Moraga Historical Society Newsletter

The Moraga Historical Society originally published the El Rancho Moraga Quarterly as a “landscape” printed booklet mailed to members of the MHS. In 2020 the MHS switched to a “portrait” newsletter format published as a pdf available here online and as a print version mailed to MHS members. If you would like to receive a print version of our Newsletter by mail, please Become a Member of the Moraga Historical Society. If you follow us on Twitter you will receive notification when the latest newsletter is available online as a pdf. Click on the date – ie Q1 2020 – to open in your Acrobat Reader. The newsletter and older quarterlies contain a wealth of historical facts about both the “distant” past and information about the more “recent” activities of the MHS. The digital versions of the quarterlies are lost but we are in the process of scanning the print versions and posting them here in a pdf format. The older quarterlies often include lengthy articles which we are extracting and posting as individual web pages (see MHS Newsletter Excerpt Index). In 2024 we added a What’s New update for those months when we do not publish a quarterly newsletter.


2026 Third Quarter This Issue: Volunteers are the Core of the Town of Moraga Spirit – Part III: The third quarter of our 2026 newsletter series on Moraga’s History of Volunteerism focuses on organizations devoted to “Supporting Moraga”. Susan Sperry surveys the origins of the Moraga Women’s Society, Moraga Junior Women’s Club, the Orinda-Moraga-Lafayette Branch of the American Association of University Women, our Parent Teacher Associations, National Charity League, Boys Team Charity, Rotary Club of Moraga, Kiwanis of Moraga Valley Club, Moraga Lions Club and the Moraga Asian-American Club. Vera Kochan reviews our May 3 speaker event featuring Gerald Henig who presented “America’s Presidents: What Your History Teacher Never Told You”. The California Nugget has published a new scholarly article by research director Susan Skilton about the mystery of Eliza Berry and her headstone found in Valle Vista. And we have an obituary for Carole Lucas, a long time MHS board member who held many positions.
2026 Second Quarter This Issue: Volunteers are the Core of the Town of Moraga Spirit: The second quarter of our 2026 newsletter series on Moraga’s History of Volunteerism focuses on organizations devoted to “Making Moraga Better”. Susan Sperry surveys the origins of Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the Moraga Garden Club, Rescue 1 Foundation, Friends of the Moraga Library, the Moraga Community Foundation, the Moraga Education Foundation, the Moraga Park Foundation and its predecessor the Moraga Park and Recreation Foundation, our own Moraga Historical Society, the Moraga Citizens Network, Art in Public Spaces, and Moraga iKind. Keep an eye on our web site’s Volunteer Organizations section as we gather up a more detailed history of these organizations. Vera Kochan reviews our February 22 speaker event featuring Leslie Crenna who presented a history of the temperance movement and what Prohibition was like in Moraga. Vera also describes the Moraga Adobe Tour to which the MHS team was treated on a very rainy February 17. We provide a sneak preview of the Lafayette-Moraga History Trail to whose development MHS contributed and which will be unveiled this summer. And we have an obituary for Al Dessayer who among many notable contributions to Moraga also served as MHS president in 2006.
2026 First Quarter This Issue: Moraga’s History of Volunteerism: This year’s quarterly newsletters will explore Moraga’s history of volunteerism with the first issue focusing on Volunteer Organizations that Shaped Moraga’s Destiny by Susan Sperry. She describes the roles played by the Moraga Community Association, the Citizens to Incorporate Moraga, and the Moraga Services League. Vera Kochan reviews our MHS 60th Anniversary Celebration on October 12, 2025 as well as our November 9 event featuring Mark Harrigan’s latest videos.
2025 Fourth Quarter This Issue: The Journey of the Moraga Historical Society: We celebrate out 60th founding anniversary on October 12, 2025 by devoting this issue to a brief history of the Moraga Historical Society. Susan Sperry describes the recollections of Sonia Levitin, who along with fellow founder husband Lloyd are the only surviving founders, of how it all got started in 1965. We discuss the early cramped archives at SMC and the creation of the History Center annex to the Moraga Library in 1999, the production of Moraga’s Pride in 1987 under Sandy Kimball, acknowledge archivists who have been given awards by the Conference of California Historical Societies, the tradition of banquets, potlucks, romerias and speaker events, and the history of our newsletters under various editors. Vera Kochan reviews the August 17 Speaker Event, “Rebels at the Gate”, presented by Donald Bastin who described how the Bay Area prepared to defend itself against possible attack by the Confederates. Includes an obituary of Dick Vaughn who along with his wife Ellie were longstanding active members of MHS.
2025 Third Quarter This Issue: A Jewel of Moraga, Saint Mary’s College: Susan Sperry describes the history of St. Mary’s College from its 19th century origin in San Francisco to its pivotal relocation to Moraga in 1927, Slip Madigan’s transformation of the football team into a national force, the 1941-46 period when SMC served as the Navy’s Pre-Flight Training School, and the shift under Brother Mel Anderson from an all-male college to today’s co-ed college. We also introduce a transcript web page featuring Brother Mel’s 2011 History of SMC talk with Ellens Beans. Vera Kochan, in “Headstone outside of Moraga’s History Center reunited with its owner“, writes the final chapter in the sad story of Eliza J. Berry.
What’s New May-June 2025 What’s New Update: Reviews of the Third Grade History Tour, the May 10, 2025 Special Event sponsored by MHS and the California Genealogical Society featuring Susan Skilton presenting on Lamorinda History and Genealogy: Resources and Strategies for Research, and the May 18, 2025 MHS Speaker Event featuring Sam Sperry on Moraga Train History.
2025 Second Quarter This issue: History of the Moraga School District: MHS President Susan Sperry describes the history of the Moraga School District from the 1857 creation of the first Willow Spring School, through the second Willow Spring School in 1917 at Moraga’s old town site which survives as a church, and the arrival of Charlie Toll in 1955 who modernized the school district. Vera Kochan provides an overview of the first 2025 MHS Speaker Event, The Road to Incorporation and Beyond, held on February 23, 2025 which featured former mayor Barry Gross and Susan Sperry in an interactive Q&A about the issues that led to incorporation in 1974. Also an obituary for Clark Edwin Wallace who played a big role in local real estate development. Susan Sperry reminds everybody about upcoming events, including the second MHS Speaker Event featuring Sam Sperry on Moraga’s train history on May 18 at the Casita, and a California Genealogical Society sponsored event on May 10 at the Moraga Library featuring Susan Skilton on the topic “Unlock the Past in Lamorinda: Strategies for History and Genealogy Research, with representatives from our local historical societies discussing our resources.
What’s New February 2025 What’s New Update: Reminder of the upcoming Feb 23, 2025 Speaker Event, unexpected furnace repair bill, and a new way to navigate our web site’s resources section.
2025 First Quarter This issue: The Fight for Open Space: MHS President Susan Sperry describes the effort which began during the 1960s to preserve Moraga’s hillsides and ridgelines as open spaces, which accelerated after Moraga became a town in 1974, leading to MOSO (Moraga Open Space Ordinance). John Kaiser and Susan Skilton follow with a brief article about the wide range of trails available in Moraga which continue to grow as more land is acquired by entities such as the John Muir Land Trust. MHS board member Vera Kochan provides a detailed description of everything that went into the preparation and execution of the Moraga Time Capsule Ceremony which took place on November 12, 2024 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Moraga’s incorporation. This issue provides information about the upcoming Speaker Event on February 23, 2025 featuring former mayors Sue (McNulty) Rainey and Barry Gross who will discuss and field questions about the drive to incorporation, the Highway 77 controversy, the formation of Lamorinda’s boundaries, the open space movement and the “Martinez Mentality” plus more. Digital Assets Coordinator John Kaiser describes our digitization plans for 2025 and President Susan Sperry reminds everybody it is time to renew their MHS membership.
What’s New December 2024 What’s New Update: Year end wrap up of what we accomplished during 2024: Speaker Events, Voices of the Past, Time Capsule Ceremony, archive digitization and membership growth. See Online Version.
2024 Fourth Quarter This issue: The Town of Moraga Incorporates – “What do we do now?”: MHS board member Vera Kochan describes the hectic final stretch for the Moraga incorporation vote on November 5, 1974 with quotes from Sue (McNulty) Rainey and Barry Gross, surviving members of the first Moraga Town Council who also served as mayors, which included settling the final boundaries. After the official incorporation on November 12, 1974 the new town council scrambled into its role guiding the destiny of Moraga whose 50th anniversary we celebrate this year. Retiring MHS board member Ron Louis and treasurer Bob Sornsen are celebrated for the roles they played over many years serving MHS as a volunteer organization preserving Moraga’s history and making it available to the community. We include a visual timeline of Moraga in the 20th century until incorporation. Vera Kocahn reviews our August 11 event featuring Mark Harrigan presenting 6 videos he created about Valle Vista, the Moraga Adobe, the Moraga Barn, the Orinda train line, the Roundup Saloon and the Rheem Valley Bowling Center. Plus a thumbs up celebrating the Friends of the Moraga Adobe and the successful acquisition of this historical landmark. President Susan Sperry urges everybody to visit our booth at the Pear Festival on September 28.
2024 Third Quarter This issue: The Road to Incorporation: MHS board member Vera Kochan describes the challenges faced by the residents of unincorporated Moraga as they pushed to certify Moraga as a town in charge of its own destiny. She interviews Sue (McNulty) Rainey and Barry Gross, surviving members of the first Moraga Town Council who also served as mayors, about what it took to secure approval from the residents. Susan Sperry describes the founding of the Moraga Historical Society in 1965 led by Brother Dennis Goodman, the librarian of St. Mary’s College. John Kaiser describes the progress made with the digitization strategy which is now ready for full scale scanning of MHS archives. Susan Skilton provides a newspaper clipping from a hundred years ago when the Prohibition Squad raided Valle Vista and was stunned by the top notch quality of the still they found. This issue also includes a flyer for our second 2024 Speaker Event on August 11, 2024 featuring video blogger Mark Harrigan with a Lamorinda Nostalgia Trip.
2024 Second Quarter This issue: The Struggle for Cityhood: Susan and Sam Sperry have adapted an article written shortly after the Town of Moraga’s incorporation in 1974 by Sandy Kimball, lead author of the 1987 and 2002 editions of Moraga’s Pride, which describes the drama during the years just before incorporation. It was intended for a San Francisco magazine but never submitted and published. We have included key aerial photos from 1953, 1960 and 1970 which show the progression of Moraga’s development from an agribusiness run by James Irvine’s Moraga Company when it was sold to Utah Construction in 1953 until the seventies when Moraga’s residents began to organize to secure control of their neighborhood whose development decisions emanated from Martinez as head of Contra Costa County. Perhaps fittingly the article is followed by a message from the Town of Moraga urging Moraga residents to get involved with the state mandated updating of the town’s General Plan for the next 20 years. This issue includes an obituary for Rosemary Coburn who had a long involvement with the Moraga Historical Society. Plus the 2011 interview by Ellen Beans featuring Saint Mary’s College: Beginning & Milestones as told by Brother Mel Anderson is now available on YouTube and presented in our web site’s Voices of the Past.
2024 First Quarter This issue: Early Development in Moraga from 1914-1964: Although James Irvine’s 2013 Old Moraga Townsite plan failed in the face of the Depression, prompting him to turn Moraga Valley into an agribusiness, he continued efforts to subdivide the Moraga Company’s holdings into residential lots while Donald Rheem began developing the northern half of Moraga around the Rheem Center. After Irvine’s death in 1947 the Moraga Company was sold to Utah Construction in 1953 which initiated a plan to create roads and utilities to support residential subdivisions built by independent contractors according to template designs until Utah sold out to Russell Bruzzone in 1964. The California Highway Commission proposed Highway 77 in 1953 to connect Oakland via a Shepherd Canyon tunnel to Highway 24 with a freeway that would pass through Moraga and Lafayette, supporting a vision of 50,000 future residents. Controversy erupted when of the 4 proposed routes, which included driving the freeway through Redwood Canyon or Indian Valley, CHC chose a route that instead sliced through the Moraga Valley in the name of “cost”. Utah and residents of Orinda and Moraga fought the Red Route, delaying its adoption through endless studies until the entire issue of Highway 77 died when BART began service in 1972 and relieved the commuter congestion problem. Contra Costa County’s support of the freeway which would have pulled more commercial and consumer traffic from Oakland and San Francisco and radically altered Moraga from what it is like today helped spur the drive for the incorporation of Moraga in 1974. The MHS YouTube channel now has the 2005 From Town to Ranch video as well as the 10th and 25th Moraga anniversary videos online. This issue also includes a flyer for our first 2024 Speaker Event on March 3, 2024 by Sam Sperry on Moragas’s Train History. MHS welcomes Chris McGuffin as its new treasurer.
2023 Fourth Quarter This issue: Crop Farming in the Moraga Valley: Moraga celebrates its 50th anniversary as a town in 2024 but it could almost have been the hundredth if the Moraga Company’s plan to develop what we now call the Old Moraga Town Site had not fizzled by 1923, prompting James Irvine to turn the large land position Horace Carpentier had acquired in the prior century from the Rancho de los Palos Colorados land grant into an agribusiness focused on crop farming while ranching shifted to the hillsides. Susan Sperry with Irvine Brings Pears to Moraga describes what life was like during this period whose end accelerated in 1953 when Utah Mining & Construction bought out Irvine’s estate and put Moraga firmly on the path to becoming a residential community. This farming history is celebrated through Moraga’s annual Pear and Wine Festival which takes place on September 30. The quarterly includes a former pear festival recipe winner, Moraga Pear Salsa, created by Tom and Bobbi Preston. It also includes a flyer for our second Speaker Event this year on November 5, 2023 featuring Dan Hanel, author of a historical mystery series, In the Shadow of Diablo, which sets fiction in historical locations around Mt. Diablo.
2023 Third Quarter This issue: Ranching in the Moraga Valley: Moraga started out as a “rancho” in 1835 when Joaquin Moraga and Juan Bernal were granted the 13,316 acre Rancho de los Palos Colorados which covered all of Moraga and parts of Orinda and Lafayette. Over time the land grant was subdivided into smaller parcels that were either sold or lost to foreclosure such that by the 1900’s no descendants of Moraga or Bernal owned any land. Yet ranching continued in Moraga Valley alongside farming and still does today though commercial farming has vanished. Susan Sperry, who grew up on her father’s ranch and still runs a small herd of black Angus “grass managers”, provides an overview of Moraga’s ranching history in this issue. We also congratulate Daniel Berkes who made Eagle Scout on the basis of the St. Mary’s College Walking Tour which our web site hosts. We have a big event coming up at the Hacienda on August 20 featuring James Benney who will present about Indigenous sites in the East Bay Hills. Seating is limited so reserve early. And we are still looking for a treasurer to become part of the MHS board!
2023 Second Quarter This issue: Trains Through Moraga: anybody who arrived in Moraga since its incorporation as a town in 1974 can be forgiven for being ignorant that between 1913-1957 an electric railway passed through Moraga from Oakland on its way to Chico. Apart from a couple commemorative plaques there is little evidence of a past that some might say presaged the energy transition future. In this issue Sam Sperry provides an overview of Moraga’s train history which, ironically, came to an end when Moraga transitioned from an agricultural backwater to a vibrant bedroom commuter community. This issue also acknowledges the passing of Bill Lund, former editor of the MHS Newsletter, and Kathy Zuber, a long time Moraga teacher who also participated in the MHS Third Grade Tour which we are happy to report resumed this year after a 3 year covid hiatus.
2023 First Quarter This issue: The Forgotten Redwoods of Moraga: most discussions about the history of Moraga begin with the Mexican land grant to Joachim Moraga called “Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados” and describe how ranching and farming evolved into today’s bedroom community for the Bay Area. Google translates “Palos Colorados” as “colored sticks”, reminding us that the southern third of the land grant consisted of old growth redwood forest which today exists as second growth forest in the Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park and the adjacent community of Canyon. This issue touches on the redwood history of the Moraga land grant and the fact that redwoods are rather picky about where they naturally grow. It also includes a tribute to Al Baitx, the first official Moraga fire chief. And it includes a plea to support the MHS by renewing or becoming a member.
2022 Fourth Quarter This issue: St. Mary’s College Walking Tour: Daniel Berkes’ Eagle Scout Project – MHS webmaster John Kaiser describes the challenges Daniel Berkes overcame to create a Walking Tour that celebrates St. Mary’s College as an integral part of Moraga’s history; Susan Skilton reports on a Luncheon held on September 21, 2022 by the Contra Costa Historical Society on behalf of all the historical societies within Contra Costa County such as MHS to discuss the challenges of operating as a historical society and attracting community support; Notice of an upcoming event on November 6, 2022 at 2 pm at the Orinda Community Center sponsored by the Orinda, Lafayette and Moraga historical societies on “Building the Caldecott Tunnel” and introducing the new “Images of America: Orinda” book by Allison Burns; President’s Message announcing winners of the July Fourth and Pear Festival raffles and encouraging Lamorinda community members to participate in the November 6 Event.
2022 Third Quarter This issue: The First and Last of the Land Barons – Sam and Susan Sperry describe the history of Horace Carpentier who spent decades consolidating the increasingly fragmented former Moraga land grant which he sold to railway speculators, and after they defaulted, resold it to another party which quickly flipped the land to James Irvine’s Moraga Company. Irvine’s 1913 plan to develop Moraga as a town foundered during the 1920s so he turned Moraga into an agribusiness whose most famous crops were pears and walnuts. After his death in 1947 the Moraga land was sold in 1953 to Utah Construction which brought in utilities to support the development of Orinda and Moraga as a bedroom community. Most of the buildings from the Old Moraga Town Site still stand; John Kaiser and Susan Skilton have created an Old Moraga Town Site Walking Tour. This issue also describes our first post-covid upcoming Speaker Series Event held on May 12, 2022 – Carol Jensen on Maritime Contra Costa County.
2022 Second Quarter This issue: The New MHS Website John Kaiser, MHS webmaster and digital assets coordinator, describes the new MHS web site developed in 2019 and our goal of turning it into an online reference to everything available at the MHS History Center, and the plan to preserve our documents and photographs by digitizing them and making them available online; Obituaries for Rose Lee Tom, an active MHS member, and Dan Rego, an active member of the Moraga community; 2022 MHS members welcome; Upcoming Speaker Event May 12, 2022 – Carol Jensen on Maritime Contra Costa County; History Article: Life in the Moraga Valley from 1849-1870 by Susan Sperry.
2022 First Quarter This issue: Eliza J. Berry Headstone in Moraga – Susan Skilton, Research Director of the Moraga Historical Society, explores the mystery of a headstone rescued from the Valle Vista area before it was flooded to create San Leandro Reservoir. Who Elisa J. Berry was and where the headstone came from has been solved, but still unsolved are the mysteries of who are her ancestors and how the headstone ended up in Valle Vista. Dick Olsen’s retirement from the MHS board. Susan Sperry writes about John Courter’s Moraga Valley Store built in 1854 as well as the Early Moraga family history in Alta California.
Summer 2021 This issue: Moraga Historical Society meets $100,000 Pledge to the Friends of the Joaquin Moraga Adobe; On the Street Where You Live – Research Director Susan Skilton describes the historical origins of many Moraga street names; Obituaries of 4 long time MHS contributors – Larry Swindell who edited the El Rancho Quarterly Newsletter, Brother Mel Anderson of St Mary’s College who served as MHS board member, Margaret DePriester, former Moraga mayor and MHS president who was involved with Moraga’s incorporation, and Les Krames, graphics designer whose art is omnipresent in MHS work like the Moraga’s Pride book and was a contributor to the El Rancho Quarterly Newsletter; Indigenous Life in Moraga – a description of the Saclan people.
Spring 2020 This issue: Donald Laird Rheem – “Father of Moraga” – Susan Sperry writes a brief biography of Donald Rheem who in 1949 began to develop the Rheem corner of Moraga, breaking the lock James Irvine’s Moraga Company had on Moraga; acknowledgement of the passing of Mary Ostrander, Edy Schwartz and Lois Nelson, President’s Message, MHS Fundraiser for the Adobe – May 21, 2020.
El Rancho Moraga Quarterlies from 2018 and earlier
Note: The El Rancho Moraga Quarterlies from 2018 and earlier were printed as booklets which have been scanned and converted to a pdf. To read them online, after opening with Adobe Reader, select View, Rotate View and Counterclockwise.
Q1 2018 This issue: Winter & Spring 2018
Q1 2017 This issue: Winter & Spring 2017
Q4 2016 This issue: Winter 2016
Q2 2016 This issue: Spring-Autumn 2016
Q1 2016 This issue: Spring 2016
Q3 2015 This issue: Summer 2015
Q3 2014 This issue: Autumn 2014
Q2 2014 This issue: Spring-Summer 2014
Q1 2014 This issue: Winter-Spring 2014
Q3 2013 This issue: Autumn 2013
Q3 2012 This issue: Autumn 2012