Who Was Harry Ells ?
from the December 18, 1959, Eagle Eye

     Most students take for granted our school's name Harry Ells. But where did it come from? What's in the name?

 At one time, when Richmond was only cow pasture, Stege was a thriving community.

It had a post office and a train depot. One of Stege's prominent citizens was Harry Ells.

  Ells was born in Nova Scotia and he came to California in1874. For nine years he mined gold at Dutch Flat.

During this time both his wife and child died, and being very unhappy, he left the mines to settle in Stege.

    Within five years he became superintendent of the California Cap Company and the Tonite Powder Works.     Later he remarried. Miss Mabel Perry became Mrs. Ells. They lived in a large house which stands today surrounded by the University of California Engineering Field Station in the south part of the city of Richmond.

  For many years Ells served on the Stege and Richmond school boards. Because of his service and interest, the name Harry Ells was given to this school when it opened as a junior high school.