Summer Fun 4

Visit to Kolb house 

Born in Bavaria, Germany, George Kolb migrated to America in the second half of 19th century. He made his way to west and settled down in Dublin, California. He purchased a general store and settled down in a small house behind the general store along with his wife and children. Later he built another bigger house for his family. 

The last Kolb was Bill Kolb, grandson of George Kolb, who lived in the same house what his grandfather built in 19th century by himself. According to his wish the house was donated to the city to keep as heritage. 

The house is now located adjacent to the historic cemetery of Dublin. Also the historic old St. Raymond church of Dublin is located in the same heritage park. 

One afternoon I took my son there to see the historic school house, which is now a museum, the Kolb house ,and the cemetery in Dublin Heritage Park. 

Kolb House

The cemetery has all the graves of the pioneer families including Tom Donlon. Tom Donlon donated $50 to build the first church in Dublin. More than 100 years back $50 was a huge amount of money. Unfortunately, while working to building church he fell down and died. 

Dublin Cemetery

The museum tells all the story about the great migration during the 19th century. We found many minute details about the migrants, how they travelled thousands of miles in wagons. Today we get impatient during a little long plane journey, while they travelled months after months to reach west. So many people including little children perished during the journey.

Used in Kolb Family Ranch

Kolb Ranch

The house originally was 2 miles far from the its present location. During the building of the highway 580 the house was moved to its new location, as the highway was built through the Kolb family ranch. 

Most of the historic houses I’ve visited so far are furnished with that era suitable furnitures collected from different places. However, this very house is furnished with the items originally used by the family. Bill Kolb’s room is kept as it was including all his personal belongings. The  China cabinet  has few crockeries which came all the way fro Germany to the house. The house still has the original stove. The first floor of the house has two bedrooms including Bill Kolb’s room, dining room, and the kitchen. The upper floor is decorated now with all the children’s belongings including the girls’ graduation dresses. Though I tempted to take pictures but I refrained myself to do that, because the family doesn’t want. To respect their wish I kept my camera off. 

Historic St. Raymond Church

That was a great walk down the history lane. An old gentleman described us every thing very beautifully to us. Unfortunately, he couldn’t open the door of the church, so we couldn’t see inside the historic church. Otherwise, it was  great . We enjoyed that afternoon knowing about the historic family.