This interview discusses the Ingram family and their deep roots in Grass Valley, California. Vinnie Ingram (née Beck) recounts her family history, her marriage to Maris Ingram, and their sons' careers in journalism. She also shares anecdotes about her husband's family, including his father, a state senator who was highly respected in the community. The conversation touches on various aspects of life in Grass Valley, including changes over time, the impact of the mining industry, and the importance of community involvement. Genevieve Ingram, Vinnie's niece by marriage, adds her perspective on growing up in Nevada City, a neighboring town. The interview offers a glimpse into the lives of two women connected by family and their shared experiences in this historic region of California.

Full Transcript of the Video:

This is Bedford-Lamkin conducting an interview with Vinnie Ingram and her niece by marriage, Genevieve Ingram.

The date is January 28, 2005 and our location is at Vinnie's home at 10-888 Alta Street, Grass Valley, California.

And now we'll get started with our interview.

Vinnie, could I ask you to explain exactly how your name came about? Yes, I was born Elvina Ingram in a Swedish home and so they pronounce it "Alvina.

" And when I started first grade, that was my name, "Alvina.

" But the teacher read the name "Elvina.

" And of course I didn't know who "Elvina" Beck was, so I didn't respond.

And there was a silence and everybody was looking at me and I realized that everybody thought I didn't know my own name.

Very embarrassed.

So I stayed "Alvina" throughout my school years.

Okay? Sure.

Alright, now then.

And your maiden name was Beck.

And you said you spoke Swedish at home.

Right.

Okay.

I wish it were still with me.

That left me long ago.

How did you learn to speak English so well? I had an older brother.

Okay.

Two years older.

So he was, and we were inseparable.

And so he was my instructor.

Okay.

Also my parents were interested in becoming Americans, so they learned to speak the American language too.

Where had they come from in Sweden? They are Swedes, but they're from Finland.

They are called Swede Finns.

Oh, really? The heritage is Swedish and the country is Finland, so they are Swede Finns.

And they met here in the United States and married and had children and learned to speak our language, the American language.

My wife is Swedish.

People came from London.

They were in Sweden.

We've been there.

And, Jenny, where did your family come from? They came from all the British Isles.

The British Isles.

And a little bit of French in there.

Mostly Scotch, Irish, Welch, and French.

So we both married.

In groups.

Yes.

I met Maris in 1936 when I came to California from Northern Idaho.

Then you grew up in Northern Idaho.

Yes.

Okay.

You went to school there.

Went to school.

How old were you when you came to California? Seventeen.

Mm-hmm.

And you were in California? Because there was -- I couldn't go to college.

There wasn't money for that.

And there was no work.

I worked 50 cents a day to sell candy in a candy store and clean the woman's house on Saturdays.

Mm-hmm.

Fifty cents a day.

And also, there was nothing there other than my family that was holding me there.

It was a smelter city.

And everything was burned by the -- the smelter.

So we had Norwegian friends living in Nevada City.

So I hopped a bus and came and stayed with them.

What did you do when you got here? I looked for a job.

Were you still in school? Oh, I had graduated the year before.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

And you came out here looking for -- and you stayed with some Norwegian friends.

Mm-hmm.

Do you remember their name? Yes, Ronny.

Let's see.

Sigbard.

And I can't remember her first name.

But Mr. and Mrs.

Ronny.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

Did you find a job? Yes, I did.

I found a job as a waitress in the -- oh, gosh.

Swartz, is it? There was a saloon and a restaurant on the corner of Broad.

And what is the name of the street that comes into Nevada City over the bridge? Anyway, yeah.

That's Pine Street.

Pine Street, yeah.

So I lived with them until I changed to another -- to another restaurant in Grass Valley and for easier access I moved to Grass Valley.

Was it ready? Ready to go to San Francisco, anywhere? Uh-huh.

Because I was shy.

Oh.

And I didn't -- people were lovely to me.

Mm-hmm.

But I didn't meet any people by age.

And it was no different.

It was not -- it was a good experience.

They were kind to me.

But what was new, you know? So how did you came to come here? My father was with the Forest Service and was transferred here to Nevada City when I was ten years old.

And so I've been in Nevada City or this area since 1940.

And -- Well, gee, not much.

I was here just a few years before you.

I didn't know you were here.

And so my children were born here and became, you know, the third or fourth generation embers in this area.

Where are your children now, Genevieve? My oldest daughter is here in Grass Valley.

She is with the Grass Valley City Council and was just retired as mayor of Grass Valley.

And my oldest son lives also in Grass Valley and works for Sierra Pacific Industries.

He's a licensed forester.

And then my youngest daughter lives in Chico.

And I can see them all whenever I want because they're so near to me and to me.

Kind of delightful.

Yes.

Okay, Vinnie.

Tell us some more about your parents, would you? Well, my father died when I was six.

And he died of that disease of the lungs when you work in the mines and your lungs.

Yeah.

I can't remember the name of that.

Sometimes they call it consumption.

I'm trying to think of that.

It wasn't yet.

Silicosis.

Silicosis, exactly.

And so-- And he worked in the mines? He worked in the mines.

Which mines? In Mullen, Idaho.

And they are silver mines and lead and sink mines.

And so they had three children.

I was the girl between two boys.

And so my mother was given the choice, because my father was a member of the Odd Fells organization, she was given the choice of tickets to go back to the old country for some help getting started if she didn't go.

And her decision was she'd left there and she hadn't planned to return.

And so she decided that she would stay here.

So we were raised in Mullen, Idaho, which is a delightful little town that hasn't changed in all the years.

Can you believe that? It hasn't changed.

What's the name of the town? Mullen, Idaho.

Spell it.

M-U-L-L-A-N.

Okay.

Name for John Mullen, who was an explorer.

What was the basic industry there? Mining.

What? Mining.

And they smelted the ore there? In Kellogg, 19 miles away.

Okay.

Mullen was delightful, is delightful.

And we were in the Rocky Mountains and our house was called Fin Gulch because there were a lot of fins there and because it is a Gulch, which is a depression where the water washes out the.

.

.

And so you have a mountain, a home, a street, a home, and another mountain.

[Laughter] What a wonderful place to play.

I bet it was, but they didn't have any jobs.

No jobs.

So you felt like you had to migrate to make a living.

So what else? Well, you came out here at 17 and got a job as a waitress and you met your husband here.

How old were you when you met your husband? Eighteen.

Eighteen? Uh-huh.

And were you married at 18? No.

I was married at 20.

Okay.

And he was 27.

Oh, good.

Yeah, right.

20.

That sounds like my wife and I.

I married her when she was 19 and I have and I was 26.

All right.

I had a question that had to do with what did your husband do? Oh, well, he worked for the newspaper as all members of the family have at one time or another.

This journal has the information in which I've known from talking with Maris' mother, Mary.

Now wait a minute.

What was your husband's name? Maris? Maris.

M-E-R-R-I-S.

Okay, Maris.

Uh-huh.

And what was his job at the newspaper? He did some reporting and working in the back office and then he ran the job shop it's called.

The job shop.

The president was stationary.

Oh, okay.

And that was his brother's.

Uh-huh.

And so going back to, do you want to go to Maris' father? Sure.

Okay.

He was a, um, a British devil when he was about six years old.

Where? In Grass Valley.

Okay.

He came from, I think it was St.

Edward's or St.

Ives.

He came from St.

Ives in Carmall.

St.

Ives.

Uh-huh.

And he arrived in the United States with his mother, father and two brothers.

And they were, he was the oldest one.

I don't know, maybe he was 12 or 13.

I don't know.

Uh-huh.

Coming from Cornwall, I presume they were miners.

The men were here.

This is what his father was.

Uh, and, uh, but he was never a miner.

He worked as an apprentice in a newspaper.

Then he, he had a newspaper in conjunction with someone named Shoemaker.

Yes.

And, uh, then he was, um, Prisk.

I don't remember the first name.

Mr. Prisk started the union and Mr. Ingram joined him there and became the editor, managing editor.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

And so.

What year was this? Uh, in the early '80s, I believe.

I, uh-huh.

In the 1880s? Mm-hmm.

Early 1880s.

Yeah, I, I was under the impression that the union was started during the Civil War and they favored the union as opposed to the Confederacy.

Mm-hmm.

Well, this is what, I, I don't know if Prisk owned it at that time, I think, not, but he did buy it.

Oh, okay.

He ran a paper in, uh, Southern California.

California.

Okay.

So, uh, in the late 1880s and Mr. Ingram was the editor? Yeah.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

And, uh, Mr. and Mrs.

Ingram had five children, four, four sons and a daughter.

And, uh, Robert Tonkin, Robert Teat, Robert Thomas.

Robert Thomas.

Was he eldest? Uh-huh.

Um, and Charles and Marceline and Gordon and my husband Meris.

And of course there was the other son who died before Meris was, before Meris was born.

And so when, uh, Mr., maybe this would be going too far ahead.

Uh-huh.

No.

Okay.

Uh, Mr. Ingram was, the story really is about him.

He was, uh, a man who had, uh, for someone who had little education, he went a long ways right to the state senate.

He was state senator.

Now, let's see.

Was he the son or was he the original immigrant? He was the original.

Oh, okay.

No, no.

No.

It was Thomas Ingram, the grandfather.

The father.

And then Thomas Ingram again who became a state senator.

But he was born in England.

Yes.

In St.

Ives.

Uh-huh.

And he was here, really a brilliant man who was civic oriented too.

He became the first president of the Rotary Club in Grass Valley and beloved by a lot of people in this area many, many years ago.

But became a state senator and died in office.

And, uh, but like you said the other day when we were talking, when his service was held in Grass Valley, the town shut down in honor of this gentleman, Thomas Ingram.

Two hours.

Uh-huh.

The state senator.

This was Thomas Ingram and he's the fellow that brought the family over from Cornwall.

He was one of those who was brought, he was one of the children.

He was one of the children.

Uh-huh.

And his father, Thomas' father was the miner.

Correct.

Okay.

But Thomas was never a miner.

No.

Okay.

So let's take a break.

Okay.

Okay, here we go again.

Vinny, I'm going to ask you now about your two boys.

Uh-huh.

Who I understand are journalists.

Uh-huh.

They call themselves reporters.

Okay.

That was me that said they were journalists.

Well, how did they get started? I've been corrected.

No, no, no.

How did they get started and where are they working now? All right.

They were both born here.

Carl is now sixty-four and Eric is sixty.

They went to school here.

Both of them had work at the Union when they got old enough to have a job and go to school, too, to high school, I guess.

And so they were just a part, just two of the Ingrams who did work at the Union while going to school.

Right.

Uh-huh.

And Carl majored in English with a minor in journalism, but he became a journalist.

Where did he go to school? To when they had Placer Junior College for one year and then Sacramento State College.

Okay.

The remaining.

Uh-huh.

That was also true of Eric.

And then he went into the Air Force Reserve when he graduated from college and then worked for the United Press in Olympia, Washington.

Uh-huh.

This is Carl, the older one.

Uh-huh.

And then he returned and married Patricia George.

They had been in sweethearts for a long time.

And they lived in Reno where he continued to work for United Press.

And then on to, I have to check that.

Do you want to stop it for a minute? I need to know which.

Back in business.

Where did we leave off? Well, you were talking about Carl and where all he had worked as a journalist or reporter.

Uh-huh.

And then they moved to Sacramento and he worked for what did? Associated Press.

So AP.

AP, Associated Press.

Oh.

And then you said he worked for LA Times.

Yeah.

He went to work for the LA Times about thirty years ago when they opened an office in the Capitol.

So he had worked for the UP, the AP, and now he's at the LA Times.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

And he retired from the LA Times last June of the four.

And in his retirement, they, he, he always worked at the Capitol Building.

And in his retirement, they learned that he was going to retire.

And one of the departments, state departments, offered him work with them on a part-time basis, which was just great with him, to rewrite the material that came in, into, about appointments, about people who were getting jobs with the state.

And the material would be gathered together, but it was pretty flat.

And he, he was given the three-day-a-week job to make these resumes readable.

And so that, it's working out very satisfactory.

And so he's still doing that? He's still doing that.

At the Capitol Building.

Mm-hmm.

And Eric.

Now when do we say Capitol Building? Sacramento.

That's in Sacramento.

Uh-huh.

This is not LA.

This is Sacramento.

They, they had the Bureau in Sacramento.

Yes.

Uh-huh.

And then Eric, um, graduated from Sac State and decided that he would rather be drafted, uh, and to serve two years.

But he was not happy with the training that he got.

And so he, he accepted it.

Um, well, all right then, you're going to have to help me here on this one, too, when, um, has that turned off? No.

Oh.

You want me to turn it off? Yeah.

Well, we're having these.

Uh-huh.

Um, he ended up, uh.

Eric went to OCS.

Uh-huh.

What year was this, do you think? Progently.

Early, in the '60s.

The late '60s.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

'58 to '62 to '64, about '65.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

And, uh, and then he was stationed in New York City.

And, um, he, uh, he did the newspaper and this kind of work in his transportation, uh, section that he was assigned to.

But he continued doing newspaper work for the Army.

And he also, uh, was, uh, stopped it while I think of this.

You could say he did some stuff.

So, he, uh, worked, he was in the Army in the Department of Transportation.

And he was a courier and traveled quite a lot with that.

Uh, and, uh, so, I don't know how long, is it four years that you're in the Army then, three or four years? I think you usually sign up for four years.

Uh-huh.

And, uh, he married, uh, New York, uh, a young woman, uh, in New York in, uh, uh, 1963, I guess it was.

Uh, she came from a family of 11.

Her father and mother each had 11 siblings.

And it was, there's, they're Italians, and we had one of those wonderful Italian weddings.

[Laughter] And, uh, so, they moved back out here and Eric became an editor in, in Wren County, uh, that newspaper.

Do you know what that one is? I should have written all this down.

In Winter, in Hetaluma? Uh-huh.

In, uh, no, in San Rafael.

Oh, San Rafael.

Uh-huh.

Anyway, he became an editor there.

And, uh, and is now, and has been for some time, an editor with the San Francisco Chronicle.

Oh, really? Uh-huh.

Eric Ingram.

Right.

Well, we'll have to look him up.

Okay.

And he has two children, but they haven't followed in journalism.

[Laughter] And neither have Carl's children followed in journalism.

Uh, some were along the line, some will again.

I'm sure they will.

It's an old lad.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

Okay, now that we've solved the mystery of your two sons, uh-huh, I want to-- I also have a daughter.

Oh, you have a daughter? Okay.

Yes.

Tell us about her.

Uh, she has never moved from Grass Valley.

Uh, she went to, uh, Sierra College.

Uh, but, uh, her lifelong interest has been animals.

So she bred lanyard and horses, which were becoming extinct.

And she now breeds, um, cattahoula leopard dogs.

She is married, has been married for 25 years.

And, um, she and her husband owns the Science Systems Print Shop in Grass Valley.

The Science Systems Print Shop.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

Uh, and, uh, they work together with the animals and with the print shop.

Uh-huh.

So basically that's about my daughter.

Okay.

Okay, now, Jenny, I'm going to ask you to go through the list of Ingrams.

Oh, my goodness' sake.

So we start originally with Thomas Ingram and his wife, Christiana Tonkin.

Okay, now, they're the ones that came over from Cornwall.

Correct.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

They were both born in Cornwall and their oldest son, Thomas Ingram, who was, became the state senator, was born also in Cornwall.

He was born in St.

Pives.

This couple, Thomas and Christiana, had three sons, and the three sons were Thomas the oldest and Robert and Richard.

And, uh, so they lost their son, Robert Ingram, when he was 21 years old.

So when Thomas and Mary Ingram had their children, the first born was Thomas, uh, of the Thomas and Mary Ingram, was named Robert, to carry on the name of Robert Ingram.

Robert Thomas Ingram followed his father in the newspaper business and, uh, became the editor-publisher of the Grass Valley Nevada City Union.

He in turn married and, uh, had a son, Robert Peter Ingram, who also became the editor and publisher of the Grass Valley Nevada City Union.

Robert Peter Ingram, his first son, you know, he had two daughters and a son, named his son, Robert Gurdon.

And so we followed the line of the Robert Ingrams that are still here in Grass Valley.

Oh, that's interesting.

I think we really stayed in Grass Valley, didn't we? Oh, yes.

By and large, yeah.

As I read, as I read in here, uh, your, your father-in-law, Robert Ingram, took over as, as editor when his father died.

And he'd only gone to work after leaving college for a short period of time in Grass Valley.

Right.

But he ended up becoming the editor.

The editor came home because his father died in office in 1928, and so that's when Robert Thomas returned to Grass Valley from Berkeley.

He was working at, he graduated from the University of California and worked for the Berkeley Gazette.

And then when his father died, he came home to run the paper.

And then when he told his interest in the Union, then your husband, Robert Peter, became the publisher, editor- publisher until 1970.

Three generations.

Yeah.

So the Ingrams have been in the newspaper business for a long, long time.

Our children, Peter and my children, the only one that took journalism in school was Patty, our daughter Patricia, who is very involved in community service like her father.

What, okay, now let's get into your children.

Right.

My oldest daughter is Patricia Ingram Spencer, and she has been involved in politics, I guess you would say, because she ran for city council, served a term, and then ran again, served a second term, and became mayor of Grass Valley, and has two more years on the city council, which will make eight years.

At present, she is also president of the Rotary Club in Grass Valley, and the reason she wanted to be president this year was Senator Thomas Ingram was the first president of the Rotary Club in Grass Valley 80 years ago, and she wanted this year because it was the anniversary of 88 years of the Grass Valley Rotary Club, and her grandfather, great-grandfather, great-grandfather was the first Rotary president.

Then my son, Robert Gurdon, Gurdon, G-U-E-R-D-O-N, which was my father's given name, his name was Gurdon Ellis.

He was the supervisor of the Tahoe National Forest from 1940 to 1954 when he was transferred to the El Dorado National Forest Service in Placerville.

My father was a forester, and my son is a licensed forester also.

Who did he work for? He works for Sierra Pacific Industries, and their main office is in Reading, but they have an office here in the Grass Valley area where Robert is a member of that company.

He is also very politically involved.

He kind of works in the background, and so this is what they got from their father, not their mother, I don't believe.

Peter Ingram was very involved in the community, belonged to eleven organizations during his lifetime and was active in most of them.

My children seem to do that too.

The youngest daughter lives in Chico, loves that area, and remains there.

She is a very, very bright child, or young woman I should say, has a master's degree in community relations, and is now working on a project into putting an idea into the internet that is so over my head I don't understand it, but I'm sure it will be very successful.

My children are all busy and active young people.

Also we spoke of Senator Ingram as being so honored that his funeral service at the time of his funeral service sat down and shut down for two hours.

In Peter Ingram's services there wasn't room for all the people in the Elks Building who came.

There was a long line of people waiting to come in and pay their respects.

He was very popular, as was his grandfather.

I never thought of the jeans before, but that is probably the source of it.

Yes, they just pop out.

The most amazing place to stop today.

Minnie, how long have you lived in this house? I think we asked you that.

Since 1940.

And you got married two years prior to that.

So as a two year old bride you moved into this house.

Do you know who built this house? Yes, his name was Stucheiser.

He was not a local contractor.

He lived in the Bay Area and had a family.

He came up and built this home for he and his family.

I often think he did this work.

He hired to have the fireplace, which is petrified wood, and hired that.

But he basically did everything.

I think of this man doing this anyway.

He never lived here because he was a veteran of World War I and had been gassed.

So he ended up in the veteran's hospital.

So unfortunately he never lived here.

But you had the opportunity to live in this home.

Yes, it has been a good home.

Did you ever have an occasion to ride the Narragage Railroad? No.

Peter did.

He told me about going on the picnics to Chicago Park.

Yeah.

He went from the picnics to Chicago Park as a boy.

I am sorry he did not write his memories because he retained so much in his mind.

But he really should have written.

He did not have the time.

That is true too.

He worked from dawn to dusk six days a week.

Even delivered papers, had a paper route.

Oh, for very sake.

Well, that was so he could have a jeep.

He loved his jeep.

So that was an added work that he did to maintain the jeep.

Okay, now I am going to ask you a different sort of question.

When you moved here in 1940, what was the area like? How do you remember Grass Valley and this particular area? We will start with this particular area.

Yeah.

It is almost the same as it was when we moved here.

The same number of homes? The one on the corner, the business on the corner was added.

Two or three houses on this side, a few on the other.

Then Dolores Drive became a new area.

But basically driving down or walking down this street, I can remember the people who lived in these houses.

In this area, there were three women who were in their 90s who were widows.

They are still, I mean, the widows keep going strong on this street.

Good for you.

And then about Grass Valley.

Grass Valley was a mining town when I got here.

You heard the whistles blowing.

You knew it was 12 o'clock or whatever.

You heard the thump of the rock pressure.

The stamp mills.

The buses that picked up the men downtown and dropped them off, the early, early miners walked.

Now, those buses that picked up the miners, would they pick up anybody who paid? I think they were just for miners, but I would not say.

Just for the miners.

Uh-huh.

Did they go mine, have its own bus route, or did they cooperate? I do not know that.

Okay.

So the town was delightful with the sound of the Cornish speech, the Cousin Jacks and the Cousin Jacks.

Oh, it was.

So if you got into a bus with the local people, you would hear this wonderful dialect that they had and the pleasure they had in talking.

And of course, one of the best ways of getting information in those days was gossip.

Uh-huh.

Because people visited.

And Maris' mother, I would say she gossiped, I would just say that.

They had their own grapevine.

And they had their afternoon's free.

How did they have afternoon's free? I guess because the children were out playing it on their own, which they cannot do it anymore.

And they would go to the neighbors for tea.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And they would go to the neighbors for a little bit.

And so these beautiful obituaries were written in the Union years ago because of this relationship that the community had with each other.

So it was great.

That impressed me.

I remember that.

Right.

That her facts were straight.

Oh, yes.

She knew them.

How do you remember Grass Valley in the early years, Jenny? I do not remember Grass Valley because I was a Nevada City girl.

Okay.

How do you remember Nevada City? Nevada City was a delightful community where children were watched by everybody in the community.

My mother could let us go to town and know that we were safe and that everybody was watching out for us.

I remember going barefooted to town in the summer and walking through the town and over to Pioneer Park to swim and some of the little community shops that were there.

I remember when you talk about Breda Rosinski, she and her husband, Roman, had a little store that was the News of Novelty.

It was a delightful store to go into as a young person because besides the newspapers from all over and magazines, they had all these other little knickknacks that you could purchase in.

Mr. Gallagher's store, a five and ten cent store, which are no longer exists even in the United States, I worked for Mr. Gallagher one summer.

The ice cream parlors, Mr. Cauley's ice cream parlor was on the street.

It was on Broad Street just below the Shriver's Corner, as we called it, which was the corner of where the Union of Broad Street and North Pine Street met.

Just down the street on the right was Cauley's.

Later, Mr. Johnson had one, ice cream parlor.

They were great places to go as a young person, especially in high school.

You could stop by and have a, I loved a lemon coke, and have a coke for five cents.

It was a wonderful era for it to grow up.

Where did you go to high school? Nevada City High School.

I'm a graduate of Nevada City High School of 1948.

Where was that located? It was located where the little Gold Run School is now, which is on Sacramento Street.

That was our high school.

It was a beautiful building.

I'm sorry, it was demolished.

It had a lot of history.

A beautiful gym floor.

We always had this rivalry between Brass Valley and Nevada City with the sports.

We always lost.

We were so much smaller.

Our entire high school was about 200 students.

When I went to school, my graduating class was 41 students.

We just couldn't quite compete with Brass Valley and their talents.

But still, the competition kept on in many facets of their lives.

Oh, yes.

Where did you go to high school? Callag It was a larger school.

It had its competitor in Wallace.

I guess that was throughout the nation.

What's your think? That competition between the schools.

I guess the focus now is on sports.

Basically sports.

Although academically, I think our area is doing very, very well.

We have wonderful schools in Nevada County.

We really do.

Right from the youngest ones, they're getting a good education.

I think it's better than when I went to school.

Basically because it was a small school.

We had large classes.

Now I think they're doing a beautiful job with our younger people.

Do you think the technique of teaching today is vastly different from that when you were in school? I worked as a teacher's aide for 11 years in Nevada City Elementary School District.

I can't answer that.

Although I felt that the school district was doing an excellent job in Nevada City at the time I worked there.

We had wonderful teachers.

I was right after the war when I went to school, in high school.

They had a hard time getting teachers.

Some of our teachers weren't as strongly educated as they are today.

I think one of that was when service team came back.

This was one area where jobs were available.

They had the GI Bill of Rights and go to school.

They were not prepared and it hadn't really been their life's goal.

A few of them.

They were good people.

They wanted to do the best for the students.

I'm going to turn this off.

Introduces to your husband.

Maris Tonkin Ingram.

We always called himself Maris T.

Ingram.

He was the last child in the family.

They called him "The Kid.

" This was after Jackie Coogan was the king in the silence.

He was a mischievous little boy.

He was quite chunky, so they called him "Chunk.

" Nobody could understand where that name came from because he was a very slim man.

His interest was hunting and fishing.

He was, I think, in a competition on rifle shooting.

The second in the nation.

He was a sharp shooter.

He competed in rifle shooting.

He was second in the nation.

He loved to hunt and no one in his family went hunting.

He was the only one.

Do you know what he hunted? Everything.

Birds, deer.

If he were hunting today, he would probably be hunting a wild boar.

Were there turkeys at that time around? No.

But pheasant hunting.

That was really his big interest.

He did some duck hunting, but he preferred pheasant hunting.

And of course, deer hunting.

He taught his sons and his grandsons how to hunt.

This brought them together very close.

They were all very, very close.

He would be very pleased now to know that Eric's daughter, our only granddaughter, goes hunting with her father.

This is a recent development.

Very, very close to his children.

Of course, he had a Bronco.

Bronco's still out here.

He had a what? A Bronco? A call.

Armobile? For goodness sakes.

It's an antique now.

I have lots of conversations with young fellas who are interested in that Bronco.

I bet you do.

He was a gentle and kind man.

He was a listener.

But he was very self-assured about how to plink, how to go plinking.

All of this that he taught the children.

He was very self-assured.

That was the months of September, October, November, and January were his months.

This is when he did all that.

But fishing also.

What kind of fishing did he do? A trout fly fishing.

Fly fishing? Good man.

Right.

He loved his sons and his family loved him dearly.

There was a beautiful obituary that was written for him a lot.

His daughter also wrote the—I never can think of that word.

Obituary? Not the obituary.

When you speak of the dead.

Memorial? Not what that is.

I don't know if you guys remember it.

Requiem? I guess that's all you got.

But she wrote this about her dad and how he took her to piano lessons, took her to horse riding lessons, to whatever was going on.

She taught him to ride a horse when he was 82 years old.

Oh, for goodness' sake.

We were out with one of the grandsons.

Chris and Greg have acreage right next to the campground.

What is that? I think it's a campground.

I'm sorry.

It obviously leaves me now.

But anyway, Maris and Chris and Evan and one horse went out.

Evan got tired of riding the horse.

He was about a six-year-old boy at that time.

Chris turned to Maris and said, "Dad, would you like to ride the horse back?" He said, "Why not?" Then he got up and he slung his leg over that horse as though he'd been doing it all his life.

Chris said she was so amazed what a good seat he had and what good hands he had.

Where did he learn this? Then she remembered all those classes.

He had been learning how to ride a horse just by watching.

They had a wonderful summer riding all the trails.

He said he'd put his horse into a gallop.

Skillman's flat.

No, it's before a skillman's flat.

This is what's hard about being a white flat.

The words aren't there.

Where would they ride? They would ride all in the back property.

Chris and Greg have home in Acreage up next to the campground.

White cloud.

Thank you.

They would ride their horses all up and down into gallops.

We have a video of the two of them riding.

That's so wonderful.

He enjoyed his family and they loved him.

Could you ride along the NID ditch system at that time? I don't think they did that a long there.

They're near another campground.

There is all that property behind there.

There was a man named Ebal who was quite a lady's man.

He was accused of murder in that area.

Of a young boy.

A woman who was put on his head.

Someone shot his judge.

For goodness sakes.

You got to reward for it.

That was in the '40s.

Really black mark others.

There was a lot of publicity.

They had a marvelous library.

Spell Ebal.

He was kind of like a hermit with a long beard.

I remember when he was shot, for some reason, they laid him out so people could pass by and look at him.

I never went, but my older brother did.

He was talking about that not too long ago.

That was in the '40s.

How things you asked about how this street had changed, life has changed so very much in my lifetime.

Wouldn't you find that to be true in your lifetime too? I think so.

For example, our new secretary of state is not only a woman, but she's a black woman.

Isn't that progress and happening so quickly? I'm a total amazement the whole time.

Who was the gentleman that was interested in aviation? Lyman Gilmore.

Did you have anything to do with Lyman Gilmore? No, he was before my time.

His field was where the school is now.

We used to go over there and watch the planes, the little private planes.

That's the only association I have with that.

Do you remember anything of significance that happened while you were in your lifetime? Either something good or something bad? Something that was outstanding.

There were so many things to a place.

How do you decide? I remember when the unions came to town, the CIO.

What was that? The mining.

In relation to the mining.

This was before the war, I think.

Yes.

That was a turbulent time.

The war was a turbulent time.

And the town emptied.

Let's talk about the Second World War, what the town was like.

Let's start off with Grass Valley, and then we'll go into the bottom city.

It slowly emptied as people went into the defense industry work.

Lots of people.

And then, of course, there were those who were in the service.

Was there any defense industry in Grass Valley itself? No.

Industry was basically mining.

And then lumber replaced mining as a main industry.

And now all this other has happened in the last 30 years, I guess.

It's more tourist.

It's tourist now, but there was also when they opened various industries where there were jobs, finally.

Like the technology.

Small technology.

So it was quiet.

It was easy to find a house to buy or rent.

And then people came back.

But it was a long time before there was this great influx of people that we now have.

During the war, they shut most of the mines down, didn't they? The mines were shut down because there was no money in gold mining.

The standard was $30 an ounce.

$35 an ounce.

And it wasn't profitable to mine.

Well, that happened later.

But during the second World War, the government shut the mines down, did they not? I don't recall shutting our mines down, not the government.

I think it was just a lack of men.

And that they couldn't make a profit.

You could not make a profit because Roosevelt changed the gold standard.

How do you remember Nevada City during the second World War, Judy? Well, I was young.

When the war broke out, I was in the sixth grade.

And I do remember I had a dear friend who was a Chinese girl.

And her name was Du Chan.

And they did leave.

We lost a lot of the Chinese people in our area.

There were little Chinese stores.

Chan family had the food palace.

And they moved to the Bay Area.

And a lot of them worked at Mirror Island for the war effort.

And those people never returned.

So the ones that did stay, like the Tinlois and the Youngs and the Fours, are still here.

And thank goodness they are.

In Nevada City, there are no Chinese families that I know of right now.

I remember as a child being very frightened of the Japanese people.

I was terrified.

And it took me years to overcome that fear.

Because of the newsreels that we would see, like my parents would only let you go to the show either Friday night or Saturday night or Sunday afternoon.

You never went to a theater during school night.

You were in bed at eight o'clock.

Which children nowadays would be surprised that you were in bed by eight o'clock.

When I was in high school, I was in bed by nine o'clock.

You got your homework done.

But those years were interesting because of the rationing and gas and tires and butter and meat and shoes.

And it was a time of great reflection, I think, about what was going on in the world.

And, you know, I look back on it as I'm glad I went through it.

But it was very painful.

And going to church, and we had a minister that was fire and damnation.

And he would upset the mothers.

And this bothered me because the mothers of the boys in the service would cry because they were so concerned about their boys being away from home.

And that was the Methodist Church in Nevada City at the time.

And I just had lots of memories of, I wrote a lot of letters to boys.

I was just a little kid, and some of them come back to me, and they were just absolutely ridiculous.

But they didn't care.

They got a letter from home.

Yeah.

But, you know, because I was young, I did that.

And I'm sorry I'm not doing it right now.

Well, ladies, this has been a grand interview.

And I appreciate very much your giving me your time.

And I'm going to turn this off right now.

And if we think of anything else, you say he worked at the Empire Mine? No.

He did not work at the Empire Mine.

He was one of three men that worked very hard to get the Empire Mine at the State Park.

And those three men were Gene Chappie, the assemblyman, our assemblyman at the time, Robert Payne, who is known as a historian of Nevada County, and Peter at the time, who was editor of the Union.

And they worked very hard to promote the purchase of the 777 acres for a State Park.

Peter was kind of the leg man and the writer.

And if you go to the Union paper today and read the articles written about acquiring this property for the county, those articles are written by Peter.

And in those days, they didn't do bylines.

You know, if you were a reporter, an editor, or whatever you were reporting, they normally just wrote their story and it was put in the paper.

Excuse me.

Peter also was involved in establishing the Malkoff State Park.

He worked very hard on that.

He was a member of the High School Board for 16 years and was involved in getting the bond issue passed for the High School District.

He was 12 years on the board of the hospital.

He was very involved in getting our Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital.

Others in that, the property in Penn Valley was acquired as a State Park through his assistance with Harold Berliner, who was the disreturning at the time.

And when they wanted to put in the subdivision of Wildwood, these two men, Peter and Harold Berliner, worked to set aside some land for the county, and that was the park.

They had a hard time getting it through the supervisors to pass this, accepting this land, but finally they were able to do that.

Let me ask you that.

Was Gateway Park that property that was set aside when they built Wildwood, developed Wildwood? Correct.

And another thing that was done from Middies that the Boise Cascade gave to the county was our high school pool, swimming pool.

At Nevada Union? So they were able to get the land and the swimming pool for the high school by working with Boise Cascade.

That was neat.

Okay.

That's just a few of the things.

Peter was always involved in civic improvements in the county.

And he just really loved what he was doing.

He loved Nevada County, and so that's a little bit about Peter.

How old were you when he died? Here was three days past 71.

Okay.

Yeah, he was 71.

What year did you marry Peter? I married Peter in 1950, and we were married 47 years when he passed away.

I don't know.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

And so I just thought I'd have these and be able to go through them.

But would you be interested in a little bit more information about Senator Thomas? Absolutely.

Senator Ingram, well, I'm going to get my glasses, so turn that.

You're on.

All right.

His surviving family.

Now, this is the obituary of Senator Thomas Ingram.

Right.

As it appeared in the union in what year? It would be 1928.

It should be 1928.

1928? Okay.

It should be.

Uh-huh.

I think so.

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

All right.

Ready? Ready.

Senator Ingram is survived by his widow, Mrs.

Mary E.

Thomas Ingram, whom he married in September 1898.

He has four sons, Robert and Charles, both members of the union staff, and Gordon and Maris, students, and his only daughter, Mrs.

Norman Squires of Sacramento.

A brother, Richard, is a resident of Grass Valley, native of England.

Thomas Ingram was a native of St.

Ives, England, born there in 1869, and coming to America as a child with his parents, Thomas and Christiana Ingram.

The family first located at Virginia City, Nevada, where the subject of the sketch received his early education.

From Virginia City, the family came in 1875 to Grass Valley, which has been the home of the deceased continuously.

At Grass Valley, he passed through the public school courses, and at the early age of 16, became a printer's apprentice.

On completing his trade, he worked in the various newspaper offices of that day for a number of years, finally engaging in the publication of the Grass Valley Telegraph in association with the late Rufus Shoemaker.

In 1899, he became associated with W.

F.

Prisk, who had a few years before acquired the Daily Union, and thereafter to the present was actively engaged in the affairs of this paper and the Union Publishing Company, which was later formed.

As a craftsman and superintendent of printing, he established an enviable reputation, and was widely known as an authority on printing and kindred subjects.

As civic leader, for three decades, Senator Ingram took an active part in local civic affairs, and during that time, free enterprises of a public nature, which had carried forward in which he was not active and active and leading participant.

For 11 years, he was a member of the Grass Valley Board of Education, much of the time being president of the board, and gave unlimited time and study to the cause of the local education.

He was the first president of the Chamber of Commerce, a city trustee, and mayor of the city, member of the board of freeholders, which drafted the present city charter, and participant in innumerable movements for civic and county betterment.

Goes to Senate.

In 1916, at the suggestion of Governor Hiram Johnson, Mr. Ingram became a candidate for the state senator from the 3rd District, and was elected without formidable opposition.

Thereafter, he continued as a member of the Senate during the ensuing 12 years, being twice re-elected without opposition.

His legislative career touched the administrations of governors Johnson, Stevens, Richardson, and Young, with each of whom he was closely associated both personally and in public affairs.

His counsel was frequently thought, and his influence upon public measures was constantly felt.

In the Senate, he enjoyed the confidence of the leaders of that body, irrespective of party faction or section.

He was active in forestry and the conservation of natural resources, and cooperated constantly with the heads of departments and specialists in those various lines.

Mining matters were given special attention, and during the 1927 session, despite his weakened condition, he led a movement which lacked but one vote of reaching its goal for state encouragement in the matter of releasing the wealth of the Sierra gravels.

He declines Congress.

For ten years, Senator Ingram was importuned to become a candidate for Congress from the 2nd California District, but steadily refused to do so in opposition to the late Congressman Baker, whom he greatly admired.

Upon the death of its Raker, he could have had the major party nominations without an effort, and the most urgent demands were made that he should enter the contest.

The condition of his health, however, made such procedure impractical.

As I remember, then, he would have gone to the United States Congress as a representative.

Senator Ingram was a leader in paternal life in Northern California, as he was in public life.

His chief activities in this regard centered in Madison Lodge, Grass Valley, and affiliated Masonic orders in the Cote.

He was a past master of Madison Lodge, number 23, Appen AM, past High Priest of Grass Valley Chapter R&M, past Eminent Commander in Nevada Commandery, number 6, Nice Templar, and past Senior Grand Steward of Grand Lodge E&AM in AM jurisdiction of California.

In addition to serving as Inspector of the 12th Masonic District for several years, he was also a past patron of a rural chapter, Order of the Eastern Star of Grass Valley.

Senator Ingram also was past Exalted Ruler of Grass Valley Lodge of Elts, and a charter member of that lodge.

Other paternal orders with which Senator Ingram was connected are Olympic Lodge, Knights of Pityas, Women of the World, and American Order, sons of St.

George, was then President.

A leader himself in the publishing business in Northern California, Senator Ingram was the active head of business and socialized organizations in Grass Valley.

A leader himself in the publishing business in Northern California, Senator Ingram was the active head of business and associated organizations in Grass Valley.

He served as one of the organizers and was the first President of the First National Bank in Grass Valley, resigning after the first stage of his illness left him somewhat weakened.

Senator Ingram also served as the first President of the Rotary Club of Grass Valley after having been largely instrumental in the organization of that club in this city.

He was also active in wartime activities, talented with some degree of organization.

Senator Ingram, in his active years, appeared on the platform on innumerable occasions.

As a four-minute man during the World War, he made patriotic addresses throughout the state.

His further war activities were the organization of the Grass Valley War Chest, which financed all Red Cross drives and similar efforts here, and left a substantial balance at the close of the conflict, which formed the Nuculus of the Fund, which was later used in the creation of Memorial Park.

In this latter endeavor also, Senator Ingram took a leading part.

I believe at Memorial Park there is a plaque that has his name on it.

What I would say, because of this kind gentleman who gave so much service to his county and state, I think his descendants have followed his role in many, many ways to better their communities.

He was a great man in reading about Peter, not as obituary about him or any other things, that in addition to having all this interest and energy, he also had a wife who was patient.

Well said.

Well said.

And I think Mary Ingram, when did she ever see her husband? Well, he took Thursday evenings when she went to Eastern Star, and he would stay home with Maris on Thursday evenings.

I think it was Thursday.

Oh, forget it.

An interesting thing about Senator Thomas Ingram is he bought a car, but he never drove it.

He had someone always drive his car and take him where he wanted to go, but he didn't drive himself.

He was an oldsmobile.

An oldsmobile.

A very sweet member is driving.

And when I read about all the counties he covered, I wondered how did he get there? By train? Well, probably.

But I knew about this car.

How neat.

All right, shall we just kind of leave it there? Yeah.

You guys have done great.

Thank you.

[ Pause ] When his father died, he came home to run the paper.

And then when he told his interest in the union, then your husband became the publisher until 1970.

>> The three generations.

>> Yeah.

So the Ingrams have been in the newspaper business for a long, long time.

Our children, Peter and my children, the only one that took journalism in school was Patty, our daughter Patricia, who is very involved in community service like her father.

>> Okay.

Now let's get into your children.

>> Right.

My oldest daughter is Patricia Ingram Spencer.

And she has been involved in politics, I guess you would say, because she ran for city council, served a term, and then ran again and served a second term and became mayor of Grass Valley and has two more years on the city council which will make eight years.

At present, she is also president of the Rotary Club in Grass Valley.

And the reason she wanted to be president this year was Senator Thomas Ingram was the first president of the Rotary Club in Grass Valley 80 years ago.

And she wanted this year because it was the anniversary of 88 years of the Grass Valley Rotary Club and her grandfather, great-grandfather, great-grandfather was the first Rotary president.

Then my son, Robert Gurdon, G-U-E-R-D-O-N, which was my father's given name, his name was Gurdon Ellis.

He was the supervisor of the Tahoe National Forest from 1940 to 1954 when he was transferred to the El Dorado National Forest Service in Placerville.

So my father was a forester and my son is a licensed forester also.

>> Who does he work for? >> He works for Sierra Pacific Industries and their main office is in Reading, but they have an office here in the Grass Valley area where Robert is a member of that company.

And he is also very politically involved.

He kind of works in the background and so this is what they got from their father, not their mother I don't believe.

But Peter Ingram was very involved in the community, belonged to 11 organizations during his lifetime and was active in most of them.

And my children seem to do that too.

The youngest daughter lives in Chico, loves that area and remains there.

She is a very, very bright child or a young woman I should say, has a master's degree in community relations and is now working on a project into putting an idea into the internet that is so over my head.

I don't understand it, but I am sure it will be very successful.

My children are all busy and active young people.

>> And also we spoke of Senator Ingram as being so honored that his funeral service at the time of the funeral service sat down and shut down for two hours.

And Peter Ingram services, there wasn't room for all the people in the Elks Building.

There was a long line of people waiting to come in and pay their respects.

He was very popular as was his grandfather.

Never thought of the genes before but that is probably the source of it.

>> Yes, they just pop out.

>> How long have you lived in this house? >> Since 1940.

>> And you got married two years prior to that.

So as a two year old bride you moved into this house.

Do you know who built this house? >> Yes, his name was Stucheiser.

He was not a local contractor.

He lived in the Bay Area and had a family and he came up and built this home for he and his family.

And I often think he did this work.

He hired to have the fireplace, which is petrified wood, and hired that.

But he basically did everything.

And I think of this man doing this anyway.

He never lived here because he was a veteran of World War I and had been gassed.

And so he ended up in the veteran's hospital.

So unfortunately he never lived here.

>> But you had the opportunity to live in this home.

>> Yes, it's been a good home.

>> Did you ever have an occasion to ride the Narragage Railroad? >> No.

Peter did.

He told me about going on the picnic to Chicago Park.

>> Yeah.

>> He went from me and picnics to Chicago Park as a boy.

And he just, I'm sorry he didn't write his memories because he retained so much in his mind that he really should have written.

He didn't have the time.

That's true too.

He worked from dawn to dusk six days a week, even delivered papers, had a paper round.

>> Oh, for very sake.

>> Well, that was so he could have a Jeep.

He loved his Jeep.

And so that was an added work that he did to maintain a Jeep.

>> Okay, now I'm going to ask you a different sort of question.

When you moved here in 1940, what was the area like? How do you remember Grass Valley and this particular area? >> We'll start with this particular area.

>> Yeah.

>> It's almost the same as it was when we moved here.

>> The same number of homes? >> The one on the corner, the business on the corner was added.

But, and two or three houses on this side, a few on the other, then Dolores Drive became a new area.

But basically, driving down or walking down the street.