Sundial Monument
Laura Bell Griffith (Huffine), school teacher, botanist, and astronomy enthusiast, was born December 18, 1859, to Thomas Griffith and Lucy Ann Bell (Griffith) of Kirkville, Iowa. She is the sister of Nathaniel Alvin Griffith, nicknamed the “Grandfather of the Gravenstein Apple,” for his role in planting the first commercial Gravenstein Apple orchard in Sonoma County.
In the early 1880s, Laura Bell Griffith followed her older brother, Nathaniel, from their farm in Iowa, first to Nevada, where she met and married, Henry C. Huffine, and then to California. While her brother and his family made their home in Analy (now Sebastopol), Laura and her husband settled in Napa, CA. After the death of her husband in 1889, Laura sold her farm and moved to Analy as well.
In Analy, Laura became friends with Alazuma Singmaster, one of the founders of the Graton Community Club, and taught classes there in botany, art, and one of her favorite subjects, astronomy. With the aid of the small three-lens telescope and observatory set up in the backyard of her home, Laura also taught classes in astronomy to local high school students, as well as students from Santa Rosa Junior College.
After Laura’s death, on January 16, 1941, the Graton Community Club honored her with a sundial placed on the Santa Rosa Junior College campus. The sundial was dedicated in 1942. Although the sundial attachment at the top of the monument proved too fragile and was eventually removed, the base of the sundial remains, its twelve signs of the Zodiac intact and reinforced with a marble stand donated by SRJC’s class of 1948.
The sundial monument can be found adjacent to the flagpole just behind the “Aviation Club bench” on the lawn in front of Analy Hall.
Laura Bell Griffith Huffine Sundial
*Special thanks to SRJC’s Erin Daniels, Electronic Resources Librarian, and Amy Malaise, Library Technician III, for their help in solving this mystery!
Sources:
A Guide to the History of Santa Rosa Junior College, objects description list, by Brook Tauzer
Graton, book, By Lesa Tanner, Graton Community Club
Sundial Historical, article, by Kai Laetari ,SRJC Oakleaf
Western Sonoma County Historical Society Newsletter, Jan 10, 2012, from article by Evelyn McClure
California Death Index, 1905-1939
Iowa State Census Collection, 1836-1925
US Federal Census Collection, 1860-1940
US Social Security Applications & Claims, 1809-2011
US Find A Grave Index, 1600 – Current
Western States Marriage Index, 1809-2011