❒ After success of March event, parks group hopes to keep up momentum

The latest Benicia State Parks Association’s “Capitol Neighbors” speaking event that described the days in which this city was a major contributor to California’s leather industry attracted more than 50, said Mike Caplin, who handles publicity for the organization.

Hoping to build on that success, the association is planning the third event of the series for fall, Caplin said.

The association used its second speaker event, March 23, to open its new “Making a Living on First Street” exhibit at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park, 115 East G St.

That exhibit will be on display through the summer, Caplin said.

During the recent talk, park visitors “were transported back to 1916,” he said.

“In that year, Benicia produced one-third of all leather tanned in California,” Caplin said. “The largest producer in the city was the Kullman-Salz Benicia Tannery.”

Those at the event got to see a portrayal of Helen Salz, wife of the company’s president, Ansley K. Salz, by Leann Taagepera, a former member of the Benicia Historic Preservation and Review Commission.

“During her long life, Mrs. Salz was a successful artist and poet, a co-founder of the Northern California chapter of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), a co-founder of the Presidio Hill School in San Francisco and a world traveler,” Caplin said. She also spoke six language fluently, he said.

“Mrs. Salz died in 1978 at the age of 94,” he said.

At the park event, Taagepera as Mrs. Saltz met several “future family members,” Caplin said.

“One of these family members was her son-in-law, David Perlman, long-time — 64 years and counting! — science editor of the San Francisco Chronicle,” he said.

The new exhibit, “Making a Living on First Street,” focuses on the story of F.J. Stumm and Ansley K. Salz, Caplin said, and visitors can see it during their stops at the Benicia State Capitol Building at the historic park.

BSPA President Carol Berman said the association has started preparing for its next speaker event in its series, which will take place in October.

The topic of the next event is the Benet family, she said.

James Walker Benet, who achieved the rank of colonel in the United States Army, originally was from Kentucky.

He married Frances Neill Rose of Philadelphia and from 1905 to 1911 he commanded the Benicia Arsenal and was the Armament Officer for the Western Department.

The couple’s three children became noted writers. Their oldest child was their daughter, Laura Benet, a National Poetry Center award-winner and member of the editorial departments of the New York Sun and New York Evening Post.

The couple’s two sons won Pulitzer Prizes for their poetry. The elder son was William Rose Benet, an anthologist and critic as well as a poet whose “The Dust Which Is God” won the Pulitzer Prize.

The younger son, who lived with his parents while they were in Benicia, was Stephen Vincent Benet, who received the Pulitzer Prize for his book-length Civil War poem, “John Brown’s Body.

He also is known for his short stories, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and “By the Waters of Babylon.”

Members of the Benet family have continued to live locally and have written about the San Francisco Bay Area.

Those interested in the Benicia State Parks Association may call its office, 707-745-3670, or email info@bspa1853.org.