The History of San Luis Obispo County 1888-1903
Principal - Educator - Historian - Columnist - Entertainer - Hearst Castle Tour Supervisor - Poet
For 16 years, Wilmar (my Dad) researched microfiche copies of the San Luis Obispo 1888-1903 newspapers to compile a weekly submission for his "100 Years Ago" column in the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Tribune editors selected from these very extensive compilations (which Dad retyped and submitted electronically) to fit their available space for the "100 Years Ago" columns.
Seeing the historical value of these retyped compilations, annually Dad prepared a very detailed alphabetical index and published a book of his submissions -- initially spiral bound but within 3 years, hard-bound. In addition to providing a copy of each book to the San Luis Obispo library, he also provided each of his children a complete copy of every edition. There are 18 books: one for each of the 16 years 1888 to 1903; and, additional books for 1890 and 1891 which he called "Closing the Gap" focused entirely on bringing rail service to San Luis Obispo.
Dad did not maintain the electronic copies of these books nor their indexes. But with the agreement of my three children who would inherit these books, I've unbound and scanned all of them into Portable Document Format (PDF), and am making them available here so that the widest audience of historians, historical societies, libraries, and everyone can use and enjoy them. They are interesting reading -- and their detailed indexes (including family names) allow quick access to researchers. The original books from which these copies were made were donated to the Santa Margarita Historical Society.
Dad's own story of how he began these books and what you might learn from them is relayed in his "Introduction" to the 1888 book (click here to see just the introduction, click here to see Dad's 1987 to the Telegram Tribune proposing the column).
As my Dad wrote at the end of that introduction: "...if you enjoy the book[s], let me hear from you..." Click here to email me - Noel Tognazzini (5th of 10 children of Wilmar and Henrietta Tognazzini). You are also encouraged to leave public or private comments, questions, contact information on the "Comments/Contacts" page.
Seeing the historical value of these retyped compilations, annually Dad prepared a very detailed alphabetical index and published a book of his submissions -- initially spiral bound but within 3 years, hard-bound. In addition to providing a copy of each book to the San Luis Obispo library, he also provided each of his children a complete copy of every edition. There are 18 books: one for each of the 16 years 1888 to 1903; and, additional books for 1890 and 1891 which he called "Closing the Gap" focused entirely on bringing rail service to San Luis Obispo.
Dad did not maintain the electronic copies of these books nor their indexes. But with the agreement of my three children who would inherit these books, I've unbound and scanned all of them into Portable Document Format (PDF), and am making them available here so that the widest audience of historians, historical societies, libraries, and everyone can use and enjoy them. They are interesting reading -- and their detailed indexes (including family names) allow quick access to researchers. The original books from which these copies were made were donated to the Santa Margarita Historical Society.
Dad's own story of how he began these books and what you might learn from them is relayed in his "Introduction" to the 1888 book (click here to see just the introduction, click here to see Dad's 1987 to the Telegram Tribune proposing the column).
As my Dad wrote at the end of that introduction: "...if you enjoy the book[s], let me hear from you..." Click here to email me - Noel Tognazzini (5th of 10 children of Wilmar and Henrietta Tognazzini). You are also encouraged to leave public or private comments, questions, contact information on the "Comments/Contacts" page.
Use these button links to view and/or download Dad's books (you do NOT need to login or use any additional app to access, view, and/or download these PDF books):
