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Joan Richter (Lucchesi) (1960)

Kay, I believe the house you are talking about with all the animals was across Main Street from the Hershey house. It was the Richie house. In my early years at WHS, we used to have paper drives. Freshman year,1956-1957, a few of us went to the sisters and asked if they had any old newspapers for the paper drive. They gave us all the ones in the carriage house. It took a flatbed to get them and we won the drive. You can imagine how many times I wished we had saved some of those newspapers.

Theresa Eve (1964)

Joan:  Those newspapers would have been priceless with the history!!   I have notes that David N. Hershey in 1892 founded the Farmers and Merchants Bank; Corner of Main and Second Streets.  He married Ella L. Flournoy; their children were:  Cornelia, Davidella, May, Grace Hartan, David Newcomer, and Florence.  Their home was originally the Laugenour house; owned my Henry and Sarah Laugenour, then William and Irma Laugenour.  It was in 1906 that David and Ella Hershey purchased the home, they also re-built the Woodland Opera House.  The two Hershey daughters, Davidella and Florence lived in the home until 1960s; before going into assisted care.   Wish that Hershey home could have been saved and used as a historical home. 

Joel Childers (1966)

My 2 cents about the Hershey sisters. In the 60s, the rumor was that neither of the sisters ever married because their father prohibited it in his will, stateing that they would forfeit the house if they did so. To my knowledge they never married. But how would any of my young friends know about the will? Hmmm? Anyone else hear that rumor?

Theresa Eve (1964)

My girlfriend, Tuni Gravink, whoes father did the books for the Hershey sisters, has a lot of hands-on-information about the Hershey house.  She use to go there while her father did the books at the kitchen table.  Tuni said that is true about the sisters not getting married, due to being disinherited.  

Theresa Eve (1964)

     Article in the Daily Democrat.   

Janet Long (Levers) (1966)

David Hershey was said to own land in every county in California. He owned quite a bit just to the east of Zamora; the old family home where they had originally settled stood in a field off CR95/13 until the early '70's. The Flournoy home (big old brick two-story) was on Rd. 14; it is rumored that Ella's father gave her (hand in marriage) to David to settle a debt he owed. She was quite a bit younger than David. As a kid, I can remember two of the sisters driving out to Zamora in their old Cadillac every week to collect mail at the Zamora post office.

Nan Jungerman (Gallagher) (1969)

Hello Becky, so sweet of you reach out to remember us on our 50th‼️ Couples like us are a rarity these days. Our family is doing well, especially under the craziness going on. Glad we live in Northern CA‼️ Bless you and Corky, and your family.  Here's to many more🍸🍾🎊

Janet Long (Levers) (1966)

Joel, you're on the right track about the inheritance of the Hershey 'girls', but the estate comprised a lot more than just the house in Woodland due to the extensive landholdings. The sisters lived out their lives with adequate funds from the income the Hershey ground (that was farmed) produced. In the Woodland Opera House, there's a little ante-room just off the main auditorium with a lot of Hershey memorabilia.

Kay Most (Chapman) (1962)

Thank you, Joan, for correcting me.  I got to thinking about it after I had written my post--weren't there two old homes on Main Street at the time I was in high school (on opposite sides of the street)--and you cleared that up.  I was sad when I heard they were no more, and it is indeed a shame those historical places could not have been saved.  The opera house was boarded up and remained quite mysterious when I was around--always thought how fun it would be to go through it.  I'm so glad that one got redone and is open again.  Fun reading the different posts about the place.  What a father--telling his daughters they'd be disinherited if they married.  Sounds right out of an old novel!

Anna Lopez (Northam) (1963)

When I worked at Woodland Produce  a very small store on main st. & we would deliver for free if the order was $7.50 or more the sisters would call up every week & order the same thing ea. time and of course it totaled $7.50 so they never had to pay the extra 50cents to have it delivered. I got to know the order so well I would start writing it down before they even told me what they wanted. Rick Keller was our delivery guy and they always had the exact amt. of cash to give him.

Monte McCray (1966)

Back in the 1970s i was working on a repair on the woodland hospital and a guy drove into the parking lot in a mid 20s franklin automobile. I talked to him about the car.He said that he was the heir to the Hershey estate.

He told me the story of how the old man Hershey stated in his will that if any of the children married or sold off anything they would be disinherited. He said his father said to heck with that and moved back east somewhere and married.

He said his father only had one child and he was it. He said he had inherited what was left of the Hershey estate.

The franklin car had been in storage since the early 30s and he serviced it fixed a few things and he was driving it.

Dan Ree (Ree) (1964)

Theresa....i went into the Hersey home before it burned when i was on The Police Dept...with Officer Ken Iott...to make sure no transient were inside.....we saw the original gas lines on the ceiling when they used gas to light the lamps on the wall...there was the original items a home would have...2  Cadilac's  in the garage very low milage...it was like going into the past

Theresa Eve (1964)

I have enjoyed all the input on the Hershey history!!! Dan, how great you were inside the house.  I can just imagine all the old features of that house.  Those gals probably did not chanage a thing, as they look in the photo.  Mr. David Hershey did own a lot of land and properties, plus the Hershey Hotel in the early days.  Nice to learn there is a room in the Woodland Opera House which contains more history.  I think I remember that when going to a few plays with my Mother.  I also read that one of the older daughters, May, ran off and got married; written in the San Francisco paper.  I remember parking at the Title Company for church, which was next to the Carriage House, caused me to wonder just what was inside, that was in the early 1960s.  .   

JoAnn Kergel (Wirth) (1965)

When our family home, located at roads 96 & 15 near Yolo, burned in Feb. of 1958 the Hershey sisters came by and asked if there was anything they could do to help.  There were three sisters that came by and my understanding was that they lived a couple of miles down the road at least part time.  They had gone to high school with my grandmother and she claimed to know them well.  It was sad when the the country home burned several years later.  My dad was a Yolo fireman as were most of the farmers in the area.  He responded to the fire which destroyed not only a house full of antiques but a huge barn of old cars.  The story my dad always told was that a new car was purchased every two years and the "old" cars were stored in this long huge barn/garage.  They were all burned.  The fire started in the pump house well away from the house but the grass was so tall from lack of maintance that it spread to the other buildings and could not be stopped by the time Yolo & Zamora fire departments arrived..  My dad saw the remains of many cars after the fire was out.  

Of course the story about their father's will was general knowledge around the area.  The other brick home, located near the larger family home, was really spooky.  There was a caretaker living there for a time who would keep people off the place.  In the mid 50's there were still cattle being "raised" there.  I watched a huge haystack rot away over a period of years.  It was fenced off so the cows couldn't get to it but I don't believe it was ever used to feed stock..  There were many farmers in the area that tried to lease Hershey land to farm but were mostly unsuccessful.  Many Hershey fields sat wild and overgrown through my childhood.  I spent lots of hours on horseback riding all the county roads around where I lived.  You never had to guess what fields they owned.

My grandmother had been in the Main St. home many times and claimed every square ince was piled with newspapers, magazines & old phone books.  No wonder fire claimed it.

I have always been curious about this odd family.  What kind of a father would forbid his daughters from marrying?  So many stories passed around about them as I was growing up.  Way too late to sort fact from fiction.

Donald Daily (1961)

My friend and classmate Jim Adan "61 was telling me a couple of months ago that he worked for the Hershey sisters. He would pick the mustard growing along the hiway 99w between Yolo and Zamora. Easiest job he had because each year there was less and less mustard.

Theresa Eve (1964)

Thank you JoAnn, enjoyed the history with your hands-on experience.  You saw the land of the Hershey sisters.  Seems they just let it stay without farming.  I am sure the local farmers would have made good progress with those acres of land to farm plus made a good amount of money on the production.  Amazing.  

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

This is the rear view of the Hershey House, Pic was taken just before they burned the house down in 1970. It was a shame that the house could not have been saved. A prior post mentioned the "Cast Iron Deer" in the front yard. The deer were in the front yard of the house across the street:  the "Richie mansion", Another gorgeous Victorian Mansion that was lost when it was torn down.

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

The Carriage House was located at the rear of the house, It was built of Brick, so it did not burn when the house did. It was torn down at a later date. There were no cars, or horse drawn vehicle in it when the house burned

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

There was only one car on the property when the house burned, you can see that it was last licensed in 1950

Theresa Eve (1964)

Greg: Thank you for those pictures of the Hershey House, just as I remember.  A lot of shrubs all around, you could not see too much of anything.  That is one old car!    

Joan Richter (Lucchesi) (1960)

The metal fence in front of Gibson House is the fence that was around the Richie house on Main Street. One of the few things saved. I remember at one time one of the animals was taken from the yard at night. It was later found in a fraternity in Davis.

Kay Most (Chapman) (1962)

Thanks for posting those old photos, Greg.  Are there any of the old Richie house?  Sounds like the father's wish of his children not marrying didn't do much to keep the family fortune together; it seems as though things pretty much fell apart as one reads about their area in the country.  And the interior of the house sounds as though it became a bit of a hoarders place, i.e., newspapers, phone books, etc. everywhere.  I had a great aunt who became like that.  Couldn't even get up the stairway to the wonderful old antiques up above, because everything was so jammed with "stuff."

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

Hi Kay  There is a pic of the Richie mansion (Page 38) of the Book: "CRAFTING A VALLEY JEWEL" By David Wilkinson, (Thanks Nita for finding that reference)  I don't feel comfortable posting a copy of someone else's pic .- Somewhere I have a copy of the article in the Democrat when it was torn down. I'll look for that pic :-)

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

Front of the Hershey House. The front of the house, faced main Street.

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

Inside of the Hershey Carriage House. Inside individual stalls were brick. This was probably the best example of a "Horse Era" carriage house left in Woodland - too bad it could not have been saved - it was a "step back in time".