News & Notes
President ’ s Message
By Pamela Baird MVHA President
Starting over ? A fresh start ? A new beginning ?
Pamela Baird
The recent Mountain View Multicultural Festival was a wonderful way to connect with recent immigrants or discuss the sometimes distant family history of those visiting our booth . The world map displayed in the MVHA booth gave people the chance to mark the many countries from which their families ( or themselves ) originate .
This newsletter is published four times a year by the MOUNTAIN VIEW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION P . O . Box 252 , Mountain View , CA 94042 www . mountainviewhistorical . org
MVHA Board of Directors
President : Pamela Baird Vice-President : Robert Cox Secretary : Jamil Shaikh Treasurer : Emily Ramos Past President : Nicholas Perry Historical Data : Candace Bowers Publicity : Marina Marinovich Membership : IdaRose Sylvester Newsletter : John Cortez Ways & Means : Mark Perry Director-at-Large : Lisa Garcia Director-at-Large : Gil Lane
Newsletter Graphic Design : Nicholas Perry
MVHA Board of Directors Email : info @ mountainviewhistorical . org Voicemail : ( 650 ) 903-6890
Starting over , a fresh start , a new beginning or better opportunities are many times the motivator for immigrating to the United States . The chance to have a better life has been the compelling reason that many of our ancestors and recent immigrants as well , have ventured so far to settle in the United States .
My paternal great grandparents left far northern Germany to settle �irst in Cleveland and later in Chicago . The town from which they emigrated , Barth , was a small but prosperous sea faring community . The family lore is that my great grandfather was tired of going to sea , so he and his wife and two small boys sailed to America . After their arrival in Cleveland the two boys died , and several years later they moved to Chicago , where they started a new family .
In 2018 I was able to visit Barth and see the tiny house ( now enlarged ) where they lived . What compelled them to make such a long journey , knowing that they would probably never see their families again ? I wish that I could know more about why and how they and my other ancestors left northern Europe . If only records or journals had been kept about their journeys , so that their descendants could know the stories behind their momentous and probably dif�icult decisions to leave .
The same is true for the movement of people to different areas of our vast country . I , like many people , moved to California to pursue a business opportunity , one that probably would not have been available to me had I stayed in Colorado , where I was born . I never imagined that I would ever move from Colorado , but when an unsolicited opportunity arrived , my exhusband and I moved here in a matter of months .
But thank goodness , people have made decisions to immigrate or move . For several centuries the United States has bene�itted from the energy , perseverance , and hard work of the many people who have decided to start a new life in a different country or area . As I have remarked in previous messages- write it down ! Tell the story of your family or yourself so that others will know about your journeys of a new beginning .
And speaking of new beginnings , it ’ s not just individuals that can have a new beginning , it ’ s also companies . The Paci�ic Press Publishing Company , the subject of our upcoming April 30 general meeting , had to start again multiple times after relocating to Mountain View from Oakland in 1904 . The 1906 earthquake and a devastating �ire months later nearly destroyed the Paci�ic Press entirely , but it persevered , remaining one of Mountain View ’ s major employers into the 1980s . I hope you join us April 30 on Zoom to learn about the fascinating story of the Paci�ic Press and the Shoreline West area of Mountain View .
— Pamela 2