Sierra Club Oral History Project SIERRA CLUB WOMEN Elizabeth
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Sierra Club Oral History Project SIERRA CLUB WOMEN Elizabeth Marston Bade Recollections of William F. Bade and the Early Sierra Club Nora Evans Sixty Years with the Sierra Club Marjory Bridge Farquhar Pioneer Woman Rock Climber and Sierra Club Director Helen M. LeConte Reminiscences of LeConte Family Outings, the Sierra Club, and Ansel Adams Ruth E. Prager Remembering the High Trips Interviews Conducted by Eleanor Bade Catherine Harroun Ann Lage Judy Snyder Ruth Sumner Ruth Teiser 1972 ~ 1977 These interviews constitute volumes one and two of the Sierra Club Women series. Sierra Club History Committee 1976, 1977 \ Sierra Club Oral History Project copyright(S)bY Sierra Club, San Francisco, California 1977 All rights reserved ELIZABETH MARSTON BADE RECOLLECTIONS OF WILLIAM F. BADE AND THE EARLY SIERRA CLUB An Interview Conducted by Eleanor Bade Sierra Club History Committee 1976 SIERRA CLUB ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Copyright @ 1976 by Sierra Club San Francisco I California All rights reserved CONTENTS PREFACE iii INTRODUCTION v WITH THE SIERRA CLUB IN 1906 1 The Second Kings River Canyon Outing 1 To the Sierra by Rail and Stage 2 ON THE TRAILS OF JOHN MUIR 5 Tracing Muir in Florida, Cuba, and Alaska 5 The Life and Letters of John Muir 7 The 1909 Outing with John Muir 11 WILLIAM FREDERIC BADE: ENSURING THE MUIR LEGACY 12 The LeConte Memorial Lectures of 1919 12 Spreading Muir's Message 14 Four Generations of Sierra Club Service 16 INDEX 19 PREFACE Elizabeth Marston Bade was born in San Diego, Cali fornia, June 13, 1884, the third of five children of George W. Marston and Anna Lee Marston. She received her A.B. degree in German from Wellesley College in 1905. Due to her father's influence--Mr. Marston was an early member of the Sierra Club and went on High Trips soon after the operation began--she too went on early Sierra Club High Trips, participating in those of 1906, 1909, and 1916 and capped these experiences with a base camp trip on the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River in 1950. With her marriage to Dr. William Frederic Bade, January 12, 1917, her Sierra Club activities and John Muir associations greatly intensified. In fact, on their honeymoon, the Bades retraced considerable por tions of the Muir Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf. On another trip they did another partial retracement of the Cruise of the Corwin. These, it might be said, were but beginnings, for it took some years to bring to a successful conclusion the task of being, on the part of Dr. Bade, the biographer and literary executor of John Muir, a task so modestly and expertly done that many people think Muir got out all of his books himself. A third were edited from Muir's journals by Dr. Bade. At this writing, many people no longer speak of the Life and Letters of John Muir, seemingly unacquainted with it. This should be corrected. For my part, this set of books is the most valuable of Muiriana and reflects the essence of John Muir. A reading is most revealing and instructive. Dr. Bade's work with the Muir materials continued even beyond the early twenties, for other printings followed and some still continue. Later, Dr. Bade got back to his field of the Old Testament by beginning archaeological investigations in Palestine in 1926. Mrs. Bade, the Marston family, and other friends were patrons, a good many drawn from Sierra Club associations. The investigations were carried on in 1926, 1927, 1929, 1932, and 1935. Mrs. Bade came on the last three and, as director of the commissary, iii iv kept us all healthy. The two children, Mrs. Wilbur Bacon, now a director of admissions at International House, Berkeley, and William G. Bade, now a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, came on the 1935 expedition. Although but twelve and eleven they made valuable contributions to the work. As their supervisor, they called me a "slave driver." The parents permitted me to be exacting. The work required it. It was a great less when Dr. Bade died in 1936. Mrs. Bade not only carried on with the publication of the archaeological research, she also supervised the Muir material until disposition could be made to the Muir family and certain institutions. The Muir books by Linnie Marsh Wolfe belong to this period. In addition, Mrs. Bade implemented in 1939, with the help of friends and the Marston family, the erection of the Palestine Institute building of the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley. Here many of the Palestine materials are on display, in conjunction with library, offices, and other research facilities. As for myself, Mrs. Bade sponsored my membership into the Sierra Club in 1937 and in 1938 sponsored my "first summer" in the Sierra Neveda, and I have a feeling of much affection for these benefits. From them as first steps, the result was a wilderness "missionary." There could have been no finer people to work with than the Bades. Good things do live on, Anthony's speech notwith standing. Another evidence is that in May, 1976, by authority of the Board of Trustees and the administration of the Pacific School of Religion, the Palestine Institute is to be changed to the Bade Institute of Biblical Archaeology. Joseph L. Wampler Berkeley, California April, 1976 INTRODUCTION Elizabeth Marston Bade was born in San Diego June 13, 1884. She grew up and was educated there along with three sisters and a brother, until she went to Wellesley College, graduating in 1905. Her family took part in the early growth of San Diego, and were very active in the development of Balboa Park, Borrego State Park and Presideo Park. They have supported the Sierra Club and its endeavors since the early years. After her marriage to William Frederic Bade in 1917, she moved from San Diego to Berkeley. Dr. Bade had been active in the Sierra Club for many years. He participated in the fight to prevent the construction of Hetch Hetchy Dam and had been a director of the club since 1907. He was editor of the Sierra Club Bulletin from 1910 until 1922 and was president during the years 1919-1922. He had been chosen by the Muir family to be John Muir's literary executor and for several years after their marriage he continued with this work. After the publication of The Life and Letters of John Muir in 1924, he turned his full attention to his teaching at Pacific School of Religion and to his archeological re search. Mrs. Bade's recollections concern her early experiences on Sierra Club High Trips when she was a young woman and the years during her marriage when her husband was writing The Life and Letters of John Muir. The inter view was conducted on March 13 and March 16, 1972, while Mrs. Bade was visiting her son's home in Berkeley, California. I, her daughter-in-law, interviewed her under the auspices of the Sierra Club History Committee. Eleanor Bade April, 1976 v WITH THE SIERRA CLUB IN 1906 The Second Kings River Canyon Outing Eleanor Bade: Now do you want to tell a little bit about yourself, Mamie? Elizabeth Marston Bade: I'm quite an early member of the Sierra Club, but I can't remember the exact date when I joined, myself. But my father had gone on an early trip to the Kern in 1902 or 1903. He so enjoyed it, that from then on he read numerous works to us, especially The Mountains of California, and it became one of the most treasured books in the Marston household. Little did I think then that I would ever ~arry the literary executor of John Muir. My own first trip was to the Kings River Canyon in 1906. A small group were with the club that year because it followed so soon after the earthquake and fire in San Francisco, but I had the opportunity to become acquainted with many of the persons who became the most prominent people in the club. EB: Did you meet Bill's father on that trip? EMB: No, no. Mr. Bade was not on that trip; I think he was in Europe that year. I did not meet him until many years later. But Mr. and Mrs. Colby were there; Marion Randall and her sister Mary, and Mr. Parsons; and a large group from Los Angeles, who had not been affected by the earthquake, and several from San Diego also. 1 2 EMB: My first mountaineering was done with a small group who climbed Goat Mountain. I was camping with a Boston friend, Mrs. Prince, who had corne out with some other members of the Appalachian Club, and through her I was invited to go with a small group led by Mr. Joseph LeConte, Joe LeConte, Jr., for a day's climb to Goat Mountain. From it we had a wonderful view of the other high mountains around. Later I was invited to go with a group who were to take a trip to Rae Lake. It was the first time the Sierra Club group had ever tried to take as large a number; there were six girls and sixteen men, as I remember. Some of the best mountaineers were going and Marion Randall. I consulted Marion Randall as to whether I would be able to do it, and she said, "You will have to decide that for yourself. " So I decided I would! We had to carry our sleeping bags our selves, but the food was carried by one lone horse, as I remem ber it or two horses.