Gertie de Force Cluff, 125 N Church Street

December 8, 2025 • 0 Comment
side of brick house

Gertie de Force Cluff, younger sister of Laura de Force Gordon, was Lodi’s first newspaper publisher. She founded The Valley Review in 1878, winning many Lodi readers with her witty columns and forthright opinions. When in 1882 her paper gained a wider distribution, the Santa Barbara Morning Press editor wrote “The Valley Review, edited by Gertie de Force Cluff, is enlarged to a six-column paper, and is a handsome, well-conducted, well-patronized journal. We gladly welcome it to our exchange list…”Ever busy, Gertie also got a patent on a device she named “Cluff’s Garment Fastener” – unfortunately, we have no drawing of what the fastener looked like.A historic plaque describing Gertie de Force Cluff’s journalism is posted at today’s Lodi Times-Sentinel, 125 N Church Street.

Sources:

Lodi Historian, Volume 3, Number 4, “The DeForce Sisters,” pp 85-91, Winter 1992; Lodi Historical Society.

Lodi Historian, Volume 6, Number 1, “In The News…,” pp 149-150, Spring 1995;

Lodi Historical Society. “A Perfect Success,” The Morning Press, Volume X, Number 189, May 13, 1882.





Share

Gertie de Force Cluff, 125 N Church Street