Santa Cruz Sentinel Announcement
July 30, 2004
Soquel Pioneers celebrates community founder
By RAMONA TURNER
Sentinel staff writer
SOQUEL - John Hames was a pivotal person in the formation of Soquel as a booming industrial community.
Chances are many people haven’t heard of him.
Come Saturday, Tom McCubbin, Hames’s grandnephew, hopes to introduce his pioneering relative to the Soquel Pioneers and Historical Association at its 66th annual picnic — one of the community’s last long-standing social traditions.
"I never realized this before, but Soquel is the center for a lot of early California history," said McCubbin, who has lived in Soquel for 30 years and learned about his ancestry a couple years ago.
"There were people settling in Soquel who were among the first 500 Americans west of the Mississippi. Their influence helped shape America and California."
In the 1840s, Hames worked with John Daubenbiss to build a saw mill on Soquel Creek in the middle of town near where Soquel Elementary School is now, said Caroline Swift of the Capitola Historical Museum. This sawmill was the first of many to sprout up in Soquel.
"Both (Hames and Daubenbiss) donated land to get the town started. Both built schools in Soquel. So they became the town’s founders," said Swift. "In the 1870s, the Gold Rush came and California became a state. When the rush was over, Hames and Daubenbiss came back and helped the development of the town.
"One of Hames’s daughters came back to speak at early Soquel Pioneer picnics in the 1930s," Swift said. "So (McCubbin) is carrying on the tradition."
McCubbin said he plans to spend about 20 minutes talking about his granduncle, as well as the Oregon connection to the area.
McCubbin won’t be the only speaker at the picnic. A couple longtime Soquel Creek buffs will share the waterway’s history.
"Botanist Suzanne Schettler, who worked with me on studying the creek, will be summarizing the condition of the vegetation along the creek," said Don Alley, a local fish expert. "I will talk about the fishery resource."
Alley said he will also describe ways the fish habitat can be enhanced to replenish the creek’s fish population.
The Soquel Pioneers picnic is potluck style. Lunch begins at 1 p.m. Saturday at Pringle Grove, off Pringle Lane near Main Street.
The annual event usually draws more than 100 people.
"Last year was my first time attending," McCubbin said. "It was amazing to see that many people interested in local history. If you live here for awhile, you hear names of streets and see them on maps, etc. At the picnic, you meet people with those names."
For information on the picnic or the historical society, call 688-2412 or 724-0405.
Contact Ramona Turner at rturner@santacruzsentinel.com.