Miss Jenny's photo at the History Center
Looking through the old glass at the street
The Gagliardo store stood empty for more than forty years before Ruth and David Latona gave it new life as the
Hornitos Gift Shop. They keep regular hours even though little traffic passes through the historic town of
Hornitos. Some tourists search out the isolated village, seeking historical ruins and perhaps a few remaining
spirits from the past. Ruth, who was on duty when we visited, said that the number of customers "varies", but she
has a few who return on a regular basis seeking a unique gift or piece of art.
She sells jewelry, porcelain animals, Indian dolls, fossils, and tee shirts as well as a lot of hand-crafted items
and works by local artists. "I always meet nice people who like to talk," she says with a smile and just a hint of
a German accent.
The original store dates back to the California Gold Rush. Today, though Hornitos almost qualifies as a ghost town,
it still has some full time residents. The telephone listings for the town barely account for a full page in the
regional directory.
The red brick building with walls about 18 inches thick, was bought by the Gagliardo family in 1869.
Miss Jenny Gagliardo the lone surviving daughter of the family was over 90 when she passed away in 1960. She had
worked in the store since she was about 15 and became the sole proprietor after her father's death in the late
1920's. In all, the store operated for almost a century with Miss Jenny behind the counter for about 70 of it's
first 100 years. She preserved some remnants of the past, probably inadvertently, by shoving unsold merchandise to
the back shelves of the store and refusing to sell it -- even to collectors who inquired. The merchandise that was
preserved seems to indicate that the people of Hornitos must have suddenly come to their senses and stopped buying
corsets and stiff shirt collars. Since the museum seems to have lots of these items which were left unsold.
Miss Jenny's heirs donated shelves, counters and display cases along with a lot of old
merchandise, some of which dates back at least to the early 1900s, to the Mariposa History
Museum where it is on display today. The museum's general store
exhibit includes an old coffee grinder, the original cash till, oil lamps and many bits of merchandise.
In it's heyday the general store really did sell almost everything imaginable. It was not
a clothing store, though you could get shirts and hats and corsets. It was not a grocery store, though you could
get, beans and cheese and coffee and even oysters in a tin. It was not a hardware store though you
could find garden tools, carpentry
tools, vegetable seeds and kitchen implements.
It also sold, shoe polish, candy, eyeglasses, doorknobs, watch fobs, soap, rope, blue jeans, jelly beans, chair
cushions, sewing notions, skin lotions, curative potions, shirt collars, horse collars, and hair curlers. In fact
if the store didn't have what you were looking for,-- and you could wait several weeks -- it could probably be
ordered. When you purchased something, perhaps with a pinch of gold dust, no one asked if you wanted paper or
plastic. You brought your own basket or bag, or else had your purchase wrapped in brown paper and tied up with
string, even if it wasn't one of your favorite things.
Early on in the California Gold Rush some people figured out that selling supplies, provisions and tools to gold
seekers could be profitable. It was also easier and less risky than stealing. Even though in the early days, some
merchants charged prices that were considered to be almost equal to stealing.
Miss Jenny, seemed to have a different philosophy. She kept meticulous records, but was likely to forgive an
overdue payment when people really needed a little help in paying for groceries.
If you want to get an idea of how the old store once looked you can visit the Mariposa Museum exhibit stuffed with
the merchandise of an earlier era.
But a visit to Hornitos will give you an idea of how large the store really was and is. Ruth or David will point
out where the old counters stood in the 50 x 50 foot room, as well as the location for the old wood stove and the
nail-head marks on the floor that were used to measure out lengths of wire, chain or rope that were wound on large
spools and pulled up from the basement area. When you look out through original wavy glass windows in the three
sets of tall narrow front doors, you might imagine you are in another time.
Linda Gast
www.hummingbirdmountain.com
www.mariposaspca.org
www.goldrushcam.com
Rochelle Frank:
http://www.dregerclock.org/
www.hummingbirdmountain.com
www.mariposaspca.org
www.goldrushcam.com
Rochelle Frank:
http://www.dregerclock.org/
