Bancroftiana, Number 122 Spring 2003: California History in her DNA

Peggy Cahill, a staunch supporter of the Bancroft Library.

California History in her DNA

Helen Kennedy Cahill, better known as Peggy Cahill, is a friend of The Bancroft Library with California history in her DNA. A 1938 graduate of UC Berkeley with a major in English and minors in History and French, Peggy Cahill has been active in preserving her family’s history as well as the history of Stockton, which her great grandfather, Charles M. Weber, founded. She follows in a long line of California history makers and preservationists.

She also comes from a long line of Cal graduates. When her mother went to college it was the custom for the seniors to wear their caps and gowns every Friday and on graduation. The gown was kept and Peggy wore her mother’s gown when she graduated from Berkeley on the 25th anniversary of her mother’s graduation. Peggy still has the mortar board.

Her great-grandfather, Karl David Weber, left Bavaria at the age of 22, on October 6, 1836. After his arrival in New Orleans, he headed to Texas where he joined Sam Houston’s forces. Returning to New Orleans, he intended to go north to visit relatives in Illinois, but in St. Louis he joined the emigrant group that opened the California Trail, the Bidwell-Bartleson Party. The original group was composed of 69 men and one woman of whom 31 men and the one woman and her baby girl were the first company of American immigrants to enter California over land. They had to abandon their wagons in the Nevada desert and continued on with their cattle. Eventually they were forced to eat their oxen and then their mules. When they arrived in San Joaquin Valley after a six month journey, the group had very few possessions. They finally came to rest at John Marsh’s rancho at the base of Mt. Diablo on November 4, 1841. Shortly after his arrival, Karl called himself Charles.

From John Marsh’s Rancho, Weber went to New Helvetia where John Sutter promised General Mariano Vallejo that he would assume legal responsibility for “Carlos Maria Weber.” This was the first time that Maria was added to Weber’s Spanish-adjusted name. Weber became a supervisor for Sutter, studying the land and its growing capacity. From Sutter, he learned about building and managing and how to negotiate with native peoples.

Leaving Sacramento, Weber went into business in San Jose at the age of 28, building the first water-powered flour mill in California, the first shoe factory, and a large hide and tallow business. In February, 1844, the governor awarded Weber and his partner a land grant in the San Joaquin Valley near a place called “French Camp” for the French fur trappers who wintered there. Weber became a naturalized Mexican citizen. That was the founding of Stockton. Commodore Stockton had promised Weber a schooner for the Stockton-San Francisco trade after the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 and the U.S.-Mexico War (1846-48). The schooner never materialized, but the city was named on the Commodore’s promise. During that turbulent period, Weber was first considered a Californian and then an American. He was offered the position of captaincy by Mexican General José Castro, which he declined, and he later accepted the position of Captain in the Cavalry of the United States.

Weber met Helen Murphy at Sutter’s Fort while detained by Sutter during the war period. Helen was a member of the Murphy-Stephens-Townsend Party, the first overland party to bring wagons into California in 1844. In 1850 Helen and Charles married and moved to the new home the groom had built on what is still Weber Point in Stockton. Throughout the rest of his life, Weber built bridges and flood control, donated land for churches, schools, and parks, and gave and sold land to settlers. Stockton grew into a successful community. The Weber children were Charles II, Julia Helen, and Thomas Jefferson. Charles II was the father of Helen May Weber who married Gerald Driscoll Kennedy. Their children were Katherine, Moira, Geraldine, and Helen (Peggy) Kennedy, our current friend of Bancroft.

Aunt Julia, Captain Weber’s daughter, never married. An unusual woman for her time, she was an intellectual, a constant reader, deeply interested in women’s rights. She insisted that her brother, Charles, who was thinking it unnecessary, send his daughter, Helen May Weber, to the University of California at Berkeley. In 1913, Helen and two friends were the first women graduates in agriculture at Berkeley. Helen intended to carry on the family ranching tradition in Stockton. She married a Cal graduate, Gerald Kennedy, who had a lifetime interest in banking and agriculture. Throughout her life, Helen Kennedy cared for and preserved the Weber family papers, furniture, and memorabilia which had been left to her by Aunt Julia.

Although Captain Weber never joined the California legislature, preferring to work behind the scenes, he had a great deal to do with bringing California into the Union, according to letters in the State Library. Peggy’s grandfather, Charles Weber II, served in the State Assembly for one or two terms, and Charles Weber III, Peggy’s uncle, was in the State Assembly for sixteen years. Through the generations, from Aunt Julia, to Helen Kennedy, to Peggy Cahill, an interest in history led each to preserve the early stories and artifacts of California. “Aunt Julia was terribly proud of her father and what he had done. She knew what a part he had played in California history with John Marsh and early leaders, and he was so in favor of California coming into the Union...I’m very glad Aunt Julia did preserve family things...I just wish now that I had asked Mother more.”

Peggy was born in Stockton in 1916. She was named Helen, after her mother and her great- grandmother. Because having so many Helens was confusing, the family began calling her Peggy. Out of school two years between fourth and sixth grades because of tuberculosis, Peggy spent time at home with a tutor, most of it reading on a great big porch off her bedroom.

As a student at Berkeley, she worked on the Daily Cal her first two years. James Kennedy Moffitt, president of Crocker Bank, who served as regent for many years, was a first cousin of her father. (His brother was Dr. Herbert Moffitt after whom Moffitt Hospital at UCSF was named.) James Moffitt, left the first large bequest to The Bancroft Library of $100,000. He was also a great book collector.

Peggy married John Cahill in 1942 prior to his naval service in World War II. He had graduated in civil engineering from Stanford University and studied at UC Berkeley where his father had graduated in civil engineering.

They moved to Marin County in April 1946. Peggy did volunteer work for the Art and Garden Center, the Sunny Hills Junior Auxiliary, and Catholic Social Service Auxiliary. She was also a member of the Junior League of San Francisco. “My volunteer work was mostly writing and I’d do the history of these various organizations, the research and all. It took time but I enjoyed doing it.” She was a member of the California Committee on Fulbright Scholarships for three or four years, having been appointed by Governor Reagan in 1967. She was the first woman on the Board of Trustees of the Berkeley Graduate Theological Union, and followed in her mother’s foot steps when she became a member of the Council of Friends of The Bancroft Library.

Peggy began attending the California Historical Society monthly luncheons and met Dr. George Hammond, Director of the Bancroft, who was sitting at her table for one of the lectures. When Hammond heard that her great grandfather was Charles Weber he asked to be introduced to her mother, Mrs. Gerald Kennedy.

With the introduction, Peggy’s mother became interested in historical lectures and went to all that were available. She served on the Friends of The Bancroft Library council for eight years. In addition to her papers, Helen Kennedy had built a fine collection of Californiana and also had a remarkable collection of early maps which were donated along with a number of rare early horticulture books. At Bancroft, she also met the notable research scholar and staff member, Dale Morgan, who was particularly interested in Helen’s early maps of California and the West. She then decided to donate the Weber papers and maps to The Bancroft Library. In 1966, George P. Hammond and Dale Morgan published Captain Charles M. Weber, Pioneer of the San Joaquin and Founder of Stockton. The book was a gift to Bancroft from Helen Kennedy and all 700 copies quickly sold out.

Helen Kennedy was also interested in fine printing, The Grabhorn Press, The Book Club of California, and she had a long friendship with Lawton Kennedy, the distinguished printer. All four of her daughters shared these passions in one form or another. Peggy and her sister Moira Holden shared an interest in history and worked with their mother on the distribution of the Weber papers. Kate and her husband Harold Cookson participated in her interest in the Southwest and in fine printing. Geraldine Cole and her husband, Jerry Cole, are collectors, she of Thomas Bewick, an English wood engraver and he, in turn-of-the-century Monterey Bay area artists. Jerry also served on the Council of Friends of The Bancroft Library. Both have been active in the local book community, the Roxburghe Club, The Book Club of California, and the Gleason Library of the University of San Francisco. They have traveled with fellow members of the Grolier Club and the International Association of Bibliophiles.

Peggy was asked to speak in San Francisco in 1961 for the Pioneer Society and the National Council of Catholic Women, then at the Stockton Haggin Museum in 1974. Her pamphlet, “Captain Weber and His Place in Early California History” for The Pacific Historian in 1976 was an extension of the 1974 lecture.

The valuable family papers all went to The Bancroft Library. Peggy and her sisters presented one of the rarest just before Bancroft Director James D. Hart died. The document is the only known copy of Mason’s Laws in Spanish and English. Governor Mason was sent out to rule California when it became independent of Mexico, before statehood. “Our copy is the only one with the laws he drew up both in Spanish and English. The Huntington Library has one in English and the State Library has one in English,” explains Peggy Cahill.

Peggy finds it fascinating to know how other generations and other civilizations have lived and made their mark. The 1846 and 1848 letters of Charles’ brother, Adolph Weber, home to Germany telling about life in California in the early days are particularly amazing to Peggy. She is fascinated by reading Fremont’s accounts of lupine coming up to his boots, of the Great Plains, and of fields of flowers, grasses, and valley oaks. Peggy enjoyed serving her two terms on the Council of Friends of The Bancroft Library and at 86 she is still interested in history. She finds it, “Not only fascinating, these accounts are important. People should look back. The same mistakes are made generation after generation.”

—Camilla Smith