Historically Speaking About Bethel Island Preserving Memories of the Past June 2006

by Bob Gromm
Photos by Russell Byrne

Warren Bethell was a veteran of the war with Mexico and one of seven investors who purchased a number of tracts of delta swamp land back in the 1870s. At that time the Bethel Island area was called Sand Mound Ranch. Three of the investors hired Chinese labor to build by hand the levees that created the island. Bethell subsequently raised grain, potatoes, alfalfa, and cattle on the reclaimed land until his death in 1882. The island was subsequently named for Bethell, with the obvious alteration in its spelling.

Nothing much changed on the island for the next 70 years. The history of civilization on Bethel Island only got started since the end of WWII. Before that, rural life was conducted by local farm families in the absence of modern conveniences such as electricity, sewage, telephone, and water systems. The Post Office finally opened for business on August 16, 1947. Modern times came to the island only through a series of pitched political wars. The warfare actually went all the way back to the 1920s in which angry landowners ran siphons over the levees in order to try washing their neighbors right off the island. The warfare grew bitter enough by the 60s and 70s to earn the area the nickname “Battle Island.”

The modern conflict, which is still going on today in a more civilized fashion, is between the old timers, who want to preserve the rural community nature of the area, and the new residents who are interested in the recreational and residential resources the island offers.

My Own History
I’m 88 years old and have been living in the area for 45 years. Everything has changed since those old days. When I came to the area you could exit off Cypress Road onto Highway 4 and all you could see were pasture lands with herds of cattle.

I made my initial forays into the Far East County area in the same manner as some of the early settlers. I came by water in the 1950s on outings with a recreational boating organization that we called the Shear Pin Club that met in a South Bay facility adjoining the Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyards. Requirements for membership in the club included ownership of a boat with an outboard motor. Since the distance to the Delta was too far for our small craft, we didn’t actually make the journey by water. We trailered our boats to Bethel Island or Isleton and spent joyful waterborne weekends camping, exploring, and especially fishing.

I was owner of the largest boat in our little fleet. It was a 19-foot cruiser that had been made by Stockton’s Ladd Boat Works. Those interesting vessels were constructed with no ribs; the hull was formed out of stretched, laminated plywood. The difference in scale between those long-ago days and now is seen in the fact that my boat was powered by the largest outboard motor of that time – a 25 HP Johnson. Such an engine would seem like a plaything for a young boy these days, but we could pull skiers behind that boat.

Moving In

I moved here from San Francisco in 1960 when I bought the Prince Harbor Marina through a bankruptcy sale. I was one of seven bidders; the marina came to me by default when the other bidders pulled out. People might have imagined that we believed the marina to be a princely place but, in fact, it was named after it’s first owner – a man named Harrod Prince.

Prince Harbor was located on Dutch Slough just East of the Jersey Island Bridge. I ran that marina for the next 17 years. I might still be running the place today but two property developers named Bill Boyd and Phil Johansson made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I signed the papers in the 1980s transferring development rights to them, but kept the land in my own name. The only “development” they ever did was to tear down the entire facility and sell my rental boats. Then Jimmy Carter became president, interest rates soared to double digits, and before the dust settled Boyd and Johanasson had passed on.

In the 1960s, I became involved in the Bethel Island Septic Tank Elimination Project under the direction of the county. Later the project was taken over by Ironhouse Sanitary District. We started the district and I suggested the name “Ironhouse” because it was the name of the old Oakley school that sat on the corner of Sellers and Cypress. The school itself was named for an old iron house that sat beside Dutch Slough. Delta freighters would stop at a landing in front of that house to pick up cargo. In a curious example of things coming back around, Oakley is building a new school and is naming it Ironhouse.

Movers and Shakers

Bethel Island has a rich, though relatively brief, history. It is wise, I believe, to try to preserve the memory of people who have gone before us and who worked and sacrificed to leave a legacy behind.

Theodore Andronico, of Andronico Markets, for example, had immigrated from Greece as a teenager. His colorful history included many things besides the sale of groceries. For example, he was a prize fighter for a while, and an avid promoter of the activities of the Masons and the Shriners lodges. Most importantly for our history, Ted, as he was always called, served as a director of the Bethel Island Municipal Improvement District for 17 years, and fought for a long time to improve the island’s levees. He also built Frank’s Fishing Resort at the end of Gateway Road.

The marina and restaurant located on the site were familiar destinations for boaters for many decades. Ted was one of the main people behind the move to turn Frank’s Tract, the flooded island that lies just across the channel from his resort, into a state park.

Many people assume that Ted named his Frank’s Resort after Frank’s Tract but, in fact, he named the resort after his brother. The tract was named for the original owner who had the last name Franks. Ted died in 1978, at 75 years of age. His son, Frank, took over management of the marina until his recent death.

William “Bill” Boyd was raised as an Antioch grocer. His family owned the Morris Grocery Store and ran a boat-based grocery delivery service to delta island communities. Bill established one of the first real estate offices on Bethel Island in 1960. For the next 23 years he was a moving force in many of the island’s development activities and was one of the founders of the Bethel Island Municipal Improvement District. William Boyd donated the land for processing ponds for the new sewage treatment system. The bequest was actually not a perfectly altruistic gift on his part, since the system would provide necessary infrastructure for the Sand Mound Condos Boyd was developing.

In 1961 he and Ross Draper started a local newspaper called The Voice of the Delta. Bill died in 1983 at the relatively youthful age of 59 years.

Newspaper Wars, Et cetera

The Voice of the Delta was only one of a couple newspapers that were formerly published on the island. When those papers shut down, I went to see Jack Webb at the old Antioch Leger with a proposal to open a Bethel Island section in his paper. At first he went along with the idea with enthusiasm but later reneged on his part of the agreement, so I went to the Brentwood News and pitched the idea to the publishers, Tom & Sam Matthews. I showed them my proposed editorial content. “I can use this,” Sam said, and immediately began including a Bethel Island page in the Brentwood News.

Sam said, “I need someone to give a local spin to the stuff coming in off the teletype.” So I took that job as well. Doris Conley was the Editor In Chief at that time. Dean Lescher was a rapacious businessman who had gobbled up all the print media in the county except for our Brentwood News, the Martinez Gazette, and a paper published in San Ramon. Lescher developed an attitude about his failure to own everything, and in 1972 he hired Doris away from the Brentwood News making her Editor In Chief of his Pittsburg Dispatch. Following Doris’ departure I got the job as Editor In Chief of the Brentwood News – a post I held for the next 15 years. After my departure in 1987, the paper was sold to a couple of entrepreneurs and Lescher was finally able to buy it and to fold it into his Contra Costa Times empire.

Dean Lescher was an interesting person. He took up with a cocktail waitress named Maggie who ended up becoming Mrs. Margaret Lescher. In my opinion, when he married Maggie Dean, Lescher married above his own level in everything except wealth. Both as cocktail waitress and then as wealthy philanthropist Margaret was a discreet, intelligent, estimable person. She became friends with my wife who always admired her.

Dean, on the other hand, was a stuffy old guy. He was a greedy person, as shown by his working so hard to absolutely control all the news in the county. He was also a miser. Following the death of his first wife, Dean’s son had to sue him to get any part of the insurance settlement. On the other hand, he had an arrangement to care for Margaret’s daughters from a previous marriage and Maggie told me, “He’s living up to his deal to take care of my girls.” After Dean’s death Margaret became a famous philanthropist with the enormous estate that Dean had left behind.

While I was serving as the County Commissioner for Natural Resources and Recreation, I became involved with the John Marsh House. That was 20 years ago and I’ve been helping to get that house restored ever since. I’m still associated with the project and have been working with the John Marsh Historic Trust.

I’m not upset about the changes coming to Bethel Island. There is no place left for San Francisco or Oakland to grow so the tide of development will inevitably come rolling our direction. It is only reasonable that we welcome and intelligently manage a process that, after all is going to happen whether we like it or not.

You can get a copy of Bob Gromm’s book, Historically Speaking on the Bethel Island Area, by contacting the author at 925-684-2117.