Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Access Points
Biography
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: Bendel Family Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1862-1965
Collection number: Mss62
Creator:
Winifred Handley Bendel Stuart
Extent: 9.75 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Bendel Family Papers, Mss62, Holt-Atherton
Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Access Points
personal name
Bendel family
Stuart, Winifred Handley Bendel (1889-1981)
Bendel, Roland (1886-1965)
Bendel, Roland, Jr.
Bendel, Herman (1846-1920)
Bendel, Cornelius Stockmar (1879-1964)
Lombardi, Winifred Bendel
Lombardi, Frank
corporate name
Decoto (Calif.) Volunteer Fire Department
Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District
United States. Navy -Enginemen
United States. Navy -Airmen
Fremont, City of -Records and correspondence
subject
Merchant mariners -United States -Diaries
Merchant ships -United States
Seafaring life -United States
Brickworks -California -Niles
Vaudeville -United States
American diaries -California
University extension -California
Politics, Practical -California -Fremont
Municipal government -California -Fremont
Missouri -History -Civil War, 1861-1865
Fremont (Calif.) -History
Hawaii -History -1900-1959
Biography
The Bendel Family lived for some one hundred years in Alameda County,
California. The first generation were prosperous merchants with a strong
interest in military affairs. In the second generation, two sons pursued
military careers. The younger of these two, Roland Bendel, created most of the
papers in this collection. His son, Roland Jr. became a US Naval aviator.
Herman Bendel (1846-1920) was born in Oldenburg, Germany and came to the
United States just before the Civil War. He raised a company of German
volunteers for the Union Army in the St. Louis area and was Captain of this
group (Co. "C," 2d Missouri Volunteers) until severely wounded (1862).
Following his recovery, Bendel settled in San Francisco where he engaged in
mercantile business. He spent some time in Honolulu (1866) manufacturing sugar.
Returning to California he was active in the grape, wine and fruit packing
industries in the Bay Area, before returning briefly to Germany (1870) to marry
Cornelia Stockmar. Bendel and his wife, who had four sons and two daughters,
settled in Oakland, where their Alice St. home was considered one of the finest
in the city. Herman Bendel was one of the founders (1875) of the San Francisco
firm of Tillman and Bendel, wholesale grocers and importers of teas, coffees
and cigars. The Bendel's second son, Cornelius Stockmar (1879-1964), was a
graduate of West Point (1903). He served in the Spanish American War, the
Philippines, and World War I, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
(1930). Herman and Cornelia Bendel's fourth son, Roland (1886-1965) attended
the University of California (1908-1913), where he studied engineering. Roland
Bendel worked as a merchant seaman during the summers of his youth, sailing as
far afield as Sydney, Australia. During World War I he joined the US Navy and
trained as a ship's engineer. In 1919 he married Oakland librarian (1912-19)
Winifred Handley (b. 1889). Together they settled in Niles, California, where
he operated a ranch and worked as plant foreman at the California Brick Co. In
later years Roland Bendel was chief of the Decoto (Calif.) Fire Department and
was also employed by the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District. His duties
with the latter organization included repairing tide gates, inspecting marshes,
and draining and cleaning ponds in southern Alameda County. He and his wife,
Winifred, were active in the Washington Township Historical Society for whom
Mrs. Bendel wrote a history of the Township (1949-50). They fought for the
establishment of Fremont, a new city of created through the union of several
hamlets in the vicinity of Niles (1956). Mrs. Bendel was a member of the first
Fremont City Council, serving also as Vice Mayor between 1956 and 1959. In the
latter year, she and two co-plotters staged a sudden coup, firing the City
Manager in a special meeting at which they were the only Council members
present. The firing probably had more to do with personality conflicts than
with city business or the Manager's competence. In the uproar that followed,
Mrs. Bendel was recalled. A right-wing Republican, she blamed "Communists" for
attempting to take control of the city. Roland Bendel retired from the Decoto
Fire Department in 1961. From that date until his death (1965), the Bendels
continued to participate in Fremont affairs. Mrs. Bendel later married
historian, Reginald Stuart (1967). She died in 1981.
The Roland Bendels had two children: Winifred and Roland Jr. (b. 1920).
Winifred married Frank Lombardi, an urban planner. He was appointed Territorial
Planner for Hawaii (1957) and served as State Planner following Hawaiian
statehood. Mrs. Bendel received a substantial body of correspondence from her
daughter (1957-63) that is part of this collection. Roland Jr. attended the US
Naval Academy, graduating in 1944. Following graduation he received training as
a pilot and became a naval aviator.
Scope and Content
Series 1 of the Bendel Family Papers contains diaries, correspondence
and biographical material pertaining to various members of three generations of
the Bendel and Handley families (1861-1963). Through Rudolph Bendel, Sr.'s
journals, these Papers are also a source for study of American maritime
activities in the Pacific during the first two decades of the twentieth
century. In Winifred Bendel Lombardi's Honolulu letters to her mother one gains
an insider's glimpse of political life in Hawaii at the dawn of statehood.
Series 2 contains drafts and notes generated by Winifred Handley Bendel in the
course of her activities as a local historian and author in the City of Fremont
and in Washington Township, Alameda County (Calif.). Series 3 contains minutes,
reports and other documents pertaining to the affairs of the Fremont city
government (1956-1959).