2015 October PASO Magazine

OUR Pioneer Day Belle
Mary Elizabeth
Hambly
for some of the first Pioneer Player’s productions.
Emma enjoys playing her great grandpa’s parlor
grand piano and continuing the musical traditions of
her family. She is a senior at Paso Robles High and
plans to attend college.
Related families: Horsch, Hege, Lichti, Baer, Hurley,
Marchand, Colnat, and Dart
By Meagan Friberg
Representing the Carissa Plains Area, Mary
Elizabeth Hambly, the daughter of Milton and
Gina Horzen Hambly, is our Pioneer Belle for 2015.
Her grandparents are Lee and Sandra Conover
Hambly, and Anthony and Karen Mastagni Horzen.
She has one brother, Wyatt, and a sister, Avery.
Mary’s great, great, great grandparents, Samuel
Jobe and Bliza Blackburn, moved to the Carissa
Plains in 1888. Samuel, a Pony Express Rider from
1860-1861, earned the nickname “Red Devil” for
his flowing red hair and beard. Samuel and Bliza’s
daughter, Nora, married Jess Wilkinson in 1908
and purchased a homestead on the Plains under the
Homestead Act in 1916. After selling their place, Jess
worked on various ranches, including the Camatti
Ranch and the Eagle Ranch; he also drove cattle for
Miller and Lux from the Central Coast to Bakersfield
and was the 1958 Pioneer Day Marshal.
Jess and Nora’s daughter, Irma, married Mary’s
great grandfather, Milton Hambly, in 1933. Milton
was born and raised on the Estrella Plains. His father,
T.W. Hambly, came to the area in the early
1890’s and bought the General Store. He
later sold part of the lot to the Grange for
a $50 gold piece and the Estrella Grange
Hall was built. Milton also worked on
various ranches – the Work Ranch, Ed
Sinclair’s place in Vineyard Canyon, and
Jackson and Reinhard Almond Orchards.
Mary is also the fifth generation descendant
of the Mastagni Family. She is a
senior at Paso Robles High and hopes to
attend Cal Poly SLO and major in Biomedical
Engineering.
Related families: Jobe, Blackburn,
Wilkinson, Hambly, Mastagni, Bassi,
Drake, Conover, and Horzen
Belle Attendants
Jody Alayna Bermingham, representing the
Shandon area, is the daughter of Shawn and Candace
Beckett Bermingham. Her grandparents are
Edward (Butch) and Patricia Bermingham, and
Robert and Carol Beckett.
Jody’s family ties extend to the Annette, Bitterwater,
Estrella and Creston areas, where her family has
been farming and ranching since the 1890’s. Her extended
family, involved with the Pioneer Day Parade
since its inception, has had Marshals, Queens, Belles,
Belle Attendants, and a Parade Chairmen.
The parade’s Grain Wagons were donated by the
Bermingham family in memory of the “best mule
skinner and jerk line driver in the area” – Jody’s great,
great grandfather, Ed Bermingham.
Jody attends Paso Robles High and plans to attend
cosmetology school.
Related families: Riggs, Grant, Anderson, Freeman,
Davis, Rasmussen, Rhodes, McCornack, and Beckett
Chassey Rae Coelho, representing the Adelaida
Area, is the daughter of Chris and Gelene
Dodd Coelho. She has two sisters, Riley and Adelaida.
Her grandparents are Raymond (Skip) and
Nancy White Dodd, Stanley and Leslie Coelho,
and Darlene and Johnny Lawrence.
Chassey’s great, great, great grandfather, James
Wesley Dodd, moved to California from Kentucky
and settled in Pleyto-Hesperia near where San Antonio
Lake Dam is today. His son Ed, born in 1885,
married Polly Johanna Wyss in 1912. Her great
grandfather, Billy White, came to Paso Robles from
Ennis, Texas in the early 50’s and was involved in the
startup of Ennis Business Forms Company.
Over the years, Chassey’s family has included two
Marshals, one Queen and four Belle Attendants.
Chassey attends Paso Robles High and plans
to continue on to college to pursue her interest in
History.
Related families: Wyss, Dodd, White, Van Horn, Witcosky,
Sonntagg, Smalling, and Coelho
Left to right: Kelsey Karin Thorndyke, Mary Elizabeth Hamley,
Lilly Ann Hildebrand, Ashley Breanna Davis, Jody Alayna Bermingham,
Emma Marie Dart, Megan Moffatt and Chassey Rae Coelho.
Emma Marie Dart, representing the Estrella
Plains Area, is the daughter of Marc and Kristie
Marchand Dart. She has two sisters, Clarisse and
Audrey, and a little brother, Kyle. Emma’s grandparents
are Ted and Martha Baer Marchand, and Leonard
and Arlette Colnat Dart.
Emma’s great, great grandmother, Marie Horsch,
immigrated from Helmansberg, Germany in 1896
to join her brother, Dr. Jacob Horsch, and his father-in-law,
Rev. Jacob Hege, on the Estrella Plains.
Emma and Rudolph Baer, who came to the area
from Baden, Germany in 1890, were married in
1899. They continued to farm and raise nine children,
the youngest being Emma’s great grandfather,
Milton Baer. He taught band and choir in schools
throughout SLO County and was musical director
Ashley Breanna Davis, representing the Bitterwater/Cholame
Area, is the daughter of Jim
and Sheree Twisselman Davis and she has a twin
brother, Justin. Sheree was a Belle Attendant in
1973. Her grandparents are the late James “Buster”
and Loretta Connors Twisselman, and James
and Dorothy McCarran Davis.
Her great, great, great grandparents, Heinrick
and Lizzie Meng Twisselman, were married in
1862; Lizzie had emigrated with her family from
Switzerland to the United States in 1855, and
Heinrick arrived in San Francisco on a whaling
ship in 1862. After Heinrick’s death in 1884,
Lizzie moved to the Cholame area to live with her
parents, Sebastian and Annie Wilhelm Meng, Jr.
Chris Twisselman, Lizzie’s son, married Eleanora
Anderson from the Willow Creek area in 1902, the
was the beginning of a farming and ranching family.
On her mother’s side, Ashley’s relatives include
the Twisselman, Meng, Anderson, Cook and Wilson
families. All homesteaded and lived on various
parts of her family’s Bitterwater ranch since
the 1880’s. Ashley plans to continue the family
traditions in cattle ranching with her brother,
Justin, and cousins, Kaitlin and Madison Heeley
(past Belle Attendant and Belle).
Ashley is a senior at Paso Robles High; she
plans to attend college and study
kinesiology and pursue a career as
a physical therapist.
Related families: Meng, Anderson,
Twisselman, Cook, Wilson, Connors,
McCarran, and Davis
Lilly Ann Hildebrand, representing
the Willow Creek Area,
is the daughter of Chris Hildebrand
and Jacky Coon Eshelby.
Her sister, Kayla, was a Belle Attendant
in 2012 and her mom was
a Belle Attendant in 1985. Lilly’s
grandparents are Robert and
Joanne Miller Cummings, Bob
and Trisha Coon, and Brenda
Akroyd Hildebrand.
Lilly’s great, great, great grandparents, Robert and
Nellie Lukey, settled in the Willow Creek Area in
the late 1880’s. Working as the Klau Mines foreman,
Robert contracted pneumonia and died in 1903.
Her other great, great, great grandparents, Carl and
Caroline Goetsch, came to Willow Creek in l89l to
start farming and ranching. Clara Lukey and Herman
Goetsch married in 1911 and purchased the
original Lukey ranch.
Lilly, a senior at Templeton High, plans to
attend college and major in Ag Business.
Related families: Goetsch, Lukey, Miller, Fischer,
Bland Coon, and Akroyd
Please see BELLE page 30
24 Paso Robles Magazine, October 2015