Santa Cruz Looks Back to a Book From 1879

Before leaving the 1870s, it’s worthwhile to note the end-of-decade appearance of a remarkable book – the first published history of Santa Cruz County.

Today, the casual local history researcher has a lot of excellent source material, thanks to a group of researchers who, beginning in about 1975, wrote the books listed at the end of posts in this blog, and many others. These writers, in turn, were aided by an earlier group of local historians writing during a twenty-year period centered on the year 1900. Before 1892, there was only one. W. W. Elliott published a book called Santa Cruz County, California: Illustrations with Historical Sketch, in 1879.

Thanks to the efforts of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, a new indexed edition of Elliott’s book was published in 1997, and can be purchased at the MAH bookstore or checked out at SCPL. In addition, Elliott’s book is one of the primary sources for the biographies compiled in Santa Cruz County History Journal Number 4: Pioneers.

As the title implies, the book is extensively illustrated with original drawings of people, buildings and farms, and also a few maps. We all like books with lots of pictures, so this one is a treasure. Photography was not yet widely used in books at that time, and these drawings are the only visual records we have of some of the subjects. A few of these drawings have been included with previous blog posts, and a few more this time.

The second part of the title, “Historical Sketch”, must be taken with a grain of salt. There is indeed a historical “sketch”, covering the years from the Spanish explorers to about 1850. Although many inaccuracies and omissions have been revealed by later researchers, especially for the pre-American years, the brief history makes interesting reading. Following the brief section on pre-American history, longer passages deal with the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush.

The most interesting and historically accurate parts of the book are its descriptions of the current (as of 1879) economic, educational and civic situation in the various parts of the County. Short biographies of many residents follow, making up about a third of the book. Finally, the extensive indexing added at the end by the MAH editors is very well done and adds a lot to the book’s usefulness to a modern reader.

It should be noted, however, that some prominent county residents of 1879 are omitted, presumably because they failed to contribute toward the costs of publication. A good example is the Blackburn brothers, William and Jacob. A lengthy biography of William appears in Elliott, but brother Jacob is missing. On the other hand, Jacob is profiled in Santa Cruz County History Journal Number 4 because he was a member of the Society of Pioneers, but William got no mention because he did not join that organization. 

The publication of Santa Cruz County, California: Illustrations was financed by subscription, making it a product of what we would now call the “vanity press”. Larger subscribers apparently got more prominent placement, as can be seen in the full-page portrait of the tanner R. C. Kirby, located near the front of the book. Kirby was, of course, a prominent Santa Cruz resident, and was featured in an earlier post on this blog. The drawing of Kirby’s tannery at the top of the Laurel Street hill, while suffering from some failures of perspective technique, is interesting for its view south down the hill toward downtown Santa Cruz and the Bay.

Sources:

• Greenberg, L. A., Stevens, S. D. (1997), & W.W. Elliott & Co. (1879). Santa Cruz County, California: Illustrations descriptive of its scenery, fine residences, public buildings, manufactories, hotels, farm scenes, business houses, schools, churches, mines, mills, etc. ... with historical sketch of the county. Santa Cruz, Calif: Museum of Art and History at the McPherson Center.
• Stevens, S. D. (editor), (1998). Santa Cruz County History Journal: Number 4. Santa Cruz, Calif: Art and History Museum, Santa Cruz.