This Week in Marin History
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July 2010

Hospitality and fleas

1847 journal entry of a naval officer during a Mt. Tamalpais hunting expedition in July: “…On one of my hunts, I found myself in the vicinity of ‘widow Reed’s’ establishment…  So I went to the house, and made known that I was hungry and wished to be accommodated for the night. These people of California are proverbially hospitable…A plentiful supper was soon placed before me, tea, hot cakes and stewed beef, to which I paid my respects most cheerfully; supper over and the small hours of morning at hand, a bed was made for me on the settee in the ‘Sala’—I turned in, but fleas were in myriads…sleep was out of the question.”

Portrait of Hilaria Reed, n.d. Gift of Richard and Virginia Todt in memory of Thomas and Mary Alice Deffebach.