THE ROSE STORE IN COTTONWOOD - Pictured here in the early 1900s, the Rose Store, on Front and Main streets in Cottonwood, was a general merchandise store that sold farm implements at the rear and grain from a warehouse on the alley. The hitching rail along one side of the building was a community gathering place. Courtesy of the Anderson Historical Society.

William Laughlin Rose came to Cottonwood from Biggs by horseback in 1885 to work for his uncle Ed. G. Carter. Mr. Carter owned a general merchandise store with the motto, “Where the dollar gets its value.”

In 1895 Will Rose married Mary Isabel (Belle) Bernard and they moved into the Cottonwood home at 3274 Brush St. This is where Bernice Lorraine was born on 1/11/02. She also had two brothers, William B. and Leland Lauglin Rose.

Before she was 3, Bernice could pick out melodies on a piano, so at the tender age of 4 she started piano lessons. By the time she was in her second year at high school the music teacher said she could not teach her more. Her folks decided she would continue her music education at Poly Tech in San Francisco. Her mother, Belle, and she lived in San Francisco for two years until she graduated from Poly Tech.

Following graduation from Poly Tech she enrolled at the College of Pacific majoring in music and playing on the tennis team. She graduated from college in 1925.

Her first teaching assignment was at Rodeo in the Bay Area where she taught school for four years. The superintendent for the Santa Clara School District attended a production she had produced and asked her to join their staff. She spent 16 years as the music supervisor at Santa Clara before returning to Cottonwood in 1949.

The following information was taken from our files at the Historical Society of what she remembered about Rose’s store and Cottonwood in her youthful days recorded in the 1970s.

“The store was a general merchandise store. They sold farm implements at the rear and grain from a warehouse on the alley.

“In addition to groceries they sold shoes, boots, hats and mackinaws. My father took measurements of also for suits. There were dishes, fine china, laces and ribbons. It was a very well stocked store.

“Smaller than the market that stands at the corner of Front and Main streets now, the Rose Store shared building space with a drug store. A hitching rail along one side of the building was a community gathering place.

“The country people would drive their spring wagons up to the store and load up, stand outside and chat. Some people who came to town to fill their wagons, mother would have over to the house for a meal.

“I remember fishing at Battle Creek. My father would hire a surrey from a delivery stable. We’d leave early in the morning and my father would put hot bricks at our feet to keep us warm. We would spend the day fishing and picnicking.

“There were holiday balls and masquerades. I remember one masquerade where my parents didn’t go together as to fool people. My mother went as a bon-bon girl. She wore her long hair in a braid down her back with candies intertwined and jelly beans on her slippers. My father went with a friend, Miss Mae Berry. They danced the cakewalk together. I remember her high kicking showed pantaloons beneath her full skirts. They won a prize.”

Many of the older residents will remember the old Rose Store on Front and Main streets in Cottonwood, which later was run by his granddaughter’s (Virginia) husband Don Dawson. It became a Holiday Market run by Rich Morgan, also.

I wish to thank his other granddaughter, Jackie Baker, for filling in some of this information.