Wednesday, October 30, 2013

A Challenge from the Donner Summit Historical Society

Today I finally got a moment to read my copy of the Donner Summit Historical Society Newsletter. They referenced a postcard written in 1913 from a E De Choudens of Truckee to a Miss A Mitchell of Alameda. They asked if anyone of the readers knew if the Mitchells still owned the Alameda house located at 1031 San Antonio Av. 

They went on to pose quite a few interesting questions - Was the writer in love with his correspondent? Did he send the picture? What had Miss Mitchell sent him? What did E. de Choudens do in Truckee in 1913? What lessons was he wanting to give? How long had he been in the country (given his language errors). Did it ever snow that winter? Did Miss Mitchell come to Truckee? Did she speak French (in those days only those with good educations could)? Did they meet in France while Miss Mitchell was on a Grand European Tour at the conclusion of boarding school for proper young ladies? Did they ever get together? Is there a record of marriage? What were their lives like after 1913? To me that was a challenge to my historical sleuthing. So I pulled all my internet search skills together and this is what I found.

The house at 1031 San Antonio was built in 1890 and is still there. It was sold in 1978 so it is unlikely that the Mitchell family still owns the residence. It is quite a large victorian (8 bedrooms) so the Mitchell's would have been a prominent family. 

De Choudens was a swiss ski instructor who worked at Truckee in 1913 at the Winter Carnival teaching people how to ski. In 1940, he resided in Meadow Lake Township, was 63, had become a US citizen and was single (so he was born in 1887 and he did not ever marry A Mitchell). 

Ms. Mitchell was Alexine Mitchell of Alameda. She was born in 1887, was a graduate of Stanford University, served as an ambulance driver, then a nurse in a french hospital during WW1. She was the daughter of Capt. Josiah A. Mitchell who survived 43 days in an open longboat after the clipper ship Hornet burned at sea. Mark Twain wrote a story about his adventure (Long Boat to Hawaii). She was also related to Charles Lee Tilden the founder of East Bay Regional Parks. 

Ms. Mitchell married rather late in life (she was still single at 33 when she returned from France). She married Walter Luboski. He later changed his name to Walter Gregory. They had a son, Dr Michael S Gregory who went to Cal, taught at SF State, was a founding board member of the National Endowment of the Humanities. He passed away in 2005. 

So to answer some of the questions:

What did E. de Choudens do in Truckee in 1913? Taught skiing at the Winter Carnival in Truckee CA

What lessons was he wanting to give? Ski 

Did it ever snow that winter? The postcard was written in February 1913. They got 73.00 in January, 9.00 in February, 17.50 in March and 15 inches in April. The next season, they got much more snow with 156 inches in January alone. 

Did she speak French (in those days only those with good educations could)? I think she probably did speak French based on the information about her tiime serving in WW1

Did they ever get together? Is there a record of marriage? They never did marry - it is hard to tell if they ever dated. She may have been a ski student during Carnival. 

What were their lives like after 1913? We know a bit about Alexine's life (there is even an interview with her about her time in the war online) but de Chouden is referenced on the internet very little. 

Did they have a relationship? Who knows. Perhaps descendants of Ms Mitchell know a bit more.

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