The People

A jeweler with a sportsman's streak

Godfrey Eacret was a native of New Jersey. When he died in December 1934 the Record gave his age as sixty, which puts his birth around 1874.¹ He was in San Francisco by 1899, when "Godfrey Eacret and wife" appeared on a list of city guests at a resort.²

He first made the sporting pages as a bowler. In January 1902 he captained the Eugenes of San Francisco, who won the team title at a tournament in Los Angeles, and he took second prize in the singles.³ That March the Eugenes beat Los Angeles at Fresno for the Coast championship, with Eacret in the lineup.⁴ One report called him "the diamond expert" after he rolled the tournament's high game of 233.⁵ He played tennis too. On the Fourth of July 1902 he lost the Mill Valley singles final on the Billings court to Moulton Warner, 6–4, 6–4.⁶ Nearly fifty years later the Record still remembered him among the young men who gathered at the village tennis courts around the turn of the century.⁷

Diamonds were his trade. After thirteen years with Shreve & Co., he and Walter P. Treat started their own firm, Treat & Eacret, jewelers and silversmiths. Its store opened at 136 Geary Street in November 1911.^8,9 When George Shreve bought a large share of the stock in July 1912, it became Shreve, Treat & Eacret.¹⁰ In 1919 Eacret was elected a director of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.^11,12 In 1920 he became second vice-president of the California Gold and Silversmiths' association.¹³ By 1926 he was president of the firm. That year a labor paper reported that the firm had been indicted by the government on a charge of boycotting suppliers to cut-rate jewelers. The papers in this collection do not say how the case ended.¹⁴

Blithedale Canyon

Godfrey and Clarisse Eacret were living on Blithedale Avenue by 1909.¹⁵ They had three daughters, Bonnie Geraldine, Barbara Irene and Clarice Beatriz, who went to school in Mill Valley.¹ In May 1919 Bonnie's twelfth birthday was celebrated with a musical at the family's Cottage Avenue home.¹⁶ They sold that house in 1921.¹⁷ By 1923 the family was in San Francisco, at first among a "Mill Valley colony" in St. Francis Wood and then on Divisadero Street, and early in 1928 they moved to Hillsborough.^18,19

First president

When the board of the new golf club organized in September 1919, Eacret was its president, with Roy C. Ward as vice-president and John F. Forbes as secretary-treasurer.²⁰ He, Frank Bostwick and Arthur W. Smith negotiated for Mrs. Ida M. Boyle's land, and the purchase was made "in the name of the trustees, Eacret and Forbes."²¹ The recorded deed of February 1921 conveys 15.97 acres of the Boyle Tract to the two men, with a right to buy more.²²

The course came together quickly and cheaply. In 1920 the magazine Pacific Golf and Motor ran A. D. Mills's photograph of the course with a caption praising "its energetic and prudent president." The caption said the club "has accomplished wonders in a short six months," with a course built for $4,000.²³ In January 1920 he gave the club a silver cup for a women's tournament, known as the Eacret trophy.²⁴ He chaired the first annual meeting in June 1920 and was re-elected a director.²⁵ On 1 January 1921 he presided over the club's New Year's dinner in the clubhouse.²⁶ By November 1922 Ben Upham was president, and A. D. Mills's album later labeled Eacret's portrait "1st President Godfrey Eacret — Counting his score."^27,28 He was still on the board in 1927.²⁹

On the course

The club notes called him "Goddy."³⁰ He was a steady competitor rather than a champion. He lost the first-flight final of the 1920 Washington's Birthday tournament to Frank Walsh.³¹ In 1922 he won the President's Cup flight, beating Stanley Helmore 2 up, and in 1925 he took the low-net prize in the senior tournament.^32,33 He stands in the album's photograph of the club's "First Team."³⁴ In September 1925 the golf column reported that "Fighting Godfrey Eacret" had beaten Helmore, Jim Jenkins and Ben Upham and now "fears neither man nor beast." It added: "When Godfrey grits his teeth something has to go."³⁵ That January he, Walsh, Upham and Mills had all seen a mountain lion stalking across the course at the same moment.³⁶

Later years

In October 1931 Eacret was elected president of the Bohemian Club. By the time of his death he had served three terms.^37,1 He died at St. Luke's Hospital on Monday, 17 December 1934, after a week's illness. The Record remembered him as "one of the organizers of the Mill Valley Golf & Country Club" who had kept his membership. Musicians from the Bohemian Club played at the funeral, and among the pallbearers were his old club colleagues Forbes, Upham, Arthur W. Smith and Roy C. Ward.¹ Because the club's land was still partly held in his name, it went to court in 1937 against "Clarise B. Eacret, etc." over Boyle land. This was probably a step to clear the title.³⁸

The accountant

John Franklin Forbes was an accountant by profession, and that shaped everything he did for the golf club.¹ The Record never printed his birth date or his origins, and its pages before 1919 show only a public-spirited Mill Valley householder. He gave to the new Boy Scout troop in 1918, and in 1919 "John Franklin Forbes" was on the town's Victory Loan list.^2,3 In the 1920s the family lived on Magee Avenue. In 1925 the Record noted that "J. F. Forbes of Magee avenue" was driving a new Pierce Arrow.⁴

Secretary-treasurer and trustee

When the new golf club's board organized in September 1919, Forbes became secretary-treasurer, serving under President Godfrey Eacret.⁵ The Record told prospective members to write to "Secretary Forbes, Mill Valley."⁶ The club bought Mrs. Ida M. Boyle's land in the names of two trustees, Eacret and Forbes.⁷ The deed recorded in February 1921, for 15.97 acres of the Boyle Tract with a right to buy more, names both men.⁸ So does a deed of trust that the two men and their wives gave to secure a loan from the Bank of Mill Valley.⁹ His name stayed on the land long after. He gave a further deed of trust on Boyle property in 1937, and a deed of 1938 conveyed another twenty-six lots next to the club tract to "Godfrey Eacret & John F. Forbes," although Eacret had died in 1934.^10,11

He was more than a bookkeeper. On the club's opening night, New Year's 1921, he was one of the members in the evening's entertainment.¹² In 1924 he, Eacret and Ben Upham hosted the luncheon for the caddies' tournament, cooked on the club's outdoor grill in the redwood grove.¹³ A. D. Mills photographed him on the 9th tee for the 1925 album, and placed him with Horace Coffin and Fred Burden among "The 4 Horsemen."^14,15 In 1926 he was named, alongside some of the best-known golfers around the Bay, to the advisory committee for a proposed country club near Alpine Dam.¹⁶

In June 1927, after eight years, he asked to be relieved as secretary-treasurer. The Record's tribute is the best summary of his work. It called him "the financial father of the institution since its inception" and gave his "wise counsel of conservatism" the credit for a club "unique as a club of low dues and no assessments."¹⁷

President in hard times

The great fire of July 1929 swept Magee Avenue. The list of losses there includes "John Forbes, $100,000," the largest on the street and probably the family's home.¹⁸ Afterwards he sat on a citizens' committee pressing for better fire protection.¹⁹ By 1930 the Forbeses lived in Ross. When the club held its annual meeting on 10 June 1930, Forbes was elected president, with Frederick Thompson as vice-president and Sedgley Jory as secretary.²⁰ That November the Record described him as "John Franklin Forbes of Ross, president of the club."²¹ He was still president in June 1933. That month, "in keeping with the trend of the times," the club waived its initiation fee to bring in members.²² The 1939 history makes the point that while thousands of clubs were "folding up" in the Depression, the Mill Valley club "carried on."⁷ The papers do not say exactly when his presidency ended. In 1943 the Record said that "for many years Mr Forbes was president of the Mill Valley and Meadow Golf clubs." That is the only source here for the Meadow Club presidency.²³

Family

His wife was one of the club's best women golfers, though the papers never print her own first name. She won the women's putting contest in June 1922 and was elected ladies' captain that summer.^24,25,26 She won the ladies' eclectic in 1925, and by 1931 she captained the women of the Meadow Club.^27,28 Off the course she chaired civics and forestry for the Outdoor Art Club and served as secretary of Mill Valley's first planning commission.^29,30 Their son John went to Germany with his mother in 1928. By 1934 he was studying for a Ph.D. at Harvard.^31,32

After the sale

Forbes stayed with golf in Mill Valley after the city took over the course. In 1940 he gave the John F. Forbes trophy for the municipal club championship. The Record noted that he had been "for over 20 years active in golf affairs here" and lived in Ross.^33,34 The trophy became a perpetual prize.²³ In 1944 he helped donate war-bond prizes for the club tournament.³⁵ His profession served the town too. In 1940 he made an independent study of a proposed municipal bus line, and in 1943 his firm prepared a financial survey and a new accounting system for the city.^1,36 He was a pallbearer for Eacret in 1934 and for Ralston White in 1943.^37,38 The papers in this collection carry no obituary for him.

A stationer's son

Benjamin Prince Upham was a son of Isaac Upham, the pioneer San Francisco stationer.¹ When his father was killed by an automobile at San Jose in 1908, the estate was divided equally between Ben and his brother, Isaac Oliver Upham.² Ben ran the family firm. By 1909 the Call called him "president of the Isaac Upham company," and in 1924 he was still president of Isaac Upham Co., stationers and printers, when its Market Street premises had a $30,000 fire.^3,4

He came to Mill Valley as a bachelor. He and a friend took a summer bungalow there in 1907, and in July 1908 he moved into his own new bungalow on Lovell Avenue.^5,6 He was a clubman and outdoorsman. He went to the Bohemian Club's encampments, rode into the High Sierra each year on hunting trips, and in 1913 came home from a world tour.^7,8,9 In 1910 he was best man at Ralston White's wedding.¹⁰

The Warner connection

On 19 June 1914 he married Alyce (also spelled Alysse) Warner, daughter of Dr. Alexander Warner, at the First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. This time Ralston White was his best man.^11,12 Before the wedding he gave a barbecue at his Mill Valley home for the Bohemian Club's "Young Turks," and another to open his new swimming tank, with his fiancée as guest of honor.¹³ The couple had three children: Nancy, born in 1915, Leonore, and Benjamin Jr., born in May 1925.^14,15,16

The marriage tied Upham to the land above the golf course. Dr. Warner had owned the canyon beyond the Boyle tract since 1884, and it passed to his daughters, Mrs. Upham and Mrs. Stewart Rawlings.¹⁷ In 1933 the Uphams lent Warner Canyon to the Boy Scouts for overnight hikes.¹⁸

President and barbecue king

Upham played for Mill Valley in its first interclub match, against Belvedere in April 1920.¹⁹ At the club's first annual meeting that June he was elected a director.²⁰ By November 1922 he was "President Upham," giving "an entertaining talk" at the stag dinner for the club's county champions.²¹ Mills's 1925 album captions his portrait "2nd President Ben Upham," which makes him Eacret's successor. The exact years of his term are not in the papers.²² He is also among "The Cup Bearers" in the album.²³

His real fame was at the grill. For the club barbecue of May 1922 he designed a big outdoor grill in the redwood grove and acted as chef.²⁴ The Record reported: "Mr. Upham was supreme in an approved chefs uniform." Walter Robinson called for three cheers, and the chef was garlanded and "made king of the occasion."²⁵ He was "the inimitable chef" again at the 1923 barbecue.²⁶ In 1924 he and Eacret cooked the caddies' tournament luncheon on the same grill.²⁷ In January 1925 he, Frank Walsh, Eacret and A. D. Mills all saw a mountain lion on the course at the same moment.²⁸ He was still a director in 1927.²⁹

Fires, and a road across the fairways

The Uphams' house was among those lost in the Mill Valley fire of July 1929.^30,31 They were renting while they waited to rebuild, and in January 1932 that house, on the O'Hair estate in Cascade Canyon, burned too. A servant overturned an oil heater early one morning, and the family, asleep upstairs, escaped "in night garments."³¹ By 1935 they were living at Del Mesa in Ross.³² He was a pallbearer for Eacret in 1934 and for Ralston White in 1943.^33,34

After the city bought the golf course, the Warner land caused a long tangle. In 1939 Upham wrote for the group that owned 166 acres up Warner's Canyon, asking to keep their right to cross the golf property.³⁵ The city wanted to end that right-of-way "across the fairways" by building a road along the edge of the park. The talks ran on into 1941.^36,37 In 1945 the sisters sold the canyon's 166 acres to J. H. Scott.¹⁷ By 1949 Mr. and Mrs. B. P. Upham were living at 500 Lovell Avenue, back on the street where he had built his bachelor bungalow forty years before.³⁸ The papers in this collection carry no obituary for him.

A Cushing son-in-law

James Jenkins lived from 1886 to 1960, according to the Mill Valley Public Library, which holds three photographs of him on the golf course and a sketch titled "Jenkins Mashie's to the Eighth."^1,2,3,4 The newspapers say nothing of where he came from. He first appears in Mill Valley in August 1909 as "Jas. Jenkins of San Rafael," the fiancé of Miss Dolly Cushing, who brought him to the valley on Sundays.⁵ Dolly was "a popular Mill Valley girl" and the daughter of the late Sidney B. Cushing.⁶ They were married in San Rafael early in January 1910, with only the immediate families present, while "a pretty home was being constructed in Mill Valley."^6,7

That home was on Eldridge Avenue. The street address was later 225 Eldridge, and the Jenkinses lived there for more than thirty years.^8,9,10 A daughter was born in October 1910.¹¹ There were three children: Sarah Lee ("Sally"), James Jr. and Eleanor.^12,13,14 From the start the couple belonged to the Mill Valley set around Ben Upham and Ralston White.¹⁵

The bond man

Jenkins made his career in investment securities. In 1918 he was "manager for E. H. Rollins," a bond house, and one of the hardest workers on Mill Valley's Liberty Loan committee.^16,17 In the 1919 Victory Loan he was a captain in San Francisco and brought in the largest subscription so far, $106,000.¹⁸ In 1922 he chaired the reception committee when the Investment Bankers' Association met in San Francisco, and in 1924 he was elected president of the Investment Bankers Club of San Francisco.^19,20 That spring the Record said he held "an important position with E. H. Rollins and Sons, a leading bond house of San Francisco."²¹ He won a seat on the Marin Municipal Water District board that March, with 1,087 votes.²² When he ran again in 1928 he "won in his home town but lost elsewhere."²³ In the summer of 1932, with the Depression deepening, he chaired the first meeting of a Mill Valley taxpayers' group and became president of the Mill Valley Taxpayers Association. He promised it would be "strictly divorced from politics."^24,25

Golfer and president

Jenkins was on the golf club's membership list in November 1919.²⁶ In the 1920 Washington's Birthday tournament he lost the second-flight final to Henry Marshall. By his own account, he "cracked" on the sixteenth hole.²⁷ He played in Mill Valley's first interclub match, against Belvedere in April 1920.²⁸ In November he won the turkey in the Thanksgiving flag tournament, while his partner Lucien Marsh took the plum pudding.²⁹ That December he partnered the pro Bob Clark in a match against San Rafael that was lost only on the eighteenth hole.³⁰ At the club's 1923 barbecue he led the community sing and "dared anybody to be quiet."³¹

In December 1924 he won the directors' cup. The Record added that he was not only a director but "also holds the office of president this year."³² He was still "President Jenkins" in the golf notes of August and September 1925.^33,34 His presidency therefore coincides with A. D. Mills's album, which shows him three times. One is a portrait captioned "President Jas. Jenkins." The other two show him with Mill Valley's captain, Johnson, and two Marin men, Smith and McCaughern. One of these is on the 4th green during a "Competitive Triangular Match."^35,36,37

Dolly Jenkins

His wife was a force in her own right. In 1922 she captained the club's women's team.³⁸ That November she won the ladies' eclectic with a 70 against the women's par of 74, and the Record called her the "scratch player among the women."³⁹ She gave up her seat on the house committee that fall because of social duties during the investment bankers' convention.⁴⁰ In 1930 she helped found the Marin Maternal Health Association, the forerunner of Planned Parenthood in Marin. It first met at the Jenkins home, and she was elected its president.⁴¹ In 1937 she chaired the Red Cross drive for the Mill Valley district.⁴²

Later years

In 1940 the Record called the couple "residents of Mill Valley for thirty years."¹⁰ He was treated for pneumonia at Ross hospital in March 1942. That May their daughter Eleanor was married at the family home.^43,14 By 1948 Mrs. Jenkins was living at 1101 Green Street in San Francisco.⁴⁴ The papers in this collection carry no obituary for James Jenkins.

A turn-of-the-century summer boy

George McChesney belonged to Mill Valley's first generation of summer young men. A 1949 reminiscence recalls a group of University of California students and glee-club members who spent their weekends at Professor Joseph B. McChesney's summer camp on Alcatraz Place and gathered at the Billings tennis court. It names "George McChesney, now Dr. McChesney," alongside Ralston L. White, Arthur Smith, Frank Owen, Godfrey Eacret and Roy A. Ward.¹ Eacret, Smith, Ward and Owen all turn up again on the golf club's first board or membership list twenty years later.^2,3 The newspapers do not say how he was related to the professor, although sharing a surname and an address suggests family.¹

By 1906 he was "Dr. McChesney," playing tennis on the Mill Valley courts on Labor Day with Arthur Smith, Frank Owen and Godfrey Eacret.⁴ The papers never name his medical specialty or his practice. They are also careless with his initials, printing G. J., G. W. and even George A.; G. J. appears most often.^5,6,7,8 The 1919 Victory Loan list includes a "Major Geo. McChesney," which suggests wartime service, though no details survive in these papers.⁹ In 1927 he was a charter member of the Mill Valley post of the American Legion.⁸

Golfer and president

"Dr. Geo. McChesney" was on the new club's membership list of November 1919.³ His wife was active too. She was in the class of women who took putting lessons from the pro Robert Clark in June 1922, and on the grove committee for the club's costume party and barbecue that July.^10,11 After the first eighteen holes of the 1925 senior championship he stood fourth, at 96-20-76.¹² That June he went to the Bohemian Grove with Upham, Eacret, Marsh and other club men.¹³

At the annual meeting in June 1927 the directors chose him as president, with Lucien Marsh as vice-president. The board under him included Godfrey Eacret, Ben Upham and Archie Treat.¹⁴ The same meeting reluctantly accepted the resignation of John F. Forbes, the club's "financial father," as secretary-treasurer.¹⁴ His term seems to have been short. By September 1928 Marsh was president.¹⁵ The city golf commission's 1947 history of the course names him among the club's presidents.¹⁶

Alcatraz Place

The McChesneys lived on Alcatraz Place.¹⁷ In 1928 he gave to the funds to save the Old Mill Park redwoods and to buy land for Mt. Tamalpais park, and he served on the general committee for the Old Mill Park extension.^18,5,19 In October 1928 the fire department was called to his house, where an electric iron left on a wicker table did $30 of damage.²⁰ The next July, he and his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Smith came back from a motor trip to British Columbia after the great Mill Valley fire. They were "overjoyed to find homes where they had expected a pile of ashes."²¹ By 1933 the McChesneys also had a home in Carmel.⁶

Later years

He stayed loyal to the club after it passed to the city. In December 1943 he was one of sixteen men at the clubhouse luncheon held in memory of Frank K. Brown, who had led the private club in the years before the sale.²² In March 1944 he and his niece, Miss Phyllis McChesney, gave a party at their Alcatraz Place home for a soldier home from the Aleutians. Mrs. McChesney is not mentioned.²³ He was still living in 1949.¹ The papers in this collection carry no obituary for him, and his birth and death dates are unknown.

Miyajima

Lucien Marsh grew up in Blithedale Canyon. He was the son of George T. Marsh, whose Japanese villa and gardens, "Miyajima," stood on Corte Madera Avenue.^1,2 The elder Marsh made regular business trips to Japan and the Orient.^3,4 (The papers spell his first name both Lucien and Lucian.) As a boy Lucien survived being accidentally shot at home, around 1913.⁵ In 1914 he played on the Tamalpais High tennis team that won the Northwest Subleague championship, and in January 1915 he was elected student-body president.^6,7 He served in the military in the First World War and was released in time to spend Christmas 1918 with his parents at Miyajima.¹

On Thanksgiving Day 1919 he married Miss Margaret Aldis in San Francisco.⁸ In 1923 he took out a $10,000 permit for a house on Manzanita Place. The next year the Record described it as a new tile house "at the head of Blithedale Canyon."^9,10 The couple had three children, Lucien Jr., Patricia ("Patsy") and George Turner. George Turner, born in January 1934, was named for his grandfather, "the late George T. Marsh."^11,12

Importer and inventor

By 1928 the Record could call him "the San Francisco importer of Oriental art objects." That year he lent Chinese hangings and pictures to turn the Legion hall into "a huge Chinese pagoda" for a dance.¹³ In 1936 he and Mrs. Marsh left for three months in Japan and China, "combining business with pleasure."¹⁴ In January 1925 he received a U.S. patent for an improved Mah Jongg board. The Record remarked: "Lucien is not only a golf champion, but also a winner at Mah Jongg."¹⁵

The golfer

Marsh was one of the club's strongest players, and A. D. Mills plainly liked to photograph him. The 1925 album has a portrait captioned "Lucian Marsh," and he also appears among "The Cup Bearers." Three more frames are captioned simply "Lucian," "Lucian well out" (from the barranca) and "Lucian well pleased with his shot."^{16,17,18,19,20}

The record bears out the attention. In the 1920 Thanksgiving flag tournament, playing with Jim Jenkins, he won the plum pudding.²¹ In July 1921 he won the new Club Cup with 88-23-65. The column warned that "Mr. Handicapper and Lucien will not be on friendly terms for a few days."²² He won it again that October.²³ In May 1923 he lost the club championship to Stanley Helmore in a 36-hole final, "a gruelling all day battle." He had come to the eighteenth tee of the morning round one up.²⁴ He played for Mill Valley in interclub and county team matches through the 1920s and into the 1930s. In 1931 he partnered Frank Walsh in the Marin County team championship, and in 1933 he was on the side that won the county quadrangular title.^25,26,27 In April 1932 he met the defending champion, Herb Anderson, in the 36-hole final for the club championship.²⁸

President

At the June 1927 annual meeting Marsh was elected a director for two years and named vice-president under Dr. George McChesney.²⁹ By the fall of 1928 he was president. At that September's annual dinner, Mrs. Marsh, "wife of the president of the club," led the guests out to the redwood-ringed fourth fairway, where by bonfire and flares they watched a performance of the "Haka," described as a South Sea Islands war dance.³⁰ The papers do not record when his term ended. The city golf commission's 1947 history lists him among the club's presidents.³¹ Mrs. Marsh served regularly on the club's women's entertainment committees.^32,33

Later years

Marsh was an active townsman. He was a member of the Mill Valley American Legion post in 1927 and went to the Bohemian Grove with other club men in 1925.^34,35 He served on the Old Mill Park committee in 1928.³⁶ In 1935 the new North Bay Kennel Club met at his home to plan its first dog show.³⁷ The war brought the family a heavy loss. Their son Lt. Lucien Marsh of the Army Air Force was killed in a plane accident at a Southern training field in 1943. By then the parents were described as "of Mill Valley and San Francisco."^38,39 That October Marsh was a pallbearer for Ralston White.⁴⁰ The papers in this collection carry no obituary for him, and his birth and death dates are unknown.

From Virginia City

Frank Knox Brown was born in Virginia City, Nevada, on 14 November 1879. He was the son of Judge and Mrs. John Knox Brown, who later lived in Fairbanks, Alaska.¹ He made his career with the Kelley-Clarke Company, food and sugar brokers. The firm transferred him from a post in the Pacific Northwest to the Bay Area in 1918, and he was its president when he retired, a few months before his death.¹ In 1931 he was president of the San Francisco Brokers' Association and attended its golf tournament at the Meadow Club.²

He and his wife, Jessie Donaldson Brown, came to Mill Valley in 1923, and their home was at 2 Lincoln Avenue.¹ Her mother, Mrs. W. A. Donaldson of Ventura, visited them, and in 1931 Miss Betty Donaldson came back with her "to again make her home with the Browns."³ In 1932 Mrs. Brown, with Mrs. James Jenkins and others, arranged one of the world-affairs discussion afternoons led by Mrs. Horace Coffin.⁴

Golfer

Golf, his obituary said, "was his hobby."¹ He was playing in club matches by 1925. That September the golf column reported that "Captain Johnson beat a hasty retreat in front of Frank K. Brown, with a score that may only be spoken in whispers."⁵ On 28 April 1928 he was one of three witnesses when Harold Bunn shot a 68, which the Record called "the lowest amateur score turned in since the inception of the Club."⁶ In June 1930 he was elected to the board of directors under President John F. Forbes.⁷ In 1931 he and Fred Finn were one of Mill Valley's pairs in the Marin County team matches.⁸

The last president

Brown led the private club in its final years. In July 1936 he signed the club's resolution of tribute to Frank E. Lockwood as "President, F. K. Brown," with J. S. Jory as secretary.⁹ His obituary says he was "active in the development of the Mill Valley Golf and Country club serving as president for two years."¹ A memorial article put it more loosely: he was president "for some years previous to the sale of the golf grounds to the City of Mill Valley."¹⁰ The exact dates of his term are not in the papers. Neither the 1939 nor the 1947 history explains how the decision to sell was reached.¹¹ The 1947 history simply lists "the late Frank K Brown" as the last of the presidents it names.¹²

Public spirit

The Record called him "one of Mill Valley's most public spirited men." After the 1929 fire, which destroyed a hundred Mill Valley homes, and again during the Depression, he was active in helping those who suffered.¹ When the Red Cross launched its war-fund drive in Mill Valley in December 1941, his $50 check was the first contribution.¹³ At his death he was on the advisory board of the Mill Valley branch of the Bank of America.¹ In 1933 he was a pallbearer at the Masonic funeral of his fellow club member Charles H. Huntoon.¹⁴

Memorial

Brown died in late May 1943, at sixty-three, at his summer home at Westlake, Oregon, after several months of illness. Mill Valley Lodge No. 356, F. & A. M., conducted his funeral in San Francisco, and he was inurned at Cypress Lawn.¹ That December sixteen men gathered at the clubhouse for a luncheon "to a fine gentleman." Among them were Leigh Jones, Dr. George McChesney and the organizer, Thomas J. Sewell.¹⁰ Fifty-three men, "many residing in distant states," contributed to an inscribed silver bowl, to be played for each year, and to a scroll with their names that was hung in the clubhouse. The bowl went to Mrs. Brown to keep until it was first awarded.¹⁰ The Frank K. Brown memorial tournament began on the municipal course in October 1944, with each winner's name to be engraved on the bowl.¹⁵

Charles F. Runyon was one of Mill Valley's founding businessmen. In 1907 he was among the men who opened the Bank of Mill Valley with Frank Bostwick.¹ A "P. C. Runyon" was in the party that camped at the Cascades for the town's first lot auction in 1890. That was probably him, since the papers often garble his initials.² He lived at Lovell and Cornelia avenues.^3,4

In April 1916 he chaired the membership committee of the new Mill Valley Town and Country Club, the forerunner of the golf club. Would-be members were told to "communicate with Chas. F. Runyon," and he took one of the $100 trustees' notes himself.⁵ In 1940 the Record recalled that he, Horace Coffin and Cleveland Dam drew up the club's by-laws "when they had neither grounds nor clubhouse."⁶

He was part of the town's establishment. He served on the Liberty Loan committee in 1918. In 1921 he was among the donors, with Mayor Ward, Eacret and Bostwick, to a tool fund for Tamalpais High's vocational school.^7,8 In 1927 he went to the Bohemian Club's summer jinks.⁹ His sister, Miss Belle Runyon, also lived on Lovell Avenue.¹⁰ The papers spell his name both Runyon and Runyan.⁶

Charles Harvey Huntoon was born in Newport, New Hampshire, and lived in Mill Valley from 1909. For many years he was cashier of the Bank of Mill Valley, and he stayed with it after it became part of the Bank of America system. He left in 1932 to go into insurance.¹ He served in the Spanish-American War, and he was a Past Master of Mill Valley Lodge No. 356.¹ The family lived on Buena Vista Avenue.¹

The club's 1939 history names him treasurer of the first Town and Country Club meeting in 1916.² He became a dogged golfer. In June 1922 his son Charles Jr., nearly fourteen, drowned.³ That December, Huntoon won the Directors' Cup by beating the club's scratch man, Frank Walsh, in the final. The column said he "played the game of his life" with a backbone that "neither nerve, experience or brilliance on the part of his opponent could overcome," and named him "Our Huntoon, the Indomitable." He was to chair the greens committee for 1923.^4,5

In 1925 he was third after the first round of the senior championship.⁶ In April 1928 he was one of the three witnesses to Harold Bunn's 68, then the club's amateur record.⁷ He is named among "The Cup Bearers" in the 1925 album, and A. D. Mills caught him playing "to 1st Green."^8,9 He was a charter officer of Mill Valley Rotary and became its president in 1932.^10,11 He died at home on December 31, 1932, before his term ended. Frank K. Brown was among his pallbearers.¹

Cleveland L. Dam was a Mill Valley businessman and a born organizer. In 1915 he was president of the Marin Civic Federation, representing the Mill Valley Business Association, and a San Rafael writer called him "the right man in the right place."¹ The year before, he umpired the Mill Valley–Ross Valley baseball game.²

He was one of the first backers of the Mill Valley Town and Country Club, taking a $100 trustees' note in April 1916.³ That June he was named its vice-president under Frank Bostwick.⁴ In 1940 the Record recalled that he, Horace Coffin and Charles F. Runyon drew up the club's by-laws at Coffin's home, "when they had neither grounds nor clubhouse."⁵ The 1939 club history lists a "C. L. Bane" on the by-laws committee, and that is probably a misprint of his name.⁶ A "C. L. Dam" appears on the golf club's first membership list in November 1919, though the print is not clear.⁷

After that the papers mostly mention Mrs. Cleveland Dam. She lived on Corte Madera Avenue, and her brother, J. J. Morris, was a rice promoter at Colusa.^8,9 In the July 1929 fire, a $15,000 loss on Magee Avenue was listed in her name.¹⁰ When and where he died is not in the papers searched.

Frank Edgar Lockwood was born in 1877 at Rutherford, California. He trained in pharmacy and graduated from the University of California in 1899. After the 1906 earthquake ruined his San Francisco drugstore, he bought the drugstore at Miller and Throckmorton avenues in Mill Valley and ran it for thirty years.¹

He was one of the directors when the Mill Valley Town and Country Club was formed in June 1916.² In 1947 the city's Golf Commission named him, with Leigh S. Jones, Arthur Smith and Fred Burden, as the committee of founders who laid out the course with "Dad" Clark.³ He played the game as well. In 1921 he and Mrs. C. W. Cook won the Labor Day mixed foursome.⁴ He came to the 1929 costume opening as "a sixteenth century dude,"⁵ and he was a director of the club in 1930.⁶

He died in July 1936. His obituary called him a director of the Golf and Country Club and a past president of the Rotary Club. His widow, Violet, played on.¹ As Mrs. Frank Lockwood she was runner-up for the club's women's championship in 1937.⁷

Pioneer

Frank Fiske Bostwick was born in Detroit on 10 June 1860. He came to California as a young man and worked as confidential secretary for the Crocker Company in San Francisco.¹ He married Isabel Stewart, a San Franciscan, on 12 June 1888.² Like other young couples, the Bostwicks spent summers camping in Mill Valley. At the Tamalpais Land and Water Company's auction of 30 May 1890 they bought a hillside lot at Lovell and Cornelia avenues.^1,2 In 1897 his friend Harvey A. Klyce built them "Blink Bonnie," the house they lived in for the rest of their lives.²

He had interests well beyond the village. His obituary says he represented the Korean business interests of his cousin Harry Bostwick, who built a railroad out of Seoul, and that he was consul general for Korea in San Francisco until about 1904. He also had mining interests in Mexico.¹

First mayor, first banker

Bostwick helped incorporate the town on 1 September 1900 and was named its first mayor. Deeds from the land company banned the sale of liquor, and he fought to enforce them. When the saloon owners won in court, he led a successful push for a license fee so high that "only one establishment could prosper."¹ Recalling that first board in 1936, he said: "We earnestly and conscientiously did our utmost to start the town right."¹

When the Bank of Mill Valley opened on 15 June 1907, he was its first president. He held the post until the Bank of Italy bought the bank in 1928, and then headed the board of the Mill Valley branch.^2,3 He was a charter member of Mill Valley Lodge No. 356, F. & A. M., and its first treasurer.¹ He did much of the editorial work in the Record's early days, and he catalogued the books that became the nucleus of the public library.¹ For many years he was organist and vestryman at the Church of Our Saviour, and he was senior warden when he died.^1,2 Isabel Bostwick was among the first presidents of the Outdoor Art Club and was often called "the mother of the club."^2,4

The club's first chairman

The golf club grew out of an earlier idea. On 28 April 1916 about seventy-five people met to form a social club, with Bostwick as chairman and Arthur W. Smith as secretary.⁵ By June he was president of the new Mill Valley Town and Country Club. It was a family club, open to men and women, and its constitution promised "to advance the general interests of Mill Valley."⁶ That October he presided when the club heard A. E. Loder of the State Highway Commission on "the Problem of Roads."⁷ Then the war came. Bostwick chaired Mill Valley's Liberty Loan committee and made many speeches at the Hub theater selling bonds.^8,1 The Town and Country Club, the 1939 history says, was "definitely in the discard."⁵

When the idea came back in 1919 as a golf club, Bostwick was on its first board of directors.⁹ With Godfrey Eacret and Arthur W. Smith he negotiated the purchase of Mrs. Ida M. Boyle's land in the canyon.⁵ He was re-elected a director at the first annual meeting in June 1920.¹⁰ Mrs. Bostwick chaired the committee for the club's first New Year's dinner in the new clubhouse.^11,12 She also joined the women's putting class that the pro Robert Clark began in June 1922.¹³ At the club's Fourth of July "Kid Party" that summer, the town's first mayor, then sixty-two, came as "a little boy with a slingshot."¹⁴

Later years

He stayed busy in civic life. In 1928 he was treasurer of the local Hoover committee and gave to the fund for Old Mill Park.^15,16 In 1933 he spoke at the Commonwealth Club on community health.¹⁷ In March 1938 the city made him its tax collector.¹ The Bostwicks celebrated their golden wedding on 12 June 1938.¹ He died at Blink Bonnie on 14 June 1939, four days after his seventy-ninth birthday, and the city council adjourned early in his memory.^1,18 He left his wife, his son Stewart, his daughter Mrs. Janet Catlin of Auburn, and five grandchildren. Isabel died in November 1941.^1,19,2

Horace Coffin spent his whole working life with Baker & Hamilton in San Francisco. He retired in July 1945 "after 64 years of service."¹ He was the retiring master of Mill Valley Lodge No. 356, F. & A. M., in December 1915.² He was a director of the Mill Valley Town and Country Club in 1916, and he sat on the golf club's first board in 1919.^3,4

When his colleagues gave him a surprise luncheon for his 75th birthday in January 1940, the Record recalled that he, Cleveland Dam and Charles F. Runyon had drawn up the club's by-laws at his Mill Valley home "when they had neither grounds nor clubhouse."⁵ (The 1939 club history puts Mrs. Horace Coffin, rather than Horace, on the 1916 by-laws committee.⁶) The Record added that he "was a champion walker and an expert bowler, but now he only plays golf."⁵

He was a cheerful competitor. In a 1922 Directors' Cup match against Henry Marshall, the two halved the 4th hole in 4s, the 5th in 5s, the 6th in 6s and the 7th in 7s. Coffin lost at the nineteenth and said, "Henry's a tough bird."⁷ When Walter Robinson read that golf would be played in the hereafter, Coffin replied, "Fine, some day I'll beat Frank Walsh without a handicap."⁷ In 1925 he was sixth after the first round of the senior championship.⁸ He was still playing at 76, finishing second in a municipal blind bogey in 1941.⁹ He is named among "The Cup Bearers" and "The 4 Horsemen" in the 1925 album.^10,11

Arthur W. Smith belonged to the circle of young men who played tennis on Mill Valley's Billings court around 1900, along with Godfrey Eacret and George McChesney.¹ He was secretary at the first meeting of the Mill Valley Town and Country Club in 1916. According to the club's 1939 history, "negotiations for the purchase of land were undertaken by Godfrey Eacret, F. F. Bostwick, and Arthur W. Smith."²

He sat on the golf club's first board in 1919, and the first list of committee chairmen gives the greens committee to him.^3,4 The 1947 city history also names him on the founders' committee that laid out the course with "Dad" Clark.⁵ He served on Mill Valley's Liberty Loan committee in 1918.⁶

He was a steady match player. In the 1922 Directors' Cup he beat Allen Penfield 6 and 5 and reached the semi-finals against Frank Walsh, starting seven holes up. Walsh won and went on to the final.^7,8

He and Dr. McChesney stayed close friends. In July 1929 the two couples drove home from British Columbia expecting to find their houses burned in the great fire, and were "overjoyed to find homes where they had expected a pile of ashes." In 1933 they were together at Carmel.^9,10 He was a pallbearer for Eacret in 1934. In 1940 he was a director of the Tamalpais Land & Water Company, the firm that had laid out the town.^11,12

George H. Lowell was a director on the golf club's first board and chairman of its building committee.^1,2 Work on Walter H. Ratcliff's clubhouse began in October 1919 "under the supervision of the club's house committee, of which George Lowell is chairman."³ In November the Record said he was "giving constant attention to the work."⁴ Late that month he stood in front of the nearly finished building, looked out over the links, and said: "Ain't it grand… I've met more Mill Valley people in the last month at the Golf Club than during the last five years in Mill Valley."²

He was keen rather than skilled at first. One week he spent seven hours on the links, six of them in the creek looking for his ball. The next week he reported, "Great game today, top of my form—only spent half of my time in the creek." The column decided that "if golf was a game of endurance, George Lowell has already cinched the club championship."⁴ In December 1919 one of his shots nearly hit A. D. Mills, who was busy photographing an airplane.⁵

In 1920 he gave "a remarkable cup" for a men's eclectic tournament, and he played for the club against Belvedere and Marin.^6,7,8 His wife served on the committee that furnished the clubhouse.⁹ By 1922 his game had become the club's yardstick: "If he is going good the links are in fine shape, but if he is in the 90s the fairways are poor."¹⁰ The papers searched do not mention him after 1922.

Leigh S. Jones, often printed "Lee," was one of the golf club's founding directors in 1919.^1,2 The 1947 city history credits a committee of founders, "Leigh S. Jones, Arthur Smith, the late Fred Burden and the late Frank Lockwood," with laying out the course, and says "Dad Clark was employed for that purpose."³ He had served on Mill Valley's Liberty Loan committee in 1918.⁴

In March 1920 he, Mrs. J. J. Greely and Mrs. George Lowell, the house-furnishing committee, surprised the members by delivering and installing the clubhouse furniture.⁵ He liked to show the course off. That February he brought a guest from Philadelphia who "has played on many links and pronounces ours as the most remarkable in setting."⁶

He played in the club's first interclub match against Belvedere in April 1920, and against Marin the next year.^7,8 He is named in the album's photo of "The First Team — Many Victories."⁹ In November 1924 he beat Tom Patterson in the final of the Thanksgiving tournament and won the turkey.¹⁰

He stayed with the old guard long after the city took over the course. In December 1943 he was among the men who met at the clubhouse in memory of Frank K. Brown.¹¹ In 1947 he and Mrs. Jones were cruising with the San Francisco Yacht Club.¹²

Roy C. Ward was living in Mill Valley by 1906.¹ His wife was the daughter of the pioneer Mrs. George Billings.² He was a shipping broker by trade, and in 1921 he came home from a two-month business trip to "the Antipodes."^3,4

When the golf club's board organized in September 1919, Ward was vice-president under Godfrey Eacret.⁵ He used the new club. In May 1920 he gave a dinner for ten friends there, and his daughter Jean partnered George Lowell to second place in the club's mixed foursome that June.^6,7

He was also a leader in town government. In June 1920 he chaired the Town Board of Trustees, and by early 1921 he was "Mayor R. C. Ward."^8,9 From 1927 the papers called him "Col. R. C. Ward."¹⁰ He went back on the council in 1930. In 1931 the Record headlined "Colonel Ward Objects To Abusive Terms" when he protested a speaker's line that "tax dodgers" were no better than "draft dodgers."^3,11 He was re-elected in April 1932 and was mayor again that year.^3,12 As mayor that October he told the council about a new county unemployment relief committee of mayors from the nine incorporated towns.¹² His daughter Sue was at Stanford in 1933.¹³ In 1934 he was a pallbearer for his old friend Eacret.¹⁴

Walter H. Robinson was a Mill Valley attorney and one of the golf club's first directors in 1919.^1,2 In 1920 he was elected secretary of the new Marin water district organization.³ In 1924 he argued the town's grade-crossing case for the Chamber of Commerce and the Outdoor Art Club.⁴ In 1928 he headed Mill Valley's Hoover-for-President committee and was one of the first directors of the new Mill Valley Bank.^5,6

At the club he was good company. At the 1922 barbecue, "Attorney Walter H. Robinson, in professional gown, called for three cheers for the chef," Ben Upham, and then conferred on the chef "the degree of the Order of the Garter."⁷ At that summer's costume party he came as "a fetching Buster Brown."⁸ The golf column called him "that good fellow and able advocate" and proposed writing him in for the state Supreme Court.⁹

He was a charter member of Mill Valley Rotary. In 1930 he became its fifth president, and the Record said he had "long been recognized as the silver tongued orator of the organization."^10,11 At that year's mock Rotary court he was "convicted," with three others, of "attempting to restrain women from playing golf when their lords and masters desired the links."¹¹ By 1939 he lived in Beverly Hills, but he came north that year to take part in a Rotary program.¹²

John H. Clark of San Rafael built the Mill Valley course. When the links opened in November 1919, the Record said they had been made "under the expert supervision of J. H. Clark, golf course architect," and that he had already laid out the Marin Golf and Country Club course at San Rafael and "the original Ingleside Links in San Francisco."¹ The papers never give his age, his birthplace or his middle name. The members simply called him "Pop," "Dad" or "Daddy."^2,3,4

Building the course

In June 1919 the San Francisco Call reported that the club's hundred charter members would soon open "their new golf course, now being completed by J. H. Clark." It was a nine-hole layout, and Clark promised it would be "one of the sportiest of golf courses on the coast."⁵ By November it was about 2,500 yards long, all but two greens were playable, and a water system to the greens had been installed. The Record praised its "ideal natural hazards, rolling fairways and well-located greens."¹ The chief hazard was the creek that wound through the canyon. The members first called it "the ditch," until a visitor dignified it as a "barranca," and by 1920 it came into play on seven of the nine holes.^6,2,7

The work was done cheaply. In March 1920 Pacific Golf and Motor reported that the course "was laid out and completed at the very modest expenditure of $4,000," and it gave the length as 2,359 yards.⁷ Later accounts divide the credit. The 1939 club history says the links "were laid out by John Clark, a golf engineer and architect."⁸ The 1947 city golf commission says a committee of founders, Leigh S. Jones, Arthur Smith, Fred Burden and Frank Lockwood, "was delegated to lay out the course and Dad Clark was employed for that purpose."⁴ Probably both are true: the committee chose and paid for the work, and Clark did it.

Keeper of the barranca

Clark stayed on to look after what he had built. In January 1920 the club gave John Clark "complete charge of the maintenance of the course, the hiring of labor, etc.," and called him "well trained in this class of work."⁹ A February column named him "the father of construction" and hoped he would be "the permanent greenkeeper."² A headline the next week called him "Custodian of Only Wild Barranca in Captivity."¹⁰

The golf columns were fond of him. One said that the engineer of a train held up for a lady golfer at Pinehurst "has nothing on 'Daddy' Clark backing the horse lawn mower off the course to let players through."³ On the club's first birthday, the column remembered the day "'Daddy' Clark, who knew all the little blades of grass on the greens by their first names," herded "a fine flock of tee boxes" under the redwoods by the ninth. They were pale green, and by the next weekend he had one at every tee.⁶

The Clark family

He was also the father of two golf professionals. The 1920 column called him "the father of the professionals, Bob and Harold, who have been identified with golf in Marin county for a number of years."² Bob became Mill Valley's first professional, and Harold was the professional at the Marin Golf and Country Club.^4,11

The Record does not say when Clark gave up the greenkeeper's job. In January 1922 it reported that the town of Sonoma was building a golf course and that "John Clark of San Rafael has been engaged to lay it out and arrange for its equipment."¹² Whether he finished that course, and when he died, the Mill Valley papers do not say.

Robert C. Clark, "known to golf players as 'Bob,'" was the son of John H. "Pop" Clark, the man who built the course, and he was the Mill Valley club's first professional.^1,2 In June 1919 "R. C. Clark" was the pro at the Belvedere Country Club. That month he staged a "freak" tournament there, played "in sort of Chinese fashion—backward."³

The first pro

He came to Mill Valley as the course was being finished. In November 1919 the column was already telling stories about his lessons, and a year later it remembered "'Bobby' Clark wrestling with the raw material in the almond orchard."^4,5 In January 1920 he visited the Call. The "youthful pro" told the paper that the Marin "natives" were "taking to golf like the proverbial duck to water."⁶ That same month the greens committee met with John and Bob Clark to plan a season of improvements.⁷

He was a long hitter. In February 1920 a columnist saw him drive the 254-yard eighth green twice in one afternoon, over the barranca.⁸ At the Northern California Open that March he was credited with the longest drive of the tournament.⁹ He went around his home course in 31 and 32, and the club's two low men, Frank Walsh and Tom Patterson, challenged him to a best-ball match.^10,11 He picked the team for the first interclub match against Belvedere.¹² On April 25, 1920, he and his brother Harold were booked to play an exhibition foursome on the course against John and Bob Black, and the club put up a purse.^13,14

Byron Hot Springs

His best day came on March 8, 1921. At the invitational amateur-professional tournament at Byron Hot Springs, Clark led after the morning round and won with 149 for 36 holes. Harold Sampson of Burlingame was second and John Black third. The Call called it "one of the most consistent games of golf turned in during any tournament held in northern California this year."^15,16 (The Record gives Sampson's score as 162, but the Call's 152, three strokes behind, is probably right.) That February he had also gone south to play a championship tournament at Los Angeles.^17,18

Teacher

At home he taught. In 1921 members were "doing considerable night work in Bob Clark's studio across from the movies."¹⁹ That summer he was off work for six weeks or more and had an operation.²⁰ In June 1922 he began a weekly putting class for the women members, and fourteen of them "proved apt pupils."²¹ At the club barbecue that month, "the popular coach of the golf links" led the procession to the redwood grove.²² On June 18, 1922, he and Eddie Traube lost 2 down to the Black brothers in an exhibition at Mill Valley. The match raised money to send the Northern California professional champion to the U.S. Open in Chicago.²³

On September 15, 1922, he went around in 29 and holed his tee shot at the fourth. It was "the first 'hole-in-one' ever made on the local links," and it earned him a steel-shafted club and a dozen balls from the manufacturers.²⁴

Leaving

A month later his resignation was before the directors. The column said "the club is to lose the services of its genial professional" and added: "Sorry to see you go, Bob."²⁵ In January 1923 the club wrote that he "goes to larger fields," taking "the well earned affection" of the members with him, and J. Martin Watson took his place.²⁶ On March 2, 1923, Clark became head of a new golf school at The Tog Shop in San Francisco, and his family stayed in Mill Valley.¹ That October the Examiner printed a nearly life-size illustration of him, as one of the leaders of a new games and athletics program at The Emporium.²⁷ After that the Mill Valley papers lose track of him.

Walter H. Ratcliff, "the well-known architect of Berkeley," designed the Mill Valley clubhouse.¹ The local papers say almost nothing else about him. Outside sources fill in his career. The Berkeley e-plaque calls him Walter Ratcliff Jr. and says he was born in England in 1881, studied at the University of California and briefly at the American College in Rome, and opened his own office in 1908. From 1914 to 1920 he was Berkeley's "first and only City Architect." His work there includes the Chamber of Commerce Building downtown, fire stations, schools and the Mills College campus plan.² The sources disagree about his death: the plaque gives 1881–1973, while Wikipedia, which names him Walter Harris Ratcliff Jr. and gives London as his birthplace, gives 1881–1978.^2,3

The clubhouse

Work began on the foundations on October 18, 1919, "under the supervision of the club's house committee, of which George Lowell is chairman."¹ The Record praised the plan: "the architect gave careful consideration to the contour of the site, and to the background of hillside and foliage against which the clubhouse will stand." It promised "a building in complete architectural harmony with its surroundings."¹

The design called for a large central unit with a broad veranda along its whole front, and wings on either side for the housekeeper's quarters, locker rooms and baths. The central unit held an assembly room 25 by 40 feet. Building started with that central part, and the club hoped to keep going until the whole was done.¹

It went up in stages. By late November the foundations were poured and Lowell stood before "the nearly completed Clubhouse."^4,5 By March 1920, "the first unit of the clubhouse was then built at a cost of $6,000."⁶ In November 1920 "the second and third installments of the club house are about finished."⁷ By June 1922 a fire was "crackling on the hearth" in its "beautifully decorated reception room."⁸ A. D. Mills photographed the building from the hills for his 1924–25 album.^9,10

The man

Only two other items in the papers may refer to him. A "Mrs. Walter H. Ratcliff Jr." was at a Francisca Club luncheon in San Francisco in 1915. Since the architect was himself a "Jr.," she was probably his wife.¹¹ A "Walter Ratcliff" was drawn in the third flight of a Bay Area amateur tournament in May 1922. He may have been the architect, but the Call does not say.¹²

J. Martin Watson came to California from Portland, where he had been "connected with the Waverly Country Club."¹ In July 1921 he succeeded Henry Jones as professional at the California Golf Club in San Francisco. The Call counted him, with Jimmy Duncan and Sam Whiting, among the newcomers who would strengthen the local professionals.¹ In the January 1922 Northern California Open he played for the California club and shot 91 and 84, for 175.² By March 1922 he had resigned that post.³

Mill Valley, 1923

In January 1923 the Mill Valley club announced, "Our new professional J. Martin Watson has arrived," to replace the retiring Bob Clark.⁴ The column gave him an impressive pedigree. It said he was "a graduate of St. Andrews University, Scotland," that he "was at one time a partner with his brother William Watson, as golf architect," and that he had been professional at the Waverly, California and Colorado Springs clubs. It also quoted the golf editor Hay Chapman, who considered him "the equal of the best in this country" as an instructor.⁴ The papers offer no independent check on the St. Andrews claim.

He was hired for building as well as teaching. With member Leslie Symmes, "considered the last authority on soils and drainage," he was to spend three months on "the reconstruction of the 6th and 9th greens." The club hoped the work would end their role as "the cause of either ruffled tempers or the jokers jests."⁴ For his time there, the club itself took over "all concessions, such as golf lessons, the sale of clubs and balls."⁴

The appointment was meant to be short. He was "with us only for three months, until the Colorado Springs course to which club he is now attached, is reopened in the spring," and members were urged to book lessons at once.⁴ In February 1923 the Stockton Golf and Country Club listed him among the candidates for its professional's post, "now in charge of the greens at the Mill Valley Country club, formerly at Colorado Springs." A "Bob Clarke of San Francisco," probably Bob Clark, was on the same list.⁵

Still on the first tee

The papers do not say when he left. But A. D. Mills's album of 1924–25 has four pictures labeled with his name: a portrait, "1st Tee — J. Martin Watson," "Martin Watson," and "J. Martin Watson — Shooting to 3rd."^6,7,8,9 So he probably stayed in Mill Valley longer than planned, or came back. The 1947 city golf history leaves him out. It names Arthur Whiting as Bob Clark's successor, and Whiting also appears in the album on the 2nd tee.^10,11 A "Martin Watson" was a dinner guest in Mill Valley in 1931, but he may not be the golfer.¹²

Arthur Whiting was a Bay Area professional. In January 1922 he was listed from the Olympic Club in a Northern California professional event,¹ and that April he entered a professionals' sweepstakes at Lakeside.² By the spring of 1924 he was the Mill Valley professional. The winner of that year's caddies' tournament got his choice of any club "in the shop of Professional Arthur Whiting."³ In January 1925 a "Whiting," probably the pro, was among the members who planned a round-up of the mountain lion on the links.⁴

In 1947 the city's Golf Commission listed him as the successor to Bob Clark, the first professional, and said Ed Bedecarrax and Frank Assin followed him.⁵ That list leaves out J. Martin Watson, who came in 1923,⁶ so Whiting probably followed Watson.

Harold Clark was the other professional son of John H. "Pop" Clark, who built the Mill Valley course. In 1920 the club column described the family as "the father of the professionals, Bob and Harold, who have been identified with golf in Marin county for a number of years."¹ While his brother Bob taught at Mill Valley, Harold was "the professional at the Marin Golf and Country Club, San Rafael," the course his father had laid out.^2,3

The brothers played together on the new links. The Record announced a "Spectacular Professional Match": the Clark brothers against the Black brothers, John of the Claremont Country Club and Bob of the Sequoia club in Oakland, in an exhibition foursome on April 25, 1920. John Black had already won both the Northern and Southern California titles that year, but "these Clark boys can make it interesting for any of them," the paper said.² The Call reported that the match had been put off a week and that the Mill Valley club had put up a purse.⁴ The papers in the dossier do not give the result.

He played in the professional tournaments of the day. In March 1921 he was entered, from the Marin Golf Club, in the invitational at Byron Hot Springs that his brother won.⁵ In July 1921 the Call reported that a "'Bud' Clark of Mill Valley" had succeeded Willie Lock as professional at the San Francisco Golf and Country Club.⁶ Harold was entered from that club six months later, so "Bud" was probably Harold.⁷

The January 1922 Northern California Open, played at the San Francisco Golf and Country Club, was his best showing in the papers. In a windy morning round he shot 79, which matched the best score in the field. He added an 87 for 162 over 36 holes. That left him tied with Jack Neville and George Howard, one stroke out of a share of fifth place with Harold Sampson and the American Open champion, Jim Barnes. His brother Bob finished on 170.⁷ In July 1922 Harold and Bob were among the professionals, with the Black brothers and Eddie Traube, trying "to hang up a record" on the new Valley of the Moon course in Sonoma County.⁸

That is the last the dossier shows of him. His birth, how long he stayed in Bay Area golf, and his death are not in the papers searched.

The golf course was laid out on Boyle family land. The club's 1939 history says the site "was a tract of thirty-five acres belonging to Mrs. Ida M. Boyle," bought "in the name of the trustees, Eacret and Forbes." Title later passed to a corporation, and the golf area grew to forty-two acres.¹ In 1950 the Record traced the estate back further, as "a remainder of the Mexican land grant to John Reed," who built the old mill that gave the town its name.²

The family and the land

Ida M. Boyle was the wife of Hugh A. Boyle. Hugh Allen Boyle and Sydney F. Boyle signed the family's land deeds with them.³ Their "handsome home" was on Blithedale Avenue. In May 1920 the family left it to live in Petaluma, where Mrs. Boyle had a business that hired a Mill Valley bookkeeper.^4,5

On paper, much of the canyon was in her husband's name. The 1921 county tax list shows Hugh A. Boyle's tract, bounded on the south by the town limits and on the west by the lands of Stetson, Warner and Burt. It contained "217.8 acres less 2.2 acres deeded to Mill Valley Town and Country Club," and the sons held smaller tracts to the north.⁶ In October 1922 Hugh A. Boyle and his wife, with Hugh Allen and Sydney F. Boyle, deeded parcels of a 35.97-acre tract to the club's trustees, Godfrey Eacret and John F. Forbes.³ The papers do not show the date or price of the whole sale. It may have closed in stages.

Developer and realtor

In May 1922 Mrs. Boyle reopened "her spacious residence on Blithedale and Elm avenue" and prepared "to place her large estate on the market." A new road was to be cut through the land "opposite the Golf Grounds," and she planned several modern bungalows.⁷ By 1931 she was "Mrs. Ida Boyle, realtor."⁸ In 1938 she deeded to Eacret and Forbes "26 lots adjoining 2 acre tract M. Valley Golf & Co. Club."⁹

The road that never was

After the city bought the course, she was its neighbor and sometimes its adversary. For six months in 1939 and early 1940 the council negotiated with her for a 40-foot strip along the park's northern boundary. The city would grade and pave a road there, and Benjamin Upham would give up his right-of-way through the middle of the fairways to his Warner Canyon land.¹⁰ The deal fell apart on January 31, 1940, when councilmen objected to a clause that reserved to her the right to grant utility easements over the road. "If I go out of here tonight with this matter undecided by you, I won't return!" she told them. They did not decide, and she "walked heatedly out." Her parting words were, "I didn't ask you for this project, you asked me!"¹⁰ In April 1941 the city was negotiating the road again, this time with J. H. Scott, whose property "was formerly owned by Mrs. Ida M. Boyle."¹¹

The quarrel outlived her. In 1950 Sydney F. Boyle and Mrs. Hilarita Silverberg, "heirs to the Ida M. Boyle estate," sued for a road right-of-way "smack across" the municipal course so that they could subdivide land north and east of it. The suit was taken off the calendar while the city talked of annexing about 90 acres in exchange for access.² Her own birth and death dates are not in the papers searched.

Fred Burden (F. A. Burden) was on the club's first membership list in November 1919.¹ Days later he was named the membership committee.² In 1947 the city's Golf Commission named "the late Fred Burden" as one of four founders who had laid out the course with "Dad" Clark.³ He also appears in the club's first golf joke. In 1919 the Call told of him topping a cleek shot on the third tee, which overlooks a creek, while a passer-by looked on.⁴

He was team captain in 1922, when Mill Valley's eight-man side opened the Marin County championship. "Captain Burden is to be congratulated," the Record wrote.⁵ For 1923 he joined Charles Huntoon and David Walker on the greens committee.⁶ By 1925 he was living in San Francisco during the week but came back to the links on Sundays.⁷ That January he signed up for the members' round-up of the course's mountain lion.⁷ In 1929 he captained Mill Valley's B team.⁸

Mrs. Fred Burden ran the house committee's lunch for the visiting Marin team in 1920.⁹ In 1921 she reached the final of the ladies' autumn tournament.¹⁰

The club had a long waiting list in January 1921. When Tom Greaves moved away and resigned, the club elected "Miss Maud Varney of San Francisco, a most enthusiastic golfer and well known here," to his place.¹ The album shows her driving from a tee in a pleated skirt and cloche hat, and its caption calls her "Miss Varney."²

She did well in the mixed events. On Labor Day 1922 a Miss Varney and a partner named Stanley won the mixed foursomes with 77. (The print is damaged at that point.)³ In October 1925 Miss Varney and Stanley Helmore reached the semi-final of the mixed two-ball foursome and lost at the nineteenth hole.⁴ She was probably the "Miss Varney of San Francisco" who spent a Sunday in Mill Valley in 1927 as a guest of the Frederick Merrimans.⁵

A. J. Tobin turns up in the club's tournament lists from 1922 on. That November he reached the final of the third flight in the Thanksgiving turkey tournament.¹ In the spring of 1923 he was drawn in the second flight of the club championship.² That July, when Mill Valley beat Santa Rosa 13 to 2 at home, he and J. P. Downin won all three points of their match.³ In the return series of 1924 he and Donald Wosser halved their match with Santa Rosa's Wright brothers.⁴

His wife also played. In July 1925 "Mrs. Allan Tobin of San Francisco" won the two-ball foursome with Henry F. Marshall as her partner.⁵ The papers say little more about him.

Paul Mitsch won the club cup twice by August 1920, and at that point he was the only member with two wins.¹ That month he led the Lowell Cup eclectic with 58.² In the first Marin County championship in 1921, he and Frank Walsh played best for Mill Valley.³ That November he won the first flight of the Thanksgiving turkey tournament.⁴

In May 1922 he met Tom Patterson in the final of the club championship.⁵ He won it, and in February 1923 the club elected "Paul Mitsch, club champion for 1922" as its captain.⁶ As captain he and Walsh beat Santa Rosa's leading pair, B. Phillips and Gus Lee, who had gone two years without a defeat in the North Bay.⁷

He kept playing on the club's teams. In 1926 he captained the Blues against Walsh's Reds in an intra-club match.⁸ In 1930 he was runner-up for the President's Cup. The Sausalito News noted that he lived in San Anselmo.⁹

Dave Walker was one of the club's first winners. In the 1920 Labor Day tournament he beat J. P. Downin at the 19th hole, and the Record reported that this was his third straight win of the club cup, which made the silver trophy his.¹ At the New Year's dinner-dance of 1921, which marked the formal opening of the finished clubhouse, he was presented with "the club championship cup" won the previous fall.²

He won the January 1922 monthly medal with 97-18-79.³ That September he shot 80-16-64 for the month's cup but had forgotten to enter, "so that good score was wasted."⁴ In 1923 he joined Charles Huntoon and Fred Burden on the greens committee.⁵ In 1924 he wrote up the annual caddies' tournament for the Record.⁶

By 1929 he was with the Meadow Club. That August he chaired the first all-county tournament there, which drew about 200 entries.⁷

Stanley Helmore was the son of Judge Paul Helmore. He was born in Utah, came to Mill Valley as a child and went to Tamalpais High School.¹ He came home in July 1919 after two years in the Naval Reserve with the rank of yeoman first class.²

He took up golf right away. In August 1920 he won the club cup in a playoff against A. V. Thompson.³ By 1922 he was the "youthful southpaw" tied with Henry Marshall in the eclectic,⁴ and he soon brought his eclectic score down to 54.⁵ In May 1923 he won the club championship. He beat Tom Patterson and Dick Finn, then defeated Lucien Marsh 2 up and 1 to play on the 35th green.⁶ In 1924 he went to Los Angeles for a tournament for left-handed players.⁷

He stayed one of the club's best players. In August 1925 his 66 equalled the score of Belvedere's champion,⁸ and in May 1927 he was low man of the county triangle match at Belvedere with 65.⁹

He worked as a commercial artist and printer. He died suddenly in December 1935, a week after turning 39.¹

Joe Black was one of the club's "handicap men" in the 1924 Directors' Cup. That April he knocked out Fred Burden, a former team captain.¹ A "J. L. Black," very probably the same man, played on the club's 22-man team at Berkeley in March 1925.² He and W. A. Marcus lost only one point in that match.³ In September 1926 a Black, paired with Frank Owen, played for the Reds in the club's Reds-versus-Blues team match.⁴ The papers say little else about him.

Arthur D. Mills, always "A. D." in print, was the club's eye. He was a painter and a photographer, and the Record wrote that "his work with brush and camera is remarkable."¹ He photographed the golf club from its first months, and his hand-captioned album A Visit to the Mill Valley Golf and Country Club is the best picture we have of the course in 1924–25.^2,3

A Mill Valley family

The papers say little about his early life. His wife was the daughter of William Bocarde, a native of Canada who died at Mill Valley in December 1915.⁴ In February 1917 Mrs. Mills "of Magee avenue" took the Mary Riordan house on Hillside Avenue, and the family was still on Hillside in 1924.^5,1 That spring Mills joined the small group that revived the Boy Scout movement in town.⁶ There were several sons. Russell was one of the club's first caddies in 1920.⁷ Cyril, aged four, was one of the "midget golfers." He came to the links with his clubs to watch "his dad take photos," and the Record printed Mills's picture of him.^8,7 Another son, Arthur, was designing shop-window displays in San Francisco by 1925.⁹ A third, Roy, drowned at Stinson Beach in 1949. His obituary names his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur D. Mills, and his brothers Cyril and Russell.¹⁰

The camera on the links

Mills was an early member: "A. D. Mills" is on the club's November 1919 membership list.¹¹ That December, "while snapping an airplane and inattentive to repeated warnings," he was "nearly flayed alive by one of George Lowell's shots."² Members joked that they wanted him to destroy "the films of posture pictures taken before said members knew proper golf form."⁸ By March 1920 he was "doing some classic work in photography and caricature" of club figures. He also had "complete photographic records of Boyle Canyon before and after the time that contented cows were replaced by the discontented golfer."¹² The same month Pacific Golf and Motor gave half a page to his view from the eighth tee toward Mt. Tamalpais, captioned "Mill Valley's Matchless Vistas."¹³

He had his own way of watching golf. Hay Chapman of the San Francisco Bulletin wrote in 1925 that while others played their rounds, "Mills prefers to find an eyrie in the woods or the hills and snap the players with his camera."¹⁴ One Sunday that January he had set up his easel in the brush near the fourth green and was painting. A match of Frank Walsh, Godfrey Eacret and Ben Upham was interrupted by "a huge mountain lion," and Mills, "armed with his tripod, pursued Mr. Lion up the hill." "A huge, tawny creature he was," he said. The two stared at each other "not a stone's throw away" before the lion slipped into the thicket.¹⁴ The Record retold the story in its "old files" columns fifteen and thirty years later.^15,16

Golf photographer

By 1925 his golf pictures were in demand. That January Pacific Golf and Motor ran seven of his scenes from Mill Valley and the Claremont Club.¹⁴ He was preparing a new Mill Valley series for that magazine and for Fairway, and he was working at the Marin Golf Club and the Belvedere Club, with invitations from the Berkeley and Crystal Springs clubs.¹⁷ The September 1925 Fairway carried his view of the eleventh hole at the San Francisco Golf and Country Club and two full pages of views from Harding Park, the Presidio, the Olympic Club, Lincoln Park and Lake Merced. The Record said he was "official photographer for 'The Fairway.'" He had just toured the Del Monte country with its editor and stayed at Pebble Beach Lodge, and he was preparing work for The Country Club of Los Angeles and Pasadena.¹⁸ In June 1926 the national magazine American Golfer ran a page of California courses, "Fairways That Lure," with "Photos by A. D. Mills." Two of the views were of the Mill Valley course.¹⁹

Artist of the town

He worked for the town too. In 1923 he gave E. L. McLellan an art photograph of himself with snow-covered Tamalpais behind him, inscribed with verses titled "Our Mac."²⁰ The next year he photographed McLellan's watermelon party and gave him a hand-made book of the day in rhyme, "the pages being charmingly illustrated."²¹ After the great storm of February 1925 he waded through mud "up to his ankles and over" and hiked miles of trails to record the damage. He sold 43 prints at Tipping's Service Pharmacy to raise money for repairing the town's streets and trails.²² He also made a captioned album of storm photographs for the editors of the Record, including the repairs to the club's ninth green.²³ That spring his color art photographs of Mill Valley were shown at Hub'n Spokes. His pictures of Mill Valley and the golf grounds hung in a commercial artists' exhibit at Schwabacher & Frey's in San Francisco, May 6–16, and he showed art photography at the Outdoor Art Club's Home Arts Exhibit.^24,25,26 A devotee of Marin scenery, he also thought "Mill Valley should preserve its old name."²⁷ The Record noted that he had "roamed the canyon with his camera many years" and saw the golf club as the way to preserve its picturesqueness.¹⁷

The album

The album he made of the club in 1924–25 runs from the first tee to "Finis." Mills captioned it in his own hand, with jokes as well as names: the presidents, the first and second teams, the professional J. Martin Watson, the barranca with "3 men in trouble," and the deer.^{3,28,29,30,31,32,33} His birth and death dates are not in the papers. In 1949 he and his wife were still living.¹⁰

Henry F. Marshall, usually "Lieut. Marshall" in the Record, won the second flight of the Washington's Birthday tournament in 1920, the club's first spring.¹ That July he won a week of the club cup with 94-22-72.² In August 1921 he won the club cup and the monthly medal in the same weekend.³

He also wrote about golf. In 1922 his article "How I Improved My Putting" won first prize in a nationwide contest run by The American Golfer.⁴ That summer the San Francisco Bulletin praised a piece in which he argued that Chick Evans had not fairly won the Western championship. The Bulletin called him "a golfing member of the Bar."⁵

The Record counted him "one of the elders," but he kept up with the young players.⁶ In June 1925 he turned in the low gross score and took the club's senior championship, "as was expected."⁷ That July he and Mrs. Allan Tobin won the two-ball foursome.⁸ In 1926 he killed a 37-inch rattlesnake on the links with an iron bar. The Record said it was "another" one.⁹

The album's "Capt. Johnson" was Herbert B. Johnson. In August 1925 the Record announced that Mill Valley expected a good showing against Belvedere "under the capable leadership of the new captain, Herbert B. Johnson."¹ Earlier that year he had played on the club's 22-man side at Berkeley.^2,3 In the 1925 Directors' Cup, "Captain Johnson" lost to Frank K. Brown "with a score that may only be spoken in whispers."⁴

He played on the club's teams into the 1930s,⁵ and he took part in its stunts. He was one of the warriors in the haka at the 1928 barbecue,⁶ and in 1929 he played in a kilted foursome that a piper led onto the course.⁷ In 1931 he and his wife won the mixed two-ball foursome with 64, beating 30 other players.⁸

Mrs. Johnson was a strong golfer too. In 1932 she was among the first eight qualifiers in the women's county championship.⁹ The family lived on Corte Madera Avenue.¹⁰

Sedgley Jory, called "Sedge" or "Sedg" in the papers, played on the club's teams from its early years. In May 1922 he was called in "at the 11th hour" for the absent Frank Walsh in the county championship at San Rafael, and he turned in a 92. The Record said he proved to be a good pinch hitter.¹ In August 1925 he tied Stanley Helmore in a bogey competition.² He came to the 1929 costume opening in his dress suit.³ In June 1930 members elected him secretary of the club.⁴ The "Sedge" in the album's Cup Bearers photo, whose surname the typed card gives uncertainly, is probably him.

He also helped the course pass to the town. In February 1939 the council named him to the new park commission,⁵ and he served on the committee that set the rates for the municipal course.⁶ When the city opened the course that March, he chaired the commission's golf course committee.⁷

A. V. Thompson was the club's secretary in November 1919, when he supplied the Record with the first list of members.¹ In August 1920 he lost a playoff for the club cup to Stanley Helmore.² The next summer he won a week of the new club cup with 81-17-64.³ The same column teased "Tommie Thompson" about "his first win on the cup," so "Tommie" was probably his nickname. That would make him the "Tom Thompson" on the album's First Team card.³ He played on Mill Valley's eight-man team in the first Marin County championship in 1921.^4,5

His wife captained the Mill Valley women's team in 1921 and made a birdie three on the tricky seventh.⁶ By 1925 the Thompsons had moved to Berkeley. In March that year he captained the Berkeley Country Club side against his old club. The Record called his wife a "onetime resident of Mill Valley."⁷

Archie Treat was a Sausalito attorney who came to golf late.¹ He led the club's 1925 senior tournament after the first 18 holes with 96-27-69, and he finished third and won the Class B prize.^2,3 Members wondered how he would handle having to present a prize to himself.³

That December he won the Directors' Cup. He beat Dr. S. L. Dod by one stroke over 36 holes and shot his best nine, a 41, at the end. The Record called him a senior member "who took up the game only within recent years," and it said that through study and practice he had become "a formidable opponent to any member of the club."⁴

He was also the club's cook. He arranged a clam chowder dinner and smoker in 1926,⁵ and the next year he cooked a smoker dinner. The Record wrote that if he were as good at golf as he was as chef, "he would be the champion."⁶ He sat on the board in 1927 and in 1930.^7,8

On June 15, 1930, while he was putting on the third green, a drive from the fourth tee fractured his skull.^9,10 His suit against the golfer, Taylor Merriman, became a small legal landmark. One judge first ruled that golfers were protected if the slice exceeded a 33-degree angle.¹¹ In 1936 another judge awarded Treat $10,000.¹

Frank Owen led the club's lower-handicap players. In March 1921 the club held a tryout between its Class B "Bums," under Tom Patterson, and its Class C "Crumbs," under Owen.¹ He then captained the Class C team that played Belvedere on its own course.² That November he won the third flight of the Thanksgiving turkey tournament.³

Weeks later Mill Valley beat Marin in a home-and-home match for the first time, playing in a driving rain. Owen had been called in "at the eleventh hour," and he shot a medal score of 89.⁴ In September 1922 his 85-20-65 won the low net for that month's cup, and his handicap was cut.⁵ In 1923 the Record said that his pairing with F. P. Gleason "has always brought home three points."⁶ In January 1925 he signed up for the members' planned round-up of the mountain lion on the links.⁷

Frank Walsh won the club's first blind-handicap tournament in February 1920 with a 95 at scratch.¹ Two weeks later he beat Godfrey Eacret 5 and 4 in the Washington's Birthday final, which meant he had won both of the club's tournaments.² He and Tom Patterson were then the club's two lowest scorers.³

He played at the top of every Mill Valley team. In the first Marin County championship in 1921, he and Paul Mitsch were the club's best players.⁴ By 1922 the Record called him "the club's scratch man," and he reached the Directors' Cup final while giving handicap strokes in nearly every match. He lost it to Charles Huntoon.⁵

In January 1925 a mountain lion near the fourth green interrupted his match with Eacret and Ben Upham. A. D. Mills, who was painting nearby, heard Walsh cry, "What a big fellow!"⁶ That summer he took charge of the handicaps,⁷ and that September he cut Horace Coffin's handicap from 21 to 16.⁸ In 1926 he captained the Reds against Mitsch's Blues in an intra-club match. The Reds won, so the Blues bought lunch.⁹

Ralston White and his wife, the former Ruth Boericke, married in 1910.¹ Their Mill Valley country home was called the Garden of Allah.^2,3

The Whites belonged to the club's social life from its early days. At the Fourth of July "Kid Party" in 1922, Ralston White and E. F. Wuthman ran the grill and roasted the chickens, and Mrs. White and her sister came as "The Heavenly Twins."⁴ In January 1925 a "White" made up a foursome with Frank Walsh and Lucien Marsh.⁵ That September the Record invited members "to inspect Ralston White's new steel shafted accoutrements." Steel shafts were then something new, and he meant to be "a formidable contender" in the Directors' Cup.⁶ In December 1926 he, Colonel Delmar Clinton and Fred Thompson began their holidays with "a golf tournament all their own" on the club links.⁷ In 1929 he was president of the Mill Valley Rotary Club.⁸

Dick Finn (R. M. Finn in the score lists) was one of the steady team men of the early club. The Record counted him among "our southpaw brigade" when he won the February 1922 monthly medal with 93-21-72.¹ That spring he played on the eight-man Mill Valley side in the Marin County championship at San Rafael.²

In the 1923 club championship, played from scratch, he lost to the eventual winner, Stanley Helmore, his "old side partner." The Record noted that both men were left-handers.³ In April 1925 he won the first leg on the club cup with a net 74.⁴ Members elected him a director in 1927, and again in 1930.^5,6 At the costume opening of the 1929 season he came as "Aunt Sarah Smoot."⁷

His most lasting work was on the course itself. In 1947 the city's Golf Commission recalled that he "was chairman of the greens committee for many years." It said his knowledge of local conditions "was invaluable in developing the course."⁸

Tom Patterson was one of the two best golfers in the young club. In February 1920 he and Frank Walsh, "the two lowest score men at the club," challenged the professional Bob Clark to a best-ball match.¹ When the two played each other, they halved the second hole in eleven after Patterson "hooked into the woodpile."¹

In 1921 he chaired the greens and tournament committee.² He also captained the club's Class B team against Belvedere.³ That July, at Belvedere, he shot 65 (32 out, 33 in) and equalled the course's amateur record. The Record wrote that his "Scotch blood was boiling."⁴ He reached the final of the 1922 club championship against Paul Mitsch.⁵ At the end of that year he and Tom Harrison left the greens committee, with warm thanks for giving up their weekend play to course work.⁶

He captained the 22-man Mill Valley side at Berkeley in March 1925,⁷ and that summer he was sending the club's notes to the Record.⁸ In 1927 he was elected a director.⁹ At the 1928 annual barbecue on the fourth fairway he played the enemy chief in a staged Maori haka. "Tom was sacrificed, but he fought a warrior's fight."¹⁰