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Register of the Bendel Family Papers, 1862-1965
Mss62
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Table of contents
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
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Bendel Family Papers, Mss62, Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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
Decoto (Calif.) Volunteer Fire Department
Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District
United States. Navy -Enginemen
United States. Navy -Airmen
Fremont, City of -Records and correspondence
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
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.
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).