The following snippets of history are compiled by volunteers of the Windsor Museum & Historical Society. The museum is open, free to the public, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment. The museum is located in the historic Hembree House at 9225 Foxwood Drive. Learn more about Windsor history at windsorhistory.org.
December 7, 1988
Committee to support Windsor’s incorporation formed
Windsor’s attempt to incorporate started Monday night when approximately 20 people showed up at the Windsor Middle School to form a political action committee interested in supporting the incorporation of Windsor.
Not to be confused with the Windsor Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) this new group’s purpose is to actively campaign to have Windsor incorporate as a city.
Andy Wick, a member of MAC and who with several other MAC members attended Monday’s meeting to be available to answer questions on what the MAC has done, explained to this newly forming committee that the MAC studies have determined that financially it is feasible for Windsor to incorporate and sustain itself.
Dr. Luis Diaz, also a MAC member and chair of the MACV Public Relations Committee, explained that the MAC will decide at their next meeting on which professional survey company will conduct an “attitude survey” of Windsor. According to Diaz, the survey will give the MAC valuable information on what the community does and does not know about Windsor and incorporation.
Eight men and one woman volunteered to be the executive committee: Terry Parry, John Lewis, Andy Wick, Marv Stubbs, Margie Smith, Don Hanks, Louis Diaz, Ben Stanley and Floyd Coakley.
It is estimated that there are 1500 issues that have to be answered regarding incorporation. Speaking for the immediate future Lewis warned, “It will be an intense six months.”
December 7, 1988
Street and school named after early settlers, the Brooks family
By now most of us have heard of Brooks School in Windsor and lots of us have driven down Brooks Road but who are those Brookses and how did they happen to settle here?
Edna Honsa, school secretary at Windsor Elementary, before she married was Edna Brooks. Her father, Arthur, was the youngest of 11 children and part of the first Brooks family to settle the area.
Edna said it was her grandparents Bill Brooks and Eliza Buell Brooks who left the midwest for the west coast in the mid 1800’s.
Crossing the country on the Oregon Trial, the first two Brooks children were born in Oregon. The last nine were born right here in Windsor. The baby of the family, Arthur, was Edna’s dad. Edna said that her grandparents had lived on river bottom land and so when they came west they decided they wanted to live on hillside land and they settled in the rocky hills just north and east of what is now the Lakewood Shopping Center where her father was born. Much of the rock used to build the Healdsburg bridge on 101 freeway came from the Brooks ranch.
Edna’s mother, Ethel Kerr, met Arthur Brooks in a grocery store in Windsor owned by the DuVander family. The store was at the same location as the current Pohley’s Market on Windsor River Road.
December 14, 1988
Town meeting called to see if there is interest in a Windsor Little League program
The Windsor Youth Association (WYA), who organizes and oversees youth baseball in the Windsor area, is considering becoming a part of the national Little League program.
The WYA has been in existence in Windsor more than 20 years and has successfully run baseball programs for local youth but board members are beginning to wonder if with so many new residents from outside the community moving into the area, many who have participated in Little League programs elsewhere, that perhaps the time is right for Windsor to start its own Little League.
December 21, 1988
Windsor Historical Society elects officers
The small group of Windsor residents interested in forming a local historical society met recently and decided on their official name and elected officers.
Until the legal paper work is complete the officers are considered interim officials but for all intents and purposes these will be the officers when the club completes its legal paper work: President Barbara Ray, Vice President Kathy Spain, Secretary/Treasurer Lisa Elsbree. The club will meet on the first Thursday of each month at the Windsor Chamber of Commerce office on Windsor Road in Windsor.
According to Ray, some of the club’s objectives will include locating as many “old timers” as possible and getting oral and video histories of the Windsor area. The club is also interested in collecting old photos or copies of old photos.
