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Understanding 9/11tv Behrens- Eaton House CSPAN May 6, 2017 12:36pm-12:52pm EDT
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played a big road, we have the railroad, we have mining, we have the native american, we have the water with the shasta and town lake. we have a wonderful collection here of the history of california. it is available for anyone to come in and look at and read and use and look at the pictures so it's a very important past to preserve. book's tv look at redding continues. look his unique book collection and learn why he helped preserving home and history was important to the area. >> judge eaton was really interested in preserving history and he felt that this home was a
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perfect example of how victorians lived. he had been a judge jurisprudence your court judge for over 25 years and he grew up in the home from the time he was 4 year's old until he died in 2003. even though he was born in oregon in 1914, his father was a chemical engineer that met his mother here in redding, she was teaching school there and they married in the parlor of this home. we have her -- his mother's wedding gown and they -- they moved to oregon where the judge's father had relatives and lived until -- during world war i, his father was a chemical engineer serving in a chemical warfare plant in ohio and he died in the flu pendemic and at
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the time the judge came with his mother, his grandfather had passed away. he lived with his grandmother, mother and aunt ella and those three ladies just spoiled him. but this home was purchased by his grandfather, built in 1895, victorian home and his grandfather purchased it in 1899 after he won the sheriff election and found that he had to move his family into redding. the county seat. at that time they had three children, ella was middle child and uncle earl was the youngest. they lived here until etna was the first to live when she married. earl went off to college. ella always remained here. after he graduated from college
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he came back to redding to practice law and in 1940 with the war looming he joined the reserves in san francisco. so you'll see in his library where we have his portrait of him in his military uniform. also in his library he rescued a portrait of a spanish king that was painted in the 1600's from a bombed-out building and he brought that painting -- he sent it home and had his mother take it to san francisco and have it cleaned and prepared and framed and he also sent drawings of his library with a full fireplace and the king's portrait above and all the book shelves on either side so he was an extremely intelligent but he had strong ideas himself. when he came back from the war
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in 1946, he started practicing law again but 1951 was when he was appointed a superior court judge and he did that for over 25 years. but he kind of followed his mother's footsteps. she was one of the founding members of the historical society and he always belonged and both of them always enjoyed preserving history and he would give local talks, he would go to many schools, he had a particular interest in the boy scouts. he himself had been a scout. he was thrifty person. he loved to add, he purchased many things overseas in the various places that he served to add to the treasures of this home. he has quite a collection of books that, we have his grandfather's books, aunt ella's
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books, they were all prolific readers, all were interested in history and you'll be seeing more of his collection later. >> as you enter the behrens-eaton home the first door to your right takes you to the judge's den or office and that's where we are at the moment. this at one time when the home was built in 1895, this was a bedroom. in about 1950 or '51 the judge had it modified and remodeled into this office and we are in the office, we have some of his favorite objects, things that he brought back from the war, world war ii, we have a pretty good
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size part of his extensive book collection and we have some of his awards, he was very active in -- in a number of organizations, the masons, the dfw and he acquired quite a few awards for his achievements and his contribution to those particular organizations. one of the things that i would like to point out, one of our prized books is report of the debate in the convention of california on the formation of the state constitution. in september and october of 1849 and there are other copies of this book. we are not sure how the judge, judge richard eaton, how he
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acquired the book but it was certainly something that he would have been interested in, he loved history, old books, his collection is rather extensive and this, of course, was very important because when gold was discovered in california, there was a pretty immediate clamber to see if they could get the area into the united states. it obviously had been a part of méxico and they wanted to make sure that this gem would be part of the united states, okay, and so these were the debates as to how they were going to set up the constitution, what it was going to entail. the interesting reading, if you were to read this and look at the current constitution of the state of california, there have been some significant changes,
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some for the better, some that we might question as to maybe we should have stuck with the original. looking at the desk that we have here, these are the tools of his trade. obviously his gavel that he used for many years in the courthouse and always a book, this happens to be a sixth eclectic reader. we have books that belong to his father and books that belonged to his upgle. his mother has extensive collection of books of her own, shakespeare, she liked plays and poetry. sometimes we have three sets of shakespeare books. you know, it's a broad spectrum
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in this particular library. he did his historical research primarily in original documents, the historical society, coroner's report, death records, mining, he was very -- he owned a gold mine of his own, the family did and he gave gifts using gold from that -- from that mine, tithe tax for people that were graduated that he had known in boy scouts. very big in boy scouts. you know, he -- he always went back to the original sources to do his -- his research for the articles that he wrote for the covered wagon which is the annual publication of the historical society here. a good example, i think, of the
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judge's character and his early kind of -- he said, i, richard behrens-eaton do will and bequest the following. to my mother all moneys belonging to me which are not here otherwise provided for, to the presbyterian and episcapal churches. it gives an example of -- i mean, here he is, he's 15 year's old and this is how his -- you can see how this could transition into a very formal
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speech pattern and a very formal pattern of writing and that's what most people remember oh about judge eaton that he had -- i don't want to call it aloofness but distance that he just exuded. you know, he just wasn't shake hands and slap on the back. he just wasn't that kind of guy. more books, fiction, here is an entire collection, messages and papers of the president and i can assure you these have been read and probably more than -- more than once. he was an exceedingly well-informed man and then a
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very well-informed historian of shasta county, okay. we have seen the picture. over here showing a lot of -- here is the decline and fall of the roman empire. these sets of volumes that were put out which you would say the classics and he was well versed. i mentioned over here, he wanted the latin club to be endowed with his will when he wrote at 15. he loved la tib, -- latin, he could read, write and speak german fluently. went back to italy. he just had a great love for
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history and for the people who made history and for people who he thought functioned by a code or by the rules. they were -- it didn't mean that he thought they always did the right thing, but he believed they were -- whether it was the right thing or not, they were doing for the right reasons. they had a value system. they lived by a value system, he definitely lived by a set of values. what do these and artifacts tell us about judge eaton, well, they tell us that he was a man who believed in organizations and the purpose of organizations, the value of organizations, whether it'd be the american leg
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ion, the boy scouts of america and they tell us that he also liked rituals . juris doctrine, i think believed it was an important factor. this even relates to the boy scout, pattern of ritual in the boy scout program, things you have to do to achieve awards and what have you. this is how you build character. this is how you create or help to nurture people who have good morales, -- morals, good values, we would like to think that at eaton's home, redding is blessed to have a home like this that can reflect the early history of
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redding and remind people of what once was and compare that to what is at the present time and it's important that we feel that the behrens-eaton home can be an incentive of other buildings and homes in redding, shasta county that need to be preserved so we can in fact, have this picture of the past available to us. >> i'm standing in front of the redding library which is the main of the shasta library. come inside as we learn about the shasta county library indian collection. >> play an important part. we have the redding rancheria
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