With Teresa Baker & Linda Jack

When: Thursday July 18th at 7:00 PM.

Where: The Sierra Presbyterian Church located at 175 Ridge Road, Nevada City.

On the morning of Saturday, February 20, 1904, the San Francisco Call reported that the appearance of a pretty young woman in the doorway of the officers’ quarters of Army Captain Charles S. Young had caused quite a sensation at the Presidio. Any gossip was soon quieted when it was learned that on the night of February 18 th the 39-year-old bachelor had taken a wife in a simple ceremony at the home of the bride’s aunt. The ceremony was officiated by Reverend Otho E. Jones of the First AME Church of Oakland and witnessed by some of Young’s 9th Cavalry enlisted troopers and family members of the bride.

As the highest-ranking African American officer in the Regular Army at the time, Captain Young’s reputation was widely known in Northern California. Young was only the third Black man to graduate from West Point. He served in the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments-the so-called Buffalo Soldiers-during the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War and the incursion into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa. In May 1903 Young led the troops of the 9th Cavalry that served as the honor guard for President Theodore Roosevelt during his visit to San Francisco, and in that summer Young would become the first African American national park Superintendent when he and his troops were tasked to manage and maintain Sequoia National Park.

Captain Young’s bride was Ada Mills. Sixteen years her husband’s junior, Ada had been born in Grass Valley in 1880 at the modest Townsend Street home of her paternal grandparents, Edward and Jane Mills. Yet despite her youth and lack of prominence, she had already shown a resiliency, intelligence and spirt that may have captivated her new bridegroom. Although she has been neglected by the history books, Ada lived an exemplary life of service: working in partnership with her husband in his military and diplomatic careers, maintaining their homes as centers of learning and culture, educating their children to be cosmopolitan citizens and educators, and teaching and nurturing generations of Black college students.

Please join us to learn more about the life and times of Ada Mills Young.

Admission: FREE and open to the public, this event last one hour.

Free refreshments offered after the presentation.

For more information contact Daniel Ketcham @ (530) 477-8056 or President@NevadaCountyHistory.org.