Marin Herald
December 14, 1933
Looking Backward When Oxen Hauled Lumber from Ross Valley

Don Perry told the San Anselmo Rotarians some interesting facts regarding the earlier settlers in Ross valley at this week’s meeting of the San Anselmo club. Last week he told his version of the wreck of the ferry steamer “San Rafael” on the night of November 30, 1901. This week he told the Rotarians that he had a number of interesting exhibits, which he would later pass around for their inspection. Among these was the original subscription list, passed around to the old settlers and signed by 40 of the prominent men in this county at that time. This list is dated February 13, 1869. It was drawn up by Sidney V. Smith Sr., a prominent attorney. It was signed by Smith, J. D. Walker, P. V. Austin, James Ross, Dr. A. F. Taliafirro, Geo. A. Worn, Alexander Forbes, A. C. McAllister, J. 0. B. Short, G. Angellotti, and a number of others.

It related to the incorporation of the first railroad in this county, known as “The San Rafael and San Quentin Railroad.” It ran from San Rafael to San Quentin Point, from which place the first steam ferry ran to San Francisco.

J. D. Walker was a very prominent man back in these times. He was an uncle of the late County Clerk Bob Graham. Some people said that his hand writing was the most peculiar they had ever seen. The speaker exhibited a letter of Walker’s and it caused much amusement. The letter could be easily deciphered when read at a peculiar angle.

The speaker gave the sequence of the arrival of the older families in Ross Valley. The Ross family, parents of the speaker’s mother-in-law, were the original owners of Spanish Grant, known as Punta De Quentin, which comprised something like 14 or 16 square miles of this territory. An outline of the ranch, roughly speaking, was about as follows:

Commencing about 100 feet north of the Corte Madera tunnel, it ran down to and included Point San Quentin, taking in all the upland area; from there it ran through San Rafael, about where Third street now is, west to the top of the Red Hill back of Deysher’s garage; thence it jogged northerly and ran thence westerly just north of Madrone Avenue, San Anselmo, passing along just south of where Mrs. Bremfleck [Brennfleck] now lives. Prior to 1865 the San Anselmo creek did not run where it now runs. It blocked, below Mrs. Bremfleck’s home, one night about 1867 and started to carve its present course.

Prior to that time it ran along the foot of the hillside, along Laurel Avenue, San Anselmo, winding along where you now find the larger laurel trees, southerly, passing beside where our present post office now stands. This old creek bed gradually filled in, so that no one could believe that it once held all the up-country water. It finally ran through the present home property of the writer; there being a wooden bridge some years later, in front of where the Union Oil service station now stands. In these times it was quite a stream. The speaker says that his brother-in-law, George Worn Jr., once rowed his skiff up the stream as far as Fairfax.

This country was well wooded. Ox teams were steadily employed in hauling lumber and cord wood to Ross Landing. The wharf then being about 200 feet south of the Marin Junior College engine house. This point was about 250 feet east of the present concrete bridge, near the Junior College gymnasium and about 100 feet south of the present county road. The remains of the old piling can still be seen in one of the back yards. Boats then sailed up the creek and turned around a small island about where the road now is. All the Presidio buildings were constructed in San Francisco from redwoods cut on the hill just west of the Bosque [Bosqui] Tract in Ross. A portable sawmill was moved by the owner, Isaac Shaver, seven times, according to necessity. He had a mill in San Rafael for a long time.

A. Mailliard lived just north of the White’s Hill tunnel. He had been a secretary to one of the Napoleons in France. Two of his sons are still living. His grandson is now president of the San Francisco chamber of commerce.

James Ross Sr., and his wife, Ann S. Ross, after whom Ross Valley is named, had three children—James Jr., Annie S. Ross, later the wife of Geo. A. Worn, father-in-law of the speaker, and Mrs. Rebecca Makin. James married one of the Miller girls, living by St. Vincent’s Orphanage on the Petaluma road. They had a child who lived but a short time. James Ross Jr., died soon after and his wife came into his holdings. She later married James Tunstead. She thus acquired her late husband’s holdings, mainly around Greenbrae, and some 20-odd acres, now the Linda Vista tract, San Anselmo.

When the father, James Ross Sr., died, Mrs. Ross, his widow, got all of what is now the Town of Ross, Kentfield, Larkspur and below there. Mrs. Makin got the Laurel Grove territory, Mrs. Worn all of San Anselmo within the ranch bounds, excepting this Linda Vista acreage just referred to. Where the Catholic church now stands was the division line between the holdings. Mrs. Worn also had 23 acres where the Kittle home now is, opposite the Ross town hall. The Worns sold to Jonithan Kittle and moved up to farm Mrs. Worn’s land. The ranch house is where the Bouicks later lived. The old barn was torn down some years ago. This is where the Seminary football field now is.

Their water supply came from a large spring away up on the hillside south of Bald Hill. Iron piping was not then in use, so a small lead pipe was laid for a mile or more from the spring. It was laid quite shallow and every time a cow stepped on the lead pipe in wet weather the pipe collapsed and the children would be sent out with a brick and a hammer to find the stoppage and beat the pipe back to its proper shape.

George Worn Jr., states that he often had to swim his mules when he went plowing across a formidable creek, which ran between the barn and house of the Misses Daniels at Ross Avenue and Jones street. The speaker also told of his wife, when a child, sitting on a box at the northeast corner of the Seminary hill (Mariposa street) catching large trout in this stream which now is obliterated. There was quite a lake where the San Anselmo Lumber Co. yard now is and boys would float rafts in this body of water as late as July and August. S. P. Taylor operated the first paper mill in this state. The old mill-site can be seen up at Camp Taylor. They were among the early new settlers.

The Taylors acquired land from the Rosses in 1858, then the Forbes family came next; then the Wheelocks, Simms, Pat Hayes, J.O.B Short and his brother (Short Ranch property), Judge Angellotti’s father and others.

In the early part of 1870 the Tompkins family settled here. The daughters, Ethel and Julia, and the son, Phil, still live on their Sequoia Park property. Julia is now Mrs. J. W. Carey. The Dibblee family came the same year (1870). Dibblee purchased several blocks of land from Mrs. Ross. The Barber family acquired all of the land from Rocky Point, opposite where Bottini now lives, up to where the Union Oil service station stands; later they first carved out the Barber Tract, previously having sold the property where the speaker now lives at the corner of Barber Avenue and the highway. Some years later they sold 73 acres to the Winships (Kate Dillon, an adopted child of the McLaughlins, married Lieut. Winship) and they built and lived in the center of what is now the Winship Tract. They sold out and went to Georgia. She died some years ago. The Barbers came here in October, 1866. The Stillmans and the Hinckleys also acquired holdings from the Worns that same year.

The state of California acquired the San Quentin prison property in August, 1869. The North Pacific Coast Railroad acquired rights of way in 1873 and it was about that time (1873) that the Kent family arrived. Mrs. Ross and the Worns dedicated to the County of Marin the present highway, down to Corte Madera, reserving to themselves “all the shrubbery” (later trees) along the granted right of way.

Rev. Todhunter taught school at Ross in early days. Will Kent, father of the present Kent family, George Worn Jr., Will Savage and a few others comprised the school. Mrs. Ross gave the little Episcopal chapel, torn down a few years ago, to that church. Title to that property is now held by the Kittle family. The Latham family did not come till August, 1878. Mr. Latham was the son of an early governor of this state. Mrs. Latham still lives at the old home, on the Olema road, at the west side of Redhill.

George E. Butler acquired from Mrs. Ross the holdings which he later sold to the Junior College. He had an insurance agency in the city. A. J. Chapman of Ross was in his employ in early days. Butler came here in September, 1881. Miss Kate Reynolds owned the property just north of the present Ross hospital, having acquired this place the early part of 1881. James Moore, mentioned in re the wreck of the “San Rafael” (father of Mrs. Ord of San Rafael) came to Ross in October, 1884. Mrs. Moore is still living. Willie Catten owned the present vacant property opposite Granton Park, Kentfield, and at present owned by Mr. Gilhuly of Kentfield.

A very prominent family (McAllisters) lived at Mira Monte Tract at Kentfield. Mr. McAllister was a prominent lawyer. Hall McAllister was his brother. The old home stands on this property. It now belongs to Theodore Hardee. It was a splendidly built house.

William Barber was another prominent attorney. Mrs. Barber was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mr. Forbes, governor of the Philippines, and a relative of Dr. Chas. T. Jackson, M. D., the discoverer of ether in 1841-42, for which he received many medals here, in England and France. Mrs. Floyd Jones of Ross, a daughter of William Barber, still has a goblet from which the famous LaFayette drank a toast while visiting one of her relatives back in 1778.