Best of Picture from the Past
The Youngs left many lasting marks on town
By John S. Baggerly
Poet Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young was a pillar of the Christian Science Church of Los Gatos, and her husband, state Sen. Sanborn Young, was a Northern California cattle rancher and a founder of La Rinconada Country Club.
Her roots were in San Francisco, where she loved all things Chinese and from where she traveled to the Mitchell country home in Los Gatos.
Ruth Comfort Mitchell began coming to Los Gatos at age 4, and at age 14 she made her sometime home the subject of a poem "To Los Gatos." It was published in the Los Gatos News, the first newspaper in Los Gatos, and was reprinted in the Los Gatos Mail News on Dec. 20, 1934.
Several years before her death in 1954, Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young told how she had hinted to Mr. Walker, the publisher of the News, that she would like some remuneration for the poem. He replied that her loyalty to Los Gatos and the publicity she got out of the publication of the poem should be enough.
In 1921, the Youngs donated a lot adjoining the planned Town Hall site. Today the old Town Hall location is part of the Civic Center on E. Main Street.
In 1926, W. B. Maxwell sold a piece of his property near Vasona Junction. W.C. Sprague, a retired Standard Oil executive in China, settled here and became the La Rinconada Country Club's first president. Sanborn Young was first vice president when the club opened with 103 members in May 1929.
From his home in Sacramento, Edward Allen "Ted" Fletcher, a 1935 Los Gatos High School grad, recalled being in Ruth Young's Sunday School class. He remembered Young hosting lunch in her garden for her class. There was a deep tunnel into a side hill behind her home (which she called Yung See San Fong), which served as a cooler for food stuffs.
The Youngs were friends and associates of Republicans in high places. Herbert Hoover, the nation's 31st president, visited the Youngs as a sitting president in the 1920s and early '30s and later as a former president.
The Young home is a short distance from where Johnson Avenue turns into Cypress Way. Scotty McQueen is the current owner of Young's beloved hillside home.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
Among Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young's poems was this tribute to two of her favorite things--Los Gatos and the Republican Party.
