Famous citizens of the last 150 years

Here is a sampling of some of our city’s many famous, accomplished and esteemed citizens of the last 150 years.

A dedicated gardener, Mrs. Atwater founded the Ladies’ Improvement Society shortly before the turn of the century and was president of the organization until her death some 15 to 25 years later. Society members dedicated themselves to beautification of the city and park development.

Thomas Fulsher Baylis is considered one of the founders of Petaluma. A native of Ireland, he was a merchant seaman who came to California in 1847 and to Petaluma in 1851, when he built a trading post and store on the west bank of the Petaluma River near the current intersection of Petaluma Boulevard and Western Avenue. Over the next two decades, he became a prominent businessman and civic leader. Along with Charles Minturn, he did more to develop the river trade in the early days than anyone else.

A football star at Petaluma High School, Benedetti served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, earning a Silver Star. He be-came general manager of the Petaluma Cooperative Cream-ery and later bought the Clover brand name and distribution rights for both Clover and Stornetta Dairy in Schellville. Thus was born Clover-Stornetta Farms Inc. Never one to leave football far behind, he coached the legendary Petaluma Leghorns football team from 1947 through 1951.

Lyman Byce, a 26-year-old Canadian, moved to Petaluma in 1878 and invented the first practical chicken incubator in 1879 in collaboration with Isaac Dias, a local dentist. Byce knew that the key to making money from chickens lay in getting the eggs away from the chickens and hatching them artificially while the hen laid more. The incubator was a breakthrough in the poultry industry. By keeping hens in constant production, the incubator proved to be a boon to chicken farmers, and Petaluma began to promote itself as the Egg Basket of the World. In 1881, Byce formed a partnership with Dias and patented the invention.

Samuel Cassiday settled in Petaluma in 1851 and was engaged in farming until he bought the Petaluma Argus in 1861. An ardent Republican, Cassiday was a man of strong opinions who wielded a venomous pen. As a result, his paper made for lively reading. In 1866 he became the sole editor of the combined Petaluma Journal and Argus before he sold it to Henry Weston in 1869. In 1879 he became Weston’s partner on The Petaluma Weekly Argus. In 1889 he wrote a book titled “History of Sonoma County: Pen Pictures of the Garden of the World.”

Tom Caulfield was the owner and operator of the largest livestock yard in this section of California and at one time he owned 11 meat markets, two of them in Petaluma. During the 1930s, Caulfield was a member of the Petaluma Minstrels. He was a well-known rodeo judge and boxing referee. Also in the 1930s, Caulfield sponsored yearly feasts in the hobo jungle near the river at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Police Chief Melvin DelMaestro may have gone by the nickname of “Noonie,” but he was no-nonsense when it came to fighting crime. He joined the force in 1933 bringing its number up to seven: five officers, a chief and a captain. DelMaestro became chief in 1950. His tenure was marked by a reduction in crime, which he credited to two things: public trust and sufficient recreation activities for Petaluma teenagers.

Isaac Dias, a 25-year-old dentist from New Orleans, had been working on an artificial incubator for several years when, in 1879, in collaboration with Lyman Byce, he first offered his “Petaluma Incubators” for sale. In 1881, Dias formed a partnership with Byce, patenting the invention. The incubator revolutionized the poultry industry.

Bill Farrell served as mayor from 1929 to 1934. Farrell and his wife, Irene, lived at the corner of Wilson and Washington streets in what was called the Farrell mansion. A Petaluma pioneer in the automobile business, Farrell and his brother Ham owned the Dodge Automobile Agency in Petaluma. He was one of the best known political figures in the city’s history. Some old-timers say more Petaluma political problems were solved at the Farrell house than at City Hall.

Sometimes called the “Father of Telecom Valley,” Don Green placed his mark indelibly on the telecommunications businesses that changing the very fabric of society. In 1969 he launched his first startup, Digital Telephone Systems in Novato. It was the seminal step in creating the chain of high-tech telecommunications business that are now strung along Highway 101 from Novato to Santa Rosa.

“Perhaps no man has left more living memorials of his achievements and contributions to this community than this architect who drew the plans and laid down specifications for so many of our homes, business structures and schools,” wrote John A. Olmsted in his editorial eulogy to Brainerd Jones. Local architect Shawn Montoya and Jones’ scholar Ron Bausman estimate that within the downtown area, 75 percent of the buildings were designed by Jones. It is safe to say that without the work of Brainerd Jones, Petaluma as we know it today would not exist.

In 1851, Garrett W. Keller claimed 158 acres of prime land in what is now downtown Petaluma, and started selling lots for $10 each to other early settlers. Described by Adair Heig in her book, “History of Petaluma: A California River Town” as a squatter, Keller laid out the plat of the town and in 1852 hired a surveyor, J.A. Brewster, to lay out the streets of the new town. Keller Street is named for this early Petaluman.

Gladys Kenney was the daughter of Professor Kenney, who ran the Unique Theater. The professor was an accomplished musician; his daughter was a dancer. She excelled in what we would regard now as “eccentric dance” or, more politely, early modern dance. Kenney really came into her own in the mid-20s, coinciding with Petaluma’s glory Egg Days. In 1924, she conceived, wrote, produced, directed and starred in her pageant, “Princess Petaluma,” with a cast of thousands of locals paying homage to the White Leghorn.

H. W. “Bert” Kerrigan was the man responsible for bringing Petaluma international fame for its chickens and eggs. Kerrigan, a public relations whiz who had created the slogan “Milk from Contented Cows,” proclaimed Petaluma “The Egg Basket of the World” in 1918.

Father James Kiely had a profound impact on Petaluma — both as pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church for 53 years and as the man responsible for construction of the present church building, which is still considered an architectural treasure, and St. Vincent Grammar School. While Father Kiely yielded the administrative reigns of the parish to Monsignor Clyde TIllman — whom he had baptized — in 1958, he stayed on as pastor emeritus until his death 10 years later.

At the turn of the century, Petaluma was a paradise for theater lovers. But when the talkies hit downtown Petaluma, they wiped out live theater for the next 45 years. Then baritone and carpenter Marvin Klebe, fresh from a stint with the San Francisco Opera Merola program, moved to town. Klebe and his wife Jan bought the old Cinnabar School and transformed it into a theater for performance of all kinds. In his nearly 30 years at the helm, Klebe programmed a varied and ambitious assortment of opera in English, chamber music, dance and drama.

A native Petaluman and a veterinarian by profession, Bill Kortum is recognized as the dean of Sonoma County environmentalists and is known statewide for his conservation efforts. Kortum began his environmental activism by helping to defeat a proposed nuclear power plant in Bodega Head in the early 1960s. He was a key figure in developing the county’s first General Plan, helping to avoid urban sprawl, and crafting the 1972 Coastal Initiative that established the California Coastal Commission and prevented commercialization of the coastline, a model that has been adopted nationally.

Mention baseball to anyone in Petaluma from the 1930s through the 1970s and Mario “Moch” Lucchesi’s name is sure to come up. As a fan, player, and teacher, Moch (rhymes with coach), loved the game and shared his passion with generations of Petalumans. Often called “Mr. Baseball” or the “Babe Ruth of Petaluma,” Moch was a feared power hitter who never met a high fastball he didn’t like. Lucchesi’s Barber Shop on Washington Street served as an impromptu sports headquarters. Today, 31-acre Lucchesi Park offers soccer and football fields, tennis courts, fishing, barbecue pits, walking paths, a community center — and, of course, baseball diamonds.

When Edward Spaulding Lippitt died in May, 1912 at the age of 87, he was referred to in his obituary as “Petaluma’s grand old man.” For many years he was city attorney and was also the legal advisor of many of the largest institutions in the state. He settled here in 1863 and was in charge of the public schools for five years. He opened a law practice here in 1868 and in 1876 became editor of the new Petaluma Weekly Courier, holding that position for almost a decade.

A third-generation Petaluman, Herold Mahoney’s contributions to and participation in community organizations spanned a lifetime before his death at the age of 86. The grandson of one of the earliest settlers in the Petaluma area, Mahoney started a petroleum and automotive accessory products business after World War II. In 1965, he and six other local businessmen founded Northbay Savings and Loan Association. He was both president and a member of the Petaluma Board of Education, the Sonoma County Board of Education and the Santa Rosa Junior College Board of Trustees. He was instrumental in establishing the Petaluma campus of Santa Rosa Junior College. The campus library was dedicated in his name.

Fred Mattei was the epitome of the community leader in Petaluma during the 1970s and ’80s. The native son served on the City Council from 1969 through 1977 and as mayor from 1979 through 1986. Mattei, who died in 1998 at the age of 83, spent most of his life involved in the family business, Mattei Bros. clothing store on Kentucky Street. Mattei was on the City Council in 1972 when it adopted a landmark growth control ordinance limiting new housing starts to 500 a year.

In 1876, when 19-year-old George P. McNear left Petaluma High School to take over his family’s grain and feed business, he was two months shy of graduation. But the lack of a degree didn’t prevent him from seeing opportunities that other men missed. In addition to a shipping and warehouse business, the McNear family had a banking business. The young McNear put the bank’s resources toward financing a large percentage of the ranchers looking for a start in Petaluma area. His funding is in large part responsible for Petaluma’s poultry boom. He donated the properties for the downtown fire department, McNear Park and McNear School.

John A. McNear, a Maine sea captain, and his wife, Clara, arrive in Petaluma in 1856 to join Clara’s father, George Williams, the proprietor of the first American Hotel. McNear became one of the largest property owners in Petaluma. He was credited with building the biggest brick warehouse in the state in 1864 on the site that would later be a part of the Golden Eagle Milling Company, developed the Cypress Hill Cemetery. He was a founder of the Sonoma County Bank, was president and principal founder of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad, helped to straighten bends in the Petaluma River below town, financed a fleet of schooners and built a canal nearly a mile long along Hopper Street so that steamers could enter Petaluma at any time without depending on the tide.

Known as the ‘Ferryboat king’ in San Francisco, Charles Minturn is credited with bringing steamship service to the Petaluma Creek. He helped found the California Steamship Navigation Service in 1854, which gave him a monopoly on river transportation. But he drew criticism from residents over the poor quality of his boats. In 1864, he opened the Petaluma & Haystack Railroad, which ran 21⁄2 miles along the west bank of the creek between Haystack Landing and downtown. He was a bitter rival of Thomas Baylis in the transportation business.

Christopher Nisson was a Danish-born farmer who created the first commercial hatchery on his Two Rock ranch. Lyman Byce and Isaac Dias invented the first practical incubator, but Nisson’s hatchery put the incubators to a profitable use and played a major role in making Petaluma a poultry center. In 1880, Nisson bought his first incubator from Byce’s Petaluma Incubator Company. It worked so well that Nisson increased his flock and began selling artificially incubated baby chicks to his neighbors. Nisson is also credited with developing the first colony house for range chickens that were widely adopted by other chicken ranchers.

While a student at the University of California at Berkeley in the early 1900s, Olmsted would hop a ferry and then a train in order to make his way up to Petaluma, where his three brothers, Emmet, Clay and Stephen, and his father, J.D., owned and operated the Petaluma Argus. He returned to Petaluma after graduation, bought a half interest in the paper in 1908, and helped swing the merger with the Argus’ only competitor, the Petaluma Courier, in 1913. Later, in the height of the Depression, he became the sole owner of the paper.

Helen Putnam, one of the first women to hold elected office in Petaluma, was one of the city’s most beloved, respected and accomplished public figures. She was known as “Madame Mayor,” for the 131⁄2 years she served Petaluma in that position. But she also served on the Petaluma School Board and as supervisor of Sonoma County’s 2nd District in a political career that spanned 38 years. In her early years as mayor, she witnessed the beginning of the city’s rapid population growth which culminated in the city’s landmark residential growth control system. She has been memorialized with the naming of Helen Putnam Regional Park southwest of the city and Helen Putnam Plaza, a mini-park in downtown Petaluma.

William Howard Pepper came to California in 1850 in search of gold, but did not arrive in Petaluma until 1858, the year that the rapidly growing river town officially became a city. Over the next few years, he gradually acquired 255 acres of land six miles west of town. While visiting Germany, he discovered Dr. Frederic Froebel, who had created a program called “the children’s garden,” or in German … kindergarten. That ultimately led to the establishment of Petaluma’s first kindergarten, financed largely by Pepper, in 1894.

Featured in the 1985 book “Gifts of Age: Portraits and Essays of 32 Remarkable Women,” Dr. Kay, as she was universally known, was not Petaluma’s first woman doctor but she was undoubtedly its most well known. Born in 1904, Dr. Kay decided when she was very young that she wanted to be a doctor and after finishing high school, enrolled at the University of California Medical School. After doing her residency at San Francisco General Hospital, she hung out her Petaluma shingle in 1931 and practiced here for 38 years.

A Petaluma native, Bill Soberanes was a Petaluma institution. He wrote a column for the Argus-Courier for over 49 years without missing an issue. The co-founder of the internationally known World’s Wristwrestl-ing Championship, he was a tireless booster of his city. Over the years he organized such community events as Petaluma to Sonoma walk-athons, the premiere of Lloyd Bridges’ “Whistle at Eaton Falls,” and many charity benefits. He claimed to have been photographed with more famous and unusual people than anyone else. He died in 2003 at the age of 81.

Thomas L. Thompson was the publisher of Petaluma’s first newspaper, the Petaluma Weekly Journal and Sonoma County Advertiser, which debuted on Aug. 18, 1855. “We shall aspire to make a newspaper in the best sense of the term,” Thompson wrote, “free from all sectarian and sectional bias, and uninfluenced by any of the prevailing isms of the day ...” Despite his enthusiasm for the area, Thompson could not make the paper prosper and on April 26, 1856, sold to Henry L. Weston.

After brief explorations by Spaniards from 1776 to 1823, Mexican General Mariano Guadelupe Vallejo was granted the Petaluma Rancho in 1834, and established the first European settlement in the Petaluma Valley. As Mexico’s commander of the northern frontier, he began construction of his adobe hacienda in 1836, using native American labor. The project took 10 years to complete. The three-week Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 ended the Mexican era. Vallejo, once the most powerful man in Northern California, lost much of his land and influence. Most of Vallejo’s hacienda has been preserved today as the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park.

Isaac Wickersham, one of Petaluma’s leading citizens and bankers, came to Petaluma in 1853, a “frail and nervous young man” of 33 years of age; but one “possessed of enormous talent and energy.” Prior to his starting the first bank in Sonoma County in 1865, Mr. Wickersham sold hay and cattle, served as district attorney for a two-year term, as well as a Notary Public and a lender of money. Upon his death in 1899, Wickersham left the largest estate the county had ever seen. Wickersham Park, at Fourth and G streets, was dedicated in 1939 by his daughter, Elizabeth.

Feb. 17, 1911 is an historical date for aviation. On that day, Fred J. Wiseman made the first airmail flight from Petaluma to Santa Rosa. Although Wiseman is known historically for the first airmail flight, he had an impressive record in other fields. His numerous accomplishments included breaking the altitude record in an airplane and inventing the first stopper used to land an airplane on a battleship.