Los Banos Rotary Club History
Rotary Speaker

James G. Black, of the public relations office of the National Automobile Club, San Francisco, was guest speaker at the Rotary Club luncheon Tuesday noon, relating numerous stories of early California history.

Among them was a historical sketch of Los Angeles, from the day in August, 1846, when Captain Gillespie, of the U.S. Army, took possession of the city for the United States. Surprising to most of the listeners was the statement that Los Angeles was for a 50-day period the capitol of California.

He also related historical events of another early day California capitol city, Monterey, a story of the Mexican sheepherder who discovered oil in the Pico canyon field and a few months later sold his interest in the field for a barrel of whiskey; and a personal story of James W. Marshall, the man who first discovered gold in California while constructing a waterway to be used to operate a saw mill. Marshall, peculiarly, was so interested in the new mill that he never capitalized on his findings and died without having gained any of the wealth that was at his fingertips.

May 27, 1949

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