Southern Sonoma Country Life

Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the End of World War II. Lest We Forget.

This first week of September, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. Take a pause from the never ending, mind-numbing news of pandemic, wildfire and politics to remember and honor the myriad service members and Home Front workers who helped preserve freedom and democracy here in the States, in the UK and in allied and commonwealth countries three quarters of a century ago. 

To quote The National WWII Museum’s website:

"On May 8, 1945, World War II in Europe came to an end. As the news of Germany’s surrender reached the rest of the world, joyous crowds gathered to celebrate in the streets, clutching newspapers that declared Victory in Europe (V-E Day). Later that year, US President Harry S. Truman announced Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II. The news spread quickly and celebrations erupted across the United States. On September 2, 1945, formal surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri, designating the day as the official Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day)."

V-J Day was especially momentous: "The gruesome and exhausting war was officially over—but the day was also bittersweet for the many Americans whose loved ones would not be returning home. “More than 400,000 Americans gave their lives to secure our nation’s freedom, and in the midst of exultation, there was recognition that the true meaning of the day was best represented by those who were not present to celebrate,” said Robert Citino, PhD, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum.

Especially front of mind this week are the millions of amputees amongst service men and women past and present in combat around the world. We won't brush aside history as if it never happened. 

Disabled veterans we hear you and see you and we're humbled by your service. 

photos via Pinterest

“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any treat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”

- Douglas MacArthur

 

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

 

Healdsburg Jazz Announces Acclaimed Composer & Bandleader Marcus Shelby As New Artistic Director

Renowned Northern California jazz institution Healdsburg Jazz announces today the appointment of acclaimed composer and bandleader Marcus Shelby as their new Artistic Director. Shelby will lead the organization and its flagship Healdsburg Jazz Festival into its next generation of dynamic and innovative programming. Shelby takes over the new role Oct. 1, 2020 from the festival's founder, artistic director and guiding spirit, Jessica Felix, who launched the festival in 1999. Shelby has worked closely with Felix over the past decade and looks towards the future to maintain and elevate the spirit of the festival.

 

"Jessica did an incredible job building the Healdsburg Jazz Festival with first-class talent, including national and local artists," said Shelby. "She never dumbed down the programming to get more people to come. I'm looking forward to expanding her extraordinary legacy and also develop a fresh vision that reflects my interests and strengths."

 

"We are so fortunate to have Marcus Shelby on board as artistic director to help guide Healdsburg Jazz as it enters a new chapter in its history," said Jack Raineault, Board Chair of Healdsburg Jazz. "He has contributed so much to the educational component of the organization and is passionate about our mission. He knows the music scene both locally and nationally and brings the perspective of a musician to the artistic director role. Marcus has also focused on social justice issues and building community in his music and in the organizations he has been a part of. We are excited at the prospect of what new directions Healdsburg Jazz will take both artistically and in its commitment to promoting social and cultural connections under Marcus's leadership."

 

Shelby is taking the helm at a moment of unprecedented challenges for the performing arts due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and he's already working with the festival's Board of Directors on strategizing for the 2021 festival. Beyond the lauded spring jazz festival, he's ideally suited for running the nonprofit organization's year-round concert series and education programs. Shelby has a strong track record in the picturesque Sonoma County town near the Russian River, which is one reason why Felix is so confident that Shelby is the right person for the job. "He's done a lot up here already and everybody loves him," Felix said. "He's really endeared himself to this area. He believes in the festival and believes in me."

 

Felix first met Shelby about 30 years ago, when Los Angeles drum legend Billy Higgins, a close friend of hers, recommended that she book Shelby's band Black/Note at the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival. Higgins had mentored the young group at the World Stage, the performance space he co-founded in LA's Leimert Park neighborhood, and on his advice Felix hired the quintet sight unseen. Though Shelby relocated to San Francisco a few years later it wasn't until a decade ago that he started playing an important role at Healdsburg, when Felix hired him to bring his Black History Month programming to local schools. A prestigious grant the festival received from the James Irvine Foundation enabled Shelby to create and direct the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir, a 100-piece community choir that has continued over the years, perform in various settings with his big band and small group.

 

"Jessica and I have become good friends and we've worked very closely together on these projects, like working out ideas for the choir," he said. "She built the festival from scratch and she's leaving her life's work in my hands. We've spent countless hours talking about these things."

 

Shelby has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene. He's a composer in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and has taken on a variety of roles at SFJAZZ, including a stint as a Resident Artistic Director. He's a teacher at the San Francisco Community Music Center and has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since his appointment by the late Mayor Ed Lee in 2014. That's all on top of his regular gigging as a leader and a sideman.

 

On his decision to become the Artistic Director of Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Shelby comments, "Leading a major jazz festival supports and enriches my professional practice in many ways. Some colleagues who are much better known are part of organizations they lead, Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jason Moran at the Kennedy Center, and Christian McBride in several organizations. That inspired me to think bigger and really embrace the possibility of working with a large community of artists, and influence how this music is curated. I need to keep evolving and growing."

 

Creative growth has been the hallmark of Shelby's career. Born February 2, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska, he grew up in Sacramento and first gained attention on the burgeoning LA scene in the early 1990s as a co-founder of the hard-bop band Black/Note (which also launched top-shelf New York drummer Willie Jones III). He earned the Charles Mingus Scholarship to study at Cal Arts in Valencia, where he also worked closely with flutist/composer James Newton and bassist Charlie Haden (both artists closely linked to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival). Black/Note recorded four albums, including 1994's Jungle Music (Columbia) and 1996's Nothin' But the Swing (Impulse!/GRP).

 

Relocating to San Francisco in 1996, Shelby quickly established himself as an essential creative force on the Bay Area arts scene. Leading both the Marcus Shelby Trio and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, he earned increasingly prestigious commissions from dance companies, theatrical productions, and presenters such as Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. No one has a closer view of his determined growth than Kate Dumbleton, his manager and co-founder of his label Noir Records.

 

"In all the years I've known Marcus he's always been poised to take the work that he does in multiple directions at any given moment," says Dumbleton, Executive and Artistic Director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Associate Professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. "He's a conceptualizer. He knows how to connect history to musical ideas and storytelling. He thinks in really interesting ways about narrative. When I first met him he was really interested in working with dancers, choreographers, theater artists, and filmmakers."

 

Shelby started exploring history and narrative in his own work with the release of 2006's Port Chicago (Noir Records), a suite for his jazz orchestra inspired by the World War II miscarriage of justice that saw 50 young black seamen convicted in the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history (a story that unfolded in the Bay Area). Since then he's focused his creative energy on a series of hard-swinging works exploring key historical events and personalities, like 2008's two-disc Harriet Tubman (Noir Records), 2011's Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Porto Franco), and 2018's Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues, a suite commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

 

In recent years, he's also served as a musical foil for playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith throughout the interview-driven creation of her one-woman show about the school-to-prison pipeline, Notes From the Field. "Her process is genius," he said. "As much as I can absorb from her, I'm just trying to find ways that I can use blues and swing to tell these different stories."

 

In many ways, Shelby has turned his orchestra into an exemplar of the kind of equitable society he advocates for off the bandstand. It's an ensemble that embodies the diversity that makes the Bay Area such a creative hothouse, where the horn section features veteran masters sitting next to rising teenagers. Over the years, he's become increasingly proactive in making sure that women are well represented in the band.

 

"I've thought a lot about how an ensemble can create an overall expression and the diversity of the band can really enhance that," he said. "A big band looks like a village, with good young players, older players who can serve as mentors, and everything in between."

 

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival offers a larger forum for his ideas and Shelby is committed to continuing the festival's track record as a binding force in the town. With the support of Emeritus Artistic Director Felix, who will be on call for advice, he sees a bright, innovative future for an event that has earned universal respect for uncompromising standards.

 

"One of my goals is to maintain a strong local and Bay Area presence," Shelby said. "I realize you can't book everybody. I'm really committed to making the most diverse festival possible, with the highest degree of talent. That's always going to be my goal."

 

About Healdsburg Jazz

Healdsburg Jazz celebrates the indigenous American art form known as Jazz. Over the past two decades, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival has become a favorite local tradition with a growing national reputation. The 10-day festival of public performances by world-renowned musicians in diverse settings, including the historic Raven Theater, the glamorous Hotel Healdsburg, and several boutique restaurants and wineries, has grown into one of the North Bay's most celebrated annual musical events.

 

In addition to the annual festival, held the first week of June each year, the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization sponsors numerous

music education programs in Healdsburg area schools for primary and secondary school students, and presents a series of Jazz Masters concerts throughout the year.

For more information, please visit: https://www.healdsburgjazz.org

Healdsburg Jazz Announces Acclaimed Composer & Bandleader Marcus Shelby As New Artistic Director

Renowned Northern California jazz institution Healdsburg Jazz announces today the appointment of acclaimed composer and bandleader Marcus Shelby as their new Artistic Director. Shelby will lead the organization and its flagship Healdsburg Jazz Festival into its next generation of dynamic and innovative programming. Shelby takes over the new role Oct. 1, 2020 from the festival's founder, artistic director and guiding spirit, Jessica Felix, who launched the festival in 1999. Shelby has worked closely with Felix over the past decade and looks towards the future to maintain and elevate the spirit of the festival.

 

"Jessica did an incredible job building the Healdsburg Jazz Festival with first-class talent, including national and local artists," said Shelby. "She never dumbed down the programming to get more people to come. I'm looking forward to expanding her extraordinary legacy and also develop a fresh vision that reflects my interests and strengths."

 

"We are so fortunate to have Marcus Shelby on board as artistic director to help guide Healdsburg Jazz as it enters a new chapter in its history," said Jack Raineault, Board Chair of Healdsburg Jazz. "He has contributed so much to the educational component of the organization and is passionate about our mission. He knows the music scene both locally and nationally and brings the perspective of a musician to the artistic director role. Marcus has also focused on social justice issues and building community in his music and in the organizations he has been a part of. We are excited at the prospect of what new directions Healdsburg Jazz will take both artistically and in its commitment to promoting social and cultural connections under Marcus's leadership."

 

Shelby is taking the helm at a moment of unprecedented challenges for the performing arts due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and he's already working with the festival's Board of Directors on strategizing for the 2021 festival. Beyond the lauded spring jazz festival, he's ideally suited for running the nonprofit organization's year-round concert series and education programs. Shelby has a strong track record in the picturesque Sonoma County town near the Russian River, which is one reason why Felix is so confident that Shelby is the right person for the job. "He's done a lot up here already and everybody loves him," Felix said. "He's really endeared himself to this area. He believes in the festival and believes in me."

 

Felix first met Shelby about 30 years ago, when Los Angeles drum legend Billy Higgins, a close friend of hers, recommended that she book Shelby's band Black/Note at the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival. Higgins had mentored the young group at the World Stage, the performance space he co-founded in LA's Leimert Park neighborhood, and on his advice Felix hired the quintet sight unseen. Though Shelby relocated to San Francisco a few years later it wasn't until a decade ago that he started playing an important role at Healdsburg, when Felix hired him to bring his Black History Month programming to local schools. A prestigious grant the festival received from the James Irvine Foundation enabled Shelby to create and direct the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir, a 100-piece community choir that has continued over the years, perform in various settings with his big band and small group.

 

"Jessica and I have become good friends and we've worked very closely together on these projects, like working out ideas for the choir," he said. "She built the festival from scratch and she's leaving her life's work in my hands. We've spent countless hours talking about these things."

 

Shelby has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene. He's a composer in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and has taken on a variety of roles at SFJAZZ, including a stint as a Resident Artistic Director. He's a teacher at the San Francisco Community Music Center and has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since his appointment by the late Mayor Ed Lee in 2014. That's all on top of his regular gigging as a leader and a sideman.

 

On his decision to become the Artistic Director of Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Shelby comments, "Leading a major jazz festival supports and enriches my professional practice in many ways. Some colleagues who are much better known are part of organizations they lead, Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jason Moran at the Kennedy Center, and Christian McBride in several organizations. That inspired me to think bigger and really embrace the possibility of working with a large community of artists, and influence how this music is curated. I need to keep evolving and growing."

 

Creative growth has been the hallmark of Shelby's career. Born February 2, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska, he grew up in Sacramento and first gained attention on the burgeoning LA scene in the early 1990s as a co-founder of the hard-bop band Black/Note (which also launched top-shelf New York drummer Willie Jones III). He earned the Charles Mingus Scholarship to study at Cal Arts in Valencia, where he also worked closely with flutist/composer James Newton and bassist Charlie Haden (both artists closely linked to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival). Black/Note recorded four albums, including 1994's Jungle Music (Columbia) and 1996's Nothin' But the Swing (Impulse!/GRP).

 

Relocating to San Francisco in 1996, Shelby quickly established himself as an essential creative force on the Bay Area arts scene. Leading both the Marcus Shelby Trio and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, he earned increasingly prestigious commissions from dance companies, theatrical productions, and presenters such as Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. No one has a closer view of his determined growth than Kate Dumbleton, his manager and co-founder of his label Noir Records.

 

"In all the years I've known Marcus he's always been poised to take the work that he does in multiple directions at any given moment," says Dumbleton, Executive and Artistic Director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Associate Professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. "He's a conceptualizer. He knows how to connect history to musical ideas and storytelling. He thinks in really interesting ways about narrative. When I first met him he was really interested in working with dancers, choreographers, theater artists, and filmmakers."

 

Shelby started exploring history and narrative in his own work with the release of 2006's Port Chicago (Noir Records), a suite for his jazz orchestra inspired by the World War II miscarriage of justice that saw 50 young black seamen convicted in the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history (a story that unfolded in the Bay Area). Since then he's focused his creative energy on a series of hard-swinging works exploring key historical events and personalities, like 2008's two-disc Harriet Tubman (Noir Records), 2011's Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Porto Franco), and 2018's Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues, a suite commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

 

In recent years, he's also served as a musical foil for playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith throughout the interview-driven creation of her one-woman show about the school-to-prison pipeline, Notes From the Field. "Her process is genius," he said. "As much as I can absorb from her, I'm just trying to find ways that I can use blues and swing to tell these different stories."

 

In many ways, Shelby has turned his orchestra into an exemplar of the kind of equitable society he advocates for off the bandstand. It's an ensemble that embodies the diversity that makes the Bay Area such a creative hothouse, where the horn section features veteran masters sitting next to rising teenagers. Over the years, he's become increasingly proactive in making sure that women are well represented in the band.

 

"I've thought a lot about how an ensemble can create an overall expression and the diversity of the band can really enhance that," he said. "A big band looks like a village, with good young players, older players who can serve as mentors, and everything in between."

 

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival offers a larger forum for his ideas and Shelby is committed to continuing the festival's track record as a binding force in the town. With the support of Emeritus Artistic Director Felix, who will be on call for advice, he sees a bright, innovative future for an event that has earned universal respect for uncompromising standards.

 

"One of my goals is to maintain a strong local and Bay Area presence," Shelby said. "I realize you can't book everybody. I'm really committed to making the most diverse festival possible, with the highest degree of talent. That's always going to be my goal."

 

About Healdsburg Jazz

Healdsburg Jazz celebrates the indigenous American art form known as Jazz. Over the past two decades, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival has become a favorite local tradition with a growing national reputation. The 10-day festival of public performances by world-renowned musicians in diverse settings, including the historic Raven Theater, the glamorous Hotel Healdsburg, and several boutique restaurants and wineries, has grown into one of the North Bay's most celebrated annual musical events.

 

In addition to the annual festival, held the first week of June each year, the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization sponsors numerous

music education programs in Healdsburg area schools for primary and secondary school students, and presents a series of Jazz Masters concerts throughout the year.

For more information, please visit: https://www.healdsburgjazz.org

Virtual Art in the Park — Petaluma Art Association Steps Up Its Annual Showcase Event with a Widely Expanded Range of Regional Artists

​Petaluma Arts Association's (not to be confused with the Arts Center) annual Art in the Park has brought regional artists and our local community together in historic Walnut Park since 1957.

 

As with all of our favorite annual outdoor festivals and shows, the coronavirus pandemic has lead the association to cancel its physical event this year. However, the good news is that it gave the group the opportunity to transform the event into an online showcase of the work of a wider range of talented creators across Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties. 

Art lovers are invited to explore a new Virtual Art in the Park website to discover art, fine crafts, music, poetry and performances and learn about the people who create them. Much of the work you'll find is available for purchase.

 

Enjoy the creativity of the North Bay! It's a super impressive line-up this year. Here are a couple of screen grabs from the website. There are dozens of artists to peruse. Here are just a few:

 

 

​-

"Our common world is elevated by seeing people succeed and our choice to make this event free of fees and commissions was primarily in response to a pandemic that's greatly limited the opportunities available to creators," Petaluma Arts Association reports. "We hope this exhibition will help support creators and our local art scenes by providing a place to show and sell work."

Petaluma Arts Association shares: "We'd like to acknowledge another dimension of shared interest and join the chorus of voices affirming that BLACK LIVES MATTER. We believe the opportunity to not be at a much higher risk of being killed by police should be extended to everyone. We urge you to lend your voice and explore what change might be possible in service of a better world." 

https://www.virtualartinthepark.org/

Celebrate National Pinot Day, August 18th with Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance on Facebook Live

Pinot lovers, mark your calendars for August 18, 5 PM. Raise a Glass with Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance President Erica Stancliff & VP Tom Gendall on National PinotNoirDay for a Facebook Live Celebration of PetalumaGap Wines.

 

The Petaluma Gap Pinots are garnering all sorts of big accolades in all the major wine competitions these days. I'm a big Pinot Noir fan myself and I make it a priority to source my wines as local as possible when I'm out shopping the wine aisle of Petaluma stores. We've enjoyed a case of the former Kastania Vineyards delicious Pinot this summer, after the winery changed hands with early Petaluma Gap members Hoot and Linda Smith retiring from winemaking. I'm looking forward to tasting the wines made by new owner Laurence Donald under the label Parum Leo in years to come. 

 

Adobe Road Winery has recently moved its temporary riverfront outdoor tasting tents to the trestle, in partnership with the Riverfront Cafe. Adobe's Pinots are great, as are Keller Estate Winery's, Azari, McEvoy amongst many more.

 

Here's an extensive list of Petaluma Gap wineries. Please do support our local wineries and the families who work the land and cellars and tasting rooms when you're out buying your wine. 

 

The Petaluma Gap also produces wines for many of the wider region’s finest wineries including: Keller Estate Winery, Rodney Strong Vineyards, Guarachi Family Wines, deLoach Vineyards, Flowers Vineyard and Winery, Hart’s Desire Wines, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates, Kosta-Browne Winery, Landmark Vineyards, Loxton Cellars, Sojourn Cellars, Schramsberg Vineyards, and Zepaltas Wines. 

 

And hey, since we've a little more time on our hands for celebrating all the wine holidays, click here for a list of all the other wonderful varietals waiting for their big day! 

 

Support Project Spilled Milk and Join the Good Folk at Bellwether Farms in Raising Funds to Help Farm Families in Northern California

 

Join the good folk at Bellwether Farms in raising funds to help farmers and families in Northern California.

Covid-19 has caused widespread disruption to agricultural businesses and family farms. Fifty % of the US food supply is consumed in restaurants and with so many restaurants closed, the impact on artisan dairy production is substantial—Bellwether Farms' food service customers have not ordered since the end of March.

Simply put, the farms' network of family sheep dairies is now producing a lot more milk than they can effectively sell. Simultaneously, the massive unemployment throughout our economy is putting unbelievable strain on our essential hunger relief organizations.

 Bellwether Farms finds itself in a unique position to help both farmers and those in need of high-quality nutrition. That’s why the farmers have starting Project Spilled Milk.

Project Spilled Milk aims to make the best out of a bad situation—that  farmers are supported and that food gets to people who need it.

All funds raised from this innovative campaign will be used to purchase sheep milk from our local farmers, which will be used to make delicious yogurt to donate to Bay Area food banks.

Bellwether pledges to dedicate one production shift each week to this effort. If the farm is successful in raising its goal of $50,000, it will be able to buy the milk, ingredients, and packaging necessary to deliver 25,000 16oz containers of yogurt to food banks in Northern California.

Click here to visit www.BellwetherFarms.com to learn more!

 

Support Local Cheesemakers — The California Cheese Trail's Handy Guide to Curbside, Pickup and Online Delivery

 

 

 

In these trying times, small cheese makers, farmers and producers need our support more than ever. 

Here is The California Cheese Trail guide to supporting the local cheese community in California:

Curbside Pickups & Deliveries

Achadinha Cheese Co – Pickup and deliveries

Cowgirl Creamery Pt. Reyes Shop – Offering curbside pickup at their Point Reyes shop / Online shop is open

Epicurean Connection – Pickup, Delivery + Online Classes

Daily Driver SF – Offering curbside pickup and delivery

Joe Matos Cheese Co – Pickup + Online Shop

Lady & Larder – Curbside pickup, Delivery + Online Shop

Milkfarm – Curbside pickup

Nicasio Valley Cheese – Call 415.662.6205 and they will come out to meet you outside the shop / Online shop is open

Nicolau Farms – Pickup, Delivery + Online Shop

Palace Market – Open

Pennyroyal Farm – Pickup, Delivery + Online Shop

Ramini Mozzarella – Pickup at various markets, groceries and ranch

Smallgoods – Curbside pickup & delivery

Spring Hill Farmstead Cheese – Various farmer’s markets + online shop

Stuyt Dairy – Pickup + Online Shop

Meet Josephine Pilkington Hill — Spotlight on Sonoma-Marin Suffrage Association Members

As Petaluma prepares for its Women's Suffrage Centennial events this late summer and fall, I'm sharing this piece I wrote for the Online Biographical Dictionary Project of Women's Suffrage Activists on Petaluma Suffragette Josephine Pilkington Hill — Sonoma-Marin W.C.T.U, Charter Member, 1879; Sonoma County Woman Suffrage Association, Precinct Officer, 1890s; Petaluma Political Equity Club, Vice President, 1903.

Josephine Pilkington was born in 1841, in Troy, New York, to James Pilkington, a British-born farmer and traveling salesman and his Irish-born wife Margaret Lennon Pilkington. Margaret's mother was a descendant of Scottish Jacobite William Wallace. In 1853, Josephine (Josie) and her pioneer family, including two brothers, Thomas and John, traveled west across the plains.

In 1862, aged twenty-one, Josie met and married pioneer William B. Hill in San Francisco, returning directly to live in Petaluma, where William had established agricultural interests. In 1866, William was elected as the first President of the Bank of Sonoma County. By this time, the couple was amongst the largest landowners in Sonoma County. Josie gave birth to four sons: Alexander B. Hill; Raymond P. Hill; William K. Hill and James V. Hill. Alexander was the only son to survive his mother post young adulthood.

Josie served as a charter member of Sonoma-Marin W.T.C.U in 1879. She was described by the Sonoma West Times and News as an earnest member in its ranks, serving elaborate luncheons in honor of visiting guest speakers and data gatherers and functions for her fellow Woman's Club members. In the summer of 1896, she attended a meeting in the Congregational Church parlors for the purpose of organizing an Equal Suffrage Club rallying for a referendum in California that same year. She was appointed precinct officer of Petaluma precinct number four, motivating members to interview voters and women in her precinct to establish how many residents supported the vote-for-women cause. She helped formulate lists for the state association to embark on missionary work and the circulation of literature.

In 1902, William, who had since established the banking house of William Hill & Son, died suddenly at home. The following year, Josie and Alexander sealed what was described in The Petaluma Argus Courier as "the most important deal in local real estate in many months" by jointly purchasing a "splendid piece of property at the corner of Keller and Washington Streets". News spread fast that a magnificent opera house would be built as a memorial to her late husband.

Also in December 1903, Josie was elected Vice President of a new organization known as the Petaluma Political Equality Club following a well-attended lecture on the Women's Suffrage Movement that continued gaining momentum after California's failed 1896 suffrage referendum. The W.C.T.U met regularly at her home, under the auspices of the suffrage department of which she remained actively involved.

In 1907 Josie became benefactress of Petaluma Woman's Club having donated one of the most valuable building lots in the city and assisting in the funding of the original clubhouse next to the Washington Street Hill Opera House.

Josie dedicated the rest of her life to seeking the vote for women and being active in "all movements that will better the conditions of the citizens". She passed away at home in 1918, after a long illness, aged seventy-six. The flag at the Woman's Club was lowered at half-mast in her memory and she was buried in the Hill Family plot at Cypress Hill Cemetery, leaving behind one son, three grandsons, Dolph, Blake and Raymond and one great-grandchild.

Sources:

OnlineBiographies.info: History of Sonoma County, California With a Biographical Review History by Tom Gregory Historic Record Company Los Angeles, California 1911

 

The Petaluma Courier: Aug 26, 1896, Nov 22, 1907

Petaluma Daily Morning Courier: Mar 1905

The Petaluma Argus Courier: Dec 4, 1903, Dec 9, 1903, Sep 14, 1907, Nov 9, 1911, Jan 10, 1918

Sonoma West Times and News: Jan 11, 1918

 

If you'd like to learn about the women who shaped the suffrage movement in Petaluma, mark your calendar for these upcoming events:

 

Save the Dates for Petaluma Historical Library & Museum's Women's Suffrage Movement Centennial Events, Aug 26th - Nov 8, 2020

So much work is taking place behind the scenes of lockdown for a remarkable series of events to commemorate the Women's Suffrage Movement Centennial from a Petaluma perspective. What an amazing team of historians we have here in town and our beloved museum as home base despite the fact the lights have largely been off these past few months. 

We must continue to learn from history in order to push for a better future for all. There will be opportunities to attend events with safety measures in place as well as online.  

 

Save Petaluma Wildlife & Natural Science Museum — Community Crowdfunding Spotlight

 

The Petaluma Wildlife & Natural Science Museum is the only student-run natural history museum in the country, dedicated to “inspiring the next generation of conservationists through environmental education and practical conservation.”

The Museum, which relies on donations as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, has had to cancel its school tours, open houses, fundraisers, and summer camps due to the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing income down to zero even as operating costs for maintaining the animal exhibits continue.

I have a special place in my heart for this one-of-a-kind community treasure as all three of my boys attended preschool and elementary school tours and camps and my youngest son, Dom, who just graduated from UC Davis this June, worked as a camp counselor throughout his high school years. As an out of the box kid, the Wildlife Museum was a second home for him and the friends he made and instructors he learned from enhanced a deep appreciation and love for his native Sonoma County and Northern California environment, landscape and wildlife. There are hundreds if not thousands of young people like Dominic who have benefitted so greatly from this program. 

Click here to donate to Petaluma Wildlife Museum's GoFundMe Campaign. 

Yearly operating costs sit at $50,000 for animal feed, supplies and payroll for the Animal Care Technician, who is leading a group of Board volunteers in keeping the museum animals alive. The museum team is exploring every avenue for fundraising and loans, but with the cancelation of its annual Pasta Feed fundraiser and summer camps, the situation is dire.

Recently, amidst the chaos of our global pandemic, another potentially devastating pathogen – one that is specific to snakes and lizards – has taken hold inside the museum and infected one of the animals in its care. Museum staff are taking immediate and decisive steps to prevent the spread of this parasite throughout the museum's collection and making major changes to its husbandry and exhibition protocols going forward in order to protect students, visitors, and staff from spreading this pathogen to additional lizards and reptiles. 

Donations will be utilized as follows: A first goal of $15,000 has helped to purchase animal feed and husbandry/maintenance supplies through the summer and into the fall semester, as well as making a start with begin quarantining and testing of reptiles for this parasite.

Reaching $25,000 ensured continued maintenance of the museum and to pay the Animal Care tech to lead the adult volunteers until the end of 2020. That goal has been met.

Next goal of $42,000 is required to maintain the museum and continue to pay the Animal Care tech until the end of the 2020-2021 school year. And, hopefully, reaching $55,000 will carry the museum through the summer of 2021 and help to pay summer camp counselors if it is safe again to host summer camp next year.

The Petaluma Wildlife Museum was created due to the generosity and passion of the community and it is again up to the generous donors of our community to keep the PWM – and its mission of environmental education and wildlife conservation – stay alive for the 2020-2021 school year.

For more information on the Museum or on Cryptosporidium click the Petaluma Wildlife Museum webpage and FB page.