In today’s Monday Mystery is, we discover answers to the mystery, “Why Santa Barbara?”

And yes, I do realize today isn’t Monday, but I didn’t get the photos taken until yesterday, and you’ll see at the end why it’s nice to have photos in this post.

Anyway, you might assume that I’m posing this question because it is one that people are asking right now about  Chris and me. After all, it’s reasonable to wonder what the heck Chris and I are doing here in Santa Barbara.

So, why [did we decide to take our Plan G tour to] Santa Barbara? Well, the short answer is … there was no particular reason. Last December, when we spent just a single night here on our way to Northern California, it looked like a place we thought it would be fun to spend some time in.  Plus, there’s a good University library around here for Chris to use while he prepares some materials that are due in the fall (for an invited keynote speech and also an invited book chapter). Plus, there’s the ocean. Plus we found a great deal on a little 2 bedroom (!) cottage where we can stay until July 15th. Plus we know a few people that we will try to meet with in this area.  Plus, we get a chance to try life in the “American Riviera”, as Santa Barbara is sometimes called.

For all those rather random reasons, we’re here in Santa Barbara until July 15th.

And before you ask … no, we don’t know what’s coming after July 15th. As usual, we have no plan.

But I’ve actually just digressed away from the real topic of this post, since my question “Why Santa Barbara” was not about Chris and me;  it was originally something  I asked Chris about one of his ancestors who lived in Santa Barbara.

You see, Chris’ paternal grandmother’s relatives trace back to a guy named Peter Brinkerhoff. He was born and raised on the East Coast and started a family there.  But then at one point, he left the east and moved west to Santa Barbara, CA. Chris has been doing some research into the Brinkerhoffs, and so one of my questions for him has been “Why Santa Barbara? – i.e., Why did Peter Brinkerhoff decide to move to Santa Barbara in the 1800s? Gold fever? Or something else (since his move is in the late 1850s, which seems a bit late for gold fever).

Now to understand the following information, you’ll need to know that Chris has uncovered the fact that Peter Brinkerhoff (Chris’ direct ancestor) had a cousin named Samuel Brinkerhoff.

I’ll let Chris take over the story from here, from a write-up he did recently:

Why do we care about Samuel?

Well Samuel moved to Santa Barbara in 1852. There are a couple stories about how he came to be in Santa Barbara. In one, Samuel headed out to California from New York sometime after the discovery of gold in 1849. According to this account, he had “Gold Fever” and spent some time in Marysville (I think I remember visiting some other relative there when I was little). Samuel then headed south to Santa Barbara in 1852.

Another more exciting story has Dr. Brinkerhoff (Samuel was an M.D.) heading towards San Francisco for his health in 1852 when the steamship he was on made a stop in Santa Barbara. Not great timing, since there was a big gunfight going on at the time. Because he was a doctor, he tended to the wounded, but that caused him to miss the departure of the steamship. However, he liked the town and decided to stay.

Who knows, maybe both stories are true. In any case, Dr. Samuel B. Brinkerhoff became the first resident doctor in Santa Barbara, and soon became a Very Important Person. He, with others, funded a crucial road, built the first wharf, and founded a gas (light) company. Given his quick rise, and the fact that he was a doctor, I’m guessing that Samuel already had some money to start with, probably from his family.

So, when his cousin Peter has a rough patch (his first wife dies in 1855), maybe he decides to pull up stakes in Ohio (where there were also a lot of relatives) to get a new start by moving to join his better-off cousin, Samuel, in Santa Barbara. By 1858 Peter’s been in Santa Barbara long enough to fall in love with Elizabeth Jane Nidever, who he marries in 1858.

As I said, Samuel was a mover and a shaker, and there is a small street named after him, on land that he once owned. I saw that street today, and it’s pretty, with tall palm trees (not from Samuel’s time) and Victorian houses. All that was done after he died, though. His house is still standing, though, at the end of Brinkerhoff Ave.

— from Chris Culy’s email summary explaining the connection between Samuel and Peter Brinkerhoff

So, that’s Chris’ answer to the mystery about Peter and “Why Santa Barbara?”

BTW, as Chris mentions, Samuel’s house is still standing at one end of Brinkerhoff Avenue, or at least there is a nice house standing at the address given as Samuel’s in the records books that Chris used (it’s a private house and there’s no way to tell for sure without knocking on the door if the house was built in Samuel’s time):

The redwood tree in front definitely isn’t from Samuel’s time, though, as a plaque at the base of the tree says that it was planted in 1929.

Nowadays, that house isn’t actually on Brinkerhoff Avenue.  Rather Brinkerhoff avenue leads up to the house.  Hopefully the following photos will help orient you:

1. A panorama that shows the house and the street running in front of the old Brinkerhoff homestead; this street is NOT Brinkerhoff avenue.

In this photo, Brinkerhoff Avenue is out of camera range off to the right, as it comes in perpendicular to the house.

2. In the following photo, the street going off into the distance is the same street as in the first photo; the Brinkerhoff house is out of camera range off to the left. You can see the start of Brinkerhoff Avenue (marked by the street sign) in the middle of the photo.  Brinkerhoff Avenue itself runs off to the right, following the direction of the one way sign.

3. In the next image, you can see the palm trees that currently line Brinkerhoff Avenue. Again, to orient you, the house is behind me from where I’m standing as I’m looking down Brinkerhoff Avenue.

There you have it – in less than a week Chris has tracked down several ancestors, traced a bit of their stories, located an old ancestral homestead along with  a whole street named for one of them.

So when anyone asks, “Why is Santa Barbara a stop on your Plan G Tour?,” I guess I’ll just reply, “Well, why not?