Marin’s connections to women who shaped American history turn up in unexpected places: a mountain railway, a garage shoebox, and a bookstore where teenage girls learned to organize.

The Mount Tamalpais railway had been carrying regular passengers for just three weeks when Susan B. Anthony climbed aboard on September 16, 1896. The suffrage leader was 76 and the railway’s first known celebrity passenger.

She had more than sightseeing on her itinerary.

Anthony was campaigning for an amendment that would give California women the vote. Railway directors hosted her and a party of suffrage advocates and women journalists for an excursion to East Peak, where the Tavern of Tamalpais was under construction. A local paper joked that the mountaintop setting left the audience nowhere to escape during her talk. Anthony also drew a reported crowd of about 500 in Tomales.

Then came the election.

Only 30.8% of Marin voters supported women’s suffrage that November, according to research from the county library’s Anne T. Kent California Room.

In 2020, Aileen Edge and her husband, David, were cleaning out her mother’s garage in Marin County when they found a shoebox tucked inside a larger storage carton.

Inside was a Revolutionary War diary. Its author was John Claypoole, Betsy Ross’s third husband. Edge is their direct descendant.

The pages held a painful family connection. Scholars had lost track of the original manuscript for nearly a century.

Claypoole had been imprisoned by the British alongside Joseph Ashburn, Ross’s second husband. He recorded Ashburn’s death in March 1782, then returned to Philadelphia and brought Betsy the news. They married in May 1783. An 1893 family history says Claypoole may have had feelings for Betsy before she married Ashburn.

In 2021, the family donated the rediscovered diary to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

When girls from Tamalpais High told Gloria Steinem about unequal athletic facilities and practice times, she gave them a practical assignment: organize.

Book Passage co-founder Elaine Petrocelli recalled the encounter in a 2023 interview. Steinem encouraged the students to meet with Petrocelli at the bookstore every Saturday and work for change. They continued through high school, Petrocelli said, and many later entered public service.

The interview doesn’t date that encounter. But Steinem’s documented Marin connections span decades.

The earliest appearance we found: January 17, 1973, when she spoke about sexism and racism at College of Marin. UC Berkeley preserves a recording.

Over four decades later, on November 10, 2015, the 81-year-old Steinem filled Dominican University’s Angelico Hall for an afternoon discussion of My Life on the Road, presented with Book Passage.

If you’d like to be considered for Photo of the Week (nature, architecture, wildlife), please fill this out!

Because leaving Marin might take more planning. Look for our Marin events in the Wednesday email.

26 breweries, cideries, and meaderies pour riverside with live music and food vendors. Representing Marin County are Fairfax Brewing, The Keg Stand, and Adobe Creek Brewing. Many more, including Lagunitas, which started as a homebrew in the Marin town it’s named for. 1-5pm, $60 for unlimited tastings.

East Bay Nosh throws a morning food party with breakfast pop-ups, local makers, and an inaugural hot sauce competition. 10am-1pm, free with RSVP.

Melville’s classic gets read cover to cover, nonstop, in the Art Deco Maritime Museum at Aquatic Park. Drop in for a chapter or sign up to read one yourself. Noon Saturday to noon Sunday, free.

Sequoia Sake pours 10 American craft sakes from Brooklyn to Honolulu with light food pairings. Three sessions between noon and 8pm, $82, 21+.

Please note that this property isn’t associated with the banner sponsor above or Marin Buzz in any way. It is just a unique home you might be interested in seeing, for entertainment purposes only!

246 Beach Road, Belvedere

I haven’t seen this Zillow tag before: “Storybook-Inspired Architecture.” It looks to me like a house that could be at Disneyland.

Check out the sloped roof. In the picture above, you can see it curves to make room for a tiny window. The other side has interesting features as well. It’s the kind of detail that isn’t efficient design, but makes the whole thing work.

Another reason to like this place: it’s less than a 1 mile walk to downtown Tiburon. Too often mansions are isolated. This is a short and fairly flat walk into town. Or to the Tiburon ferry to commute into San Francisco.

What do you think, perfect for a Disney adult?

Web link

If you’d like your pet to be considered for Pet of the Week, please fill this out!

Thanks for reading. We will be back with the regular events and activities email Wednesday morning!

— Allison + Brian