** All Text on these chapter pages has been copied verbatim – with permission – from this book: “Shurtleff Family Genealogy & History – Second Edition 2005” by William Roy Shurtleff & his dad, Lawton Lothrop Shurtleff ** Text in pdf convert to word doc – any spelling errors from the book may or may not have been fixed. **
The Reanier family are all descendants of Frank Eugene Reanier, the only child of Maria Louisa and her second husband, George Reanier.
Recall that following the death in 1850 of her first husband, George Avery, Jr., Maria Louisa was married for only a few years to George Wickes Reanie a shoemaker who mysteriously disappeared in 1856, the same year their only child, Frank Eugene Reanier, was born.
Young Frank never knew his father. He and his half sister, Charlotte Avery, spent their early lives with their mother, including the years they lived together in California. On 17 July 1886 in Santa Cruz, California, Frank married Ida Sarah Elster, born 24 February 1868 in Duplain, Clinton County, Michigan. He was age 30 and Ida was 18.
Ida was the daughter of John Casper Elster and Mehitable Kingsley of Nevada County. Ida’s maternal line goes back to Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower and the Elsters to a young Brunswick soldier, an escaped “Hessian” prisoner-of-war, during the American Revolution. In “Memories of Grass Valley in the ’70s,” written in the early 1920s, Charles Meek describes the weeklong religious gatherings held at nearby Indian Springs. The “major families,” including the Reaniers and the Elsters, “constituted a community of prominence… These old families settled that district, farmed, and educated their boys and girls at the old school house, which still functions…”
In 1890 Frank and Ida moved the few miles from Santa Cruz to Capitola where Frank for 25 years was Superintendent of F. A. Hihn’s considerable properties in Santa Cruz County. Frank’s 1902
letterhead shows these as “Hotel Capitola, Santa Cruz Waterworks, Laurel Timber Mill, Salinas Planing Mill, Zyante Ranch, and Real Estate for Sale, in and around Santa Cruz, Soquel, Aptos, Valencia and Felton.” He was also general superintendent of Capitola-by-the-Sea. His front-page obituary credits his fine executive abilities as largely responsible for developing that resort.
Elena Marie Robert Andre Melanie Reanier David Richardson
Gryboski Gryboski Gryboski Gryboski
1969- 1970- 1979- 1980
He was in charge of the Santa Cruz County Exhibition at the Pan Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Later in life, he and Ida managed the cottages and dining room at Big Basin Redwood State Park, and he was elected county supervisor of Santa Cruz, for several terms.
But he cared more for nature and people than for politics or fortune. Growing up without a father and working hard all his life, he nonetheless developed a personality that endeared him to multitudes. He made friends easily, never forgetting a name or face, and owned a special brand of quiet humor. As early as 1890, the Santa Cruz Daily Surf gave this glimpse of his personality and patience in dealing with even the most mundane aspects of running a resort:
Frank Reanier is a model Superintendent. Sometimes he can be seen surrounded by 16 anxious women all wanting something ‘right away quick.’ One will have a tea kettle with a hole in it to be mended, another wants straw, another wood [cottages at Capitola were rented with such items], two more must have their trunks taken to the train, another has a frying pan minus the handle, another with a pitiful story about how she couldn’t sleep a wink last night, sir, with that baby crying next door. Our Frank listens to all without for a moment showing a sign of impatience. As a result, the young ladies, children and grandmothers all swear by him.
The Hihn Collection in the Special Collections Library, University of California, Santa Cruz, contains many documents showing the breadth of responsibility of the position Frank held until Hihn’s death.
Frank Reanier’s death on 7 February 1931 at his Capitola home was mourned throughout the county with banner newspaper headlines. Only then did the family learn of the number of personal loans he had quietly made in the community, especially to the downtrodden and to widows. Ida was generous-hearted too, feeding tramps who came to the door.
Grandchildren remember Frank as creative and playful. He invented delightful stories about talking animals, delivered in the style of a professional storyteller. Visits from grandchildren allowed Frank an excuse to indulge in his own
favorite treat—it’s not surprising that all the grandchildren have memories of ice cream: Gene Shurtleff remembers a visit to Capitola in the 1920s, when, with a dime in his pocket for an ice cream cone, he walked to Uncle Frank’s ice cream stand. Frank dutifully took the dime, served up the ice cream, then passed it down to Gene. To Gene’s amazed delight, there, perched on top of the ice cream like a cherry, was his dime! Grandchildren of Helen and Frank Reanier recall the Christmas presents that took all day to “unwrap,” buried in a multitude of nested wooden boxes, all crated up with dozens of nails.
Ida died on 11 March 1963 in Capitola. Frank and Ida were buried in nearby Soquel in the Oddfellow’s cemetery, where Frank had buried his mother more than 50 years earlier. In the 1970s the Superintendent’s Building (where Frank and Ida lived over Frank’s Capitola office until they moved to the Depot Hill house after Maria Louisa’s death) was declared a California Historical Landmark. Frank and Ida had two sons:
- Elster Reanier was born Jan. 1890 in Capitola, Santa Cruz Co., California, and died 21 April 1939 also in Capitola.
- Wilber “Bill” Avery Reanier was born 22 Nov. 1892 in Capitola. He married Emilla “Minty” Steere Richardson on 15 Sept. 1914 in San Jose, Santa Clara Co., California. Bill died 13 Dec. 1961 at age 69 in Oakland, Alameda Co., California.
Elster Reanier the eldest son of Frank and Ida, married Mollie (last name unknown). Their one child was Frances Reanier (1913-78). Her first marriage was annulled and her second marriage to Ladd Geddings ended in divorce with no children. A family friend remembered Elster as being large, jovial, and childlike; he worked at odd jobs and occasionally as a truck driver. Gene and Lawton recall visiting Capitola while very young and thinking that Elster was a bit “strange.” When they mentioned it, they were told by their parents that he was slightly retarded. Ida always believed his condition was caused by the belladona she had taken during her pregnancy.
Wilber Avery Reanier (note spelling of “Wilber”), the youngest son of Frank and Ida, was always known as “Bill.” His wife, Minty, was the daughter of Frank Harper Richardson and Julia Willie Steere, themselves early residents of Oakland. Minty was born 20 Dec. 1890 and died 20 February 1993 at 102 years of age in Oakland, Alameda Co., California. She is buried in the Mountain View Cemetery there.
Bill Reanier loved cars in those early days of the auto. Beginning by operating a garage in Capitola, he became supervisor of sales, Western Division (seven western states and Hawaii), for Tidewater Associated Oil Company.
Like his father Frank, Bill Reanier possessed an unassuming, genial, and humorous personality, which endeared him to people of all walks in life. Though active in community and church affairs (St. Clement’s Episcopal, Berkeley), he turned down invitations to join prestigious clubs in San Francisco, preferring to spend time with family and close friends, going on wilderness fishing trips with buddies, tending his garden, and playing with grandchildren. Bill and Minty had two children:
- Helen Elizabeth Reanier was born 29 Oct. 1915 in San Anselmo, California. She married Jay Elden Busby on 24 June 1939 in Berkeley, California, at St. Clement’s Church. After a long separation, the divorce was finalized on 18 March 1946. Helen married again, to William Claire Meyer, Captain USN, on 8 Aug. 1947 in Berkeley, California at the family home, 305 The Uplands. They had two children (see below).
- Frank Wilber “Bud” Reanier was born 20 Oct. 1917 in Fresno, California. He married Jane Dewell on 15 Feb. 1941 at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, California. The daughter of Henry Dievendorf Dewell (an engineer who worked for Bernard Maybeck on the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco) and Manie Ola Harrell, she was born 21 Sept. 1919 in Berkeley, California. Frank and Jane had two children (see below):
Helen Elizabeth Reanier two Busby children were legally adopted by her second husband, William Meyer, and assumed the Meyer name. They are:
- Bonnie Gay Busby [Meyer] was born 23 Nov. 1942 in Oakland, California.
- Barbara Anne Busby [Meyer] was born 6 April 1945 in Oakland, California. She married Alan Scott Miller on 30 Dec. 1967. They were divorced in 1995 in Kansas City, Kansas, and had no children.
Bonnie Gav Meyer married Robert A Gryboski, M.D., on 8 February 1969. They had four children:
- Elena Marie Gryboski was born 18 Dec. 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts. She married David Michael Lasker on 22 May 1999 in London, Connecticut. The son of Leonard Michael Lasker and Sharon Ruth Stoddardt, he was born on 4 July 1964 in Buffalo, Erie Co., New York.
- Robert Andre Gryboski, Jr., was born 28 Oct. 1970 in Boston. He married Donna Vaccariello on 3 June 2000 in Southampton, Suffolk Co., New York. The daughter of Charles Vaccariello, M.D., and Kathleen “Kathy” Boyle, she was born on 27 April 1972 in Southold, Nassau Co., New York. They have two children, both born in Huntington, Suffolk Co., New York: Charlie Alexa Gryboski (a girl), born 14 Jan. 2002. Michael Aiden Gryboski, born 5 April 2003.
- Melanie Reanier Gryboski was born 17 July 1979 in New Britain, Connecticut.
- David Richardson Gryboski was born 9 Sept. 1980 also in New Britain.
They were divorced on 7 Jan. 1992.
Frank Wilber “Bud” Reanier, the second child of Bill and Minty, served in World War II in Hawaii and was at Pearl Harbor during the bombing by Japanese planes. He later joined the Hawaii and was at Pearl Harbor during the bombing by Japanese planes. He later joined the U.S. Weather Service. Bud and his wife, Jane Dewell, had two children:
1. Richard Eugene “Rick” Reanier (adopted), born 24 June 1947 in San Francisco, California. He married (1) Joan Elizabeth Dubuque on 7 May 1977 in Snoqualamie Pass, Washington state. They had one child: Thomas Eugene Reanier, born 13 March 1980 in Seattle, King Co., Washington. Rick married (2) Susan (Mlnarik) Duke, who was born 6 Nov. 1946 in Carroll, Iowa. Her first husband was Terry William Duke. From her previous marriage, she brought two children, both born in Seattle, Washington: Nicholas Austin John “Nick” Duke, born 17 Oct. 1978. And Matthew Richard “Matt” Duke, born 6 Jan. 1981. Richard is a well-known archaeologist who does field work in Alaska.
2. Katherine Charles “Kat” Reanier, born 25 Jan. 1950 in Fresno, Fresno Co., California. She married Christopher Jakob Suter on 4 June 1977 in Bern, Switzerland. He was born 17 Feb. 1952 in Bern. They adopted two children: Dominique Suter, born 5 April 1986 in Mexico City, Mexico. Madeline Suter, born 13 July 1988 in Vera Cruz, Mexico. They were divorced on 17 Dec. 1996 in Bern. Both parents still live in Bern.
Having Maria Louisa as their grandmother-in-common, all of the Shurtleffs and Meeks and their offspring are related to the Reaniers and their offspring.
Many thanks to Bonnie Meyer for her important contributions to this chapter, and to this entire book, since the 1980s.
Shurtleff & Lawton Families Genealogy & History - Second Edition (2005) 