Kelsey and Stone. These are the names on the monument in Kelseyville marking the location of the first adobe home in Lake County. The land, along with cattle, was purchased in 1847 by a business partnership which included these two men.

Rebelling against the brutal and harsh treatment received while working for them, Pomo natives killed both Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone in 1849. Some months later, May 1850, the U.S. Military launched an attack against Pomo hostilities known as the Battle of Bloody Island.

Decisions and actions taken by the military months after Kelsey and Stone were killed should be considered the cause of the Bloody Island Massacre.

Charles Stone fades into history known only as Andrew Kelsey’s business partner. Andrew Kelsey has become a man of infamy. When the name of one man becomes the catalyst for name calling, hatred and divisiveness, it's time to learn more.

Andrew Kelsey came West as a young man of 20 and was 28 when he was killed by the Pomo in\ 1849. There is some history of his travel West and his participation in the Bear Flag War in 1846 but not too much is known about him that is pertinent here. To my knowledge there are no letters, journals, or diaries attributed to him, nor did Andrew Kelsey leave an account of his interactions with the Pomo.

Kelsey spent 1847 to 1849 (two years) in Big Valley and is accused of creating an atmosphere of suffering and trauma. Seventeen decades later this has become an issue dividing our community.

Lorna Sides, member of the activist group Citizens For Healing, believes changing the name of Kelseyville 174 years later will bring respect and healing for past wrongs. She and this group, in concert with local tribes, chose the name to replace Kelseyville. Lorna Sides then submitted the application to the Board on Geographic Names. The action of one person has made a decision for all of us and caused more division than this community has seen in decades, if ever.

Having waded through histories of Napa, Lake, Mendocino, and Sonoma counties, reading studies and writings of Kroeber, Schoolcraft, Benson, Heizer, Gibbs, Susman and Parker, reading countless historical newspaper articles, combing through Mauldin’s collection of narratives, studying treaties, digging through encyclopedias and historical book collections, I am convinced we cannot tell with any certainty what really happened prior to the military incursion. We just don’t know what we don’t know.

The narratives we have been given regarding the “atrocities” of Andrew Kelsey and the tragic events on Bloody Island are for the most part based on oral history which is difficult to substantiate. Events recorded decades later often contain misinformation, sometimes embellished, exaggerated and conflated through the years.

This story has taken on a life of its own. Many conflicting accounts exist today. One example is the number of Pomo killed in the Bloody Island attack by the U.S. Troops which vary significantly. Pomo Chief Augustine in 1880 states 16 were killed; Captain Nathaniel Lyon, in 1850 tells us at least 60, no more than 100 perished. Numerous newspapers of the time reported casualties as anywhere from 200 to 400. The most egregious number is in the Sept. 26, 2024 DailyMail.com article which lists the death count at 900!

John Parker, PhD, well known Lake County historian, in text of his talk “The Kelsey Brothers: A California Disaster,” which includes the story of Bloody Island, says: “In my 40 years of research, I have never seen as many different versions of the same events as I discovered while researching this talk.”

When facts of an event that occurred 174 years ago cannot be verified as being truly accurate, what reasonable person thinks they should be used to force the community of Kelseyville to change its name?

Vote no on Measure U.

Lois Jordan lives in Kelseyville, California.