I saw Madera and later Carranza whirled about helpless in the Mexican revolution and, conscientious men and humble in their troubles, they used to ask me, anybody what they should do. There was no one to tell them; not in the whole world was there anybody who could say what to do at each new turn of the terrific storm, and Madera and Carranza were drowned. It was pitiful to see them killed, as they were, at the hands of men, but really by the unknown law of revolutionary psychology. (Lincoln Steffens: Moses in Red
RANCH: Lincoln Steffens visits Adobe Santa Anita canyon June 20, 1901
Hollenbeck Hotel
Los Angeles California,
June 20, 1901
Dear Father
Three nights and two days on the Santa Anita Ranch, a day at Santa Barbara with Harry Hollister, a night here to think it over, and I leave this evening on the Limited with this conclusion: that you have no happier child than Dot [Lottie Steffens Hollister]–unless it is Jimmy Hollister?
They are the prize impression of my trip, the best think I have seen. Her you know. He is one of the finest young men I have ever met, simple, reserved, solid and with Dot he is beautiful. There is love there, but love may be passionate, violent, selfish. Jimmy is gentle, kind and easily affectionate. As I told Dot, too, he is able. What he does, he does without a strain, and I noted in him that calm sense of reserve power which I have found in the big men of Wall Street. He has repose, because he has strength, maybe even power, and if a crisis ever comes in their lives she will find James Hollister a big, brave man. Dot is all right.
They all like her. Will and Harry and the Mexican “Jo.” They have accepted “Jimmy’s young wife” as they call her with a touch of humor that is a touch of human affection.
She is nervous just now. Her condition makes her so, but it is purely the excitement of extraordinary happiness, and there isn’t an element in their situation that is not just as it should be. Write to her as often as you all can till she is through her time, but rely on her tall, handsome young husband to see her out.
I am delighted.
I’m almost as happy over them as they are over themselves, and I’m inclined to forget everything else in the thought of the little old home of adobe on the Santa Anita Ranch.
I’m glad that I got away with disturbing it, but I wouldn’t take that chance again.
I wouldn’t go near them again fora a long while lest I should make some slip.
[…]
You and Mamma are sound and clear for whatever may come. Lulu [Steffens] is changed remarkably, and Laura [Steffens] has her problem to solve; Laura is the youngest of us, and there is time for her. I’d like to write a long letter to her, only she seems so self reliant, that it would be a little like interference. But I believe in her also. I like everybody, in fact. and I like you just as you are.
Love to all and goodbye.
Lincoln Steffens
V 1, p 149,
Collected Letters
NEVADA John DeRuntz takes over Nevada leadership for ranch negotiations. 1961
Uncle John: Tall! Taller than, dad, John Marshall.
Funny little mustache.
He was a Cal Berkeley grad who became a carpenter.
Dynamite salesman for Hercules Powder for some time…
Funny — once referred to old family friend, Gerhart Jansen, as “ratchet jaw.”
I used to believe he owned all the Uncle John’s Pancake Houses in America. He remained close to the Nevada and Northern California Hollisters even after he and Peggy Hollister broke up, still “Uncle John” in my mind. Good buddies with Harry Hollister.
Drove all over the US in a big, beat up station wagon (Rambler? Chevy?) Lived in Montana for a while… worked in Mexico half the year and vacationed the rest… Worked on pipelines in Alaska half the year, and vacationed the rest. Visited us in Australia once — well, tried to. We weren’t home, so he took off for Ayers Rock and the Barrier Reef.
R.M. chat 2012
NEVADA: Graham Hollister Gets JFK job in Washington, February 1, 1961
Graham Hollister To Leave for Washington
Appointed a special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of the interrior Graham Hollister of Genoa this week was making preparations to move to Washington D.C. The Nevada ranch operator and Democratic political leader said today he must report for work in Washington on Feb 13, 1961.
This gives him little time to get his house in order in Nevada but he told newsmen today he would get the Job done. He will be accompanied to Washington by Mrs. Hollister and their younger daughter Amelia. His son-in-law John deRuntz who operates a ranch at Dayton will move to Genoa, Nevada and operate both and operate both ranches from the Hollister home.
ON COLORADO
Hollister said he had been informed by Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall that his duties will involve straightening out out land matters along the Colorado River from the Hoover dam to the Mexican border In recent years many settlers have onto lands along the river which formerly were flood plains and the legal status of the land must be decided. Hollister said problem promises to be large and difficult.
“This is a pretty nice honor for our state and for me and I am particularly appreciative ol what Gov. Grant Sawyer did in my belief.” Hollister said today.
“The appointment came from the White House after Governor Sawer recommended me for the post and his efforts were most effective. Hollister said he was also appreciative of letters written by other Nevadans on his behalf.
“The appointment shows Nevada was recognized for the vote it came up in Kennedy’s favor,” Hollister said.
Hollister headed the Farmers for Kennedy and Johnson in the 1960 presidential election and he was Sawyer’s self-appointed campaign manager in the 1958 gubernatorial election campaign.
Reno Evening Gazette, Wednesday, February 1, 1961
PSYCHOLOGY. Rolls Royce as alternative therapy for Laura Steffens Suggett May 6 1943
“…The weather is delightful and [Laura] loves her car. It is a godsend as it is roomy, easy to get into and big windows that do not obstruct the view. I would always keep it for her to sit in even if it ever refused to run, but it runs as usual. She was unhappy when I left it to be tuned up some time ago. The smaller cars do not please her.”
(Allen Suggett letter to J. J Hollister and Lottie Steffens Hollister quoted in BCW article in Jung Journal Winter 2009)
PSYCHOLOGY. Laura and Lottie study under Georg Muller 1900
Georg Elias Müller (20 July 1850 – 23 December 1934) “is the first experimental psychologist…who was little else than an experimental psychologist. He brought his philosophical acumen into his work by his logical precision and his trenchant criticism, and, by avoiding philosophy and becoming a scientist, he lived up approximately to the teaching of philosophy of his youth that science must precede philosophizing. Within experimental psychology, he ehibited a broad interest and fertile mind. His students received from him more than their meed of inspiration and help, and through his own work and through theirs he exerted a great influence upon experimental psychology in its formative years.”
Edwin G. Boring, The American Journal of Psychology 47 (2): 344–348.
PSYCHOLOGY: Lottie gets her Ph.D at Goettingen, Laura shies away June 1900
At Goettingen, Lottie Steffens was “put at the head of a large round table with 12 professors, each one specializing in a different subject. They asked her questions out of turn, interrupting each other and on all different subjects. Somehow Lottie kept her head. Her only comment…was that she fell out of bed that night! Lottie’s sister, Laura Steffens, who also had been studying at Goettingen did not dare take the examination after she saw what happened.”
PSYCHOLOGY: Jo Wheelwright worried about the Suggetts’ Rolls Royce February 20, 1932
Jo Wheelwright, fresh from witnessing the “Mass Education movement and the Communist movement” in China then Russia, expressed ennui about the “petty bourgeois life” of Kay and Joseph Steffens Hollister At Goettingen university; Jo considered walking to Marseilles to meet his wife, Jane Hollister Wheelwright and Allen Suggett with the melancholic or schizophrenic Laura Suggett Steffens.
Jo Wheelwright was particularly worried about the Suggetts, having learned that Allen was bringing from the United States to Europe a Rolls Royce. Jo urged Jane not to participate in the driving to Switzerland lest it cause her difficulties.
Source: Jung Journal Winter 2009
PSYCHOLOGY. C.J. Jung unable to cope with Laura Steffens Suggett, March 1932
“Thanks to Laura’s mental breakdown, my husband [Joe Wheelwright] and I met C. G. Jung of Zurich, Switzerland. We accompanied Laura for an interview with Jung…But Jung pronounced her as being too fragmented. She had been too long without constructive treatment to ever make her own way in the world. She could function only if she lived in Zurich near him. He already had too many ex-schizophrenic patients dependent on him and decided he could not take on one more.”
March 1932 Jane Hollister Wheelwright
“Family History” quoted in Betty Coon Wheelwright, Jane and Joe Wheelwright, 1929-1932 Jung Journal of Culture and Psyche Winter 2009
PSYCHOLOGY. Laura Steffens Suggett made the best library ever; 1924
The Beginning and the End of the Best Library Service in the World
By Laura Steffens Suggett, Consulting Librarian, California Plan
“This little book just off the press tells the story of the California library plan from the ‘beginning to the end'” of the California Stte library from December 1902 to June 1923
As she says, the plan for Califirornia library services has ‘attracted world-wide attention but unfortunately not world-wide understanding.'”
Published by the San Francisco Publishing Company, 1924
For sale at the A.M. Robertson bookstore 922 Stockton Street, Untion Square San Francisco California.
“I am the only one who was in the work from the beginning of the experiment to the end, who has the scientific habit of looking for and at every problem that arose, and of trying to solve each problem scientifically.”
Drake Station 