Roots & Vines

Thompson Seedless Grapes
Carleton E. Watkins
Kern County, California, 1880
Albumen silver print

My paternal great-great grandfather arrived in Bakersfield, California in 1875. He'd come to Bakersfield from Windsor, California. The beginning of his life was spent in Sugar Hill, Pennsylvania.

Why did he go to Bakersfield? Unfortunately, it wasn't to grow grapes. He got into the oil business, and thrived. (Uncool, I know.)

I know a lot about him as well as that branch of my family, thanks to a book written by my first cousin. It was an amazing time in the history of my family and the state.

Carleton Watkins, who took the above photo, also took a picture of the house great-great granddad built. He documented much of this state in it's early years. I will post that picture before long. And maybe some stories of my family's travails.

My dad went and saw There Will Be Blood a few weeks ago, and sent me an enthusiastic email. He noted that our family name is mentioned in the film, and that there are Bakersfield scenes, although it was filmed primarily in Texas. In reading about the production of the movie, I learned this:

"Originally, Paul Thomas Anderson had been working on a screenplay about two fighting families. He struggled with the script and soon realized it just wasn't working.Homesick, he purchased a copy of Upton Sinclair's Oil! in London and was immediately drawn to the cover illustration of a California oilfield. As he read, Anderson became even more fascinated with the novel and adapted the first 150 pages to a screenplay. He began to get a real sense of where his script was going after making countless trips to museums dedicated to early oilmen in Bakersfield"


...To be continued