Tag Archives: Smith Family

Haunted Evergreen

When asking friends what they want to know about Evergreen, they wanted to know about old haunted places around town.  When I started looking, I found lots of haunting in Evergreen.  Whether it had been a tragic event on a campus or a scary old house, Evergreen has plenty of scary stories to accompany its beautiful tales.  Here’s what I found out and investigated myself.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Jon Santa Cruz / Rex Features (582062k) Ouija board with pointer VARIOUS - 2006

First of all, I should say I have a fair amount of physical, experiential research on this topic.  When we were kids, and my older brother’s friend got the first license in the bunch, we did this.  I found kids still doing this and chronicling it on youtube.  Ghost hunting in Evergreen is a teenage rite of passage that is alive and well.  Let’s talk about some of the ghostbusting.

P1310652San Felipe Road appears to have the concentration of spirits in Evergreen.  I’ll explain what the sensation is and then why.  I would do my own paranormal investigation, with buddies, in high school 1999-2003 when we didn’t care who’s house it was and we didn’t know why we felt strange things in certain places.  The first time, we ended up at the Smith’s residences thinking it was the school house.  Back then, too, many of the new homes weren’t there yet and this stretch of road was fairly heavily wooded along Thompson Creek.  The Smith family homes are still privated by orange groves today.  It once looked like this with San Felipe Road running through these front yards today.

Charles C. Smith, F.J. Smith Store and Residence, Adam Herman,

P1310650That connection is Katherine Smith and the school house is across the street from her house.  These Victorian houses are occupied today, so don’t sneak up at night, okay?  What everyone thought was the haunted schoolhouse back in the day was not.  It’s the right spot, but across the street, renovated some time ago and totally not haunted.  The two story schoolhouse still stands, and is also inhibited.  The old one story school was torn down in the 1890’s.  Reports from San Felipe Road long time residents would also confirm the absences of a haunted schoolhouse, and the lack of any known massacres, murders or suicides that result in spirits.  We, Evergreenians, do, however, have an unusual number of haunted school rumors, just none on San Felipe Road.  Unfortunately, I won’t be disclosing them here either, because students still attend school there today.

5986045244_160c2c7376_oThe looking haunted house on White Road and Stevens Lane isn’t haunted.  I would be too chicken to Treat or Treat here as a child, though I can see its jagged oak tree from my own backyard.  I’ve come to find that it is owned by the nicest, long time Evergreen family.  Again, don’t sneak up on these guys – there are no paranormal activities here.  The family purchased it generations ago directly from H. L. Stephens, its original owner, orchardist and flour mill operator.  The mill would be near Millbrook School today on Quimby Creek.  Again, not haunted.  Very original in its construction and preservation, very discrete owners, spooky oak tree and daunting gate.  What you don’t get to see if the stunning wisteria and wrap around porch.  The only spirits here are warm and friendly.

P1300592Headed south on San Felipe,  beyond Farnsworth, the road gets scary and dark.   It’s a beautiful daytime bike ride, not for novice riders, but a nighttime fright.  You will see old, rundown barns appear out of black oak trees and abyss.  This can seems scary.  Your cell reception will drop at the top of the hill.  Don’t worry.  Evergreen’s reception in general is spotty, but especially toward Metcalf Road.  You can either turn around or  go straight until you hit Highway 101 or Monterey Road.  The only need to worry is if your car breaks down.  There are too many reports of phantom cars and haunting along the roadway itself, so maybe we should spend a moment on that.

Historian’s note: Keep in mind that the invention of the printing press and its rapid improvement through the 1800’s means tragedies and crime would be recorded in newspapers at the very least.  These have not been streaming in from Evergreen or San Felipe Road or San Jose.  I’ve looked everywhere I can thing of.  I’m obsessed, too.  I can track every local news article, person, property development, purchase, division, dispute, etc.  Evergreen was downright peaceful after land disputes.

Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 4.01.24 PMThough no haunted schoolhouse exists there, San Felipe Road may in fact be haunted.  Plenty of car accidents occur here every year, whether ordinary or foolhardy.  The haunting I like to speculate about is much older.  San Felipe Road itself can be dated back 200 years.

Microsoft EdgeDon Pedro Chaboya, Antonio Chaboya’s brother, would drive a band of cattle ranchers from Santa Clara and Monterey Ranchos after Native American horse bandits and most likely took the trip over San Felipe Road, furthest East and most central to the gang of ranchers.  The thieves would steal 600 head of horses, slaughter some of the animals senselessly and take flight towards Merced County.  The Bay Area ranchers would finally catch up with the bandits in Tehachapi, so probably not Ohlone Natives.  Laguna Tachi, where the capture occurred, here shown to the left, is on the border of Tulare County, Southern California.  The ranchers would return home with their horses and captured thieves.  I speculate this southeastern route is haunted because of the horses and natives who lost their lives in this event.  As a result, phantom cars can be felt.  Not phantom cars – phantom horses.  People also report hands appearing on the windshield while driving down San Felipe Road.  That’s probably our Native Americans being brought back for their punishment.

P1300635Or there’s a totally logical explanation.  Something like the coastal winds combining with low pressure systems to the South driving a wind Northward.  If you catch a gust of wind, could feel like phantom cars or horses.  If you can’t see the trees also fluctuating with the headwind, you’d be psychologically misguided and therefore spooked.  Your hands I can’t explain away.  This may be strong contrasts in heat in very specific places on your windshield from such a strong, cold headwind so sporadic in occurrence.

CAM10931Also on San Felipe Road but further towards Metcalf Road, you can get another scare.  If you didn’t know these awesome rusted pieces of antique farming equipment was out here, you might be frightened by their sight and traveling shadows.  With the lights on, or rather in the daytime, this old pieces of equipment are brilliant relics and roadway decorations.  At night, this looks like a creepy crawly nightmare.  Now, it your car won’t start for some reason on San Felipe Road, then you’re in trouble.

5985404833_eb2e904b36_b 6287362602_ddc1498c1c_o When I was a kid, there were so many more barns and abandoned structures.  I say kid.  About 15-20 years ago.  I’ve been on this ride several times throughout the research of this project. Things I intimately remember creeping into at night and being spooked by are gone.  They’re not there.  These structures have been documented, torn down and made room for more homes.  I find them again in archives and records.

spring2012.pdfSomewhere we would enjoy screams before it was enveloped by home development is a place others also report as having been haunted.  I can’t find much of this online, but the experiential data yielded positive results.  I know I was spooked enough  once or twice to bolt out of there.  Today, it’s a historical landmark that needs some love.  Reminds me of the Wehner Mansion, also with historic designation but no preservation.  (There were no reports of spirits from Wehner Mansion except wine.)  This is how I remembered the relic.

2012234

spring2012.pdfToday, the Metzger Barn still gets haunting reports but serves a dual purpose as a quasi-park.  Though secreted away, it’s open to the public.  The complex even has picnic tables and a volleyball court.  At night, there are reports of phantom rattling chains and ghostly crying observed.  I’ve also read about an experience with hanging animals from the rafters.  I’ve personally observed the heeby geebies.  I’ll not spoil this haunted tale for you.  Since I’ve ruined other perfectly good ghost stories, I won’t ruin anymore for you.

Joseph Grant Residenceuntitled2121Joseph D. Grant Park, very nearby Evergreen in neighboring Ranch Canada de la Pala, has a historical complex of structures and gives tours of the haunted main house.  If you want a frightful experience, you’ll have to sweet talk rangers or historians into coming back to work on their time off but it’s been done before.  Built in 1882, ghosts can be witnessed in mirrors, along with loud noises and footsteps were observed.   Other strange paranormal feelings would be reported by guests and park rangers alike.  Ghost hunters have enough evidence to confirm their own superstitions.

Evergreen has haunts you can see and some you can pass up on.  Metzger Farm and Joseph Grant Park seem to be your best bet for spirits.  A night drive over San Felipe Road and a misadventure up Las Animas Road are certainly spooky if that’s your thing.

 

 

The Man with a Hoe

Charles Edward Anson P1310885Markham (1852-1940) is characterized as a minor American poet.  Since he has Evergreen roots, we’ll designate him a major Evergreen poet.  Edwin Markham was a teacher at the Evergreen Schoolhouse from 1869-1889.  During those twenty years, he would write from the East Foothills and inspire and educate students from the Chaboya family, Kettmann family, Smith Family, certainly one day principal and superintendent, Katie R. Smith, Aborn Family , Chew Family and others.  He was so cherished by the community, a redwood tree would be planted in his honor.
markhamThough not published until 1899, ten years after Edwin Markham left the employment of the Evergreen School, I like to speculate about his inspirations.  The Oregon native wrote poetry about the working class life in the late 1800’s.  He would’ve worked on the family farm as a child, like most children at the time, in the north bay area.  He would finish his teaching credential at San Jose State, then known as the Normal School, and fall in love with Evergreen.  From 1921-1931, Edwin Markham would be Poet Laureate of Oregon.
manhoe1Edwin Markham incites emotion through his metaphors and that familiar sense of earning.  It is often said that Markham’s “The Man with the Hoe” was inspired by Jean-Francios Millet’s painting of the same subject, shown here to the left.  That may have been a contemporary pop culture influence, however, Markham would get to see this activity quite regularly during his twenty year teaching stint in the town of Evergreen.
P1320557I have specific details about the farm adjacent to the schoolhouse using hoes, pitchforks and sickles, archaic equipment the immigrant family would’ve used in the old country.  The farmers in Evergreen during this time would have front row seats to the Industrial Revolution and watch their equipment mechanize before their own eyes.  Poorer farmers would have to work by hand until Evergreen’s labor force combined and circulated large rigs to harvest everyone’s fields.
Markham’s poetry would very much parallel the hardworking farmer’s plight during this time in history.  Evergreen was farm country, first appearing in the Altas in 1867.  Markham would move into Evergreen in 1869, as one time squatters became legal land owners and brand new farms were being raised all over town.  It would be harder to imagine Markham’s work not being inspired by his time in the little farming town 8 miles outside the City.
Here’s Markham’s poem.  If you enjoy this, read on.  His poetry is quite lovely.

The Man with the Hoe

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans 
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, 
The emptiness of ages in his face, 
And on his back the burden of the world. 
Who made him dead to rapture and despair, 
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes. 
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox? 
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw? 
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? 
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? 
Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave 
To have dominion over sea and land; 
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; 
To feel the passion of Eternity? 
Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns 
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep? 
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf 
There is no shape more terrible than this — 
More tongued with censure of the world’s blind greed — 
More filled with signs and portents for the soul — 
More fraught with menace to the universe. 
What gulfs between him and the seraphim! 
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him 
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades? 
What the long reaches of the peaks of song, 
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose? 
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look; 
Time’s tragedy is in the aching stoop; 
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed, 
Plundered, profaned, and disinherited, 
Cries protest to the Powers that made the world. 
A protest that is also a prophecy. 
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, 
Is this the handiwork you give to God, 
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched? 
How will you ever straighten up this shape; 
Touch it again with immortality; 
Give back the upward looking and the light; 
Rebuild in it the music and the dream, 
Make right the immemorial infamies, 
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? 
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands 
How will the Future reckon with this Man? 
How answer his brute question in that hour 
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores? 
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings — 
With those who shaped him to the thing he is — 
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world. 
After the silence of the centuries?