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Anne Hadden arrived for her challenging new job in Salinas, the county seat, as the first county librarian of Monterey County in September 1913. The County contained a variety of terrains and populations, both of which would greatly affect her future activities. Anne would later write notes about the rural town of Salinas and a description of the massive county, which provide background for understanding the culture and the people she interacted with as county librarian.

Salinas Valley

In the east part of the County is the broad Salinas Valley, an agricultural hub of the vast country with its rich soil. With the advent of irrigation in the late 1890s, Claus Spreckels purchased many fertile acres in the valley and promised to develop the world’s largest sugar beet processing factory. Over two hundred Japanese workers came to the valley to work at the plant. They joined other immigrant groups, including Chinese, Mexicans, and Filipinos, all primarily farm workers. The county’s agriculture ranged from farms growing a variety of vegetable crops to cattle ranches producing dairy products.

The railroad provided the main transportation through the valley connecting the small towns, until the highway was built after 1915. The towns of Greenfield, Soledad and Jolon were most accessible.

Anne wrote about the valley and the Salinas River that frequently flooded and washed out the bridges, greatly affecting the activities of the residents as well as her job in establishing the county libraries.

In 1902 John Steinbeck was born in the Salinas Valley and became a “favorite son” who wrote many stories about the valley and other parts of Monterey County, including his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Grapes of Wrath (1938). Through her library work, Anne knew young Steinbeck and his family, after they moved to the town of Salinas. Over the years she kept in touch with his whereabouts through his mother and her stories of his activities.

Salinas, the County Seat of Monterey County

When Anne arrived in Salinas, she found a small real-frontier town unlike anywhere she had lived before. In 1910 it had a population of 3,736.

Salinas was an important stop on the railroad due to its location directly east of the Monterey Peninsula. Horse stages ran from the railroad to the Peninsula.

The town was occupied by a varied population including Mexican and Japanese farm workers, Chinese immigrants, and Caucasian ranchers and farm owners. The main newcomers were teachers. Many residents were retired couples who had large families nearby and thus had little time to spend with others.

Anne wrote notes describing the town as “an almost tree-less town in 1913 with white houses and glaring streets.” The unpaved Main Street had wooden sidewalks with wooden awnings. Her notes said there were “so many saloons on the east side of Main Street that women rarely walked on that side.” The town was nick-named “Saloonas.”

Harriet Eddy wrote about Salinas in 1912: “Salinas: slow, tries to be progressive, but succeeds only slightly in a material way. The few who want better things are sharply divided into classes. There is no big leadership. [It is a] ‘Saloon controlled town.’”

Anne wrote about socializing on Saturdays in town:

On Saturday afternoons everyone dressed in their best and went downtown to shop and parade. People came in from the country and a general social time was enjoyed. The County Library during the early years was always open on Saturday afternoons. Many visitors from the county came in and Saturday afternoon was the busiest afternoon of the week.

She described the existence of “social cliques but with wonderful community cooperation when occasions arose such as ‘Big Week’, war time Red Cross, and other war time activities.” Big Week was the predecessor of the California Rodeo, now a very old established and popular tradition. Anne enjoyed the activities and wrote her memories of this in 1950:

In 1913, the Salinas Rodeo was less professional than it later became. Then it was a home county celebration—and young men and women from the ranches vied with each other on the rodeo grounds with a few noted cowboys from outside.

It was a picture to see the equestrian parade arrive, ride around the track and head in outside the fence facing the grand stand.

The parade of gaily dressed men, women, and children on horseback formed in front of the Salinas Library, and the excited gathering was a picture to be remembered. One saw the carefully planned detail of the costumes. There were horses of all types and descriptions, from the beautiful thoroughbred with its proud rider, to the old plow horse with its back loaded with excited youngsters.

At night the street was roped off and the dancing was mostly a community affair with everyone taking part.

Anne had moved into a “wild west” town, where she learned to enjoy the rich history and the beautiful natural surroundings of the county.

Monterey Peninsula

The Monterey Peninsula, surrounded by Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean, was the most populated area of Monterey County in 1913, as it is today. The city of Monterey was the first state capital of California in 1848. The area was rich in Mexican and Missionary heritage. After the 1906 earthquake centered in San Francisco, many artists and writers moved to the peninsula, when it started to become a major cultural center.

The three main towns on the Monterey Peninsula were Monterey, Pacific Grove, and Carmel, which all had their own city libraries when Anne started work in the County in 1913. Only Carmel joined the County Free Library system in the early days.

Santa Lucia Mountains

To the west of the Salinas Valley lies the Santa Lucia range of mountains roughly ten miles wide and one hundred miles long, stretching from Monterey south to San Luis Obispo County. There are several ridges up to 6,000 feet and many canyons stretching between the Salinas Valley and the ocean to the west. In 1913 there were only trails connecting the western part of the mountains with the valley. The area was sparsely populated in 1913 and remains so today.

Because access to the mountain settlements necessitated travel by horseback, early in her career Anne took horseback riding lessons in order to visit the rural library branches she wanted to establish.

“The Coast”

The last ridge of the Santa Lucia Mountains drops precipitously into the Pacific Ocean. The Big Sur coast runs for about eighty miles from south of the Monterey Peninsula towards San Luis Obispo County and San Simeon. It is nicknamed “The Coast.”

In the early 1900s, isolated pioneer families lived along this wild central coast of California, far beyond the reach of roads and railroads. They relied primarily on ships for large heavy supplies and on horse and stage coach for basic needs. Anne came to know many of these families. Through the years, she provided them with support, both of daily necessities and of cultural knowledge, through the libraries she established.

It is clear Anne enjoyed many adventures in her new home base as she settled into an environment that proved quite challenging for her as the new county librarian. She was determined to introduce culture to the residents and to stimulate an interest in learning. She spent the first few years setting up branches in nearby towns, after connecting with locals who were interested in becoming custodians of a local branch.

ANNE HADDEN in her own words:

MONTEREY COUNTY – DESCRIPTION

Monterey County has an area of 3,600 square miles and had a population at the last census of 24,146. Rugged and in places inaccessible mountains lie to the West, bordering the ocean, holding narrow fertile valleys and containing pockets of settlements. Mountains to the East also contained scattered settlements.

Between these mountain ranges lies the fertile Salinas Valley running from north to south the length of the County and extending into San Luis Obispo. The eccentric Salinas River flows through this valley, most of the year a shallow stream on the surface, but underneath, they say, one of the largest underground water courses in the country.

In winter, this river, fed from a large mountain area, breaks loose and storming through the land like a great dragon, carves out new courses, washing away hundreds of acres of fertile land, and carrying bridges and everything it meets away to the ocean.

In a year of heavy rains such as the present one has been [1913-1914], Monterey is a county of isolated settlements. Salinas itself was an island for several days. Monterey and Pacific Grove were isolated for a much longer time—Salinas being their nearest railroad station.

Other places are only now, after nearly four weeks regaining their touch with the outside world. Nearly all the bridges on all the water courses in Monterey County were carried away by the big storm in January, and it was a regret, owing to delays and difficulties at the outset, that only one of these cut-off communities had its County Library branch to fall back on during its period of isolation. That community was most appreciative.

We have five branches to go out into these districts as soon as the roads and river will permit. Some places in the mountains can still be reached only by horseback. Over the river baskets and pulleys are in some places being used for transportation of passengers and goods while the bridges are being repaired and rebuilt. Down at Soledad a big negro was the first to try this means of transportation, his weight was too much for the cable and he was precipitated into the flood. In other places a ferry is being used or a foot bridge spans the gap of broken bridge.

Many old Spanish grants are still intact in Monterey County and some of them are held by large corporations. This means that great tracts of land are sparsely settled. So much for geographical conditions.

Monterey is a County full of fascinating historical interest. There are three old missions within its limits and two others just over the boundary. Monterey was the center of the Spanish and Mexican life of the early days. Descendants of the old families are numerous and still hold in memory at least the old traditions.