ORAL HISTORY PROJECT OF THE MARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY Anne T. Kent California Room Original recording available at the Anne T. Kent California Room © All materials copyright Marin County Free Library. Transcript made available for research purposes only. All rights are reserved to the Marin County Free Library. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the: Anne T. Kent California Room Marin County Free Library 3501 Civic Center Dr. #427 San Rafael, California, 94903

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INTERVIEW WITH LEO STANLEY
by Carla Ehat & Anne Kent
August 7, 1974

INTERVIEWEE: Dr. Leo L. Stanley (LS)
INTERVIEWERS: Carla Ehat (CE), Anne Kent (AK), Doris Schmiedell (DS) and Virginia Borland (VB)
DATE OF INTERVIEW: August 7, 1974
TRANSCRIBER: Marjorie Hoffman

CE: Today is Wednesday, August 7, 1974. We are continuing the Moya Library Oral History Program in conjunction with the Marin County Library, The California Room, of early reminiscences of Marin County settlers. Today finds us at Crest Farm, the lovely ten-acre estate of Dr. Leo L. Stanley and Mrs. Stanley and we are high up above Fairfax on the Bolinas Road to the sea. Dr. Stanley has graciously agreed to share with us some memories of his most exciting and productive life. Good afternoon Dr. Stanley.

LS: Good afternoon, folks. It's awfully nice to have you here with us.

CE: Thank you so much. Well as you may know, in the book Marin People, published by the Marin County Historical Society in 1971, there is a biographical sketch of you that is fascinating to us. You have had a most extraordinary career in life, Doctor. For the benefit of future students and writers of the history of Marin County and of California, would you be good enough to share some of those reminiscences with us now?

LS: Yes indeed, I would be very glad to do that. I suppose you want to start out as to where I was born and --

CE: That's correct.

LS: I was born in Buena Vista, Oregon. That's in the Willamette Valley, a very lush and green, wet valley. Born there in March 8, 1886. My father, Dr. H. B. Stanley, was a practicing physician in that county. He had four children, six children rather and had to travel the muddy roads during the winter and dusty roads during the summertime. We kids were wet all the time from Oregon dew, and my father remarked that if he was going to save these kids he'd have to move out of Oregon and go to some warm spot. Well, he did. He moved us in 1895 down to San Miguel which I believe is a hottest spot this side of Hades. Well he chartered a car, freight car, put in our horses and all our chattels and he went down to San Miguel followed by the family. Well we kids in that warm weather really flourished. We dried out and now whenever anybody offers me a drink I never refuse it. But San Miguel in those days was a wonderful little city of five hundred people. It was the home of the Mission San Miguel founded in 1797. In September 1897 the Mission celebrated its hundredth anniversary. Well all of us took part in that and having been there for two years when it was in its most prosperous state. San Miguel really was a wonderful city. Cattle were being brought in from the coast range to the west and tons and tons of barley and wheat were being brought in from the rolling plains to the east . Everybody had plenty of money and it was really a wonderful childhood for us children. However, in 1898 a drought struck the Salinas Valley. Not a blade of grass grew. Cattle starved by the thousands. People who could get out moved away. My father, who could not, of course, support his family, moved up to the mining district where as a boy, a youth, he taught school and where he married my mother, who was one of his pupils. Well that broke up the Stanley family; the older boys moved away. I, being the younger, remained. Well after the dry year then prosperous years came along and some of us went to high school in Paso Robles. That is nine miles to the south and we traveled that every day, twice a day, with our little team of horses. In 1903 I graduated from Paso Robles High School and then determined to go to Stanford to study medicine.

CE: What prompted you to go to attend Stanford, Doctor? And to become a doctor? Was it because of your father?

LS: Yes. I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps because I learned a great deal from him and he encouraged me as much as he could to follow that career. And in Paso Robles High School were four teachers who had been to Stanford, which was then a very young university, and they thought it would be a good place to me, for me. They said that I could earn my board and room by waiting on tables among another things. And so with only three hundred dollars I struck out for Stanford. Well, I was there the first year then my money gave out and I did not have enough to go back even though I was earning my way with waiting on tables, gardening and other things. So I was able to get a position as peanut butcher, that is a newsboy on the Southern Pacific train, and for a whole year I did this sort of work traveling all over the Southern Pacific from New Orleans to Portland to Oregon and on all these routes. Well I believe that that one year as peanut butcher was better then a whole at Stanford. I learned to know people, I learned to merchandise, to sell; I really think it was a wonderful experience. So I guess God was good to me in that he did not let me for go for that one year. But I did return to Stanford the following year and by working as an assistant in the physiology laboratory and other means I was able to continue. But on April 18, 1906 I was domiciled in the upper story of a little Stanford Inn. On the site of this inn at the present time is the Art Gallery and the Stanford Library but being a hasher in those days, waiting on tables, we, a number of us boys, lived in the top story of this inn. On this morning I was shaken from the upper bunk. I thought probably the boys were starting some sort of roughhouse. When I looked out the window and saw the great big Stanford Library, which had just been completed a few months before, I saw it fall with lime dust and brick and then I knew there was something more serious. I went out with the other boys and we went over to Roble Hall, which is on the north side of the campus. There we saw the big tower which had fallen and we saw the statue of Agassiz fall from the physiology building and embed his head in the concrete. Well, of course, there was considerable damage at Stanford but Dr. Jordan felt it would be repaired in a short time and classes would be resumed. But that did not happen. School was closed and some of us returned to our home and getting ready for the next year. But I remained on the campus for several days and at that time David Curry who had a furniture store in Palo Alto. He was the founder of Camp Curry in Yosemite. David Curry wanted some of us boys to accompany him to San Francisco by wagon to distribute food, bread, soup and other things to the refugees. In that way, with another student, Fred Lannigan, we went to San Francisco and after distributing our food we toured the city which was still burning. We went from Twenty-Sixth and Valencia, which was a railroad depot at that time, down Valencia into Market and then on down to the Ferry Building. We had to dodge bricks which were falling from the top of structures and go around great heaps of debris. At the Ferry Building we turned north toward the Market District. We were surrounded by soldiers who insisted that we get hold of a hose and fight the fire. We did this but having been left in charge of just one soldier he apparently had imbibed some of the whiskey that had been broken from the barrels in the warehouse district, fell asleep, and Fred and I beat a hasty retreat over toward Fort Mason. From there we saw these buildings, east of Van Ness, burning and the buildings being dynamited. We then walked out to Sacramento and Webster and there I saw the Cooper Medical College, to which place I was to receive my medical degree in 1912. There we talked on out to the Golden Gate Park and then over Twin Peaks and back to the Valencia Street Station and then on home by train which was removing some of the refugees.

CE: Tell me, Doctor, how old were you at this time? Around twenty, perhaps?

LS: Twenty, yes.

CE: I see. Well then when were you able to complete your education at Stanford and go on to Cooper Medical School?

LS: Well then I went back to Stanford the next year and by working as peanut butcher on the Del Monte Express and in those days there was very few automobiles and for Sunday the people of San Francisco would go by excursion train to Monterey and Santa Cruz and up into the Santa Cruz Mountains for their all-day holiday. So I was assigned to these trains and by that means was able to make enough on Sunday to keep through the rest of the week. Well I went through medical school and got out then in 1912.

CE: Where did you serve your internship again, sir?

LS: I was at Lane Hospital. Lane Hospital was the connected, of course, with Cooper Medical College. Cooper Medical College became Stanford in that year, 1912. But I felt that I was getting along in years with all this thing.

CE: Time to earn some money.

LS: Well I felt in love with the little secretary of Dr. Wicksler's and --

CE: So you had to have a job to get married?

LS: Well we didn't think about it. She had a job; she was a secretary.

CE: Well somebody had a job; that's good.

LS: So we were married a month before I graduated from medical school. So being an intern, we felt that was earning no money at all, only my board, so when this offer for a position came along to go to San Quentin at $75.00 a month to be an assistant; we jump at that.

CE: Is it correct to say, sir, that when you took this job it was considered an interim job until you opened your own practice?

LS: Yes. I felt it would be a good place perhaps to get some experience and I still had the idea in mind that I would like to become a country practitioner, not a city specialist and I felt that this would be a fine thing for us for a few years to get really established.

CE: Well evidently these long years of association with this penal institution affected you positively. It has resulted to my knowledge in five books is it? Certainly two that have been published covering the subject of penology. What have you published at this point? Men At Their Worst, is it, and My Most Unforgettable Convicts. Would you tell us a little bit of about how you came to write about this unique situation?

LS: Well, of course I expected to stay only a short time at San Quentin but my little wife developed tuberculosis and at San Quentin she had the best of care. We had our own home; we had a little convict, a little Chinese murderer, who was assigned to our place and he became Mrs. Stanley's nurse and he prepared our food. He took great care of her and he lived with us until 1926 when she was improved enough that we felt we could move to San Rafael. She and the little Chinaman made a model of the house which she wished to have built and in fact this was built at Fifth and D Street in San Rafael. It was a beautiful little stucco home with my office on one side. It was raised a number of years ago when the City of San Rafael condemned our property to build on it the city hall which now exists at that location.

CE: Tell me sir, how many years was your association with San Quentin?

LS: I came there in 1913 and retired in 1951. I was off one year doing industrial surgery in San Francisco in 1926. And then I was being a naval reservist. I was called into active duty.

CE: Yes that's what we want to get into next. We understand, and I don't know if it's true, it says that the day after Pearl Harbor you as a naval reservist were called to active duty as a medical officer and served for your years. Is that correct?

LS: Yes. that's correct.

CE: Will you tell us some of your experiences briefly? We're interested too, in -- I know you're written two books covering Men At Their Best, which is your four year experience in the war, and now here this, an anthology of sea stories. Can you tell us briefly your reaction as a doctor to serve board a naval hospital ship, and I understand it was named the Solace

LS: Yes. Well maybe I better tell you from -- As soon as war was declared I was assigned to the Naval Hospital in Mare Island. I served there about three months, and was assigned to the office of Naval Officer Procurement in San Francisco. In that office it was necessary for me to interview many of the applicants for office and then in September of 1942, very suddenly my orders came for me to assume the duty as Medical Officer on the heavy cruiser Minneapolis which was out in the Pacific. It seemed to be very urgent; they wanted me to go right away but I insisted I had to take care of a few things before I went but finally I was put on the torpedo destroyer Ford, which was an escort ship for a convoy going from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor. That took seven days. Then I had orders to remain there for further orders. Finally, to make a long story short, I was put on a transport and went way down to the New Hebrides at Espiritu Santo. There I found that the Minneapolis had been in battle and gone up to Pearl Harbor for repairs. So I was asked to go down to New Ireland and wait. That wait apparently seemed to be a long time and with a conflict in orders and so forth, finally the Minneapolis came back and got into another battle, had her bow shot off, and a torpedo in her hold, and she was beached at Tulargi. My orders then came and I had to go to Sydney and come back to San Francisco on the steamer President Monroe with a load of wounded for the United States. Then my orders were changed and I was assigned to the Naval Hospital at Pear Harbor. I remained there a whole year taking care of the casualties from the South Pacific. At the end of that year I was assigned to the hospital ship Solace and remained on her for a whole year. She traveled all over the Pacific, was foremost in the battles at Eniwetok, Saipan, Guam and other places.

CE: To your knowledge, sir, are there any hospital ships in commission today? Is there the Benevolence?

LS: I don't think it's the Benevolence. I think it's the Hope. Do you remember the Hope?

CE: Yes, I remember the Hope. There were the Sanctuary, the Relief. Their names were all so interesting, but you served aboard the Solace.

LS: In a battle, for instance the taking of Eniwetok, Eniwetok is a big lagoon, and the battleships went in first and strafed the island. First it was a beautiful island with coconut palms, beautiful place it was strafed, the transports went in and were unloading their troops with landing boats that went ashore and then the Solace was right in behind them waiting to receive the wounded which came from the shore. Outboard from that were some of the destroyers which were lobbying shells over into the island. Well that was a typical assault and that occurred of course at Saipan and Guam and other places before I was then ordered to duty at the Naval Hospital at Treasure Island. I was there almost a year before the war ended and was in charge of the so-called sick officers’ quarters.

CE: Was that connected with Oak Knoll or had Oak Knoll been enlarged to the extent it is today? Did you take just the out-patient care?

LS: Well Oak Knoll was then just being built.

CE: I see.

LS: So we took care of most of the wounded at that time.

CE: Yes. Before we leave the hospital ship experience, could you tell us what capacity such a floating hospital plant had? Did you have several operating rooms and how much of staff of doctors and corpsmen? Do you recall sir?

LS: Well the capacity, it was about six hundred. We could take care of six hundred wounded and our medical staff, that is doctors, surgeons, was at least twenty. I don't recall just the amount at the moment but we were a fully complete hospital. We could take care of anything that came along.

CE: No questions about supplies, you had plenty of medical supplies?

LS: Plenty of supplies, we were very well supplied. And right after a battle we loaded up to our full capacity of six hundred or more and then we would take them to the base hospital, sometimes as far south as the Russell Islands in the Solomons, probably back to Honolulu, to Pearl Harbor, some to other naval hospitals which had been established throughout the Pacific. But on the way we did a great deal of surgery in getting these men back into shape and sometime before we arrived at the base hospitals they were completely cured.

CE: Did this tour on Treasure Island conclude your naval experience?

LS: Yes, I didn't resign but I finished my tour.

CE: But evidently, since your return you have served as surgeon on many other Pacific liners including the Lurline, Matsonia, Wilson, Cleaveland, etc. So you must have found your Navy experience and sea life agreeable. Did you enjoy being at the sea sir?

LS: Yes, it was wonderful experience. See, in my retirement in San Quentin in ’51, I did a little private practice in San Rafael but the opportunity came for me to be relief surgeon on these trans-pacific liners and going to the Orient two or three times a year in that capacity was really quite enjoyable. Met many wonderful people and the experiences onboard were very interesting indeed. Because the ship surgeon, you might think it's an easy job but it's far from that because you have a passenger list of four or five hundred and a crew of three or four hundred and you’re on your own out there and you have to do everything. I deliver babies and taken care of coronaries, broken bones, cuts, everything that you would have to do in general hospital.
Tape 1, Side B

LS: After the passing of Mrs. Stanley I felt --

CE: When was that, sir?

LS: In 1926. I felt that I could get away and I got the position as Ship Surgeon on the Matson Liner Malolo which with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce made a three months cruise known as the All Pacific Cruise, starting at San Francisco going to Japan, up to China, Peking, down to Chang Hai, Hong Kong, Manila, Bangkok, Singapore, Java, all the way around Australia, New Zealand, Australia, Tahiti, Honolulu and back. Well that was a very interesting trip which had many wonderful experiences. Then to repeat that, a year or two later I signed on as Ship Surgeon on the Dollar Liner President Harrison and made the trip from San Francisco to the Orient, all the way around the world by way of the Suez Canal back home. I feel that that was perhaps my introduction to travel and then when my naval experience came along in ‘41 that added to it and then with the experience on the trans-pacific liners since my retirement has put me at the sea for, well, many, many months. I wouldn't want to say years because it hasn't been quite that much. Yes in fact, it has because four years in the Navy. So you see I'm really an old salt.

CE: You’re an old salt.

LS: And when I retired from the Navy --

CE: You were a true sailor on horseback Doris Schmiedell said. More then Jack London.

LS: I retired from the Navy with the rank of Captain, which wasn't too bad.

CE: That's good. Now where are we going to? What brings you up to "Crest Farm"? How did you get there? Dr. Stanley, tell us how did you happen to find "Crest Farm," this exquisite place up here in the highlands?

LS: Well I might tell you that being a bachelor for a long, long time I use to travel around the country a good deal with Warden Holohan inspecting prison camps and so forth and down in Santa Clara we stopped at a little pear orchard and there was a Mrs. Camel who had this pear orchard, and one thing went on to another and I felt she'd make a pretty good second wife for me. So we were married in ‘38 and while it was not long of course before I was away for four years in the war, but those two years were very happy and we lived in San Rafael. And you asked about "Crest Farm." Well, when I came back from the war in ‘46 after being out for almost four years, Mrs. Stanley had had a pretty hard time in San Rafael with sugar rationing, gas rationing, putting up with a lot of people who bothered in many ways in San Rafael. When I came back she said, "Suppose we see if we can find a little place in the country." And I said, "Well that would be very nice. You go look around. Probably you can find a little place in Novato or out in Point Reyes someplace like that." But she did come to Fairfax and here on the top of the hill eight hundred feet above sea level she found what was then called "Crest Farm" and still has that same name. Well, the people who lived here at that time wanted to get away and they made a very attractive offer. Well that offer took all of my funds which I had accumulated all of my life, and I felt that we had really gotten a hold of, a white elephant. However, waiting a few months we had an offer for almost double what we paid and then later on that tripled, we finally felt that if it's that good, it's good enough for us, so we're been here all these years. We love it very much; it's really a paradise. Have ten acres and we have our fruit trees, redwoods, gardens, about everything that one would want.

CE: Well it is a beautiful place. Do you ride on your own property or do you have to go other places? The reason I asked that is I understand that you are a member of several trail-riding groups and that you share this interest with Doris Schmiedell who is with us this afternoon and Miss Virginia Borland. Is that true, sir?

LS: Yes. Well, in San Miguel days and even in the days in Oregon, each of us four boys had a horse. And in San Miguel we rode all over that beautiful country with our horses and of course we had to use our horses in going to high school in Paso Robles. I saw very little of horses after leaving San Miguel but remembering my regard and love for horses I joined in 1934, I believe it was, the Ranchero Vistadores. That's that group of three or four hundred horsemen in Santa Barbara who go out every year for a week ride in the beautiful mountains east of Santa Barbara. I was a member of that for ten years. And then in 1941, while at Mare Island, some of us decided that we could establish our own riding group in northern California where we had better scenery, better places to go, so we established in 1941 the Sonoma County Trail Blazers. That organization is still in existence and every year makes trip into some of the mountainous country here in northern California, with five or six of the old stage coaches with four to six horses on them, and old ten-mule jerkline team, and of course all the riders. We have our camp equipment and spend a wonderful six days in the wild. Here in Marin County we have horsemen organizations and one particularly, the Tamalpais Trail Riders of which Doris Schmiedell is one of the originators. Well I'm a member of that. And in that organization we take trips over the weekend in the Marin Municipal Water Districts, a beautiful area of nineteen thousand acres. So it's a wonderful experience to be with these fine people.

CE: Well that's interesting, Doctor Stanley. You certainly look in marvelous physical condition; this riding evidently is the thing to do. Speaking of the Marin Municipal Water District property, which seems to surround you with all of its beauty, I understand you and Mr. Thomas Kent were members of the Board of Directors of the Marin Municipal Water District for some years. Could you tell us a little of the history of this water district, please? Mrs. Thomas Kent is here with us this afternoon also; perhaps she could, in between, fill in some things with you.

LS: Well the water district was established about 1912 if I remember correctly. There had been a number of local water companies in Marin County but it was felt it would be best to make them into one. And a bond issue was put out and the district formed and the first big project was Alpine Dam on the San Geronimo Creek.

CE: Interrupting you just a moment, when we were interviewing Judge Jordan Martinelli the other day, he was relating that he remember taking the old McPhail stage coach over the Alpine Road to the sea. And I said, “I thought the lake was there, you see, and the dam.” And he said, “Oh this was much before." Are we talking about the same area sir?

LS: Yes, yes. Well, before Alpine Dam was built the State Route went from Ross up the fish grade and down the stream and up over the Bolinas Ridge and down to Bolinas. Of course that is now all under water. The district still continues from that time on and since that there have been Bon Tempe built during the directorship of Tom Kent and myself. There has been the Kent Lake, which is one of the later reservoirs built and then Nicasio Lake, which is the last one. These lakes now furnish a good supply of water for all of Marin County. I'm sure Mrs. Kent can tell you some of the highlights of this district, for her husband Tom was really one of the greatest directors the district has ever had and he did more I think than any one for it. Mrs. Kent, would you tell us a little bit?

AK: I will try but I don't think I know too much about it. I think I told the girls coming up that I played second fiddle to this water district all my married life. And I really shouldn't care too much about it but I find that I am almost as deep in it as Tom was. I think I still don't know too much about it though and I can't remember when Mr. Peters was in it. Maybe you'd tell us that because I think he was the one who was really the first important engineer that we had. Don't you think?

LS: Well, the first engineer was a man named Baker and he outlined the district. Oddly enough, on one of my trips on the Lurline as surgeon there was a lady at my table and she said, "Do you know anything about the Marin Municipal Water District?" Well, I was the Director at that time. "Yes," I said, "I do." "Well" she said, "my husband was the first engineer" and she said, "I have a lot of papers and pictures and so forth." She said, "When we get back I'll send them to you". She did that and they are in the library of the water district now. As a matter of fact after I became one of the directors in ‘36 I wrote the history on Marin Municipal Water District and included much of her material. Well after Baker, then came Jim Peters. Jim Peters was a wonderful engineer, fine little Scotch boy as we say, but a wonderful, wonderful man to be with. Well Jim was with the district up until the time of his retirement at the age of 65 when it was taken over by Bill Seeger who likewise was General Manager until his resignation a couple of years ago.

AK: What year was that, that Jim Peters took over?

LS: Well that would be after Baker, that be -- I think Jim Peters took over after Baker and that of course would have to be, oh I would say 1920, something like that. About the time that the Alpine Dam was completed and when the Pine Mountain tunnel was drilled. The Pine Mountain tunnel brings water from the outlet of Alpine Dam through the ridge here and the pipeline is just here at the bottom of the hill, taking water over to Kentfield and to the filter plant above Ross.

CE: Dr. Stanley, I see you have some photographs there. What are these, sir?

LS: Well the sugar factory up at Carquinez. In the early days they used great supplies of fresh water. To get fresh water they had several barges. They took these barges up the Sacramento River, would sink them, fill them full of water, and haul them on down to the sugar factory and discharge them. Well they felt that it’d be better if they could get water from Marin County. So with the Marin Municipal Water District they helped build a pipeline from Lake Lagunitas down to San Quentin and there they built a wharf with concrete pilings, and this wharf extended out into the bay. At the end of the wharf they built a very large redwood tank. It was their purpose to bring water from Alpine Lake and Lagunitas Lake down and load it onto the barges at San Quentin and two the barges up to Crockett Crockett is where the sugar factory was. Well, the engineer in charge was named McBride, so they named this wharf McBride Wharf. The first time they filled it up with water the whole thing collapsed. This great big redwood collapsed and they never rebuilt it again. These pictures which I have show the barge loaded with water and being towed up to Crockett. But that was just one of the phases in the early history of the Marin Municipal Water District. That pipeline is still in existence and takes water down to San Quentin, which is one of the best customers of the Water District.

CE: Also Dr. Stanley is it true then, you have it in the history of the Marin County Water District and it is on file at their headquarters?

LS: Yes, that's true. After my retirement from San Quentin I had some time in my office. I had not very many patients, so I busied myself with getting up this history and I was appointed, or elected, as a matter of fact, director of the Water District in ‘46 while I was still at San Quentin.

CE: That is most interesting. Also, we understand you are the author of many papers in addition to the books you have written and I understand there is a special collection of your writings at the Marin County Library. Perhaps Virginia Borland would like to tell us about that. Virginia?

VB: Yes, we are delighted and most grateful to Dr. Stanley for this generosity and his thoughtfulness in giving us so many of his works and manuscripts and his papers and early documents of San Quentin. The manuscript of stories of his numerous travels and just such a marvelous collection that now we have the Leo L. Stanley Special Collection in the California Room in the Marin County Library at the Civic Center. And there will be a plaque in the California Room. In fact, the woodcarving has been done but the brass part of it has not been done. It will have Dr. Stanley's name on it and then will have other people's names, people who make significant contributions to the California Room. We understand that the papers -- I was trying to find out about the archives at San Quentin and I understand that the archives at San Quentin have gone to Vacaville. So we believe that the Marin County Library in the Frank Lloyd Wright Civic Center in our California Room we the best and most complete collection of papers on San Quentin right now thanks to Dr. Stanley.

CE: Well that is good.

LS: The cable cars -- the fellows who built them the Carter brothers.

VB: In the Western Railroader. Is that it?

LS: Yes, the Western Railroader; there's the Western Railroader.

VB: Oh, July 1974. You’re really right up to date.

LS: Yes, that's right. Here's the article.

CE: That you wrote?

LS: Yes, that's the inside part of it. Martin Carter was a classmate of mine at Stanford and he was also out in the war with me and his father and uncle had a machine shop in Sausalito.

CE: Dr. Stanley, we understand you're written a little paper on the cars in San Francisco. Would you care to tell us about it?

LS: Well I've written this little paper about railroad cars due to the fact that Dr. Martin Carter, a classmate of mine in medical school, has given me pictures and literature regarding the cable cars and some of the old railroad cars which were built by his father and his uncle, not in the east, not in St. Louis, but right here in Sausalito and in Newark, across the Bay. This little article appears in the Western Railroader of July 1974, so you see it is just up to date. It has a number of pictures of the cars which they built. We'll look at it for a moment.

CE: Yes, we’ll look at it for a moment. You're a man of many interests aren't you? Wonderful. That's what keeps you young.

VB: Now that were off, can you estimate how many words you have written?

LS: Oh no, I wouldn't know.

AK: Leo, I have heard that the cabooses were all built in Tiburon. Do you know?

LS: Not Tiburon, Sausalito.

AK: Oh Sausalito.

LS: Right where the distillery is now, or where the distillery was, there were big car shops there.

DS: You mean they tore down the car shops and put the distillery in its place?

LS: Well after the cars had gone, you know, yes.

DS: But that Distillery has been there as long as I can remember. That was the Mason Distillery wasn't it?

LS: Well that was after I think after the cars were taken away. You see the north Pacific and the Narrow Gauge had their shops there and Mason's came in after that I think.

AK: I wonder what that building is in Tiburon that I always thought they were building. It’s still --

LS: No, that's the old Round House. They did car repairing and work of that sort there, yes.

DS: That was the line up north, wasn't it?

LS: Well originally it went to Tiburon and then over by Strawberry Point and then through a tunnel and over here by the luggage factory and then up to Corte Madera and then on up to Cazadero and the Russian River, North Pacific Coast.

AK: I never rode on that train, never except to go from Kentfield to the city.

DS: Well that’s what I mean.

LS: Yeah, well that was before. I think that was before. Probably before your --

AK: I've always been sorry. I was still running when I came but you see by that time it was 1920 so it was getting pretty near the end but it still was running quite a long distance.

LS: Well it ran up to Point Reyes Station.

AK: But I love tracing it now. But now, many people can't imagine any train went through Kentfield and Ross.

LS: Oh, yeah.
(Tape 2, Side A)

CE: Tell me do you have works in progress right now, any books that you are writing sir?

LS: Well I have an article which I am working on and which I did a little work on this morning and that's called "Prison Authors." Now there's been a number of prison authors, among them, of course Oscar Wilde.

CE: That's true.

LS: The Prisoner of Shalome, count of Monte Cristo, but here in California we have had prison authors. The first one with whom I became acquainted in 1913 when I came to San Quentin was Ed Morrell. Ed Morrell was implicated in a lot of train robberies in the San Joaquin Valley where the farmers down there thought that the Southern Pacific Company was ousting them out of their properties and they made a campaign against the railroad, robbing their trains, wrecking them, and the two principal ones implicated Sontag and Evans. And Sontag and Evans were put in jail and Ed Morrell was instrumental in helping Evans escape. They went up into the Sierras and they hid out for many, many weeks. But Ed Morrell was -- His story is long, it’s going to take a long time to -- The next one was Donald Lawry. Donal Lawry wrote My Life In Prison. He was a prisoner at San Quentin and his book just came out when I came there. He of course decried everything about the prison. It was all wrong; he was always right but it was an interesting story. Then after Donald Lawry came Dave Lamson who wrote, We Who Are About to Die. Dave was convicted of killing his wife in Palo Alto. Then there was Jan Valtreen who wrote Out of the Night. Then there was a man named Sams who wrote another book. So there are a number of prisoners who have written books about San Quentin.
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(Tape 3, Side A)

CE: Dr. Leo Stanley has been telling us of his early days in Marin County and he is going to continue now with some early reminiscences. Good afternoon, Doctor.

LS: Good afternoon. Well it might be interesting for you to know something about Mrs. Julia Babcock. Mrs. Babcock, as you know, gave a great deal of her money to the Marin General Hospital and she has the Babcock Foundation, which still helps many needy Marin County people. The first time I met Mrs. Babcock was when she and he husband and Louise Boyd were touring in Kentfield. That was one of the first automobiles in the county and Mrs. Babcock and her husband and Louise were with her and they had their four or five dachshunds. Mrs. Babcock loved her little “dachies.” Well I use to be invited to Mrs. Babcock's on a number of occasions and one night at a dinner party there Maude Faye Symington came up to me and said, "Doctor, I want a dollar." “Well all right I'll give you a dollar. What do you want the dollar for?” "Well she said" I'm starting the Marin County Symphony and you’re to be the first subscriber." Well, I subscribed. Marin County Symphony is now -- has its yearly concerts, three concerts in Marin County. There were help for a number of times in the Dominican Forest and now I believe they are held out at the War Memorial. But Mrs. Symington, her original name was Maude Faye, she was quite an opera singer. She went to Europe, came back and she married Captain Symington of the United States Navy. Captain was quite a character, he liked to promenade around in Maude's shadow, smoking his big cigar and apparently enjoying himself. But the Symingtons were well known in Marin County. Mrs. Babcock was on of the founders of the Country Club which is now part of the Loch Lomond development. At the Country Club is a big oak tree which is named the Babcock Tree because one time when Mrs. Babcock was out there she had a red dress on. A bull seeing her with this red dress gave chase to her and she climbed the oak tree, so it's called the Babcock Tree.

CE: Interrupting you for a moment, Dr. Stanley, Doris Schmiedell has something she wants to add to your story. Doris?

DS: I wanted to clarify the story about Mrs. Babcock and the Babcock Foundation. She left in her will a large sum of money to take care of the people who were in between the welfare and the wealthy residents of Marin and Babcock Foundation is still in existence. And it is this foundation that donated the money to Marin General Hospital for the Babcock wing and for other additions.

CE: Thank you Doris. Now do you think that's the story, Doctor?

LS: That's fine.

CE: Okay, would you like to continue?

LS: I think I got Mrs. Babcock interested in doing this thing because she was very much interested in old Doctor Howitt and Crawford Greene and some of us were going to establish a --

CE: Tell me, Doctor, who was the first president of the Foundation?

LS: Well I believe A. Crawford Greene was the first president, but I believe that Mrs. Babcock was very much interested in the establishment of a hospital here in Marin County and we really had a board of directors. Mrs. Babcock, I believe, was the president, A. Crawford Greene was the secretary, Dr. Howitt was one of the directors, Dr. C. B. Marston, and there was an architect, Mr. Poparatto. We really made plans for a hospital and even purchased ten acres which is on the Miracle Mile just west of the telephone building. However, the plans fell through but that kept Mrs. Babcock interested in hospitals and it was for this purpose and the helping of the people of Marin County that she left her fortune.

CE: Tell me, Dr. Stanley, I have been particularly interested in the early water traffic of Marin County and the Corte Madera Creek and those environments and I've particularly intrigued with a place called Escalle. I remember my father telling me about it and I’m not -- Up to this point we have had no information from some of the twenty odd settlers we have interviewed. What was Escalle sir?

LS: When I came to Marin County in 1913 the Escalle Winery was a flourishing institution. The old brick building is still there. I could look out from my house on the hill at San Quentin and look over and see this beautiful Escalle vineyard. There were many people who visited the Escalle Winery in those days, some of our guards from San Quentin would scowl up the Corte Madera Creek to Escalle, get a jug of wine, and float back down to San Quentin. But also in those days they had excursion trains from San Francisco over to Escalle Winery where they had wonderful celebrations. I knew Jean Escalle fairly well; he was a member of the Elk's Club attended frequent meetings there. Jean had a round face and big paunchy belly. Whenever he was very much pleased there was no expression to his face but his belly would wobble up and down in a chuckle. Escalle's Vineyard was later on infected by the grape disease Phylloxera and it was destroyed. The old winery remained in disuse for many years but was finally purchased by a man named Tiscornia. Tiscornia was a peculiar character in that he bought up many run down areas, held them for a good price, and sold them for a good profit. He was the one who had the many buildings along Kearney Street which are now such fabulous institutions, banks, American President Line and so forth. Well, Tiscornia bought the Escalle property and held it and it was in his estate. At the present time it is occupied by Mrs. Paul Vincilionie. Paul married Mr. Tiscornia's secretary to whom, I understand, he left considerable of his wealth. They live there now, have their horses, have improved the property to great extent.

CE: That’s most interesting. You are the first person who has given us any insight and background on that property. Tell us, Dr. Stanley, living in Fairfax as you do, do you know anything about the original Lord Fairfax property or who might own it now, sir?

LS: Well Lord Fairfax was an early settler, of course in Fairfax. He got a large piece of property. That passed through various hands but finally came into the hands of the Pastori's. Madame Pastori was an opera singer in Italy, having been with La Escalla. She and her husband came to Marin County where they took the Fairfax property and established a restaurant there. I first saw Mrs. Pastori about 1915 at the restaurant where the Marin County Medical Society had one of its monthly meetings. Mrs. Pastori was very cordial and sympathetic and a very ,very wonderful woman. She had four children. Ione became an opera singer, too. Enrico left the restaurant business and was Chief Steward on the round the world trips for the American President Line. Last time I saw Enrico was in New Ireland in 1942 when I was assigned to be a surgeon on the steamship Monroe bringing casuals back from the Solomon Islands. As I ascended the jacob’s ladder here at the top of the ladder was Enrico Pastori. He and I had many fond remembrances to relate on our trip across the Pacific and back to San Francisco where we arrived on New Year’s Day, 1943.

CE: Well you've certainly been generous. Dr. Stanley I want to thank you so much for your engrossing stories today and for giving us your valuable time. It has been a pleasure to interview you and to share your beautiful Crest Farm. I also want to thank Mrs. Thomas Kent, president of the Moya Library Guild, Mrs. Mary Howe, Librarian of the Moya Library, Virginia Borland, Head, Marin County Library Civic Center, Doris Schmiedell of Ross, old friend of Dr. and Mrs. Stanley and Regina Jimenez for joining with us today sharing the Doctor’s marvelous recollections. Thank you all so much.