Cheryl Anne Stapp
Tomorrow, A Day of Thanks
President Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving as an official national holiday in 1863. Before then, New England and other regions...
California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Nov 16
- 3 min
Faint Hoofbeats from the Past
Its official name was The Central Overland California and Pike’s Peak Express Company, but that was too unwieldy, so everyone just called...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Nov 2
- 3 min
Chief Estanislao
His namesakes are Stanislaus County, and the Stanislaus River. He was Chief Estanislao, famous for leading bands of armed Native...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 26
- 4 min
History Lessons in Cemeteries
All Hallows Eve is next Sunday, when centuries-old pagan beliefs insist that ghosts and goblins haunt old graveyards at the Midnight...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 19
- 3 min
An Ordinary Pioneer
Does a life filled with adventure and diverse occupations beget a physically vigorous, mentally alert old age? That was certainly true of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 12
- 3 min
Antiquated Hicksville Cemetery
In October we start thinking about trick-or-treaters, and making plans to deck our porches with jack-o-lanterns and other Halloween...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 5
- 2 min
The Feminine Advantage
Women were scarce in Gold Rush-era California, a mere 8% of the state-wide population in 1850, and only 30% ten years later, in 1860....
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 31
- 4 min
Cement Craze
Thousands of people poured into California during the 1850s: gold miners, merchants, farmers, families, professionals and tradesmen of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 10
- 3 min
Myth of an Island Queen
Once an intriguing fable captures the collective human mind, it is very hard to dismiss it—especially if the stark truth is less...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jul 27
- 2 min
Historic Riverboat
It’s a hotel, restaurant and special events facility permanently moored at the Old Sacramento Riverfront now, but ninety-odd years ago...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jul 13
- 5 min
Affair of Honor
Dueling was outlawed in California at its pre-statehood Constitutional Convention in the fall of 1849. However, the penalty imposed for...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jul 6
- 2 min
A History Museum's History
Today’s Sacramento History Museum, which opened to the public in 1985, is housed in a replica of the city’s 1854 City Hall and Waterworks...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 15
- 3 min
California's Film Industry
Hollywood! To movie fans all over the world, the name is synonymous with glamour, stardom, and cinematic dreams; a place also known—by...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 25
- 3 min
Proof is in the Picture
In mid-nineteenth century California, rich men tended to own racehorses, or perhaps sponsor a horse or two owned by someone else; or at...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Apr 19
- 3 min
Serving California by Sea
In the Age of Sail, not everyone who entered California’s harbors came to settle. In the early 1820s, the ships of many nations began...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 16
- 2 min
Her Fight for Education
Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood was the capable, determined 19th century woman who paved the way for desegregated education for children of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 2
- 4 min
The Richest Woman
In her later years Mary Frances Hopkins was publicly castigated as a rich, vain, willful woman; her conduct judged foolish and scandalous...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 23
- 3 min
Rev. Thomas Starr King
San Francisco’s First Unitarian Church congregation gaped at its new pastor with a mix of curiosity and consternation. Could this small,...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 16
- 4 min
Mother Shoots Daughter's Seducer
Gunplay was so common during the chaotic, early days of the California Gold Rush that many incidents, though duly reported, drew little...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 9
- 3 min
The Kindergarten Movement
By 1884 California was leading the nation in educational innovations with its system of pre-grammar-school schools, based on ideas...
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