Sounding Board
We welcome your comments and corrections.
Please send letters to the editor to the Sonoma County
Historical Society, P. O. Box 1373, Santa Rosa, CA 95402
Rethinking the Legacy of Granville Swift
Note: Sherman Boivin arranged for
publication of M. Clyde Low’s story
on Granville Perry Swift in this issue.
Here he adds a few comments.
Editor,
Many Sonoma County residents
know about Temelec - a senior
resident community located on
Arnold Drive on the west side of
Sonoma Valley. Some know that there
is a majestic two story stone house
located back in the community which
is used as a resident association club
house - not open to the public.
What few realize is that this mas¬
sive structure was built in 1858 by a
very interesting personality about
whom there is much ignorance and
mis-information - Granville Perry
Swift. Jeanne Miller in her Wild Oats
in Eden tells of Granville Swift as a
"frontier hero and a legend in his own
time.” Unfortunately, Mrs. Miller
makes a point of Swift being an
abuser of Indians - failing to note that
abuse of Indians was a common
practice of the time, and Swift should
not be judged by other than those
standards.
I have long been interested in both
Swift and the house he built, Temelec.
Doing research, looking to writing an
article for the Journal, 1 found the
topic had been well covered in a
piece in the Solano County Historian
of May 1988 by M. Clyde Low of
Fairfield Community College. Mr. Low
has generously granted us permission
to reprint his article for the benefit of
SCI IS members. Mrs. Miller states that
Swift was illiterate, which was not
true. He could read and write, al¬
though his spelling was at best pho¬
netic, typical of many in those times.
In researching Swift, I established
contact with a great grandson, Earle
Swift Jr. of Ashland, Oregon, who has
been most helpful and generous in
providing family material relative to
his illustrious great grandfather. Earle
Swift agrees that Mr. Low's article tells
the story of Granville Swift, but offers
some corrections and clarifications.
According to family tradition,
Granville Swift left Missouri in 1841
with a friend and wintered en route
(Fort Laramie, Fort Bridger, Ft. Hall?),
arriving in California in 1842. After
arrival in California, he was a meat
hunter for Sutter. Meanwhile, his
cousin Franklin Sears went to Oregon
in 1844, and then came to California.
Swift learned of Sears’ expected
arrival and went to meet him, thus
arriving back in California that year
(1844), which is the source of misin¬
formation in Bancroft.
What information Mr. Low pro¬
vides on Granville Swift’s wife, Eliza
Jane Tate Swift, should be supple¬
mented. After separating from her
second husband, Henry Casebolt, she
joined her mother, America Tate at
Mark West Springs, which she was
then managing. America Tate died in
1887 and is buried at the Sonoma
Mountain Cemetery in Sonoma. Her
husband, Thomas Tate, predeceased
her, dying in 1858. Although there is
no headstone, it is believed that Eliza
Jane Tate Swift Casebolt is buried in
the same plot. She died in 1888.
General Persifor F. Smith arrived in
California in 1849, assuming com¬
mand of the military on the Pacific
Coast. Not liking the San Francisco
climate, Smith relocated the command
headquarters to Sonoma, purchasing
land on the west side of the valley for
his home, which land later became
Temelec. Smith bought a New En¬
gland-made “kit house” which was
erected there, located to the north of
the carriage house later built by Swift.
This frame house was unfortunately
demolished by members of the
Temelec retirement community a few
years ago as “not being worth trying
to save.” This was an unfortunate loss
of a structure important to the history
of Sonoma County. More information
will be provided in a subsequent issue
of the Journal on the changes in
ownership of Temelec and its current
state.
Sherman Boivin
Santa Rosa
Duncans Mills
Editor,
The front cover picture of the 1994
#4 issue of the Journal is a view of
what was known as the Berry Saw
Mill which was located on Freezeout
Creek about half way (about a mile)
between the mouth of the creek,
which empties into the Russian River
on the south bank, opposite Duncans
Mills and Fern Springs which was in
the hills in a southeast direction. The
mill was abandoned in 1902.
John Edward Berry, a native of
New Brunswick, Canada, was the
proprietor of this mill; he is listed in
the 1888 Voters Register as a Lumber¬
man at the age of 43. In 1898 we lose
track of him. James Reuben Berry was
listed as a lumberman from Canada,
49 years of age. They were probably
brothers. Both of them had fingers on
See letters, page 14
