"2 Tokens:  A Journey Into Shasta County History"
by
C. H. Sunde, Psy.D.

I take ever had an interest in history, and been interested in collecting coins.  I'1000 fascinated with the idea of being able to hold a piece of history in your paw, something that has been around for hundreds or even thousands of years and passed through the easily of innumerable people.  I retrieve spending many of my form schoolhouse afternoons hanging out at Chuck'south Coins in the Downtown Mall in the late 1970s and early 1980s and summers out panning for gold and searching for lost treasures around French Gulch and Tower Firm.  But of class with loftier school came new interests to spend my money and fourth dimension on...cars and girls.

 I was away from coin collecting for a number of years, but I came dorsum to it after returning to Redding from college and the military.  Information technology was sometime in 1997 that I found myself perusing the antique shops north of Redding.  At this time I was primarily collecting the aboriginal coins of Greece and Rome, simply I was ever looking for items of more recent involvement.  In Ralph Hollibaugh's shop I ran across two merchandise tokens:  one read "Golden EAGLE CIGAR STORE, REDDING" and the i next to information technology but read "J. W. POTTS, REDDING, CAL." with no other indication as to where it came from.  The reverse side of each indicated that they were practiced for five cents in trade.  I had never been interested in tokens, having always collected "existent" coins, just I hesitated.  The cigar store token caught my interest, as it was from Redding, appeared somewhat old, and I was a cigar smoker.  I decided to purchase the cigar store token alone, but then I hesitated over again, and decided to purchase the other token as well.  While information technology didn't state what business it was from, information technology was besides from Redding and apparently older in blueprint and wear.

This impulse paid off, as the two tokens were from the aforementioned establishment, and paid passage for a one-way trip into Shasta County history, leading me eventually to becoming a member of the Board of Directors for the Shasta Historical Club and a member of the editorial committee for the Covered Carriage for several years, and to the resurrection of the Grindstone Society.

The Journeying Begins

     The starting time stride in my journey was to begin researching the Golden Eagle Cigar Shop, merely my piece of work schedule would forestall me from paying my showtime visit to the Shasta Historical Society until well into the year 2000.  Luckily, the Redding Book Store carried well-nigh years of the Covered Wagon.  I somewhen found an commodity by Judge Albert F. Ross outlining the history of the cigar store and the Grindstone Gild.  To my satisfaction I discovered that J. Westward. Potts was 1 of the original owners of what was to become the Golden Hawkeye Cigar Shop.  Other sources included my grandfather-in-constabulary, Harold Leroy Hart, who was a bong-hop in the Golden Eagle Hotel in the 1930s , Dudley Thompson of Thompson Brother's Wear, and Guess Richard B. Eaton.

Among the first residents of Redding was a Mr. Barney Conroy, who built the Redding Hotel (aka the Reading Hotel, and first known as Conroy Hotel), which was located at the nowadays site of the Amtrak Railroad train Depot.  The hotel included a bar, a big fireproof vino cellar, and was likewise the location of the stage role that provided daily stage service to "all points in Trinity, Siskiyou, Modoc, and Shasta" counties.  In 1888 Conroy and L. S. Barnes built a very fine hotel on the southeast corner of the Yuba and California Street intersection, the Golden Eagle Hotel.

John Westward. Potts and the Redding Cigar Factory

John Due west. Potts and a human being named Eberle started the Redding Cigar Manufactory in the and then-new Golden Eagle building in 1888, consisting of a cigar store facing Yuba Street, and a room behind the store where cigars were rolled.  Former between Dec of 1889 and April of 1893, Eberle sold out to Potts.   According to the 1894 Dandy Register, John W. Potts was then historic period 33, had been built-in in England, lived in South Redding, stood 5' viii" with light skin, gray eyes, and lite pilus.  He had registered in Redding on September 16, 1892, and had become a naturalized denizen in Allegheny County, PA, in September of 1880.  During an economical depression that hit Redding in 1893, the hotel closed down and Potts was given gratis rent to slumber in the building to protect the insurance.  He was the only occupant for a yr, and he remembered i day that twelvemonth when his cigar store receipts were exactly 80¢

East of the Golden Hawkeye Hotel were the Hoff building and the McCormick-Saeltzer Company store, both congenital well-nigh the same time every bit the hotel.  Many of the earlier members of the Grindstone Club were county officials, as after the removal of the county seat from Shasta, the Hoff Edifice was used every bit the Shasta County Court House in 1889 and 1890 until the new courthouse on the hill was finished.  The proximity of this "courtroom house" brought customers to the cigar store and members to the Grindstone Club.  It was later written by Judge Albert F. Ross that "practically every concern and professional person man, and holder of every public function, paper human, mining man, banker or just plain retired person spent some time in the back room of the Aureate Eagle Cigar Shop." There were men famous in the early day history of Shasta County who were active members and disputants, and I accept included a list at the finish of this commodity of all members identified in the inquiry.  Potts himself was the "patron saint" of the Grindstone Club, and did not enter into the windy discussions that oftentimes came upwardly, but was known as a skillful listener.  Years later the order was wrongly believed to have taken its name from one of the brands of cigars made past Potts, the Grindstone Club (it was idea this was the proper noun of a guild in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from which metropolis Potts had originally come).  We will render to this result at the terminate of the commodity.

The Bartosh and Piftschek Families

 The Morning time Searchlight, July 19, 1900:
John Potts has added a 2d cigar-maker, B. F. Parsons by name, to his force at the cigar factory.  George Nuss is nonetheless employed equally are as well the two boys.

One of the "two boys" referred to by this article was xiii-twelvemonth-quondam John James Bartosh.  Information technology is possible that the other male child was Johns blood brother George Raymond Bartosh as he did work in the store in later years, however in 1900 he would simply have been ten or eleven years old.  It was announced in the same paper on the previous day that the mother of John and George, Mrs. Mary Bartosh, had married Charles Piftschek at the home of the groom on July 17, 1900, with Estimate Herzinger officiating:

"The anniversary was witnessed past only a few intimate acquaintances.  Mr. and Mrs. Piftschek will spend their honeymoon at the Piftschek farm in Happy Valley.  The new-fabricated pair have the all-time wishes of their friends in their new relation."

Information technology is apparent that the boys parents had divorced some time earlier, as their father Frank Bartosh'due south obituary does not surface until 25 years after their mothers remarriage:

The Searchlight, October 30, 1925:

Begetter OF SIX DIES IN KENNETT
FRANK BARTOSH, RETIRED, WAS NATIVE OF AUSTRIA AND AGED 72 YEARS
(Special to The Searchlight)

Kennett, October 29--Frank Bartosh, retired, died at home here at 1 o'clock this afternoon.  He had been in failing health for weeks.  The decedent, a native of Austria, was aged 72 years. During the blast days of Keswick, Bartosh had a lodging house in that town (token below).  When Keswick went down he came to Kennett and engaged in the same business.  His firm burned down five years ago, and since that time Bartosh had lived retired. The decedent leaves these sons and daughters:  John J. Bartosh and George R. Bartosh, Redding; Frank A. Bartosh and Joseph P. Bartosh, Sacramento; Mrs. Fred Pritchard and Miss Mary Bartosh, San Francisco...

MECHANIC SALOON / FRANK / BARTOSH / KESWICK, CAL. // GOOD FOR A / v (¢ inside curl) /Beverage / (sm.) KLINCKER & CO. S.F.]

Charles Piftschek was born in Bohemia, a part of Austria, in 1857.  He came to this country in 1883, landing in New York with 10 cents in his pockets but with a thorough cognition of the tailoring trade he had acquired while in the Austrian ground forces.  He drifted w, arriving in Redding with simply 50 cents in his pocket, but eventually opened a shop, which grew into a well-established business organisation that he kept up for forty years or more than until his health declined.

Charles Piftschek was married twice.  By his first wife he had ii children, who were shortly left motherless.  Later on, a fire consumed the home in the absenteeism of his housekeeper, and both children were burned to decease.  The loss of his two children was a lasting sorrow in the heart of the father, but he e'er kept their ii trivial graves in the Redding Cemetery green.

Redding Independent, August 15, 1891:

Expiry by Fire
     On Saturday afternoon last, about a quarter to 6 o'clock, two innocent little children--a girl and boy, aged respectively about iv and 3 years -- met a horrible decease from a coal oil explosion. Charles Piftschek, a merchant tailor of this city was at his place of business and his sister, who keeps house for him and who had charge of his 2 motherless children (Frida and Albert), was ill in bed at the time. It is presumed that the little girl attempted to make a burn in the stove setting on the dorsum porch, and that, in pouring coaloil into the stove from a half gallon can, an explosion took identify, scattering the burning oil non simply over her wear, only also over the little boy who stood by, no dubiousness watching the proceedings. The screams of the niggling ones brought Miss Piftschek from the firm, and besides attracted several of the neighbors, who rushed in and attempted to save the children, but earlier they could be materially helped they were burned in a fearful manner. Miss Piftschek, who picked up the petty boy in her arms, had her hands burned quite seriously. The neighbors quickly removed their clothing, and Drs. Miller and Rohm were shortly on hand, but information technology was quite impossible to save their lives, the little daughter dying before long after and the male child lingering until most 8 o'clock.
     The double funeral took place on Sunday afternoon. Charley Piftschek is thus bereft of family, the mother having died nearly two years ago. He was a practiced male parent to his motherless babes, and their sudden and shocking death is a blow which will accept years of fourth dimension's healing to efface.

It appears that the danger of coal oil was common in those days, every bit the aforementioned mean solar day similar tragic accident occurred just a few miles away:

Shasta Courier, Baronial 15, 1891:

 Maggie Collic (or Collot), aged 15 years and 9 months, the daughter of Richard Collic living at Stump Ranch, about two miles from Shasta, met with a sad and fatal blow last Saturday. It seems the girl had been directed to brand a burn down before supper by her mother, she had often cautioned her against using coal oil, and as she was pouring oil in the stove, it became ignited and exploded, enveloping her in flames and setting fire to the house. Her father, who stood near, tore the clothes off the unfortunate girl, but she was likewise badly burned to survive the injuries, having inhaled the flames, and died Lord's day at v p.k., twenty four hours after.

     In the course of a few years Charles Piftschek was married to Mrs. Mary F. Bartosh.   He was a begetter in all merely name to her son, George R. Bartosh, who worked in the shop with him for many years.  The 1920 Demography lists George as stepson and living with Charles and Mary, working in the tailor shop, with Charles as proprietor.

     Piftschek airtight his shop in the Paragon block in California Street on May 1, of 1927, several months earlier being forced by failing wellness to surrender work.  For over a year he was bedridden and almost helpless, requiring the constant intendance of his married woman and his faithful stepson George, until his decease on June 8, 1928.  He was known every bit a hard worker and an honest, big-hearted homo.

Mary Piftschek died on August 24, 1955:

Mary Piftschek, Pioneer, Dies
     Mrs. Mary Piftschek, 98, a resident of Shasta County for the last 68 years, died yesterday afternoon in a Redding infirmary, following a long illness.  She was built-in Aug. 2, 1857, in what is now Czechoslovakia, but was then part of Austria. She came to Wisconsin at an early on historic period, and lived in San Francisco before moving to Shasta County. She leaves four sons, John J. and George R. Bartosh, both of Redding, Frank A. Bartosh of Cisco Grove and Joseph P. Bartosh of Sacramento...

John W. Potts always did a good business, and it was when business was at its best tide that his wellness began to fail, and he was advised to seek a change of climate.  John Bartosh had learned the trade of cigar making from Potts, who gave "Johnny" the first chance to purchase the business.

An article from Brevities section of the Searchlight dated Wednesday, July 3, 1907, announced the departure of Potts from Redding:

John W. Potts is a free man.  That does not imply that he has been liberated from jail, but information technology means that he is free from the cigar business that he conducted then long in the Aureate Hawkeye block.  John Bartosh succeeded Mr. Potts as proprietor Monday Morning.  Mr. Potts departed in the evening for San Francisco, where he volition remain for a calendar month and then go to Oregon to visit a brother who lives at Salem.  He said he would give Redding the go-by when he went from San Francisco to Salem.  He is off for a good time and is going to have it.

     Potts ultimately fabricated a new home for himself in Los Angeles.  The April 21, 1930 edition of the Courier Free Printing announced his decease thus:

JOHN Westward. POTTS PASSES ON IN LOS ANGELES

Owned Golden Eagle Cigar Store When Grindstone Lodge Was Great Organization

     Word has been received in Redding that John Westward. Potts, for years a resident of Redding, passed on in Los Angeles a week agone Saturday and was buried there on the following Tuesday.  He was aged 71 and leaves the widow, Mrs. Clara Potts...In the very early days Potts caused a piece of property in Fall River Mills.  He held on to information technology for years, ever saying that some mean solar day he would make a fortune out of information technology, meaning the solar day when Fall River Falls power would be utilized.  Just afterwards being in Los Angeles a few years, Potts became a trivial financially embarrassed and he sold his Autumn River holdings at a sacrifice.  He did non know that he was selling to an agent of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company and that if he had only held on he might have got ten times the sum that was paid to him for his land and riparian rights.

The Golden Eagle Cigar Shop

John J. Bartosh bought the Golden Eagle Cigar Store on July 1, 1907(pictured above, John left, brother George right).

John J. Bartosh bought the Gold Eagle Cigar Store on July 1, 1907
(pictured above, John left, brother George right).

Bartosh had been an enterprising beau from the start, in one case recounting a business organization career that started when he was 13 years onetime and constitute that a farmer he knew was having difficulty selling his peaches and apricots.  Young Johnny persuaded the farmer to allow him take the fruit on assignment, and he congenital up a profitable summer business concern selling it to passengers on the Overland Limited when the train stopped in Redding.  After that he opened a concession to sell candy at a theater, and and then went on to work in the cigar store he subsequently purchased.

     The Gilded Hawkeye Cigar Shop made and marketed the Grindstone Club cigar also as several other brands, and the local cigars were sold to merchants throughout the canton for resale.  The store besides carried the following cigars:  Robert Mantell, General Arthur, Owls, Renown, and Fontella.  The "set up-made" cigarettes were Vanity Fair, Dukes Cameo, Virginia Brice and Pets.  Well-nigh persons rolled their own in those before days, using Bull Durham or Dukes Mixture tobacco.  Bartosh once said that a man who bought the ready-fabricated cigarettes was considered "of sick repute".

John Bartosh was a fellow member of the Redding Lodge of Elks for over 50 years, and a member of the volunteer burn down department for many years.  He was continued with Liberty Number Two Hose Company, whose duty in case of fire was to get the hose cart from the Masonic Temple and to commandeer a horse and wagon from the street to pull information technology to the fire.  Sometimes the men would take to pull the cart a block or two by hand before they found a commitment carriage to hitch to.  He stated that the "fire had burned the firm down earlier nosotros got at that place some times."

     John played in the boondocks band for years, which gave Sun concerts in the summertime from the second story porch in forepart of the Aureate Eagle Hotel, and played at ball games, dances, and on other occasions.  Bartosh was as well known as a practiced tennis player, and a member of the Redding Lawn tennis Guild that built and operated several courts on the railroad reservation merely west of the location of the present rider depot.

     John purchased the distribution agency for the San Francisco and Sacramento papers from Reuben Hoyle (who owned his ain cigar store in the Lorenz Hotel, in the current location of Mike'southward Barbershop on Yuba) most 1910.  Bartosh had to infringe from the bank to practice this, and said that it took him 20 years to pay off the note.
     The Grindstone Order continued for several years under its new "Patron Saint".

Courier Free Press, Sunday, January iii, 1915:

JAMES N. LOGAN IS ELECTED PRESIDENT
GRINDSTONE CLUB FEASTED BY ITS PATRON SAINT, JOHN J. BARTOSH

   The Grindstone guild, a social organization that has met for years in the rear room of John J. Bartosh's cigar store, held its almanac coming together Friday evening and elected officers for the ensuing year.  Afterwards the ballot, John J. Bartosh, patron saint of the Grindstone club, invited all the members to a turkey feast in the restaurant across the style.
James N. Logan was elected president to succeed F. X. LaBonte, who has moved to Decoto.  Resolutions free to the retiring president were adopted unanimously and they will be forwarded to him with a box of fine cigars...

 Courier Free Press, Mon, January 3, 1916:

GRINDSTONE Lodge HAS Big FEED
41 REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS ATTEND Annual BANQUET NEW YEARS EVE

Forty-i representative citizens of Redding, gathered from all walks of life, enjoyed the banquet of the Grindstone gild held New Years Eve at Klukkert'south coffee parlor.  Peter Hoff, who was the big principal of the "eats" committee, made a name for himself past setting out a fine turkey spread.  Dorn Isaacs and Albert Roberts contributed largely to the success of the thing.

     The committee in charge of the affair dug down in the history of every banqueter and the speeches kept the diners in an uproar throughout the evening.

The Searchlight, Wednesday, Jan iii, 1917:

GRINDSTONE CLUB RE-ELECTS LOGAN
"BOYS Done THEIR Work FINE" AT ANNUAL GATHERING OF SECRET Organisation

The annual high jinks and election of officers of the Grindstone social club were held in the rear room of the Golden Hawkeye cigar shop New Years night. J. N. Logan was re-elected president for the succeeding term, an honor out of the ordinary. Samuel Breslauer was re-elected treasurer. He reported xxx cents on hand, and he said he felt like it...

     Equally customary the solemn rites of this highly fraternal arrangement were carried off with impressive dignity and decorum.  The high ideals and purposes of the club are held inviolate past the members throughout the year.  None but those who are duly qualified and elected may gain knowledge of even the first degree of the sacred precepts that guide the steps of the faithful Grindstoner...     Refreshments substantial and liquid, were served throughout the evening.  Social club was maintained at all stages past President Logan with a mallet that was almost a sledgehammer, the same being constructive when brought down resoundingly on the bean of a disturber...

The Searchlight, Thursday January iii, 1918:

GRINDSTONE Gild HAS Big Water Bust
HONORABLE J. North. LOGAN RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE Keen ORGANIZATION

The Grindstone society, a historical arrangement of Redding that has flocked around Bartosh's cigar shop for years, held its annual busta-fest New Years night behind closed doors and drawn curtains.  Just those who could give the countersign were admitted to the hallowed precincts next to the aisle.

     James N. Logan, president, was in the chair, and he had backside him to enforce social club a maul that would to good service for a railsplitter and a monstrous club every bit big as his jaw bone.

     The evening was given over to the hilarity to having two 16 gallon kegs of water with a boot in information technology on tap and 250 sandwiches to feast on.

     Lambs orchestra led by James Isaacs on the bass drum furnished the music.  C. C. Corking was toastmaster.  Luke McDonald spoke feelingly on the subject of "Who Wouldn't Be a Boy Again?" and referred pathetically to the time in 1850 when he and other kids played poker on stumps in the old boondocks of Shasta.  Sam Breslauer performed a tonsorial feat by clipping the hair of a long haired shepherd from Carmine Bluff.  Sam got only half through the job when he threw upwards his hands and quit.  There were many other stunts...

     The session of the club bankrupt up at 1 o'clock in the morning, practically all of the members being able to walk home unassisted.

Demise of the Grindstone Guild

Bartosh continued the cigar-making business also every bit the retail sales until 1918, when he left Redding to serve our state as a individual with Company East of the 76th Regular army Infantry at the tail stop of World War I.  The cigar shop passed through the hands of two other owners between 1918 and 1919, earlier returning to Bartosh.

The Searchlight, March xix, 1918:
JOHN J. BARTOSH Twelvemonth OLDER THAN HE FIGURED UPON SCORNS TO Merits Typhoon EXEMPTION, THOUGH HE HIMSELF MADE THE MISTAKE
     John J. Bartosh, newsdealer and tobacconist and ane of the most pop young business organisation men in Redding, finds at this tardily day that he is not discipline to the draft, though he is already in class 1 and is subject to call very soon. And don't forget that Bartosh is ready to go. He is no slacker. "I am ready any fourth dimension my land wants me," says Bartosh, "and I will non hang back a minute, even if I exercise have to sacrifice my business organisation that I accept been a lifetime building up."
     Bartosh has always believed that he was born on December 18, 1885. That would have made him over xxx-i years of historic period in June concluding, when the draft law went into consequence. Simply as he was born so about 1886, he gave the year of his birth as 1886 and registered for the draft, his age being at least 31.
     His father, who has lived in Kenett for several years, seldom comes to Redding, but he was downwardly here last week to attend a funeral. Having seen his son's name in the list of form 1 men, he remonstrated, saying to his son: "You were built-in on Dec 18, 1884. I looked at the date in the erstwhile prayer book the other day. I wrote the date there the 24-hour interval y'all were born. You had no occasion to register for the draft.
     John J. Bartosh is exempt, so far equally historic period is concerned, both by his own reckoning and still more by the records of his male parent. The official records of his nativity in the church building in San Francisco where he was baptized were destroyed in the big burn.
     Simply all this makes no divergence to John J. Bartosh. "Why should I claim exemption?" he asks, "I have no dependents. I will not stay here and let my immature friends and neighbors go off to the war. I am ready to serve my country. I accept passed the physical exam and volition answer the call."

The Searchlight, July 14, 1918:
CIGAR Shop FOR Sale
     I must sell my cigar store and news agency on account of going to war.
JOHN J. BARTOSH

The Searchlight, August 7, 1918:
John J. Bartosh Sells Cigar Store
GOING WITH THE Bargain IS THE Charter OF THE FAMOUS GRINDSTONE Social club
     John J. Bartosh, proprietor of the Golden Hawkeye Cigar store, one of the landmarks of Redding, has sold his business organisation to E. A. Aedes, a recent arrival hither from Modoc county.
     Bartosh was forced to sell, as he is due to leave for the war with a Shasta county draft contingent on August xv.  While the sale is really made it cannot be legally consumed until August 13, the expiration day of the usual legal notice of intention of sale.
     Bartosh has proved himself to be one of the very all-time young business men in Redding. He has attended to business since his career began in Armory hall years agone, when every bit a tot in knickerbockers he sold "peanuts, chwing [sic] gum, chocolates and popcorn." John Bartosh has been popular and successful, considering he has worked, because he has been polite, because he has been square. Information technology is a considerabl [sic] sacrifice for him to part with the business whose foundation he laid so well, but he does not hesitate for one moment to exercise and then. Bartosh wants to exercise his duty as a citizen and he answers his country's telephone call without a moments hesitation.
     For years and years the Gilt Eagle Cigar shop has been the meeting place of the Grindstone club, a local organization that has handled all the problems of government--national and globe wide--and handled them well, too. 1 of the most of import assets transferred by Bartosh to the new proprietor, E. A. Eades, is the charter of the Grindstone club.

The Searchlight, August 16, 1918:
JOHN J. BARTOSH, HERBERT G. MOODY GUESTS OF Accolade AT DINNER PARTY GIVEN BY GOLDEN Eagle ON EVE OF LEAVING FOR WAR
     John J. Bartosh and Herbert G. Moody were the guests of honor at a dinner party given last evening in the Gilt Hawkeye hotel private dining room by the proprietors, George H. Gronwoldt and August H. Gronwoldt. The role was given on the eve of the deviation of the honor guests for Camp Lewis. George Michaud and F. C. Scrivner of Redding and Roy Duggins of Cottonwood, who are to go out on the same railroad train for Camp Lewis, were invited as well.
     The tabular array was decorated artistically in flowers and the American colors. The dinner was elaborate and was served in course. Following the repast dancing was in order, and it was kept upwardly till well after midnight.
While all were at the table a valuable wrist watch was presented to John J. Bartosh by the Redding shamber [sic] of commerce of which he has been the efficient secretary-treasurer for several months.
     Those attending, in addition to the five guests already mentioned, were: Mr. and Mrs. Albert Ludwig, Miss Sally Hall, Mrs. C. C. Keen, Mrs. Freda Livermore, Miss Olive Forrester, Miss Kathryn Hall, Miss Mildred Evans, Mrs. Hazel Anderson, August H. Gronwoldt, Marion A. Nordyke, Peter Hoff, George W. Hartz and George W. Harrison.

     During Bartosh's absence James E. Isaacs, Jr., employee of the shop and Grindstone member (and son of the only identified member of both the Grindstone Board in Shasta and the Grindstone Order in Redding) died, evidently due in part to his loyalty to the store:

The Searchlight, Nov 6, 1918:
JAMES E. ISAACS IS CALLED Beyond
Active Young Human being OF 26 YEARS LOSES IN BATTLE AGAINST PNEUMONIA
     James East. Isaacs, one of the best known young men in Redding, died in the home of his mother, Mrs. Mary Eastward. Isaacs, in Market street, at 1 o'clock Tuesday forenoon. Pneumonia was the crusade. Never in rugged wellness, he was really sick for several weeks, simply his loyalty to his employer in the Golden Eagle cigar store kept him at work after he actually should have been at dwelling and in bed. The dread disease had a concur on him earlier he finally gave up and took to bed.
     "Jimmie" Isaacs, as everybody called him, was born in Redding on September 25, 1892, making his age a fiddling better than 26 years. He was a son of the late James E. Isaacs Sr., for whom he was named. "Jimmie" attended the public schools of Redding, entering high school at the age of 13. After attending high school for ii years, he quit to undergo a serious operation for a throat trouble. Recovering, he entered the employ of John Potts in the Golden Eagle Cigar store, and remained there ever since nether ii different proprietors. He was a good clerk and was as honest a boy as ever stepped behind a counter. Jimmie Isaacs was faithful to his employer and circumspect to business.

The Searchlight, November 21, 1918:
JOHN J. BARTOSH TO Exist HERE By December. one
     John J. Bartosh wired from Military camp Lewis Wednesday to Dorn Isaacs in this city that he would exist dorsum in Redding on or about December 1 to stay.
     Nobody volition receive a heartier welcome coming home than will exist extended to "John." Member of the Grindstone club will take a holiday.
     When Bartosh left for the war he sold out his newsstand and cigar shop in the Golden Eagle block. It is understood that he is negotiating to purchase them back.

The Searchlight, December 24, 1918:
JOHN J. BARTOSH IS Gratuitous FRUM [sic] THE ARMY
Bulletin
     John J. Bartosh arrived home last evening and was showered with kisses at the depot, and the kisses were from the fairer sexual practice.
     John J. Bartosh wired his brother yesterday that he would be home from Military camp Lewis Monday or Tuesday nighttime. Bartosh has not been discharged but is anxious to become back in business at the old stand, the Golden Eagle Cigar store. Bartosh was at Camp Lewis ever since he joined the ranks. He expects to be discharged very shortly.

The Searchlight, June iii, 1919:
SOLD CIGAR STORE
     Edward A. Eades has sold his cigar store the Golden Hawkeye block to Paul D. Henderson, a teacher of Scarlet Barefaced. The sale was really agreed on two months ago. Henderson will have possession on June 15, or as soon as school is out.

Courier-Free Printing, August 11, 1919:
JOHN BARTOSH BACK IN Business concern Here
     John J. Bartosh, who endemic the Golden Eagle cigar store before he entered the ground forces last year, has purchased the business for himself again. The deal has been awaiting for several weeks and all that remains to exist done is to sign the papers that accept been fatigued upwardly with Paul Henderson, the present owner. The latter volition go back to teaching in Tehama county.

The Searchlight, August 15, 1919:
Notice OF SALE
     Paul D. Henderson has filed for record the usual notice of intention that he volition sell the Golden Eagle cigar store in Redding to John J. Bartosh. The sale will be made on August 23.

     The final recorded official meeting of the old Grindstone Gild that I have been able to observe was in 1920, and the daily informal meetings appear to accept stopped around this time as well:

The Searchlight, Jan. 1, 1920:
     J. N. Logan president of the Grindstone club was upwardly from San Francisco Midweek planning to attend the annual meeting.

    The inquiry resulted in several possible explanations for the end of the Grindstone, and they probably all played their office.  The president of the Grindstone from 1915 through 1919, James Logan, had moved to San Francisco sometime in 1919.  A hypothesis put forth past Judge Ross was that it was a result of the older members passing on as a new generation who met less formally "flocked around the new proprietor."  Judge Richard B. Eaton, in a private conversation, emphasized the touch of the increasing number of cars on Redding'south unpaved streets during the late 1910s.  As the Grindstone held its breezy meetings outside on Yuba after the store closed each day, about 6:00 p.m., increased traffic would have resulted in severe grit in the dry out season.  However Yuba Street was paved in 1919, so perhaps information technology was merely the increase in numbers and speed of the traffic on a paved road that made these meetings unsafe.

John Bartosh fabricated several changes involving the Golden Eagle afterward returning from the Army.  I suspect that these, as well equally the above bug, somehow influenced the demise of the Grindstone Club.  It appears that upon his return from the Army, Bartosh resumed retail sales only no longer manufactured his own cigars. Bartosh besides took up permanent personal living quarters in the Gilded Hawkeye Hotel itself at this time.  He added other services to his store, including the handling of the agency for some motorcar-stage firms, one operating stages from Sacramento and Chico and one from Redding to Montgomery Creek and Big Bend (these later established their own offices elsewhere in Redding).

Record-Searchlight, Jan 1, 1959:

Golden Eagle Cigar store closes doors

   John J. Bartosh locked the door of his Golden Hawkeye cigar store concluding nighttime, hung upward a "closed" sign and concluded 51 years in business concern at the same stand."For three years I haven't had a day off," Bartosh said today. "When one of my clerks said he was quitting 3 days ago, I said, Well, I'1000 quitting, also."  In the store he had as customers and friends judges, bank presidents and working men."They were all my people," he said "I liked them, and I think they liked me.  When people come in and say, Hello, Johnny, it thrills you lot."His sometime friends will nevertheless be greeting Bartosh with the onetime salutation.  He says he plans, for the present at least, to live in the place he has called home since 1919 -- room 358 of the Gilt Eagle Hotel.

     With persistence in my desire to detect someone who had first-hand cognition of the Bartosh family unit, and the advantages provided by the Internet, I was able to rails down George's only child, Ray B. Bartosh, who is currently living in Texas.  Ray too had participated in what appears to have been something of a Bartosh family unit tradition, past working for a week in the Golden Eagle Cigar Store when he was 15 years former. Ray Bartosh has been a great help in filling in some of the blanks to this story, and very generous in providing nigh of the pictures herein.

     Estimate Albert F. Ross one time wrote that "Persons who lived in Redding in the past, when met in other places, commonly call back the Bartosh cigar store and its owner, and inquire about them.  Those who were here early in the century, and perhaps in the terminal decade of the concluding century, often reminisce of the Gilded Eagle Cigar Store and of the Grindstone Order which flourished at that place."

Socrates and the Resurrection of the Grindstone Order

     While researching this history I inverse employers in May of 2000, afterward many years, and was given a going away party past my coworker Bob Esau, which included cigar smoking.  We discussed making this a regular tradition, to run across for cigars on Friday afternoons in social club to wind-down from a week of work and to discuss matters of interest.  Past July we were referring to our meetings equally "Tradition," and had invited other friends to join us.

     One of the topics I was interested in at this time was Western Philosophy, peculiarly that of Socrates and Plato.  Studying these concepts led to the thought that the Grindstone Gild as an idea tin live on in the present.  As long as the idea and spirit of the Grindstone Club are live, who's to say that it isn't The Grindstone Club?  The people and location may change, but the idea and tradition lives on.  So past February 2001 we were referring to our weekly meetings equally the Grindstone Society "resurrected."  I had collected more of the Golden Hawkeye Cigar Shop tokens over the years, and I began to requite ane to each new member.  Many of our members are not cigar smokers, but all enjoy gathering together at the end of the calendar week to relax and talk over relevant issues of our time (and of all fourth dimension).  Nosotros accept developed new traditions, including annual trips and history related missions for new members to earn their token.  Every bit of November 2008 we have over 60 tokened members, and have had to have new tokens made equally it has go very hard to observe examples of the originals.

Happy Trails

     It has been an interesting journeying through Shasta Canton history thus far, and I know there are going to be more interesting roads and trails to travel in the time to come.  I encourage the reader to go along his or her journey as well, and to spark an involvement in history in the children in your life, possibly through starting their ain collection of tokens from the past.

     The Golden Hawkeye Hotel was destroyed by burn down in 1962.  Pictured left is a fire fighter trying to fight the bonfire.  Peradventure he was once a Grindstoner, smoking his cigar every bit a final tribute.  John James Bartosh died November 23, 1968 at the historic period of 81.  George R. Bartosh died February 28, 1969 at the age of 79.

Identified Members of the early Grindstone Lodge

J. E. Barber, John J. Bartosh (2nd Patron Saint), Judge Aaron Bell, William Bickford, Frank Bloom, Robert Boyd (Sergeant-at-Arms, 1915), J. W. Brackett, Charles H. Braynard (Lodge Attorney, 1918), Louis Breslauer, Nathan Breslauer, Samuel Breslauer (Treasurer, 1916, 1917), Carl R. Briggs, Estimate Francis Carr, John J. Chambers, John Craddock, James Drynan, M. Due east. Dittmar, George Endres (Best Vice President, 1915), Allen W. Etter, Approximate Jack Garden, Judge Gardner, Carroll Glaszer, John William Hare, Charles M. Head, Judge Charles W. Herzinger (Order Chaser, 1917), Walter Herzinger, Peter Hoff (Recorder, 1917), Dorn Isaacs, James East. Isaacs, Sr., James East. Isaacs, Jr. (Leader of Lambs Orchestra & bass drum, 1918), John R. Jones, C. C. Keen (Toastmaster. 1918), Dr. J. J. Kirwan (Vice-President, 1918), F. X. LaBonte (President, 1914), F. Lack, Jr., James Due north. Logan (President, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919), Charles Lord (Secretary, 1915), Luke McDonald, Charles McConnell, Francis McNeill, Marion Nordyke (Treasurer, 1915), Joseph Porter, John W. Potts (First Patron Saint), F. P. Primm, D. G. Reid, E. A. Reid, John Eastward. Reynolds, Albert Roberts (Secretary, 1917), Ernest A. Rolison, Albert F. Ross, Sr., Judge Albert Ross, Harry Schraer, T. W. H. Shanahan, F. M. Swasey, Judge Edward Sweeny, Harry E. Thompson, Westward. D. Tillotson.

Addendum
Original Grindstone In Onetime Shasta

     The terminal leg of the research into the Grindstone Order came as a surprise, and illustrates the importance of following up on every detail when doing enquiry.  In the winter of 2002, while at the Shasta Historical Order trying to track every lead I had on information near the identified members of the original Grindstone Guild (in this instance James Isaacs), I came across a story in the 1959 Covered Wagon entitled "The Grindstone Board" by Charles A. Shurtleff.  This defenseless my eye for obvious reasons.  I had not run across information technology before, equally for some reason it was never listed in the Index to the Covered Wagon.  James Isaacs (senior) had been an attorney in the old town of Shasta prior to relocating to Redding, like and so many did as Shasta faded and Redding became prominent.  Isaacs had been a member of what was called the Grindstone Board:

     Mr. E. Voluntine, an early day hardware merchant at Shasta, at in one case received an exceptionally large shipment of grindstones and stacked them on the sidewalk in front of his store on Principal Street where he allowed them to remain for a long time.  The surface of the grindstones was large and polish and the height of the stacks but right for comfortable seats.  A number of the leading citizens of Shasta appropriated the grindstones for their own utilize and they became a center where meetings were held.  Weighty matters were discussed and questions decided of great moment to the land and nation.  There was no entreatment from the decisions.  This group became known equally the Grindstone Board and functioned for many years.  A few of the members were Mr. Peck, Mr. Due west. S. Wills, Charles Fordham, William A. Scott, the shoemaker, and James E. Isaacs, a lawyer.

The parallel between the Grindstone Board and the Grindstone Guild is undeniable, yet nowhere have I been able to detect a directly reference or connection between the ii.  The closest so far is that James Isaacs was a prominent member of both Grindstones, and that the footnote to Shurtleff'southward article reads "An Old Cigar Shop" by Albert F. Ross, in "The Covered Wagon" of 1959 [1958].  Every bit mentioned before, the Ross commodity hypothesized that the name of the Grindstone Club came from the cigar manufactured by Potts of the same name, and that in turn originated from a social club in Potts hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

     However, Potts did not modify the name of his "Smoothen Diamond" cigar to the "Grindstone Gild" until 1900 or 1901.  Past this time Redding was the hub of Northern California, the courthouse had been in town for more than a decade, and near of the leading citizens who had been in Shasta (and possibly members of the Grindstone Board) were now in Redding.  While this is coexisting prove, I think it is sufficient to suggest that the Grindstone Club is a celebrated Shasta Canton tradition going dorsum for well over 100 years.

Weekly Shasta Courier, Saturday, March fifteen, 1890:
Death of Edwin Voluntine

"It becomes our painful duty to tape the death of 1 of our well-nigh respected and prominent citizens. Last Monday Morning time at 10 o'clock the sorrowful declaration was made that Edwin Voluntine had breathed his last...It was in 1854 that himself and wife came from Ohio to Horsetown, where, for a time he engaged in the tinware business. From Horsetown he came to Shasta, where for many years he has conducted ane of the largest and most complete hardware stores and manufactories in Northern California. He leaves to mourn his loss a devoted married woman, a son and girl, abreast other relatives and a host of friends. His age was 65 years..."

The ruins in Shasta in the 1920's: Voluntine's place was the last building on the right, which is no longer standing.

The ruins in Shasta in the 1920's: Voluntine's place was the terminal building on the right, which is no longer standing.