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The dramatic story of the house once known as the “Dean Victorian,” after its architect, began in 1895 when it was towed on a barge across Humboldt Bay from Arcata to Eureka by its original owner.

One of my earliest recollections is of a second dramatic event in the life of that Victorian. My grandmother, Dominga Cabrera, had purchased the house at Sixth and N Streets (which by that time was called the “Sevier House” after the Eureka attorney who had owned it), and I was living there, with my parents, on April 2, 1933, when at 3:50 a.m. fire broke out.

Loud noises! Bright lights! Voices shouting! I was two years old; I remember a blanket covering me as my father carried me across the street to safety in his strong arms. Those are my memories of that early morning blaze that destroyed the roof and the entire top floor of the house.

Across the street, Zelma Cooper hurried to help our family, offering my parents her home as a refuge. John Cooper. Jr., then eleven, recalls: “I was watching the fire from our front room windows as my mother went to get your family to come here.”

When the blanket was lifted from my face, I saw — and I can still see in my mind’s eye — the most wonderful array of dolls around the bed upon which I was lying. Jean Cooper, the older Cooper daughter, had given up her bedroom for me.

Maria Romero, in her Eureka High graduation photo.

My grandparents, Dominga and Quirino Cabrera, had only been married for ten years when the influenza epidemic reached their ranch in Santa Catarina, Jalisco. Mexico. Grandfather Quirino died, leaving seven children. They were: Beatriz (my mother), Santos, Josefina, Jose, Maria, Jesus (later changed to John), and Francisca (Frances).

My Aunt Josefina (the first to leave the family) married Alvaro Toscano. Josefina would often tell me that revolutionary unrest in Mexico motivated them to make their way to the United States. They arrived in Samoa to work in the Hammond Lumber Company. Their neighbors, Filiberto and Cecelia Carranco, lived directly across from the Toscanos. I used to play with Helen Carranco. We graduated together from Eureka Senior High School in 1948. I remember Eva, an older daughter, and Lynwood. Lynwood became a highly respected authority on Humboldt County history, and was, at one time, president of the Humboldt County Historical Society.

What brought my grandmother, my mother and her sisters and brothers to California? Alvaro, Josefina’s husband, was killed in an accident at the Hammond Lumber mill in 1921. Josefina was left alone with a son, Ruben. She sent to Mexico for her mother, Dominga, who came alone in February 1922. Josefina then helped bring four of her siblings. In March 1922, Beatriz, Maria, Francisca and John crossed the border on the El Paso Railway, at El Paso, Texas, each having paid the eight-dollar “head tax.”

After a short while, Dominga moved her young adult children to a house on A Street in Eureka. There, the Cabrera girls helped their mother sew men’s fine linen shirts as well as dainty brides’ trousseaus. Jose, who by this time had also joined the family, worked for the Hammond Lumber Company. John also worked in the mill for a short time: he later left Eureka for San Francisco and a career as a cosmetologist.

Dominga moved into the Sevier House in 1923 with her sons, Joseph and John, and her daughters, Beatriz, Mary and Frances. Daughter Josefina stayed in Samoa; she later married Alexander Mason, a Russian immigrant. Son Santos visited Eureka but did not stay long. He moved to Chicago and never returned.

All the Eureka Cabreras, including the matriarch Dominga, were enrolled in Miss Lena Guidery’s English and Americanization classes. Those classes were popular. My father Joseph met my mother, Beatriz (which she changed to the English spelling of Beatrice) at one of Miss Guidery’s class socials.

My adventurous father had left his town of Santa Maria de Los Angeles, also in Jalisco, with his father Maximiano’s blessing and eighteen shiny silver pesos in his pocket. He was eighteen years old. In 1922. he arrived in Eureka after having heard that there was work at the huge lumber mill across the bay.

As there was no Mexican community in Humboldt County, and the climate was quite different from Jalisco, Dominga had to learn how to cook without the usual Mexican ingredients. Instead of tortillas made from corn, she did what Josefina already had been doing, making her tortillas out of flour. However, Dominga had brought her old worn grinder (molcajete) with her from Jalisco to make her own salsa.

Many traditional dishes changed with creativity and resourcefulness and were — and still are — delicious. Aunt Frances Burger made the very best tamale pie ever. I remember my grandmother planting flowers beside artichokes, cabbages. carrots, potatos and raspberries behind the house. She and my dad also kept rabbits and chickens.

Traditions and family celebrations, too. took on new aspects. At all my Burger cousins’ birthdays, my aunt Frances carefully filled a soft cardboard box with nuts, oranges, apples and little candies. Uncle Ernest tied a rope around the box. heaved the long end of the rope over the top of the family’s swing and pulled up and down while we took turns trying to hit and break the box to release the contents. That was our piñata! What fun!

The Cabrera family in front of the Sixth Street Victorian, circa 1931 — before the fire. From left: Beatriz Cabrera Romero, Domingo Cabrera, Maria Cabrera Whynott (holding nine- month-old Maria Romero). In front is cousin Rose Ann Burger (Hurst).

In my family, our religious traditions remained intact. We had a devout respect and love for Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Dominga’s statue of the Madonna always had a prominent place in our home.

In Eureka, I was the only child whose parents were both Spanish-speaking Mexicans. I remember my first day in kindergarten at the Nazareth Convent Catholic School. I was so happy that my cousin Arthur was in the class. I did not understand the directions to the class that Sister Gertrude was giving. I remember how embarrassed I was when I lined up behind Arthur discovered it was the boys’ time for a potty break! Sister Gertrude gently took me aside and put me in the girls’ line. That first day I learned the English word “lavatory.” However. I soon had the glorious distinction of being the official translator for my grandmother.

Another Spanish-speaking Maria (Mary) family in Eureka was the Lopez family. Mr. Lopez was from Mexico and Mrs. Lopez was from Spain. Their daughter. Virginia, and was an accomplished pianist and became a prominent bilingual legal secretary. My parents always looked forward to meeting with the Lopez family.

Except for Josefina, all of Dominga’s daughters lived in Eureka after they married. In addition to my mother. Beatriz, who married Joseph Romero, married James Whynott of Canadian ancestry. Mary died in 1939, leaving James and little son Robert.

Aunt Frances married Ernest Burger, an immigrant of Swiss-German descent. They had one daughter, Rose Ann Hurst, and three sons: Arthur, John, and Thomas. My Burger cousins all live in Eureka. Dominga’s son Santos did not marry. Son Joseph married Martha Simpson and had Ramon. (They later divorced and Joseph married Teresa Flores from Guadalajara, Jalisco. Mexico.) In San Francisco, John married Lucy Llanos from Culiacan, Mexico. Their children were John Jr,. Richard and Susan.

Joe Cabrera and his son, Ramon, moved into the renovated Victorian in 1937 when Dominga died. My father had previously started building a smaller home on the adjacent Sixth Street lot which he completed that same year. This house became the Romero family home and remained so until 1978. By that time my retired and failing parents had come to live with me in Sunnyvale. My father died in 1978 and my mother, in 1980. Both are resting in Eureka in the family plot overlooking Humboldt Bay. The Victorian and the Romero house still stand side by side on Sixth Street.

The Victorian still remains in the family. One of Dominga’s grandsons, John Burger, and his wife, Arlene, are the caring owners now.

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