Meet Stephen Payne
Local Historian
Stephen Payne holds a doctorate in Public Historical Studies from UC Santa Barbara, a master’s degree in History from San Jose State University, and a baccalaureate in Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz. Stephen has also taught Santa Clara County and California history courses at local colleges for many years. Stephen’s family goes back five generations in Santa Clara County. The McClellan farm buildings in Steven’s Creek Park belonged to his great, great grandparents, who were settlers in 1849. In 1852 his great grandfather arrived in the valley, settling in Los Gatos. In the mid-1870s, the family purchased a farm near Campbell, where Payne Avenue is today.
Meet Jay Topping
History Day Speaker
Jay Topping is the historian for Scotts Valley and has been a board member since 2010. He currently conducts regular tours of the 1853 Hiram Scott house. Jay also gives history lectures at local libraries, for clubs, and at assisted care / living facilities. Jay is a board member for the Alfred Hitchcock Film Festival, which happens every March. He is also a board member of the Santa Cruz Old Timers' association which holds a history luncheon once a year. Jay is currently writing a biography on Hiram Scott's life. Details include Scott's friendship and work alongside of Mountain Charley building the Toll road between the summit and Santa Cruz. When Jay isn't giving historical talks, he is making history through the creation of classic signage at his business Classic Jay's Art and Signs. You can check out his custom vintage signs on Facebook at www.facebook.com/classicjaysartandsigns. He has a bachelor’s degree in Art with a focus on printmaking from UCSC and a minor in astrophysics. Garth helps maintain the Loma Prieta Museum website and plans to help design and build displays and dioramas for our museum once a physical location is established. Garth also co-hosts the Least Haunted Podcast and has three cats.
The Mason-Taylor Ranch
By Debra Staab
At the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains, just east of the present day intersection of Summit Road and the Old Santa Cruz Highway, there is a fairly large swath of flat land. In 1852, after an arduous three-day journey from Los Gatos in an oxen-drawn wagon stuffed with all of their belongings, John and Susan Schultheis must have been ecstatic to find this level landscape. The adventurous couple promptly established a homestead in the area next to a small lagoon. Some say that Schultheis Lagoon (also called Laguna Sacra) was frequented for centuries by local Native Americans when they traveled between the mountains and the coast.
The Historical
Goldmann Family
By Debra Staab
The Loma Prieta Museum (LPM) is delighted to announce that we recently received some generous historical artifacts from descendants of the well-known mountain family of Dr. Edmund Goldmann. The donations included a lovely full-size cream-colored silk piano shawl and the most charming quilt sampler created by Inez and Juanita Goldmann in 1888. Raised near the Rhine River, Edmund Goldmann received medical doctor training from Heidelberg University and the University of Giessen and then completed his postgraduate studies at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. From there he moved to New Orleans where he ran his own successful medical practice, including effective handling of a local yellow fever outbreak. When the Civil War started, Goldmann fled north and became a surgeon in the Union Army until the end of the war.
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