Historical Articles of Solano County

Sunday, January 21, 1979

People You Once Saw Around Vacaville

John Rico

EPITAPHS FOR THE LIVING - This may sound as a crude statement; but I find more comfort in writing or hearing about epitaphs for the living, rather than the cold inscriptions chiseled into a chunk of stone.

Throughout the years, Vacaville has produced many citizens who have made their mark in the community, and either in my writings or in historical periodicals most of these residents have received some recognition, be they dead or alive.

In the next few paragraphs I would like to briefly list a few of the living men and women who were prominent along Vacaville’s business rows - men and women who either are native-born or residents who came here, worked, and then “threw in the towel” because of advancing years.

Nowhere is there any listing of Vacaville residents, be they barbers, bakers, farmers, or professional men. It would take a meeting of several minds to compile such a list, and even then it would be grossly incomplete. In listing some of the men and women who are still residing here, I would want their names to be “ambassadors” for others in similar vocations, .occupation, or call it what you will.

Ever since the year 1892, when Vacaville was incorporated as a town, there have been hundreds of men and women who have served the community as town trustees, later being classified as council members; there have been additional hundreds serving on planning commissions, recreational commissions, school and library boards, and many other civic organizations for which there was no remuneration attached.

It is unfortunate that in our present atmosphere many people now serving in similar capacities are constant targets for criticism, ridicule and at times unnecessary embarrassment. But that’s the present-day mood of the people.

There are nine living mayors out of the list of 22 who have held that position since 1892. It is a credit to the community that eight of these people have continued to make Vacaville their home. The living list includes Rudy Werner, C. M. Hartley, Al Porter, Roy Cobble, Noland Bagley, Ted Chancellor, Roy Brown, Barbara Jones and William Carroll, who is both an ex-mayor and the city’s present mayor. Out of this list, Brown is the only person who has moved away.

Let’s go back and mention a few individuals who you frequently saw up and down Vacaville’s main thoroughfares. There are Elmer Burton and Russell Beelard, who operated a service station as partners, with their place of business being the town’s gathering station, where “bull” sessions were the order of the day.

Then there was Howard Burton and his gasoline delivery truck; and Art Dietz, the electrician. There were service station operators Clyde Weldon, Delbert Mowers, John Moriel and Frank Douglass. Prominent then as now” is furniture-man LLoyd Chandler and barber Sal Bloise. In advancing years but still among us is barber Frank Deakin; as well as mechanic Al Klotz; printer Jimmy Rico; druggist Lloyd Bryant; and longtime clerk Harry Strauman.

Those two “milk maids,” Walter Brehme and Rudy Werner, who operated a prominent creamery here for many long years, still call Vacaville “home.”

Then there’s such men as Lew Neil, ex-PG&E mgr., and Wally Seidell, ex-PT&T mgr: and Warren Hughes, ex-SP employee and retired Vacaville fire chief; George Weisker, ex-B of A mgr., and old-time grocerymen Frank Lorenzo and Mike Gonzalez, Sr.

There’s Dick Coffer, ex-councilman, concrete plant owner and a present city planner; and Bert Hassing, former newspaperman, councilman, business man and present real estate salesman.

No list would be complete without mentioning restauranteur Bill Jepson; bar owner Al Lopez; tavern owner Tom Holzer; newsstand operator rind Greyhound agent John Doherty. And there’s Dr. Verne Morrill, who does not pull or clean teeth any more. And we should mention AL Porter, law student, mushroom grower, Basic Vegetable Products executive and bank president, who occupies a retired status. He is listed among Vacaville’s mayors, having held that position for eight years.

Long-time postoffice employee Freedom Penaluna fits comfortably into this listing, as does retired hair dresser Cecelia Clark, and realtor, Lucille Spengler, joins our list.”

The name of Ed Uhl pops into print regularly, as it has for more than half a century. If you ask him for an avocation or profession from which he retired, he would have a hard time selecting one. He has been a rancher; installed the first prune dehydrator in this area; had a car and truck agency here, operated.a hay baling enterprise extending into two states, prepared and packed dried fruit packages, championed the use of liquefied gas in cars and trucks, distributed alfalfa pellets along with baled hay, but he is perhaps best known for the “leg work” he did in helping to secure the Monticello Dam project.

Let’s pick retired teachers Eleanor Nelson, Marie Cox, Lena Yolo and Mary Price as our representatives to pay tribute to all of the other men and women who pursued that profession here, retired, and chose to make Vacaville their continuing place of residence.

Vacaville’s nearly 40,000 residents today perhaps may not have heard of too many of the men and women I have mentioned here, but this small tribute is deserving. Unfortunately, nowhere is there a list from which to choose, so memory needs to be called upon to compile just a small number of those men and women who were a part of our past, are a part of our present, and continue to be a part of our future.

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