Throughout her life, Elise Kelley Drexler was not constrained by traditional roles for women. She was born in 1866 and grew up with her three siblings in Mendocino, though she frequently visited her aunt Abigail Blair in San Francisco. She attended Mills College in Oakland in the 1880s, a time when only 2% of American women received a college education.
At 27, she married Louis P. Drexler, a millionaire thirty years her senior. Drexler owned multiple companies and thousands of acres of real estate. Their marriage lasted six years until his death in 1899, leaving Elise widowed, childless, and one of the richest women on the West Coast.
Drexler was generous in his will, leaving significant funds to charity, to Elise’s sister Daisy MacCallum and her two children, and to his extended family. He left nothing to Eliza Kelley, Elise’s mother, except “my love and affection,” writing that Elise was devoted to her mother and would always provide for her.
Elise inherited many properties in the Bay Area to manage, but there were three she was barred from selling due to a clause in Drexler’s will. Elise fought this in court, wanting to sell the property. She lost the case in 1913, with the decision stating that Elise only had a life interest in the land, with the ownership passing on to her future children.
Elise appealed to the State Supreme Court in 1916, arguing that the property had been communally owned prior to Drexler’s death — and she won. This unprecedented outcome in favor of a woman’s right to inherit left Elise in total control of her wealth, which she used for her own business ventures and charitable causes in the Bay Area and Mendocino.
In 1916, Elise founded the Convalescent Hospital and School for Crippled Children, known as Drexler Hall, a precursor to Stanford Children’s Hospital. Children received medical care and were taught skills like tailoring, stenography and cabinetmaking. Elise frequently visited Mendocino, where her charitable gifts were noted in the newspaper. In 1910, she donated 35 books to the Mendocino Library Association reading room, then just beginning. Three years later, Elise paid for the paths down to the beaches surrounding Mendocino to be improved; they were previously very steep and narrow. As acting president of the California Society for Crippled Children, she began a local chapter in Fort Bragg in 1940.
Kelley House Museum curator Averee McNear writes a weekly column on Mendocino County history for Mendocino Voice.