DETECTIVE WORK: To say that Library Director Peggy Conaway is wrapped up in Los Gatos history is putting it mildly. She's even solved a hanging that happened in 1883 that everyone at the time kept mum about. So closed-mouthed were residents about the hanging that news reports at the time called Los Gatos "the Town of Know Nothings."
No one was spotted at the hanging, according to testimony, even though every able-bodied male in town was apparently present. The person hanged was Incarnacion Garcia, who had gotten into a drunken argument with Rafael Mirivale over their spoils from shipping tanbark and charcoal from the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Garcia stabbed Mirivale to death in front of the Lyndon Hotel and gave flight, but was caught shortly thereafter and jailed. However, the town feeling was that justice hadn't been meted out swiftly enough in recent homicides, so a posse took matters into its own hands.
The group easily knocked the lock off the ramshackle jail, then hung Garcia off the Main Street bridge (later called the hanging bridge) while the sheriff and coroner were busy with the body in front of the Lyndon. (Both murdered men had been part of the Tiburcio Vasquez outlaw gang at one time.)
The reason for all this historic immersion on Conaway's part is that the library is in the process of digitizing photos and other documents of Los Gatos history to get those materials online and available to the public. Some of the photos will also appear in a book scheduled for late 2004.
The book, with Conaway the author, will be part of the Images of America series from Arcadia Publishing. Police Captain Scott Seaman told Conaway there is no statute of limitations on murders: hence, she's eligible to collect any reward money. Think of the interest accrued in 120 years.
There was no reward, of course, since the lynchers were the movers and shakers of Los Gatos and no one was about to squeal. Yet the chief responsibility for the deed can be laid at the feet of Charles Goslaw, a known hothead. Four years later, Goslaw himself was hanged for the bludgeoning murder of H.A. Grant.
People obviously wanted all traces of the lynching removed: Copies of the local newspaper for six months of 1883 were missing from the LG Library archives. Conaway had to go to her sources at the San Jose Library to track the story and nab her lyncher.
RISING STAR: Marlon Smith of Los Gatos received a Prudential Community Champions Rising Star Award of $250 for his volunteer work in conjunction with the Los Gatos Rotary Charities Foundation. Smith organized an Enterprise Leadership Conference in 2002 for high school youth.
The conference is designed to enhance the leadership skills of selected high school juniors by introducing them to how business works in a free-enterprise system. As a discussion-group leader, Smith worked with a group of 11 students to help them build and operate an imaginary company.
At the end of the three-day conference, each group presented its business plan to the remaining groups and a panel of judges. They were then ranked on the bases of marketing, finance, human resources and the plausibility of the product.
The LG Rotary Charity Foundation provides $2,500 toward the conference cost of $20,000, and it's become an annual event. Smith is first vice president of investments for Prudential Financial in San Jose.
MUSICALE: Violin and viola pieces performed by members of Soiree Musicale and songs from a women's chorale, Ladyesong, will be featured at an evening of music to launch the holiday season Dec. 5 in town council chambers. The sponsor is Friends of Los Gatos Library.
Soiree Musicale is a chamber music group and Ladyesong's repertoire includes medieval to modern holiday music. Hot wassail and holiday refreshments will be offered at 7 p.m., followed by the concert at 7:30 p.m.
SECOND GENERATION ACU-
PUNCTURIST: Shasta Tierra-Tayam has recently opened an acupuncture clinic at 360 Dardanelli Lane, Suite 2C. A second-generation acupuncturist, she specializes in pain management, general medicine and thyroid dysfunction. Her phone number is 408.712.4048.
POST PARADE: After the Children's Christmas & Holiday Parade on Dec. 3, the festivities can continue. One can head up to the top of College Avenue to the new Testarossa Tasting Room (formerly Novitiate Winery). It's the site of a benefit for the library's History Project.
And it's the grand opening of the refurbished tasting room. The event is Dec. 6, 3:305:30 p.m. Testarossa Winery has replaced Mirassou at the former Novitiate Winery. Refreshments and entertainment for children will be on hand, along with wine tasting for adults.
UP THE HILL: Some 200 bikers take part in the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Ride up Kennedy Road to the trailhead of the Sierra Azule. It's a grueling four miles uphill all the way, but on the descent, "you're flying," attest those stalwart pedalers.
Got a tip for Main Street? Send email to
maryanncook@earthlink.net.
By Mary Ann Cook