personal estate of $1,500. He and his Irish-born wife, Marcella, had five 

 children at the time, Henry, William, Winfield Scott, Henrietta (Etta), and Ella. 

 The couple would have three more children, Everett, Lillian (Lillie), and Anna. 

 Strain produced $1,967 worth of butter, potatoes and hay on the ranch in 1869, 

 having expanded his dairy herd to 23. Ten years later, according to the 1880 

 census, Strain had increased his dairy herd to 38, producing over 18,000 gallons 

 of milk to be made into butter (apparently elsewhere). Strain may have 

 shipped cream on a schooner from Bolinas during those years. The ranch 

 contained 125 acres of grazing land, with a 25-acre hayfield and about 100 acres 

 of unusable land. 34 



The original road through Strain's property led past the ranch in the 

 valley, then up the grant line on the small ridge north of the ranch buildings. 

 The county built a new Olema-Bolinas road up "Strain's Hill" in 1867, one that 

 took a curvy course with an easier grade up the side of the small ridge. Strain 

 reportedly planted the eucalyptus trees that line the road today on State Route 

 One on the northeast section of the ranch. 35 



In the early 1880s Strain built a new house for his family, a stately two- 

 story Victorian residence on a knoll overlooking the dairy. The date of 

 construction was either 1880 according to family tradition, or 1885 when a 

 county newspaper noted in July that "Mr. Strain's house is progressing very 

 fast. It will be the finest house in Bolinas when completed." Strain planted a 

 windbreak of Monterey cypress north of the new house and an orchard on the 

 hillside below. 



When the house was nearing completion Strain leased the dairy, 

 according to the newspaper, "to be in style with his neighbors." Apparently the 

 ranch was leased out for much of the time the Strain family owned it, although 

 the Strains continued to live in the new residence. At the turn of the century 

 the Strains' Portuguese tenant J. A. DeBorba milked 44 cows, from which he 

 made 1,500 pounds of butter per month. 36 



34 



'Population and Agriculture Schedules, 9th and 10th U. S. Censuses, 1870 and 1880. 



35 "Plat of the Survey, for the Relocation of the Bolinas and Olema Road," by County Surveyor 

 Hiram Austin, 1867, California Historical Society; Marin County Journal. March 15, 1883; 

 interview with Gordon Strain. 



36 Marin Journal. July 23 and October 15, 1885, and June 20, 1901. The news accounts may 

 have been speaking of another Strain family; according to Gordon Strain, the house was built 

 when his father Everett was ten years old, or about 1880 or 1881. Young Everett recalled hauling 



115 



