once proceeded to Hangtown, now Placerville, but on 

 account of ill-health only worked in the mines for one 

 month; seceding from this occupation he commenced 

 that of prospecting, which he continued until he left 

 the district. 30 



Strain came to Bolinas in March of 1853 and ran a team for the mill company at 

 Dogtown and operated the steamboat "Union." He worked at various jobs 

 around Bolinas until buying the 78 acres of land that he had been living on in 

 Pine Gulch north of Dogtown from Gregorio Briones on January 22, 1857. He 

 then bought another 20 acres from Briones on September 30, 1858. Strain cut 

 the alder trees on his land and sold them as firewood, then cleared the stumps 

 for farmland. By 1859 Strain had an operating farm where he grew 300 bushels 

 of Irish potatoes and ten tons of hay during the year. He kept only five milk 

 cows at that time, as well as one horse and twenty other cattle. 31 



Strain found himself caught up in the title litigation between Mexican 

 grantees Rafael Garcia and Gregorio Briones and the law firm of Shatter, 

 Shafter, Park and Heydenfeldt. The lawyers claimed that the land in question 

 actually fell in the Shatters' Rancho Punta de los Reyes. After the Shafter 

 partners had won title to this part of Briones' land, Strain had to repurchase it. 

 He purchased 203.2 acres from the Shatters in 1861 and another 45.44 acres 

 (for $908.80) in 1870, bringing the size of his ranch to 258 acres. He planted a 

 eucalyptus tree marking the northeast corner of the property; the tree stands 

 today alongside Highway One. 32 



Strain built barns and a dairy and developed a limited dairy business. As 

 his biography noted, "from these small beginnings Mr. Strain gradually worked 

 himself into the dairying business, until he is now [1880] the possessor of a fine 

 farm of two hundred and fifty-eight acres and forty milch cows." 33 



The 1870 census listed Strain as owning land valued at $2,500 with a 



30 Munro-Fraser, Marin County, p. 427. Two other men, Robert Strain and John Strain, settled 

 in Bolinas at the same time as Henry Strain; it can be assumed that they were related but this has 

 yet to be documented. 



31 Ibid.. p. 427; Population and Agriculture Schedules, 8th U. S. Census, 1860. 



32 Deeds Book B, p. 312, Book C, pp. 220 and 380, Book E, p. 629, and Book I, p. 115, MCRO; 

 interview with Gordon Strain. 



33 Marin County Journal. May 14, 1870; Munro-Fraser, Marin County, p. 427. 



114 



