Dear Reader,
In August the Morgan Hill Times began considering ways to honor the city’s 100th birthday. We started our Centennial editorial project by asking local freelance journalist Martin Cheek to write a series of history stories about the people, places and events that played an important role in the founding of the city Nov. 10, 1906.
Those 13 history features, which began running continuously in the Times Aug. 15 through Tuesday, Nov. 7, are being presented to you in this special Centennial commemorative edition. The series educated us about the Mutsun Ohlone Indians, the Spanish Mexican jurisdiction, town founder Martin Murphy, Sr., his son Daniel Murphy, his daughter Diana marrying Hiram Morgan Hill, our city’s namesake, and other interesting historical facts.
We’re printing them again to make them more accessible to you, our valued reader, and others who love Morgan Hill.
We’re grateful for the opportunity to serve you by giving you well researched, beautifully written factual stories about the town’s past.
It’s been gratifying to see our readers’ response to the series. Several local teachers are using them to teach history to their students. Others came to the Times newsroom to purchase them because they’re fond of their city’s roots.
Other parts of the Times’ Centennial project included publishing contrasting old and new photos of several town landmarks. We hope you have enjoyed them. We hope to compile these images and bring them to you in the form of a calendar for 2007 to remember our 100th birthday.
We’re honored that the city’s Centennial Committee will use this special commemorative edition to include it in a time capsule it plans to bury on the ground when it unveils the city’s Centennial trail today, Nov. 10, 2006.
Morgan Hill has sure evolved from a small farming community of few residents to a growing city of more than 35,000 people.
So happy birthday Morgan Hill. You’re 100 years old and you don’t look it!
You’re as active as a child, as evolving as an adolescent and as coming of age as an adult. You’re entering a new century full of promise. You have great community leaders who love you and will make sure you continue to prosper.
We’re sure George A. Edes, the founder of the Morgan Hill Times, would be proud that the newspaper embarked on this endevour and that we’re still alive more than 100 years later after our first edition of April 12, 1894. Thank you for the opportunity to highlight our town’s history and for reading the Morgan Hill Times. Happy 100th birthday!
– Sheila Sanchez, Editor
THE CENTENNIAL SERIES
Tuesday, Aug. 15: Martin Murphy, Sr.
Tuesday, Aug. 22: Mutsun Ohlone Indians
Tuesday, Aug. 29: Daniel Murphy
Tuesday, Sept. 5: Catherine O’Toole
Tuesday, Sept. 12: Charles Kellogg
Tuesday, Sept. 19: Senor Juan Hernandez
Tuesday, Sept. 26: Swedish Royalty
Tuesday, Oct. 3: Sada Sutcliffe Coe
Tuesday, Oct. 10: George A. Edes
Tuesday, Oct. 17: Isola Kennedy
Tuesday, Oct. 24: Madrone
Tuesday, Oct.31: John Moreno
Tuesday, Nov. 7: Hiram Morgan Hill
CENTENNIAL EDITION CONTRIBUTORS
Photographs: U.R. Sharma’s Images of
America – Morgan Hill
Editor: Sheila Sanchez
Writer: Martin Cheek
Project Designer: Gerry Blanchard
Cover Designer: Gerry Blanchard
Advertising: Nathan Benich
Copyright: Morgan Hill Times
