks of today, and was just one of the chores for us. All winter 
long we collected wood ashes and stored them until spring. We then poured water 
through them and as it was draining off, it was formed into lye. With a big 
roaring fire under the old black wash pot, we thus made our soap.

I also remember wash day as being quite a chore. We had to draw water from the 
will in the yard, fill the old pot and diligently use the wash board.

When I was about 8 years I used to go down to the river bar and fill a flour 
sack full of rocks, and in the evening my grandfather would get down on the 
floor with me and show me how he would and did build his barns, fences and his 
house out of rocks. This was a wonderful time for me and I can never forget how 
kind he was to me. I loved my grandparents so devotedly.

Another memory I have was that during the Spring and Summer months we were busy 
canning fruits and vegetables so that we had plenty of canned goods on hand for 
the long winter months. This was quite handy, to have the food canned and in our 
home, as it took some three or four hours to fetch groceries from the closest 
store, which was eight miles away by the horse and buggy.

My grandparents had a few cows and I used to milk, churn, and mold butter. We 
kept the butter in a big crock and stored it and all of the milk and milk 
products in the well house where it was always cool.

When it came time to get the hay in, grand father would use a sled to bring it 
in and he then stacked it, all by hand.

I can�t help but recall some more of the memories of my childhood. One day my 
grandmother and I went to see some friends and we were about there when our 
horse starting acting funny. Someone had lost a cow and it seems as though they 
found her on the river bar and it didn�t want to come home. The horse seemed to 
sense that something was wrong, and then a while later, on our way home, at the 
very same spot, the horse acted funny again, and grandmother got out and held 
the horse until I got out of the cart. The horse then knocked her down and the 
wheel of the cart went over her arm, but as we found out later her arm wasn�t 
broken, although it was very sore after that. One of the neighbors caught the 
horse at the bridge and brought him to a friend�s house to be picked up later. I 
went to get my grandfather who then went and picked up my grandmother.

Another memory which is very plain is when I was still with my parents, when I 
was about five years old. I went to my uncle�s home and my cousin, Will Smith, 
went with me to grandmothers and while climbing over a fence, I stepped into a 
bee�s nest and was stung quite badly. Will picked me up and ran the rest of the 
way (it was about a half a mile) to grandmothers, climbing the fences with me as 
they got in his way.

The first heifer that I had was given to me by my grandmother, so that I would 
have a cow of my own on which to learn how to milk. Grandmother would not let me 
learn to milk until I was ten years old. I named my heifer �Nancy� and she would 
let no one but me milk her.

I had a dear friend, her name was Josie and one day at school, dear Josie Barney 
fell and she was never able to walk again. I would go to see her once every week 
and then she died and was buried the day before Christmas. She was only about 
twelve when she passed away.

We made pets out of all our animals. When I went out to feed the chickens my pet 
hen, a special hen, would fly up on my shoulder and there she stayed until I got 
to the place we fed them, the chickens.

I met my future husband a year before grand mother died, and had seen him many 
times where we both happened to be at homes of mutual acquaintances and friends. 
The next year casual friendship grew into love but since I was only sixteen we 
decided to wait awhile for marriage but catastrophe invaded my life about this 
time when my beloved grandmother passed away at the age of seventy. My 
grandfather had passed away six years earlier at the age of seventy-one. I was 
ten at that time. When my grandmother died I went to live with my father, for a 
short time before Will and I married.

My heart still aches for my grandmother and my last memory of my grandfather 
bears mentioning. The waters were so high when my wise and hard working 
grandfather passed away, that my uncle had to put his body in the back of his 
wagon without a coffin, to take it to uncle�s place, where a coffin was obtained 
before it�s trip to his final resting place in the cemetery at Hydesville.

Clarence Bailey, my father, was born on December 22, 1850 and I don�t know when 
he died.

I don�t know when my grandparents, William Eaton and Electra Bailey were 
married. William was born in July of 1824 and died Mar. 20 1895. Electra was 
born on May 1, 1830 and died Sept. 2, 1900.

Marriage:

I, Gertrude Bailey, was born on January 24, 1883. William F. Shannon was born on 
November 8, 1876. Just a month and a day before I am seventeen, we were married 
on December 23, 1900. 

Our first home was rented in Carlotta where we spent a year and a half. Then in 
May 1902 we moved to Trinity County in northern California, and took up a 
homestead on the Eel River where we lived for eighteen years. The following 
paragraphs and pages will tell of some of the experiences we had in the 
mountains.

My life in Trinity proved to be lonely at times. I can remember one time when I 
didn�t see another woman for two whole years. One day when I was alone in the 
house I saw some one in the yard. It was a peddler and when he started to open 
our gate and enter, he noticed our dog, backed out and kept right on going. With 
a dog for protection, I had few worries.

I remember how we became acquainted with our first neighbor, Mr. Lamply. Before 
we moved to the hills, we made several trips to work on the cabin, and when we 
came out, we camped out under the trees. After moving, we stacked up some logs 
so that we could later add another room onto the cabin, but then we heard of 
another place and moved into it instead. When we arrived there, a friendly 
neighbor, Mrs. Lamply welcomed us. She had brought over a hen, and six baby 
chicks, excusing her generosity by saying that they were for the baby. My first 
born, Theodore, was three months old at this time. The log cabin had a front 
room with a fireplace, also a kitchen, bedroom, and we had busied ourselves 
getting a room fixed upstairs for one more bedroom. We built some stairs on the 
outside, leading up to the new bedroom. Before, we had to use a ladder. There 
was the barn on the place already, and a good well on it, and a bucket even to 
draw up the water. I had to make a short hike up the hill to the house, after 
drawing the water.

We raised cattle, pigs, turkeys, and also chickens. There were many coyotes 
around at the time we came, but the first one I saw was one that Dad Shannon 
caught in a trap. After that, while herding the young pigs and turkeys I would 
catch sight of many of them. The deer were plentiful and so beautiful to watch.

We had made pets of all our animals and one day, hearing a noise on the porch, 
we were so surprised to see our pet colt, Prince, come up onto the porch and 
stick his head in at front door. Often times when we walked to the post office, 
one of our little pet pigs would end up following us and then someone would have 
to be left outside to keep watch on the mischievous ham.

Wildlife was abundant and one day while we were herding the pigs, they seemed 
excited and noisy. I looked about and spotted a coyote at a small distance away. 
The piglets hid until I scared the coyote away. Then I climbed up on a rock and 
settled down to eat my lunch. The rattlesnakes seemed to be everywhere when 
first we moved to the hills. One day I fixed a place under the bushes to lay my 
baby so I could help with the hay. Just as I was about to put the baby down, I 
saw a rattlesnake; and it scared me so badly that I didn�t help much with the 
hay that day. Another time I was just coming back from getting some wood from 
the wood pile and I saw two or three rattlers in the gateway.

When March came I would go out and hunt the turkey nests while there was still 
snow on the ground. We raised the turkeys to sell so we would have the ready 
cash we needed. I�d have to gather them so they wouldn�t freeze and dad made 
small individual houses for each hen. He built them side by side. I would feed 
them by making curds, a food resembling cottage cheese. We also used to go out 
and pick up acorns for the pigs and turkeys. We�d go out by daylight and 
wouldn�t get back home until dark. Then we�d grind the acorns up for the 
turkeys. The whole family would go on these all day trips. Turkeys have a habit 
of wandering off. Some turkeys came to our place and Dad and I ended up taking 
them back to the neighbors from the ranch whence they came. When they wandered 
off the coyotes would get in the pack, scattering, and scaring them; then kill 
them just for pleasure, not even hungry enough to eat them.

An old hen was making quite a commotion only a short while after I had taken 
care of them so I went out to check on her. I looked under the shed that was in 
the yard and saw a rattlesnake lying there. The turkeys always let me know if 
there were any around. They would squawk and we would always check on them. I 
killed many while herding the turkeys.

One time I had a mother and some chicks kept in a box in the wood shed and Dad 
brought home an old sow and he put her in the wood shed too. We heard a noise 
and upon investigating we discovered that the sow had eaten some of the baby 
chicks. We soon got rid of that sow. They did not tell us when we bought her 
that she would do such a thing.

Around Christmas time, we would sit up most of the night getting turkeys ready 
for the market. The next day Dad would start out for Fortuna, which was some 70 
miles away, to sell our turkeys and to bring back a supply of groceries which 
would last us about six months. The two trips to �civilization� were the only 
ones made in a year�s time, for it was a long drawn out difficult trip. It took 
us a week to make this trip by our horse drawn wagon. We lived there for 18 
years, and in all that time, I only made one trip away from home, and that was 
to Fort Seward. Dad would take Theodore to town as the helper and companion. 
He�d take the other boys at times.

One day when I was lonesome for company, we walked for four hours to visit with 
Mrs. Shields and when we got there, we could only visit for a half hour in order 
to get home again before dark set in. I packed two of my children a good part of 
the way. But it was worth the walk, It was not an easy life, but it was a good 
life.

One thing I just remembered. Mrs. Shields was now Mrs. Lambert. This was her 
name when she remarried after Mr. Shields died.

One other thing which was large in my life as a child was that my mother took me 
out of school when I was 8, and Effie was 11. Edgar was only three years old. 
Mother left father at this time, and we traveled by boat to San Francisco. It 
took us a little more than 24 hours and I was sea sick the whole time, along 
with Effie. As soon as we reached the city, I and Edgar were placed in a 
orphan�s home. We were there almost a year before we again joyfully made our 
home with grandma and grandpa. Effie went to live with a Methodist minister, who 
was very good to her. While Edgar and I were in the home, Edgar walked in front 
of a child swinging, and the edge of the swing hit him in the mouth, almost 
cutting his tongue off. The doctor was called and he sewed the tongue back on. 
After this, people were surprised that he could still talk as good as always. My 
grandparents didn�t know where we were and so he couldn�t know of the straits we 
were in. My schoolteacher, while I was at the home, wrote to friends of hers 
living in the Eureka area and the news reached my grandparents. Folks in the 
area gathered up the $ necessary to bring us back to Hydesville but they gave 
the money to my father, to go and get us, and he drank it up. So they all 
donated again, but this time Mr. Godfrey went to the boat and stayed there until 
it sailed for San Francisco. We were so happy to see him I cried. I knew the 
only place I had to go was with his folks and this is what we all wanted. The 
worst hurt of my life as a youngster was when mother took us away. My mother 
came to see us once after we came home, and that was the last time we ever saw 
her, at 9 � years old. After I married, I received one letter from her. My 
father gave his consent for Dad and I to marry, and then a couple months after 
we married, he left the country and I have never saw him since.

We took up two different homesteads in Trinity and the last one was near the 
river. This house was built on a hill overlooking the river and had a beautiful 
sweeping view of the hills around us. I could see the river from my kitchen 
window and watch its changing moods. The river was turbulent and angry in the 
winter; I could see logs and every kind of debris, being battered and carried 
downstream. In the warm spring days, it was beautiful and calm. And in the 
summer, just right for the children�s fun. We built two barns down by the river 
and there we stored hay for the cattle. We built sheds around one so that they 
could get out of sleet rain and snow. This is below Soldier Basin.

The other place was just right of the fruit trees, by the Shannon buttes. We 
didn�t live there for long. We had a log house there.

An old school friend and her husband came to take up a homestead near us. During 
their stay of several years, tragedy struck repeatedly. Mr. And Mrs. Crank lost 
their place by fire, twice. One day a friend, Harry Parry, from Humboldt came 
out and the two of them went hunting for deer. They parted and in the excitement 
of the hunt, Harry accidentally shot John to death. My friend Grace, then left 
Trinity. No children.

Disastrous things are bound to happen though. One of our neighbors, Mr. Espie, 
went to hunt his horse when it was snowing, and he got lost and died. The 
searchers found where he tried to keep warm by going around and around a tree 
but when they found him, it was too late.

A little girl was frozen to death when she took refuge near a log. She had 
unsaddled her horse and with the saddle had tried to keep her self warm, but to 
no avail.

Sadness also came to our house when our Girlie was bitten by a rattlesnake and 
we had to bury her. She was bitten on the 3rd of July & we buried her the 4th of 
July. This day is a hard one for me to be happy on. There was the annual picnic 
and Dad was carrying mail at the time. He asked John Holtorf if he would carry 
the mail that day, as he had to bury his girl. John said he couldn�t as he had 
to be at that picnic, and it was too bad that she had to die just at this time. 
This answer made us both feel real bad, as it was too bad she had to die at all, 
and she certainly couldn�t help what day the Lord took her home. Anyway, Dad 
asked Mr. Caar(1) to carry the mail so he could attend Girlie�s funeral, and Mr. 
Caar said yea, right away. He also made the coffin and lined it all with sheets. 
Mrs. Monroe Lampley was not able to come so she sent Mrs. Frank Lampley to help 
us out. She came and spent the night with us, fixing up her body for burial. 
They also went to the cemetery with us. They were the only ones except for the 
grave diggers to come to her funeral. Everyone else had to go to a 4th of July 
picnic and this has never ceased to leave a horrible feeling with us. Mrs. Gray 
was so sick she couldn�t come to the house to comfort or help us, and yet she 
was at this picnic. Maude Gilman said she�d come but that it was too late by the 
time she heard. She said she liked Girlie and would have been with us. She said 
even if she didn�t know or like the parents, she would have come for the child. 
Mrs. Frank Lampley invited us all to come home with them, and we appreciated it 
but we had to go home. Dad always said we buried her about the same as they�d 
bury a dog. There wasn�t a minister and Dad had to say what was said. We had no 
songs or no service of any kind. We�ll never forget that horrible day. Just put 
the box in the ground Dad say a couple of words, & put the dirt on the box. All 
the neighbors at a picnic. We had a true friend who was with us all the time, 
right through to the end. This true friend who didn�t leave us or forsake us 
then, and who never will, was our Heavenly Father. He will be with us all if we 
let him.

A little while after we lost her, our first school burned to the ground and the 
children�s next school was the old Clem cabin. Another school was built in 1916 
(2) and Ted went to school there, and so did his children and Kenneth�s a little 
while. It is still standing, across a dip and field where Ted and his wife 
built.

After their fire, they lived in the school. 

In 1965, while I was visiting with my family in the north, and staying with my 
granddaughter and her family, Laura and Russ� house caught on fire and was 
completely destroyed, taking Theodore�s home at the same time. I went over and 
stayed with Robert and Belle, Theodore and Dollie were settled in the old 
school, and the Gibney�s had purchased a trailer to live in. I lost a brand new 
white coat I had just bought and worn just one time. Back to Trinity!

One day Marian was down by the river and the first thing I thought about was a 
rattlesnake. I ran down the hill to her, but she was just so scared. She had 
seen a rattler but it had went under a log and we couldn�t find it. She had a 
cat with her. Another time I heard her screaming and she had stepped into a 
bee�s nest while out with her brother Theodore while he was cutting wood.

Dad Shannon was the mail carrier in this part of Trinity County. It was no easy 
task then and when the river was dangerous in the winter, the horse would swim 
across and dad would go over, suspended in the air, in a bucket. Dad carried the 
mail from Hoaglin Valley to Caution. He�d make the trip on Mon. Wed, and Fri. 
the same as the mail is carried out there in this era.

When Kenneth, our second son was born, exactly two years to the day after 
Theodore, a woman came in to stay with me, as Dad was away working and didn�t 
want to leave me alone. She built a big warm fire and put some baby clothes on 
the chair in front of the fireplace. I�d arranged to be in the living room and 
had gone to sleep but awoke to find the baby clothes on fire, also some of the 
wall paper. There were some cartridges on the mantle of the fireplace and the 
logs would go up in a flash and the bullets could explode who knows where. The 
woman dashed in and put the fire out before it had a chance to get any worse. In 
doing this, she was quite badly burned on the hand.

Our nearest neighbor was five miles away and this was the post office. We raised 
six of our children in Trinity Co�.3 sons still living there. The oldest son, 
Theodore, still has the old homestead although around 1944 it burned to the 
ground, and there is hardly a trace of where it stood. Theodore was on the job 
with his cats, keeping the fire clear of his place when the forest service came 
over, and asked him to leave his place to help them. He said the couldn�t leave 
and they placed men at his place but the men thought the place was safe, and 
they went to sleep and it burned to the ground. It is still nonetheless referred 
to as the old home place.

In the year of 1948, while spending the summer in Trinity County, after having 
moved south, Dad built a barn for Theodore and he�d turned 70 years old. 
Theodore needed the barn and Dad did most of the work himself. It is still 
standing. We camped out in the old Clem cabin which was built many years ago in 
Kettenpom Valley.

After many years of being away from Trinity and Dad Shannon had passed away, I 
took a trip back with my grand daughter Laura and her husband and my great grand 
daughter, Laurie. The first thing I remember seeing were two of the wild deer 
going across the road. It was the dusk of evening and they just stood and looked 
at us, not being the least bit afraid. We went through Covelo, which in all the 
years I had lived in Trinity, I had never been. It was a beautiful trip and we 
journeyed on into Orland to visit some friends and coming home we stopped in 
Weaverville and visited the old Joss House where the Chinese used to, and now a 
few still do, worship their Gods. We read in the paper about one family that 
worships there, and it was so interesting. We had the most wonderful trip, but 
it was when we arrived in Eureka at my grandson Ted�s home that we received word 
that Laura�s home had burned to the ground, also her father�s which stood right 
next to it. Laura lost everything, and little Laurie could not understand what 
was it all about. They took the news wonderfully though, and placed their trust 
in Jesus Christ who is the head of their home. Laura was so thankful no one was 
hurt worse than they were. Theodore was burned quite badly while fighting fire, 
but not critically. 

The neighbors were all so kind and are helping to build a new house for 
Theodore. It�s a large well built home and they are very comfortable in it. 
Laura and Russ have built on to their trailer and it is nice and they are 
comfortable also.

To get back to our life in Trinity. Theodore and Kenneth had left Trinity and 
ended up in Tulare. They had left and were looking for work, and they wrote, 
asking us to come down. We left Trinity in 1919 in a mail truck with the other 
four children. We arrived in Tulare in the winter time and stayed with Carl 
Shannon in a little house he had. Dad worked in the fruit for Carl for four 
years. During this time I gave birth to a daughter Eda, and two sons, one of 
which was still born. Just before Kenneth left the old home place, he�d climbed 
to the top of a large pine tree, putting a tiny wind mill in the top of that big 
stately pine! Kenneth stayed in Tulare for a little while but soon returned 
north to look for work in the woods again, and Theodore soon followed him.

While we were living at Carl�s, and Robert was about 7 years old, he gave me a 
scare. I had been outside with the boys, picking up the chips and carrying wood 
in, and the boys were playing and everything was all right. Everything got quiet 
and I went out to check on my children, and Robert was sitting in the swing with 
his tongue sticking out and the rope all around his neck. His tongue was black 
and I pulled him out of the swing, laying him on the ground, and ran into the 
house, calling for Dad. He came out and carried Robert onto the lawn, and Robert 
came to. Mr. Reeves heard me calling but thought it was the children at play and 
didn�t realize anything was wrong until he saw Dad carrying Robert. George 
didn�t realize anything was wrong and was playing a round under and around the 
swing through all this.

Just a little reminiscing about our trip. When Dad and I first went to Trinity, 
the trip was made with the horses and the large wagon he came from Tulare with 
and it took a week of long hard days from Carlotta. When we left Trinity to go 
to Tulare, we started out in a mail truck and went as far as Alder point, where 
we spent the night, catching the train the next day for Oakland. It took the 
whole day, and was dark by the time we got to Oakland, and my sister Effie 
Whetstone and a daughter Annie, met us at the station and we stayed with them 
for 3 days. Then we went a little further, to Dinuba, and the children and I 
stayed with Dad�s sister, Marian Brubaker while Dad went to Tulare to make 
arrangements for us. We stayed with her several enjoyable days, and Dad and Carl 
came back for us. We stayed on the Carl Shannon ranch four years, living in a 
small comfortable home and Dad helped Carl in the fruit.

After 4 years, Dad decided to move on with us. Dad went before us and purchased 
a large apartment house just outside of Los Angeles, in a town called 
Wilmington. We now had six little ones and I was so concerned with Eda�s health. 
She was pale and weak. However she soon regained her strength. Dad worked in a 
lumber yard, but we only stayed there for 7 months.

Dad traded our apartment house off for the ranch in Shafter. Theodore came in 
his truck and moved us to our new home. During the time we lived in Shafter I 
gave birth to another son. Marian named him Gary Gene. While living in Shafter, 
Marian got married, George and also Robert, went back to Tulare to farm, and we 
met Lavern Cordy because he was a car salesman and sold Dad his first pick-up. 
Shortly after this, Eda and Lavern were married. They did not go far from us as 
they lived in Wasco. At this time, a very amusing and at the same time a very 
serious thing happened to Dad. He hit a train in Wasco and was quoted as saying 
to his new truck, �Whoa, Boy!� But the truck did not stop.

I can�t remember the exact time or date that we sold the place in Shafter and 
moved to a far out place called Lost Hills, Calif. The dust blew so hard. George 
helped Dad farm the land for awhile. George and Lavern built our house which had 
2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a front room, and a big back porch. We raised chickens, 
pigs, horses, cows, and Dad farmed Alfalfa on the land. He irrigated from a 
river by our property. While we lived here I had acquired 5 daughters-in-laws 
and 2 sons-in-laws and they had all given me grandchildren. My family was 
growing in leaps and bounds!

We left Lost Hills on Friday with our possessions in our pick-up and drove to 
Tulare to spend the night with George and his wife. I remember that Jiggs kept 
George awake with his barking. George kept telling him to be quiet. We left 
Tulare early Saturday morning and went to Gridley. We went to the real estate 
office and the salesman took Dad to look at some property while I waited in the 
truck. All of my family were gone from home. Gary was in the army. When they got 
back, Dad had decided to take the place and now we had a home in Gridley, and we 
raised sugar beets, tomatoes, and one cow. Dad liked this part of the country 
very well, and so did I. I especially remember one Christmas when I had almost 
all of my family home. It was the last time so many of us gathered in our home. 
Dad and I received, as a Christmas gift, our first electric iron. We didn�t have 
enough room for everybody in the house and the men slept in the barn. They 
seemed to enjoy themselves.

One day a man came by and noticed our tomato crop and said he would like to buy 
our place. Dad sold it to him so we were in the market for a new home again. We 
soon took a ride to a town further north called Orland. Dad had always liked 
this area and we decided this would be home. We built a big barn and a small 
room attached to it. One amusing visit from Eda and Lavern happened in the 
winter and Eda was up all night, moving their beds from one place to another, 
trying to keep all her family dry!

We soon built a house on our property which Dad made out of adobe. We can 
plainly recall going to bed one night feeling so warm and so cozy, and Dad was 
listening to the news before going to sleep when he said that Calvin had been 
killed. I couldn�t believe it as I just received a letter the day before from 
Belle & she told how Gary and Calvin were having the time of their life. 
Needless to say we didn�t sleep much that night. I left the next morning with 
Gary, Kate, and Howard to spend some time with my son Theodore and his family. 
Dad wouldn�t go because of the way we had to bury Girlie and people thinking 
more of their fun than her. He never went to another funeral.

One thing I think is worth mentioning is how Dad always made such close friends 
with his animals. Theodore does the same thing. I remember he seemed to enjoy 
his neighbors in Orland, too. Really it was called Capay, the little farming 
community outside of Orland.

In or about March of 1958, on a chilly and blustery morning, Dad came into the 
house and I knew that he was very sick. I tried to get him to go to the doctor, 
but to no avail. Then one of our neighbors came by and insisted he take Dad to 
the doctor. The Doctor put him into the hospital as he had suffered a heart 
attack. I got in touch with Gary and he notified the rest of the family. He 
called Kenneth and Kenneth told Ted and his family. Gary George, and Marian, and 
Eda, arrived late the same night, and they were so much comfort. I couldn�t stay 
alone while he was in the hospital so George took me in to stay with friends who 
had offered their home to me, The Macy�s of Orland. I had only been there a 
couple of days when Theodore, and his daughter and her husband arrived. We went 
back home and Laura stayed with me when the men had to leave for home. She 
stayed with us until we left Orland, which was a little better than two months. 
Dad couldn�t have come home when he did if we didn�t have anyone with us. Laura 
and I stayed for a month with just the two of us and Theodore and Russ coming in 
for a night every once in a while, to make sure we were O.K., which we always 
were!

I remember when Dad was telling Laura of the cost of the hospital, it tickled 
her so when he used his Black Angus in terms of cost, instead of Dollars and 
cents. (My note here � This is a time I wouldn�t have missed for a million 
dollars! I came to know my grandparents so intimately, and to love them so 
completely. It was a blessing for me to stay with them, and listen to the 
stories Grandpa would tell about early life, coming from Canada and to Fortuna, 
and meeting Grandma, and settling in Trinity. It was great. -- Laura) George and 
Gary took care of selling the livestock and property and we purchased a trailer 
house, and as soon as Dad was well enough, we took it to Tulare, parking it on 
George�s place. Dad seemed to get better in Tulare, soon finding enough ground 
around our trailer for him to farm a small garden. This was the type of man he 
was, he had to be farming land, and now he did, even though it was a small 
piece.

We celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary on December 28, 1960. We had quite a 
celebration with most of our family and friends present. I was so happy to be 
here with William and to have had our life together, with all the happiness, 
sorrows, trials, and tribulations. I was thankful that we had each other and 
kind of stunned to look around and see so many descendants from just two people 
which started their life together way back in the first year of the century, 
1900. It seemed I felt, to make my life worthwhile. There was a newspaper lady 
who came to interview us and she asked Dad what most contributed to their long 
married life, and his sudden smile along with his slow and studied answer, 
amused all of us. �With a large family, we had no time for worry, or 
tom-foolery!� Isn�t that wonderful! The reception was held in Marian�s home.

Then all too soon Dad was to suffer so terribly from a blood clot in his leg. 
The doctors tried to help him with medicine, but he just didn�t respond. We soon 
realized that he would have to have surgery. So the final time came, and how I 
prayed for his recovery. Before he left to go to the hospital, he was thinking 
of me. He wondered and worried about who would take care of me, and do all of 
the little jobs he did for me, such as cutting my toe nails, and seeing to it 
that the little everyday things were taken care of. I can never forget how he 
worried over me when it was him who was so sick. This was how he was, and I know 
it but I fear that too many people didn�t understand him. They felt he was too 
conservative with his money, but I now realize he did this so that I would have 
a good life with plenty, and not be a burden to our children. Financially, I am 
able to do what I want to do and go where I want, and buy what I want. I feel 
that he was a good and generous man in his own way, in the only way he could be.

On November 21, 1962 my husband of 62 years passed away. My son George took care 
of the arrangements, and he did a wonderful job. I realize that he couldn�t have 
done what was done for us without the assistance and backing of his wife 
Estelle, who was always good to dad and I. She would do anything for us. At the 
funeral I looked around me and I found all my children, great grandchildren, and 
so many great grand children with me when I did need them so much. I�m so 
thankful for them and hope this short book will help all of my family come to 
know and understand us. I want them all to know and understand my William for 
the human being that he was. He was a man with good breeding, intelligence, and 
pride, something which a lot of people in today�s fast moving, and grabbing 
world, just don�t understand, let alone have. I feel I could go on and on about 
our life and it is all worthwhile. I sincerely hope that all of my family will 
read these pages with pride and recall and pass along so many incidents I have 
slipped up on. There are so many stories and incidents which have slipped my 
mind. So I�m dedicating this book in the memory of William Frederick Shannon, 
and to all of his children, grand children, and future generations.

Your mother and grand-mother,

Gertrude Bailey Shannon
1967

Since I have a little more on this page to write about, and since it is now July 
of another period, 1969, I have decided to add a few notes to the last couple of 
years. 

In 1967 my granddaughter Laura came and we visited all my friends in Capay, 
Fortuna, and Eureka, plus all my family up north, spending quite some time in 
Trinity.

In May 1968, Mrs. Smith invited me to go to Texas with her. We went by airplane, 
visiting her family. One place we went was to Edinburg, where Mrs. Smith had two 
daughters. We went to Fort Worth for a few days, to visit her brother and wife, 
the Ellises. We also took a trip and visited old Mexico. We went many other 
places but these were the highlights of the journey for me. Mrs. Smith is the 
lady who I boarded with when I left Marian�s. I stayed with her for three years, 
and when I had to leave because she had a heart attack, it made me sad for I 
came to love her.

I then came to Mrs. Ezell�s boarding home where I now am, and my address is: 
26525 Harrison Avenue, Visalia, 93277.

Three weeks ago, my grand daughter Laura came after me, and we have visited the 
family and friends who are left. Also she promised to help me finish and put 
together this book, before I went back home. Before saying goodbye, I�d like to 
tell you how much I love you all, and how proud I am of all of you. Good bye, 
and God bless you.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT SHANNON
BORN: January 18, 1902
My first born was delivered by Dr. Jorgenson when we lived in Carlotta, Calif. 
Theodore was just 3 months old when we moved to Trinity and we stayed there all 
through his seven yrs. of school. We stayed there while he went into Eureka, no, 
to Fortuna for his eighth grade. After completing his 8th grade, he went to work 
for Hammond Lumber Company, in the woods.
Theodore married Esther in 1931 and had five children. In later years he was 
divorced then he married Dollie Johnson (3) of Blue Lake, formerly though, of 
New York, and they still are in Trinity where Theodore attributes his height to 
the Trinity County air, which is the only home he has ever known.
I remember when Theodore was 7 years old, he killed his first deer. He came home 
for the horse and I went with him to get the deer.

Esther Sylvia (4) Nelson - - - - January 23, 1912
Anniversary: - - - - - - June 27, 1931
Divorce: (Separated Nov. 1952) March 18, 1954
Children:
1. William Frederick Shannon March 26, 1932
Barbara Jean McHenry February 9, 1936
Anniversary: April 14, 1960
2. Laura Elaine Shannon April 14, 1933
James Russel Gibney Feb 3. 1925
Anniversary June 24, 1951
3. Theodore Russell Shannon Sep 3, 1934
Rosalee Alice (5) Kollenborn February 11, 1938
Ted and Roz are living in a large beautiful home, which is their own in the 
hills above San Andreas. They have just bought and moved into their new home, 
complete with swimming pool.(6)
4. Gertrude Irene Shannon June 24, 1936
Richard Harold Crook Dec 12, 1926
Anniversary Mar 31, 1956
5. Carleton Howard Shannon Jan 16, 1940
Susan Aug 10, 1945
Anniversary May 1, 1965

[author's note: William and Barbara married on Laura�s 27th birthday, and Laura 
and James ("Russ") married on Trudy�s 15th birthday.]

KENNETH FREDERICK SHANNON
BORN: January 18, 1904
Kenneth was born in Trinity and he was delivered by a woman who really knew ho 
to deliver babies. Kenneth went to school in the community school until he was 
out of the 8th grade and then he went to work in the woods. Theodore was working 
in the woods.
He married Emma and they had two boys and a girl. They lost the little girl when 
they had only had her a few months. They had two sons after they lost her, then 
after a couple years, they divorced and Kenneth married and Louise gave him a 
daughter, Linda.
He worked for many years for Pacific Lumber Co. and retired this January, 1969. 
He supposedly is retired, but he keeps busy all the day long, working around 
their home, planting a huge garden, big enough for all their kids to share. They 
are living just outside of a little town in Northern California, near Eureka, 
called Carlotta.

Margaret �Emma� Lowry Jan 30, 19??
Anniversary Jan 7, 1929
Louise Endicott (maiden name � Meadows) 7-17-1915
Anniversary Sep 18, 1944

DEBRA MAY SHANNON
BORN: March 30, 1906
Debra May, better known to her family as Girlie, was born in Trinity. The 
midwife I had made Dad mad. She took all the covers I had on and I about froze 
to death. She was not satisfactory. She came very affectionately by her 
nick-name, through her father who called her his little �Girlie�.
She made some biscuits and was not going to tell her father that she had made 
them but she waited as long as she could, after he had eaten a couple, and just 
could not wait for him to say anything. She asked him how they were, and he told 
her fine. She then told him she had made them. She knew if they were not good, 
he would say something.
She often said she was mama�s little helper.
The day before she was bitten by the rattle snake, she and I went up into the 
field where the two oldest boys were working in the hay, & she and Kenneth ran a 
race to the house. She beat him, and I think to this day that he let her beat on 
purpose. She was so happy.
The 3rd of July, 1911, Dad and Theodore and Kenneth were up on top of the hill, 
working in the hay. Girlie took Howard up, walking with him around the side of 
the mountain, through the woods and the brush. She hadn�t quite reached the 
field when the rattlesnake bit her on the inside of the instep. She pushed 
Howard out of the way, and cried for her daddy. They ran to where she was, and 
carried her to the house. She begged for water but someone told us to give her 
whiskey, and keep all the water away from her. It wasn�t the 3rd after all 
because that is when she died and she did live for a day. It was the second that 
she�d gone for her stroll with Howard. Howard was 2 � when Girlie was taken from 
us, and Theodore was 9 and Kenneth was 7. She was a little over five years old. 
She is buried in her family�s beloved Trinity County, in Hoaglin Valley, real 
close to where Theodore and Robert live.

WILLIAM HOWARD SHANNON
BORN: February 14, 1908

Howard was born in Trinity and was delivered by Dad, because he didn�t like the 
way the midwife delivered Girlie. Howard also went to school in Trinity up to 
the 8th grade and it was at this time that we left Trinity and went to Tulare 
where he went to school awhile before we moved to Shafter where he graduated. 
When he went north, he met and married Kate and they had two girls and a son. 
After quite a few years they were divorced. Howard has never remarried. He lived 
in various places, going back to Trinity as most of the boys did. He is logging 
now out of Willits but will shortly go to Hales Grove just north of Rockport, 
over on the coast.

Mary Kathryn Bugenig born on Jan 29, 1916
Kate and Howard�s anniversary Feb 21, 1935
Divorce 1950

MARIAN ADELE SHANNON
BORN: January 7, 1912

Marian was born in Trinity and was brought into the world by her father. He was 
so glad that we had a baby girl.
When Marian was about 7 years old she was sliding off her pet horse, Daisy, and 
while at school; she broke her arm. Miss Elsie Holtorf carried her into her home 
and did a fine job of setting the arm. She was not only the teacher but the 
nurse as well. The school which is on the Shannon ranch today was where Marian 
slid off, and Miss Holtorf packed her about a half mile to her home. It was the 
little place just at the foot of the hill going up the road to the old Shannon 
place. It fell down completely two years ago.
Marian went to grammar school in Trinity & in 1920 the family moved several 
times and she finished school in Shafter and went to finish high school in 
Wasco. She went to work in a telephone office in McFarland where she met our 
beloved Irish. His name was Henry but to all of us, he was �Irish�. They were 
married and had two daughters. Marian is now working and living in Tulare, 
Calif.

Henry Patrick Jenkenson: May 5, 1891
Anniversary July 8, 1931
Passed away Dec 15, 1959 (7)

Marian married Dick Haney on June 29, 1967 at a small family wedding. Dick�s 
birthday is March 22, 1904

ROBERT LEE SHANNON
BORN: MARCH 15, 1916

Robert was born in Trinity also and was delivered by his father. Dad named his 
fourth son after his brother (8). Robert had an accident when he was a small 
boy. He was playing out in the yard with a cat and I looked out to find out 
where he was doing and I no more than went back to my canning when I heard him 
crying and found that ha had hit his head against the old grindstone and cut his 
forehead. I picked him up and went to find Dad who was raking somewhere on the 
ranch. Dad sewed it up as we lived too far to take him to the doctor.
Robert attended school in Trinity and several other schools before graduating 
from Shafter. He met Belle in Trinidad and they married and had two sons and a 
daughter. They are now living in Trinity, where he is employed by the County 
Road Department. 

Lena Belle Blake Sept. 17, 1914
Anniversary June 25, 1939

Just a final word on Robert, he has been interested in �Ham� radio and he now 
has a set in his home and one for the car. He picks people up all over the 
country and really enjoys this form of communication. He even interested the 
most isolated member of the community into getting one.

GEORGE HENRY SHANNON
BORN: October 15, 1918

George was also among the many of Shannon children born in Trinity, and he was 
also delivered by his father. George attended several schools. He went to high 
school in Wasco and was an honor student all four years. He was very active in 
the Future Farmers of America, and is now a successful farmer in Tulare.

He met and married Estelle Boles and they have one daughter and one son. They 
were always headquarters for the Shannon�s from the north. Estelle had trouble 
with her feet and she passed away on June 18, 1967 at the young age of 47. The 
last couple of years were so rough on her but tender words from George, to the 
effect that he was remembering the darling she was and forgetting the last 
couple of yrs; left all of us who loved them both with warm memories.

George is still living and farming in the Tulare area and is a very well known 
man all through the valley area.

Colleen was born on November 19, 194? . She married Phil Riott on ? and they are 
the parents of a daughter, born just before Estelle died. Estelle saw her 
granddaughter. They named the baby Leslie.

Dale is the only son of George and Estelle and he came into the world on 
February 11, 194?. Dale was in a Honda accident, and he has had one successful 
operation on his feet and will have another one this summer. He is coming along 
fine.

George and Estelle were married on December 18, 1939.

EDA IRENE SHANNON
BORN: September 4, 1920

Eda was born in Tulare in a hospital and we named her after her Aunt Eda(9). She 
went to several schools and she graduated from high school in Wasco.

It was in Wasco that she met and married her husband. Lavern Kenneth Cordy and 
Eda Irene S. were married in September of 1937. Lavern was born on October 5, 
1914. They were married on Sept. 4, 1937, which was Eda�s 17th birthday.
Their daughter, Merna Lee Cordy was born in August on the 23rd in 1938.

Merna married Wayne Thomas Nobile on October 7, 1960. Wayne was born on November 
10, 1939. They have three children.

CALVIN COOLIDGE SHANNON
BORN: June 11, 1924

Calvin was born, along with a twin brother who was still born, in the home of 
Eda Shannon, who lived in Tulare, California.

He went to school in Wasco and to Semi-Tropic, where he graduated.

After high school, he joined the navy and went overseas for 18 months. While 
overseas he met a long lost cousin, Edgar Whetstone and they became very good 
friends.

After returning home, he became engaged to a lovely girl from Westport, Miss 
Jeannie F. Larssen. He also purchased an airplane for pleasure purposes, and one 
day in the early spring, on March 10, 1949, he took the plane up and couldn�t 
get the wheels on the ground. He would bring it down and the wind would whip 
under the plane and he would have to pull up again, He crashed into the ocean 
along the coast just north of Westport, the Westport in California (10). The 
ocean was so rough that help couldn�t get to them. The men made a lifeline to 
him, but still couldn�t reach him. After several hours he died and after more 
hours, he was washed up to shore, which I am so thankful for. Many times the 
ocean keeps it�s victims.

Calvin�s brother Robert was a passenger in the plane and when he gave up (11), 
the tide brought him in, and he recovered.

We, his dad and I, heard this unbelievable news over the radio, just minutes 
before our sons came to tell us. They didn�t want the shock of a phone call to 
hurt us worse, and they had driven steadily to reach us as quickly as possible, 
but the radio blurted it out to us. Calvin is buried in Fort Bragg, Calif. Gone, 
but not forgotten.

BABY SHANNON
BORN: June 11, 1924

This baby was a twin brother to Calvin. My little son was still born, and was 
then buried in a cemetery in Tulare.

I always desired to know where his little grave was, so in or about 1965 I went 
to the office and inquired. They were able to show me his little grave and I was 
able to put a marker on it, after all these 40 odd years. Now I feel he is 
properly taken care of.

GARY GENE SHANNON
BORN: January 14, 1929

Gary was born in Shafter in an adobe house and went to school in Shafter, 
graduating from the Wasco High School. He raised chickens for his Future Farmer 
project.

Gary and his family are now living in Tulare, and he has continued with farming.

Gary is the baby of my large family and he will always be remembered as the last 
of the William Shannon children.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1)Probably Thomas Kemper Carr (not Caar)
(2)Did she mean 1906? Pop quit school at age 13, and he was 14 in 1916�
(3)Johnson was a married name from Dollie�s first marriage; her maiden name was 
Kohl, or possibly Cole.
(4)Esther's middle name may have actually been Silva, her mother�s maiden name.
(5)Actually Rosie Lee, although she has �always� gone by Alice Rosalie.
(6)Actually Mokelumne Hill; they lived in San Andreas only one year, 1968.
(7)�Irish� passed away, that is, not Marian.
(8)Will�s father was also named Robert. It seems rather strange to say that 
Robert was named after Will's brother Robert, not after his father, or both of 
them.
(9)It is unnclear who Gertie meant here; neither she nor Will had a sister named 
Eda, unless her sister Effie's middle name was Eda.
(10)It is unknown why Gertie specifies "the Westport in California" here. There 
are sixteen other Westports in the United States, but there is no reason to 
believe that Calvin's finace was from one of these other Westports--if she had 
been, it would seem that Gertie would have mentioned which one she hailed from.
(11)According to Robert�s nephew Theodore Russell Shannon, Robert did not and 
would not give up (he was not the type to just "give up").