Individual Details
Frances Gonella "Fannie" Brown
(30 Mar 1877 - 4 Feb 1961)
When she was a young woman, Frances worked as a home economics teacher on the Covelo Indian Reservation. She taught Native American girls cooking, sewing and other homemaking skills. She was given a thank you gift of two hand woven baskets by her students. Her granddaughter Marjorie remembers seeing her use the larger basket to hold her knitting yarn. The baskets were passed down to Marjorie but sadly lost in the Tubbs fire of 2017.
Fannie married Vinson English in 1905 when she was twenty-seven. After marriage she worked for a while as a telephone operator and then ran a drug store for a local physician, John S. Hogshead, M.D. Marjorie remembers being disappointed that her grandmother wouldn't let them have any of the chocolates or other candy displayed in dishes in the store's glass cabinets, but given peppermints from her grandmother's purse instead. Later she realized that all the traps her grandmother set for the mice scurrying through the drug store's cabinets at night might have been why. Marjorie also recalled overhearing gossip when she was young that the only other doctor in town was an alcoholic that would sell liquor to Indians, against the law at that time.
Fannie must have also worked as a registrar or deputy around 1927 as a Covelo birth certificate has the signature "Fannie G. English" at the bottom. She was active in the Order of the Eastern Star, a Freemasonic group open to both men and women. In 24 June 1946 the local newspaper reported that Mrs. Fannie English "...received 50-year membership pin by the Covelo O.E.S." RJ
Ukiah Dispatch Democrat (Ukiah, California) Fri, Jul 18, 1913, Page 5
Mrs. C. M. Brown and Mrs. Vincent English, of Covelo, came down the early part of the week for a short visit in Ukiah.
Press Democrat, 1 January 1959
Coveo Notebook
... Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lovejoy visited Mrs. Lovejoy's mother, Mrs. Fannie English, Ukiah, recently.
Fannie married Vinson English in 1905 when she was twenty-seven. After marriage she worked for a while as a telephone operator and then ran a drug store for a local physician, John S. Hogshead, M.D. Marjorie remembers being disappointed that her grandmother wouldn't let them have any of the chocolates or other candy displayed in dishes in the store's glass cabinets, but given peppermints from her grandmother's purse instead. Later she realized that all the traps her grandmother set for the mice scurrying through the drug store's cabinets at night might have been why. Marjorie also recalled overhearing gossip when she was young that the only other doctor in town was an alcoholic that would sell liquor to Indians, against the law at that time.
Fannie must have also worked as a registrar or deputy around 1927 as a Covelo birth certificate has the signature "Fannie G. English" at the bottom. She was active in the Order of the Eastern Star, a Freemasonic group open to both men and women. In 24 June 1946 the local newspaper reported that Mrs. Fannie English "...received 50-year membership pin by the Covelo O.E.S." RJ
Ukiah Dispatch Democrat (Ukiah, California) Fri, Jul 18, 1913, Page 5
Mrs. C. M. Brown and Mrs. Vincent English, of Covelo, came down the early part of the week for a short visit in Ukiah.
Press Democrat, 1 January 1959
Coveo Notebook
... Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lovejoy visited Mrs. Lovejoy's mother, Mrs. Fannie English, Ukiah, recently.
Events
| Birth | 30 Mar 1877 | Covelo, Mendocino, California, United States |  | ||
| Marriage | 16 Feb 1905 | Round Valley Indian Reservation, Covelo, Mendocino, California, United States - Vinson Edwin "Vincent" English |  | | |
| Census (family) | 28 Apr 1910 | Round Valley Township, Mendocino, California, United States - Vinson Edwin "Vincent" English | | | |
| Census (family) | 28 Jan 1920 | Precinct 1, Round Valley Township, Mendocino, California, United States - Vinson Edwin "Vincent" English | | | |
| Census (family) | 12 Apr 1930 | Round Valley Indian Reservation, Covelo, Mendocino, California, United States - Vinson Edwin "Vincent" English | | | |
| Census (family) | May 1940 | Covelo, Mendocino, California, United States - Vinson Edwin "Vincent" English | | ||
| Death | 4 Feb 1961 | Ukiah, Mendocino, California, United States | | | |
| Burial | 6 Feb 1961 | Valley View Cemetery, Covelo, Mendocino, California, United States | |
Families
| Spouse | Vinson Edwin "Vincent" English (1874 - 1954) |
| Child | Anna Francis English (1906 - 1972) |
| Child | John Bunyan "Bun" English (1908 - 1990) |
| Child | Edwin Shirley "Shirt" English (1911 - 1995) |
| Father | Charles Milton "Carl Magnusson" Brown (Torstenberg) (1835 - 1901) |
| Mother | Sarah Ann Jones (1842 - 1919) |
| Sibling | Mary Ellen Brown (1861 - 1949) |
| Sibling | Albert Martin Brown (1870 - 1953) |
| Sibling | Charles Ira Brown (1875 - 1947) |
Notes
Marriage
Ukiah Republican Press (Ukiah, California) Fri, Feb 3 1905, Page 1Wedded at Covelo
Vincent English and Miss Fannie Brown were married at Covelo this week. Both are prominent young people in that city. Miss Brown is known here, having visited the Ross and Handys last summer.
Census (family)
English, Vincent, Head, 36, married 5 yrs. California, Missouri, Illinois, General Farm, RentingFannie E., Wife, 33, m- 5 yrs. 2 children born and living, California, Sweden, Illinois
Anna F. daughter, 4, California
John B. son, 1 6/12, California
The previous household is brother Wiley English's
Census (family)
English, Vinson, Head 45, Rents General farmAnnie, Wife 42
Anna, Daughter 14
John B., Son 11
Edwin S., Son 8 2/12
All born in California.
Vinson's Father born in Tennesse, Mother Illinois.
Annie's (Frances) Father born in Sweden, spoke Swedish, Mother born in Kentucky.
All the children attended school.
Census (family)
48, 48 English, Vinson, Head, Own, radio, MW 56, Married at 31, CA MO IL, Farming, general farmFannie G. Wife, FW 52, Married at 28, CA Sweden, KY, Clerk Drug Store
Shirley E. Son, MW, 18, single, CA CA CA Laborer farm labor
Census (family)
SD 1 ED 23-17, sheet 8B, Round Valley Judical Twp.Commercia Ave. Covelo, visit 191, rent house, $20/mo, Same place in 1935
English, Vinson, Head, MW, 66, married, HS-4, CA, yes work 48 hrs/wk, Deputy Assessor, Mendocino Co., GW, 16 wks/1939, $300
, Fannie G, wife, FW, 63, married, HS-1, CA, no work, housework
Death
Died at the Holden St. Rest Home in Ukiah.Aged 83 yrs., 11 mos., 4 days.
Press Democrat, 5 February 1961
Fanny English
COVELO --- Mrs. Fanny Gonella English, 82-year-old member of two pioneer Mendocino County families, died in a Ukiah rest home yesterday after a long illness.
Mrs. English was born in Redwood Valley, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Brown, pioneer Redwood Valley ranchers. Her late husband, Vincent English, was a Round Valley rancher and descendent of Covelo pioneers.
She was a 50-year-member of Augusta Chapter, Order of Eastern Star, Covelo.
She is survived by her daughter, Mrs. Anna Lovejoy, Covelo; her sons, Shirley English, Covelo, Covelo, and John English, Fort Bragg, six grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Covelo Federated Church with the Rev. Robert Thomas officiating. Burial will be in the family plot in Covelo Cemetery. Eversole Mortuary, Ukiah, is in charge of arrangements..
Ukiah Daily Journal (Ukiah, California) Monday, February 06, 1961. Page 5
Final Rites Held for Mrs. English
COVELO - Funeral services were held this afternoon at the Covelo Federated Church for Mrs. Fannie Gonella English, 83, the last member of her generation in both her own family and that of her late husband.
Mrs. English had been a patient at a Ukiah rest home for nearly a year. Her death followed a long illness.
She was the widow of Vinson English and the pair left their mark on early local ranching and community development efforts in the Round Valley area.
Mrs. English represented both the pioneer times of Round Valley as well as its later progress.
She was born in Redwood Valley in 1877 and came to Covelo as a child when her father became supervisor of the grist mill for the federal government. She had most of her schooling in Covelo and before her marriage was a domestic science teacher at the Indian reservation school and later at Carson City, Nev.
On Feb. 1, 1905, she and Vinson English were married at the reservation chapel. He was a rancher.
Mrs. English was a Presbyterian and became a member of the Federated Church here when it was formed. For more than 50 years she was a member of the Neighbors of Woodcraft Lodge and was a member of the Dorcas Aid Society.
Mrs. English was an accomplished pianist and came from a family which included a famous singer, Jennie Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale." Mrs. English gave music lessons locally for many years and often gave of her talent at civic and social events.
She is survived by her daughter, Mrs. Anna Lovejoy, Covelo; her sons, John English, Fort Bragg, and Shirley English, Covelo; six grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
Services were conducted by the Rev. Robert Thomas of the Federated Church. Mrs. Murtle J. Rohrbough, Mrs. Lucy Bush and Mrs. Bertha Hayden were soloists, accompanied by Helen Riffe.
Graveside services at Covelo cemetery were under the direction of Augusta chapter, OES, of which Mrs. English had been a member for 65 years.
Funeral arrangements were completed by Eversole Mortuary, Ukiah.
Endnotes
1. Fannie English, death certifcate no. 2300-46 (1961), California Dept of Public Health, Ukiah, Mendocino Co., California.
2. California Death Records, Rootsweb.com online [http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi], accessed 2008-2012.
3. "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org: accessed 27 October 2013), Vinson English and Miss Fanny G Brown, 1905.
4. U.S. Census images. Heritage Quest Online. Subscription database through the Sonoma County Public Library. (ProQuest LLC, 2009.), 1910 > California > MENDOCINO > ROUND VALLEY TWP Series: T624 Roll: 88 Page: 210.
5. census taken by Willard L. Bestrand., US Federal Population Census. 1920. California, Mendocino Co. (read Aug 11, 2001 by Nancy Prouty. Sonoma Co. Library Annex), SD 1, ED 118, sheet 5 (3534).
6. U.S. Census images. Heritage Quest Online. Subscription database through the Sonoma County Public Library. (ProQuest LLC, 2009.), 1930 > CALIFORNIA > MENDOCINO > ROUND VALLEY INDIAN RESERVATION Series: T626 Roll: 177 Page: 140.
7. California Death Records, Rootsweb.com online [http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi], accessed 2008-2012.
8. Fannie English, death certifcate no. 2300-46 (1961), California Dept of Public Health, Ukiah, Mendocino Co., California.
9. Fannie English, death certifcate no. 2300-46 (1961), California Dept of Public Health, Ukiah, Mendocino Co., California.
10. , "Valley View Cemetery," database, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 6 November 2011), .