Plumas
County
Biographies
MRS. VIVIAN LONG
In one of the most exacting and
useful of professions Mrs. Vivian L. Long has achieved distinctive success and
as superintendent of the schools of Plumas County for eight years was
successful to a degree that gained for her the highest praise. She is a daughter of J. C. and Louise (Gard)
Knickrem. Her father, who was a civil
engineer by profession and a former supervisor of Plumas County, was well known
in the sawmill and lumber industry of California, having owned and operated
several mills in Plumas County. He died
at the age of eighty-two years. The
mother, a native of La Porte, Plumas County, California, is still living, at
the age of sixty-six years. She spends
her summers at the old Knickrem home in the Mohawk Valley, but owns a winter
residence at San Jose, this state. Mr.
and Mrs. Knickrem were the parents of five children, namely: Grace, the wife of J. E. Pauley, a former
county supervisor who is the driver of the stage bus between Marysville and La
Porte; Vivian Louise, of this review; Hazel, the wife of W. C. McDowell, of
Oakland, who is a civil engineer and is head draftsman for the Standard Oil
Company of California in San Francisco; J. C., Jr., deceased, who was married
but left no children; and Ray, a graduate of the San Jose high school who is at
home with his mother in the Mohawk Valley.
Mrs. Long’s maternal grandfather was Nicholas Gard, who was born in
Germany, whence he came to California by sailing vessel to the Isthmus of
Panama and thence up the Pacific coast.
He became a successful hydraulic gold miner at La Porte. He lived to be ninety-one years old and his
wife passed away at the age of seventy-six years.
In the acquirement of an education
Vivian L. Knickrem attended the public schools of Oakland, California,
completing the high school course by graduation in 1904. She then entered the State Teachers College
at Chico, from which she was graduated in 1907, and immediately entered upon
her career as an educator. Her first school
was at Johnsville, Plumas County, and after two years there she taught for nine
months in the Quincy Grove School. Her
next school was at Sulphur Spring, Plumas County, and while there she was, on
September 20, 1911, united in marriage to Hubert Long. The latter was born in Eureka, Humboldt
County, on October 3, 1886, and was a son of H. A. and Ida (Tierney) Long. He was reared in Humboldt County, where his
father owned and a sawmill. He was apprenticed in a
sawmill at Sonoma and became an expert saw filer. He received a good education, having, on the
completion of his public school course, entered the Cooper Medical College of
San Francisco (now a part of Stanford University). There he attended four years, but did not
graduate and never practiced medicine.
He resumed his former occupation, becoming head filer for the sawmill at Standard, Tuolumne County, where he passed
away after a brief illness, in February, 1920.
To Mrs. and Mrs. Long were born three children, namely: Hubert, who is a student in St. Mary’s high
school at Peralta Park, Berkeley, this state; Donald, who is in the Quincy high
school; and Stanley, a student at the grammar school in Quincy. The last named was but ten months old when
his father died.
After the death of her husband, Mrs.
Long resumed educational work and taught for two years at Graeagle, Plumas
County. In 1922 she became a candidate
for the office of county superintendent of schools of Plumas County, to which
she was elected, taking the office on January 1, 1923. She was reelected in 1926, but was not a
candidate for reelection in 1930. Her
success as a county superintendent was so pronounced that it is deserving of
special mention. Plumas County now has
twenty-eight elementary schools, three high schools and three emergency
schools, in which sixty-seven teachers are employed. The school population of Plumas County is
eleven hundred and the average daily attendance is nine hundred and
eight-three. The three high schools are
at Quincy, of which Frank Hymas is principal; Portola, of which Edwin A. Schreck
is principal; and Greenville, Martin Singer, principal. Seventeen teachers, including the principals,
are employed in the three high schools.
The Plumas County school system is operated on the “pay as you go” principle
and has no bonded debt. The high schools
at Portola and Greenville, as well as the junior high school building, and the
three gymnasiums, were erected during Mrs. Long’s incumbency as superintendent
and are fully paid for. Mrs. Long takes
a deep interest in side issues which contribute to the welfare and culture of
the children. She is chairman of the
Junior Red Cross of Plumas County and the schools of the county are one hundred
per cent enrolled in this organization.
It fosters correspondence with school children in Junior Red Cross
chapters in foreign countries and thus cultivates a spirit of good-will. When Mrs. Long took office there were only
two Parent-Teacher organizations in the county, where as there are now eight
associations, which are federated into a county council of Parent-Teacher
Associations. Mrs. Long is the secretary
of the county board of education and in countless ways has shown herself
devoted to the best interests of the county, an attitude which is recognized
and appreciated by the school patrons of the county.
Mrs. Long has completed a
postgraduate course at the State Teachers College at Chico, from which she
received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1929, and the still further
recognition of election to the Phi Kappa Sigma sorority, an international honor
fraternity, membership in which is gained only through excellence as a
scholar. Mrs. Long is a member of the
State Council on Education, to which she was elected by the northern California
section of the State Education Association in 1929. In 1926 she was elected the representative
from northern California to the National Education Association meeting in
Philadelphia. She has filled numerous
committee assignments and is now a member of the executive committee of the
northern California section of the National Education Association. She is a member of Pioneer Parlor, No. 219,
N. D. G. W., at Quincy, and of the Daughters of Rebekah at Portola. She is not very indulgent in the way of play
or recreation, her main interest being in study, while her greatest delight and
happiness is in her children and her home.
She has a host of warm and loyal friends and is highly esteemed by
everyone who knows her.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 404-406. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.