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I have very fond memories of my aunt, Olive Hanna, who was born in Arcata in 1876, including her insistence that I learn to swim by diligently escorting me back and forth to the old Yacht Club salt water pool in Humboldt Bay when I was a small child.

Aunt Olive was given a journal by her step father, Jasper Davies, who later became principal of Winship School in Eureka, on her fifteenth birthday, June 18, 1891. She faithfully kept a day by day diary until Dec. 31, 1892, shortly after my uncle, Wesley Davies, was born, and the journal’s pages were filled.

Life for a teenager in the 1890’s was very dull compared to today’s standards. No pot, no rock concerts — just visits back and forth with cousins, walks downtown, an occasional overnight with friends in Eureka, and Sunday night parties at the Christian Endeavor.

However, in my aunt’s diary a story emerges that rivals one of today’s television soap operas.

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The first mention of Grace Gwinn occurs on July 3, 1891. Grace apparently was a close friend of Hattie Davies (later Plaskell), a young sister of Jasper Davies, who was however about the same age as my Aunt Olive, and my mother, Clarissa Hanna (later Dorais):

Grace Gwinn came this afternoon. Clara has seen her but I have not. She and Hattie went right to Janes Creek.

On July 8th:

Mama asked Grace to stay for supper. She stayed quite a while after supper and we had a real pleasant time. She expects to come down in the fall and if she does is going to stay at least a night with us.

Then, on November 2nd:

Papa got a telegram from Mr. Gwinn tonight saying that Jack Littlefield had run away with Gracie and to telegraph to all points to keep him from marrying her and share no expense. Gracie was so wild, pretty and dissatisfied living in the country that if she had been two or three years older I wouldn’t have been so surprised but I did not think she would do anything so dreadful so soon: she is about my age. I guess they will surely be caught now. I wonder where poor Grace is tonight, and who that wretch is. I feel so sorry for her mother, father and Bert. They are such nice people. I am glad that I am not pretty, and not the kind that boys run after. Perhaps if poor Gracie had been as ugly as Bert she would not have come to this. What will Hattie say, she had a letter not long ago, and would be more likely to know who that fellow is than anybody. It sounds kind of wicked but it seems as if Grace had better be dead than this, but she is so young she may yet be able to be something good if her father gets her before it is too late.

November 4th:

Bert stayed all night at Grandma’s last night and from him we know the whole story. Mr. Gwinn went to Blocksburg last Friday to be gone overnight. Mrs. Gwinn and Ethyl went to bed quite early and along in the evening the dogs commenced to make a fuss and Bert quieted them and went to bed, and Grace and Reggie sat in the sitting room reading, the dogs kept barking all evening, but they supposed the cattle smelled the salt in the yard and were trying to get at it. Reggie stopped them several times and finally went to bed on a couch in the room, and the dogs commenced again and Grace went to the door and scolded them, and Reg’s last recollections are seeing her in the doorway.

When Mrs. Gwinn went to call her she was gone. She found a note from Grace saying she was going to run away and would be in Woodland in four days. This fellow was discharged from there sometime ago, but a week ago came back to that neighborhood riding a horse and leading another. He had been seen several times and met them every day as they went to school. Bert thinks there is no love affair about it, for Grace wouldn’t be marrying a no account mountaineer, she would want some rich city fellow who could keep her in style, and she has been saying she would run away and go to Woodland for she hates the mountains, and this fellow has agreed to help her to it, and she has gone with him on his horse, and it was dark and stormy and there is no telling where the wretch will take her or what he will do with her.

Perhaps she would be glad enough to get home if she could now. Mrs. Gwinn was very near wild when she found Grace gone and Bert could not leave her, so he sent the only man on the place, a halfbreed, for his father, and later Saturday started out himself. He very near killed his horse riding it night and day. Last night he got word from his father that they spent the night at laqua and for Bert to come to Bridgeville. At noon a telegraph came saying Mr. Gwinn would be in Eureka tonight. That is all I know. I wonder what that wretch will do with Grace and if she will be found. Telegrams have been sent in every direction. They are anxious to get him before Mr. Gwinn does for they are afraid he will shoot him.

November 5th:

It’s all a mistake. Grace went of her own free will and is enjoying. They know about where they are but can’t get them. It has been going on for months and she has done such vile wicked things I can’t write them, they are not fit to read. Her father is very near crazy and they can’t do anything with him, and the only thing to do now is to let them get married. She is ruined now, and my mother will never let me even see her again if she can help it. I know it’s true but can’t seem to believe it. It don’t seem as if Grace could do it, and it will kill her father and mother or set them crazy. It seems like a horrible dream, and to think she was so low down when she was here in July, I can’t believe it.

November 7th:

Hattie and I had quite a talk about Grace. Hattie never wants to see her again and she just hates her and can’t understand how she has been deceiving her. Hattie burned all her letters tonight. She wanted to get rid of them yet found it hard. Hattie says as much as she hates her, that if she was to see her she would forget and speak to her, and I’m afraid I might on the spur of the moment, although I wouldn’t be seen with her nor would Hattie or any other respectable person. We heard that Grace passed through town Sunday night and have got a letter from Mr. Cummings saying that Grace stayed about four miles from their place Tuesday night.

Did Grace and her “no account mountaineer” live happily ever after? Who knows? There is only this cryptic notation on November 10th:

Grace is caught, but he isn’t, but she will get away again someday I think.

And that is the end of the story, except for one passing reference on June 18, 1892:

I am sixteen today and have kept my book for a year. Next year I am not going to put in anything but what I do or we do here at home. I wish I did not have that G.G. affair in November (in my diary) but I could not think of much else at the time.

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POSTSCRIPT from 2025: Local history buffs may have caught on the name of Grace’s suitor, Jack Littlefield. He was indeed the same man who was infamously murdered three years later in somewhat murky circumstances after beefing with the “Round Valley Cattle King,” George White — a psychopath.

The story of the Littlefield murder is told from numerous perspectives in Round Valley Retribution, a recent and wonderful book by local author Karen Campbell-Hendricks that also gives us the rest of Grace’s story. She did indeed find the “rich city fellow who would keep her in style,” eventually marrying a wealthy San Francisco civil engineer and setting up house for almost 25 years, before dying in 1933. —Ed.

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The story above was originally printed in the September-October 1980 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.