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Understanding 9/11tv Behrens- Eaton House CSPAN May 7, 2017 10:06am-10:22am EDT
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we have the railroad. we had mining. we have native american. we have the water with the shasta dam and whiskeytown lake. so 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 have to preserve. >> book tvs look at writing continues. next, a trip to the behrens-eaton house to the story of shasta county superior court judge richard behrens-eaton, see his unique book collection and learn why he felt preserving the home and its history was important to the area. >> judge eaton was really interested in preserving history and he felt that the psalm was a
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perfect example of how victorians lived. he had been a judge, a superior court judge for over 25 years, but he grew up in this home from the time he was four years 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. he worked at the compromise and she was teaching school there, and they married in the partner of this home. we have his mothers waiting down. and -- wedding gown. they moved to oregon where come his 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 pandemic. and at that time the judge, or
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the judge came with his mother back to his home. his grandfather had already passed away, so he lived with his grandmother, his mother and his aunt. those three ladies just spoiled him. but this home was purchased by his grandfather, it was built in 1895, a victorian home. and his grandfather purchased it in 1899 after he had won the shasta county sheriffs election and found that he had to move his family from older shasta into redding, the county seat. at the time they had three children, the judge his mother was their oldest, a middle child and uncle earl was the youngest. they live here until edna was the first to leave it when she married, earl went off to college. ella always remained here, but
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after you graduate from college he came back to redding and practice law for just a couple of years. in 1940 with the war looming, he joined the reserves in san francisco. so you will see in his library we have his portrait of him and his military uniform. also in his library he rescued a portrait of a spanish king that was painted in the 1600s from a bombed out building. he brought that painting. he sent it home and had his mother take it to gums in san francisco and have it cleaned and repaired and framed. he also said the drawings of his library with a faux fireplace in the kings portrait above and on the bookshelves 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 by 1951 was when he was appointed a superior court judge, and he did that for over 25 years. but he kind of followed in his mothers footsteps. she was one of the founding members of the historical society, and he always belonged. both of them always enjoy preserving history. he would give local talk turkey would go to many schools. he had a particular interest in the boy scouts. he himself had been a scout. he also was quite a risky person. he loved to add turkey 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 grandmothers of books, his fathers books come his mothers
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of 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 and you're in the foray, the first door immediately to your right takes you into the judges 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. we are in the office. we hav had some of his favorite objects, some of the things he brought back from the war, world war ii. we have a pretty good-sized part
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of his extensive book collection, and we had some of his awards. he was very active in a number of organizations, the nations, the vfw -- the masons -- and he acquired quite a few awards for his achievements and his contributions to those particular organizations. one of the things that i would like to point out, one of our prized books is, it's called the report of the debates in the convention of california on the formation of the state constitution. in september and october 1849. and there are other copies of this book. we're not sure how the judge, judge richard eaton, how he
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acquired this book or, but it was certainly something that he would been very 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 clamor to see if they could get the area into the united states. it obvious had been a part of mexico and they wanted to make sure that this jim, not to coin a phrase, would be a part of the united states. so these were the debates as how they're going to set up the constitution, what it was going to entail. there are interesting readings. if you were great -- if you were to read this and to look at the current constitution of the state of california, there would
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have been some significant changes. 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 the sixth eclectic reader. it's really just for display. we have books that belong to his father, walter. we have books that belonged to his uncle took his mother had an extensive collection of books of her own, shakespeare, other playwrights. she really loved plays and poetry. sometimes with actually three sets of shakespeare books, and
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so it's a broad spectrum in this particular library. he did his historical research primarily in original documents. the historical society, coroners reports, marriage and death records, mining. he owned a gold mine of his own, the family did, and he gave gifts using gold from that mine. type acts and things like this to people that, for graduating that he had known in boy scouts or something of that nature. very, very big and boy scouts. you know, he always went back to the original sources to do his research for the articles that he wrote for the covered wagon, which is of the annual publication of the historical society here. a good example i think of the
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judges character and his early kind of precocious news, this will and testament that he wrote july 1930, and he said i, richard behrens-eaton, being by the grace of god of sound mind, you will and request the following. to my mother o all monies belonging to me which are not hear otherwise provided for. to the presbyterian and episcopal churches, equal shares of the money in my private safe. he didn't have the best handwriting in the world either, okay, but i think it gives an example of, i mean, here he is, he's 15 years old and this is how come you can see how this could transition into a very
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formal speech pattern and a very formal pattern of writing. that's what most people remember about judge eaton, that he had this kind of, i don't want to call it aloofness, but this kind of distance that he just exhumed. he just wasn't shake and then slap on the back. he just wasn't that kind of guy. more books, fiction. here's an entire collection, messages and papers of the presidents. and i can assure you these have been read, and probably more than once. he was an exceedingly well informed man, and then a very
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well informed historian of shasta county. we've seen the picture. over here, again showing a lot of his calm here's the decline and fall of the roman empire. the sets of volumes that were put out, which you would say the classics. he was well-versed. i mentioned over here, he wanted the latin club to be endowed with his money in that will that he wrote when he was 15. he loved latin. he could read, write and speak german fluently. one of the reasons why he was flying patent commands in german for short bit of time and then 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 by the rules. it did me that he thought they always did the right thing, but he believed they were, whether it was the right thing or not, that they were doing it for the right reasons. they had a value system. they lived by a value system. he definitely lived by a set of values. what did his books and articles tell us about judge eaton? will, they tell us that he was a man who believed in organizations, and the purpose of organizations, the value of organizations, whether it be the
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american legion, the masonic lodge, the boy scouts of america. and they tell us that he also liked ritual, the sword, for example, the jurist doctorate downs for graduation that he used. he liked ritual. i think he believed that ritual was an important factor picked this even relates to the boy scouts. there's a pattern of ritual in the boy scout program, things you have to do to achieve, and then awards and what have you. that this is how you build character. this is how you create or help to nurture people who have good morals, good values. we like to think you're at the behrens-eaton home, redding is blessed to have a home like this that can reflect the early history of redding, and remind
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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 to other buildings and homes in redding, and shasta county, that really need to be preserved and maintained so that we can in fact, have the protection of the past available to us. >> i'm stand in front of the writing library which is the main branch. come inside with us and learn about the california ending collection. >> today and shasta county they still play an important part. we have the redding intent and
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