Carl Theodore Sierra, Sr.

 

Carl Theodore Sierra was born in San Bernardino, California on March 18, 1884.  His parents were Anna (Annie) Phelps and Celso Tornes Sierra.  Carl grew up in Turlock on a small farm.  Even though Annie was a Quaker, Carl was raised a Catholic, and served as an alter boy in his younger years.

Carl had pneumonia many times as a child and in his late teens was sent to the foothills of the Sierra Mts. to live with an old man the family knew.  It was believed the mountain air would help prevent getting pneumonia so often.  The old man had Carl take off his long, heavy and one-piece underwear (called union suit) and dress like a normal person.  Annie had thought she was protecting her son with heavy underwear all year long but after a year in the mountains Carl returned home a healthy man.

It was now time for Carl to choose a vocation.  He started in working for a funeral home in Fresno (where the family had moved) and after two days he was sent out on a job.  He drove a horse and buggy and went to pick up a hobo that was killed by falling off a freight train.  The body was in several pieces so that was the end of that idea for an occupation.  In later years Carl would say,  " Being an undertaker is the only business to be in as everyone has to die".

Carl then went to San Francisco and after a few attempts at odd jobs he sold Metropolitan Life Insurance.  Some of his clients were girls on the Barbary Coast, which was a district for houses of ill repute.  He always talked with the madams first and she would send each client to the reception room for Carl to collect fee owed on insurance policy.  One girl cried and she told Carl that her mother in the east was very sick and she had no money to go by train to see her.  Carl gave the girl money to see her mother and when he returned to the brothel the following week; the girl was still there and had never left San Francisco.  Needless to say, Carl lost his trust in women for the rest of his life.

Carl was very successful selling insurance and invested some in buying diamonds.  He gave his sister, Alma, some pieces of diamond jewelry so evidently made a very comfortable living. 

Sometime in 1912 or 1913 Alma introduced a co-worker and friend to Carl named Emma Stohler.  There was a courtship of a few months and a marriage in San Raphael on September 17, 1913.  The couple moved to Berkeley where Carl opened a rug cleaning business.  They lived in an upstairs apartment on Adeline St. where their first child, Ruth Emma, was born June 18, 1916.  Carl and Emma moved to a house in Oakland as they were expecting another child.  Carl T. Sierra, Jr. was born here on January 26, 1918.  Both children were born at home with Dr. Peck attending the births.

When the children were very young Carl Sr. and family moved east of Santa Rosa to a ranch.  It was very large as wheat was raised and there were milk cows, horses, hogs, chickens, rabbits and the usual dogs and cats.  Carl raised Holstein cows and had one named Betsy that was a champion of all.  Carl had paid $1,000 for her, which was a huge fortune at that time.  Carl had pictures of Betsy and the cowbell she wore around her neck for years.  These have disappeared over the years.  Carl had seventeen men working for him on the ranch to help milk cows, slaughter hogs for market and sow wheat.  Emma had a girl to care for Carl Jr. and Ruth and also cooked three meals a day for the hired help plus getting out in the field to help pitch hay.

During WW I Carl tried to enlist in the service but he was turned down because it was decided he could serve his country better with producing wheat and working the ranch.  After the war Carl and family moved to Sacramento, as it was time for Ruth to start school.  He went to work for a furniture company and took courses in interior decorating.  He became very interested in this and continued to take courses and was an interior decorator until he retired many years later in the 1960's.

The family moved to Southern California and lived in Eagle Rock, a suburb near Los Angeles.  Carl worked for the largest furniture store in Los Angeles named Barker Bros.  He was considered a top decorator and had many famous customers who were movie stars in silent movies in the middle and late 1920's.  Mary Pickford was married to Douglas Fairbanks Sr. had a beautiful huge home in Beverly Hills called Pickfair at this time.  Carl decorated some of the rooms here.  Charlie Chapman had a home in Beverly Hills that looked like a castle with huge fortresses on each side of the building.  I have seen both of these homes as I went with my dad, Carl, on house calls when I was about seven or eight years old.   Another customer was Ramon Navarro a Latin silent movie screen lover.  He was a devout Catholic spending his money on Catholic Churches.  He had five sisters who were all Nuns.  Carl sold him a huge pipe organ for one of the Catholic Churches.  Another customer was Rudolph Valentino, the greatest Latin Lover of all movie history.... He raised Airedale dogs and when he learned Carl had two children he gave an Airedale puppy to him for his children.  Carl Jr. and Ruth were delighted and named the puppy Teddy, who was in the family for 12 years.  He was run over by a car and killed and the whole family grieved for him.  There were other silent movie stars that were clients of Carl's but I cannot recall the names after so many years have passed. 

In the late 1920's the family moved back to Berkeley living with his parents until a suitable home could be found to buy. A home was found on Sonoma Ave. in Berkeley and they lived there until Ruth graduated from Berkeley High School.  Carl worked for John Bruener Co. in Oakland many years until he had a dispute with John Bruener and quit his job.  He worked at H. C. Capwells Department store that had a furniture department and then moved the family to Sacramento.  He worked at Summerville’s Furniture Store and the family was living in a rented two story Victorian home. It had two parlors with sliding doors between the two rooms.  It also had a stairway from the kitchen upstairs and another from the big entrance hall that was a curved stairway upstairs. This house was built in the late 1890'and had an alley in the back of a huge barn that was used to house horses and carriages.  In later years the barn was used as a garage.

In 1935 Carl received a telephone call from one of his father's neighbors in Oakland saying Celso was not well.  Carl drove to the east bay and picked up his father to take him home.  Three days later Celso died in Sacramento.

Shortly after Celso died, Carl Jr. and Ruth were boarded in a private home to attend Sacramento Jr. College.  Emma and Carl moved back to the east bay to live in the Victorian house where Celso had lived.

Carl once again went to work for John Bruener Co. and stayed with them until he retired in the 1960's.  He restored and modernized the house while living there with Emma.  During this time Carl had purchased some acreage in Castro Valley to build a new home.  It was in the country and when the home was completed they went into raising pigeons for market.  This was really Emma's business as she did all the work and bookkeeping but Carl helped on Sundays when he wasn't working as an interior decorator. In the middle 60'the property was bought by the Board of Education, as more acres were needed to add to existing school.

Carl and Emma purchased a home in a subdivision in Fremont.  Carl spent all of his time working in the yard landscaping and building water falls going over rocks (collected years before) and ending in a big fishpond.  Emma had a green thumb so between the two they had a show place.  After a couple of years a stranger knocked on the front door and wanted to buy the home.  Carl did not want to sell but the man was very persistent and gave Carl such a big offer that Carl did sell for a pretty big profit.

Carl and Emma bought another home in a subdivision in Union City.  The grounds had a clubhouse and pool just for homeowners and guests.  Emma died here in 1968. Carl continued to live here with a live in housekeeper and caretaker until he died.  He went peacefully while taking a nap as he planned on taking some out of town friends to dinner that night.  This was on June 4, 1970.  He was 86 years old.

Carl was cremated with his remains put in an urn that looked like book. This was put in the same niche beside the matching book of his wife Emma.  They are in the Garden of Memories in the Memorial Columbarium in Oakland, California.

Other incidents to be noted in Carl's life.

Carl stuttered while growing up and his parents took him to many doctors for help.  One doctor said blow a whistle when he stutters, another suggested giving him violin lessons.  Carl's parents bought a beautiful violin and Carl took lessons.  This didn't help solve the stuttering problem.  Carl still had the violin when he died but it had not been played since he took lessons years before.  Another doctor said Carl was thinking faster than he could talk so that doctor taught Carl how to say a few words and stop, collect his thoughts and say another few words. This solved the problem of stuttering and Carl spoke in such a manner for the rest of his life.

When living in Fresno and Turlock the family had a bulldog named "Pug".  The whole family loved Pug and they had a full sized oil painting of him.  Pug died, supposedly at the age of 21 and the family really grieved.  I was told that neighbors came from miles around to Pug's funeral.  Carl was given the oil painting of Pug and during the following years I would see it hanging on the wall and then it was gone.  After the move to Castro Valley I saw Pug hanging on the wall again and it was gone several months later.  It seemed Emma did not want Pug hanging on the wall of such a beautiful home and would take it down.  Carl would find it and put it back on the wall.  Pug was dearly loved but not a beautiful dog.  Carl was a dog lover.....Emma would tell him that he treated dogs better than he did people.  In my opinion this statement was very true.

At the beginning of WW II Carl had a kidney stone and was put in the hospital.  After many tests and Carl being in pain it was decided the kidney had to be removed.  He was devastated and read in the newspaper about two years later about a woman in her 40's, who had found out she was born with four kidneys.  Carl said, "Wouldn't you know it.....and I only have one kidney!" As a result of this surgery, Carl developed diabetes and had it the rest of his life.  He took insulin shots and later he was on oral medication along with a controlled diet.

After his death in 1970 I flew from Georgia to California to attend funeral and help close the house in Union City.  There were two very large closets in the hallway.  They were completely filled with bottles of every kind of drug imaginable on special built shelves.  Each closet was like a drug store.  Some prescriptions were years old.  It took me the best part of a day throwing all the drugs in big cardboard boxes and calling the city about not wanting to put them in the yard for a trash man to collect.....They thanked me and sent a special man in a truck to pick up and dispose of the drugs safely within an hour of my telephone call.

Carl became a Mason on the night I was born, June 18, 1916.  He was very proud of this

and very seldom missed any meetings.  He was not a religious man attending any church so the Masonic Order took the place of religion.  A preacher gave a short sermon at the funeral home but when the Masons gave the funeral rites with their little aprons on it really was very impressive.  Dad would have been very proud and pleased.