Additional Info - The Narrative; Historical Significance; Secondary Sources; & The Wood Minor Collection

The Narrative:
At first I found it difficult to provide a strong narrative background; I found it difficult to determine the “one” idea about the story I want to tell. At the onset of the course, I began with the idea of telling the story of the history of Bay Farm Island – which is very general and vague. In my mind’s eye, I saw the story as one that would provide a brief history of the early days on the island when it was in habited by the farmers, the linkages to the “main island” of Alameda in regards to family, commerce, land development, etc.

Historical Significance:
The assignment also challenged me to determine what my local story about Bay Farm Island reveals about larger historical truths on the Island of Alameda and in California. Wow! At this point, this is where my focus began to change. When challenged with connecting the history of Bay Farm Island to the larger picture including the Island of Alameda and then connecting that history with the even larger picture including the State of California, I found what makes me tick.
I have revised my plan. My new plan is to tackle this as the large, massive project that I want to complete. But I will tackle the project in phases. Phase I will be the work completed in this course, as it will lay the groundwork for the next phases. I envision Phase I to incorporate just what I’ve discovered so far by going to the archives and getting the background story on housing, immigration, railways, commerce, farming, etc.

Secondary Sources:
When I first set out on this quest to document the history of Bay Farm Island, many to the “Woody Minor” collection located at the Alameda Free Library referred me. I spent hours perusing the infamous collection. It was time not only well spent gathering valuable information, but I was so surprised to find that it was also so enjoyable. I just loved pouring of the pages of the collection. The “Woody Minor” is a collection of newspaper articles that were authored by Woody Minor, an Alameda resident employed by the Alameda Times Star. Mr. Minor is still living, and he is on my list of those to interview in either Phase II or III of this multiple phased project of documenting the history of Bay Farm Island. My time was well spent at the Alameda Library because I discovered so many interesting factoids. I discovered that Bay Farm Island was first “settled” which translates into “inhabited by Europeans” beginning in the 1850’s and moderate development held steady until about the 1870’s. During these twenty years, the community was inhabited by a prominent figure by the name of Benadah Benedict who as an advocate for the island. One of the many things Benedict advocated for was the first school on Bay Farm Island. Interestingly, the Bay Farm Island community petitioned the local school board to finance a teacher for a school that was built and financed by the Bay Farm Island community. The schoolhouse was eventually abandoned and later dismantled. Bay Farm Island was referred to as a backdrop of Alameda development, an area that was frequented by hunters, which interestingly infuriated Bay Farm Island residents

The Wood Minor Collection:
Another interesting factoid I discovered in the “Woody Minor” collection was that in the 1860’s, the bridge connecting the Island of Alameda with Bay Farm Island was dismantled requiring residents to ride a boat to Alameda. The bridge that was dismantled was named after two prominent Alameda figures of the time - Chipman and Augenbaugh – both of whom have namesakes in present-day Alameda. I plan to do further research to determine why the bridge was dismantled and when it was replaced. However, In my research has determined that many aspects of Bay Farm Island were neglected – especially the roads.