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Soquel has all the attributes of a small town: schools, a historic church, a library and a main street lined with businesses.

But Soquel, which dates to the 1850s, was never incorporated into a city.

Instead, it remains a tightly knit community populated by some families who have lived there for generations.

These longtime residents, as well as newcomers, will get together on Saturday in a redwood grove to swap stories about their ancestors and view historical photos, at the 63rd annual Soquel Pioneer Picnic.

"We always meet the last Saturday of July at Pringle Grove, a two-acre redwood park donated by the Pringle Family," said Dick Nutter, president of the Soquel Pioneers.

"We look at old photos and renew acquaintances. It’s a matter of trying to keep the history of the founding of Soquel and the early pioneers alive."

This year, descendants of the Morgan, the Fidel and the English clans will share their stories.

You can learn more about the Soquel area at an exhibit of old photographs and history books at the Porter Memorial Library, 3050 Porter St. in Soquel.

One of the town’s success stories deals with the library itself, which was built in 1913 as the result of the efforts of local ladies, who sold roses to raise money, before turning to prominent citizens William T. and Mary Sesnon for help.

The Sesnons promised to donate the site and to match dollar-for-dollar the money the women raised.

The library, named for Mary Porter Sesnon’s parents, became a part of the Santa Cruz County Library system. But the branch was closed in 1978 in the wake of Proposition 13 budget cuts.

The women of the community jumped into action once again and raised $1,500 to save the endangered library.

Today, the library is no longer a part of the county system. It is operated by enthusiastic volunteers, who point to the big rock fireplace and explain that children hauled the rocks from nearby Soquel Creek.

Because of the stability created by the huge fireplace, the library survived the 1989 earthquake without damage.

Soquel’s best-known landmark is the white-steepled Congregational Church on Soquel Avenue, "the little white church in the vale," which dates to 1870.

It was designed and built by Samuel Alonzo Hall, a ship’s carpenter from Maine, and dedicated on Aug. 7, 1870.

The church cost $2,700 and was constructed with redwood from the Santa Cruz Mountains, milled in local mills. Its 1,000-pound bell and striking stained glass windows were added later.

One Soquel story that is told and retold dates to the days when California was part of Mexico. In the 1830s, Marina Castro petitioned the Mexican government and was granted 35,000 acres, covering much of what is now Soquel and Capitola.

The holding became known as Rancho Soquel. In 1849 Marina divided her land into nine sections, one for herself and eight for each of her children.

But ownership of the land fell into dispute and she was beset by lawyer’s fees and court costs.

The land slipped from the Castro family’s grasp, and some of it was acquired by Frederick Hihn, a developer and entrepreneur, who is credited with turning Soquel Landing into Capitola-by-the-Sea.

Soquel came to life as a village in the 1850s. It began as a crossroads, where traffic from the lumber mills met the Santa Cruz-Watsonville wagon road.

When a road over the mountains was completed in 1858, Soquel became a major intersection, according to "Soquel Landing to Capitola-by-the-Sea" by historians Sandy Lydon and Carolyn Swift.

Dick Nutter’s family has been in the Soquel area for 150 years. "My great-great-grandfather Charles Ryder came from New Bedford, Mass., around the Horn, and landed in 1850," Nutter said.

"My wife Marilyn’s family came in the 1840s; she’s a Pringle. They were involved mainly in farming and timber."

Soquel became a commercial hub because the main stagecoach road from Santa Clara Valley over the mountains terminated in Soquel, Nutter said.

But it was tough going by stagecoach. Creeks had to be forded about 25 times. The trail was mired in dust in the winter and axle-deep in mud in the summer.

At one point, Soquel stretched to the ocean so lumber could be transported to the sea and loaded on ships.

"Capitola used to be called Soquel landing, and it was considered part of Soquel," Nutter said. "It was driven primarily by the timber industry.

"Lumber was readily available and in demand. Mills cut the trees into rough lumber, and it was hauled down by horses and put on ships."

Soquel was made a judicial township and elected its own justice of the peace in 1852. In 1868 Soquel had such optimism about the future that residents petitioned the state to move its capital from Sacramento to Soquel. The state declined.

In the 1870s Soquel had 11 saloons, four sawmills, two tanneries, a flour mill, a sugar factory and its Congregational church.

Today the most popular business is selling antiques.

Soquel is an Indian name. "I don’t think anyone really knows what it means," Dick Nutter said. "People thought at one time it was named after a group of Indians who lived here."

A photograph of the community baseball team, the Soquel Giants, is on view in the library.

"Baseball was a main recreational thing when I grew up," Nutter said. "There were no theaters or movie houses. You just played baseball all year around."

Soquel will celebrate its 150th birthday in 2002.

"If there’s been a theme to Soquel, it’s been periodic floods, fires and earthquakes," Nutter said.

But the community has survived and is still going strong. "Now, we’re trying to survive the traffic," he said.

Dennis English, who lives on Rodeo Gulch with his father Jack English, recalled that his father’s mother’s family, the Nehfs, arrived in Soquel in the 1890s from Santa Clara Valley, having come West by wagon train from Missouri.

"They were a hardy bunch of people," English said. "The Nehfs had a place on Rodeo Gulch since the 1890s, and it’s still here and still in the family. Pieces have been sold over the years. It used to be several hundred acres.

"On the English side of the family, my dad’s dad, Jack Englander, came to America in 1876 when he was 12 years old, by boat from Austria-Hungary. At 18 he was the sheriff of Holbrook, Ariz., when they brought Geronimo in.

"He spoke 11 languages, including Spanish, so he was able to converse with Geronimo.

"He came to Soquel and married Elsie Nehf. The house is still there and still family-owned, up Rodeo Gulch."

Dennis English, a musician and restorer of stringed instruments, will play old-time fiddle music at Saturday’s reunion.

His father is a violin bow maker who has sold bows all over the world.

"We were a part of the Soquel small farm community at the turn of the century," Dennis said. "In 1941 there were apple trees everywhere. Now the land is heavily forested again with redwood groves and 150-foot tall pines."

Another descendant of pioneers is Wayne Morgan, whose "dad’s side is Morgan; my mom’s side is Fidel. They go back to the 1870s in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

"The Fidels were of Swiss German origin. They came from Switzerland. My great-grandfather was a farmer and settled in the Santa Cruz Mountains because it reminded him of his homeland.

"On the Morgan side. my great-grandfather Alfred Morgan came from the Isle of Guernsey in the English Channel. He and his brother were musicians, and they ended up out West. They were street vendors and in the haberdashery business.

"They bought a ranch in the Soquel area, where they were chicken farmers and cherry growers and public-spirited citizens. My grandfather drove the first school bus."

Soquel had a school as early as 1853, but the first school on the present Soquel Grammar School site was built about 1860. The present Soquel Elementary School, a hub of the community, was built in 1922.

Perhaps the best description of early-day Soquel comes from Margaret M. Hecox, who wrote in the 1890s about her arrival in Soquel in 1847:

"When we reached the little village of Soquel, spring had arrived and I never could make you realize the heavenly beauty and charm of that place.

"Many of its attractions have since been destroyed by civilization. But at the time it was almost an earthly paradise."

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