“And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Petaluma Historian is a blog of original history articles written by John Patrick Sheehy, a storyteller and fourth-generation Petaluman.
John’s Irish great-grandfather, John Casey, came to Petaluma in 1863 from County Kerry, Ireland, five years after the city of Petaluma was formally incorporated, along with a brother and two sisters. He settled on a dairy farm with his wife Julia at the north end of Tolay Lake in Lakeville, then known as “Little Ireland.”
John’s other Irish great-grandfather, Charles J. Sheehy, arrived in Petaluma in 1870. Originally from the village of Ballingarry in County Limerick, he had been temporarily exiled the penal colony New South Wales, Australia, by the British as a member of the revolutionary Irish Republican Brotherhood. John regularly visits the family farm in Co. Limerick where his great-grandfather was raised, now operated by his cousin Patrick John Sheehy and family.
Settling in Petaluma, John’s great-grandfather Charles Sheehy opened a painting and paperhanging store on Main Street. He and his wife took a house Bassett Street. Charles later passed the business on to his three sons, who in the early 1900s operated Sheehy Brothers, a paint store at 128 Kentucky Street (present-day site of the Hideaway Bar).
John grew up in the house his great-grandmother, Julia Moriarty Casey, built on Bassett Street after selling the family dairy ranch in Lakeville upon the death of her husband John. Next door was the Sheehy house. John’s grandmother, Mary Ellen Casey, literally married the boy next door, Charles J. Sheehy, Jr.
John’s mother was born and raised in the Aleutians on Unga Island, the descendant of a Russian sea captain and an Aleut princess on her mother’s side. Her father was a seaman from Tonga in the Polynesian Islands. During World War II, she moved with her family to Petaluma, after her stepfather, an army radio operator, was assigned to help establish the army’s monitoring post at Two Rock Ranch Station.
A graduate of Petaluma High School and Reed College, John spent the bulk of his career as editor and publisher in magazine publishing, working at a range of publications, including Time, Inc., Reader’s Digest, Utne Reader, Fast Company, Inc, Dwell, Health, Afar, Parabola, and Mindful.
He is the author with photographer Scott Hess of the book On a River Winding Home: Stories and Visions of the Petaluma River Watershed, recipient of the Gaye LeBaron Editor’s Award from the Sonoma County Historical Association. He also authored Comrades of the Quest: An Oral History Of Reed College, recipient of the Oral History Association’s Elizabeth B. Mason Award .
In 2018, John was honored with the Petaluma Good Egg Award. His local history articles have appeared in the Petaluma Argus-Courier, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, and the Sonoma Historian. John lives on Sonoma Mountain with his wife, the artist Laurie Szujewska.
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The Petaluma Historian is indebted to Katie Watts for editing assistance (and grammar patrol), and for research assistance from history consultant Katherine Rinehart; Simone Kremkau of the Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library; Connie Williams of the Petaluma History Room; Lee Torliatt; and Solange Russek, Terry Park, John Benati, John Fitzgerald, Paula Freund, and Lucy Kortum of the Petaluma Historical Museum & Library.
Special thanks as well to the members of the Volpi’s Historians Society: Skip Sommer, Chuck Lucas, Terry Park, John Fitzgerald, Tom Corbett, Dan Brown, Lisle Lee, Terry Park, Jack Withington, and Don Siemens.
The photo under the Petaluma Historian logo is by Scott Hess. For more info on John and Scott’s book, go to:
