same time as Randall, where he operated a pig farm in the Santa Clara Valley. 

 Randall and Nelson joined forces and went to Oregon in the spring of 1855 to 

 try their luck in the mines there. After some time, including a stint fighting 

 Indians in 1856, they purchased a herd of cattle in the Willamette Valley of 

 Oregon and drove it to Olema, arriving in January, 1857. 51 



Randall and Nelson looked for land in the area and purchased 1400 acres 

 in the southern Olema Valley drainage from Rafael Garcia and his wife on May 

 2, 1857. They paid the Garcias $2000 and commenced dairy ranching. 

 According to a neighbor, the men created "a large dairy establishment" and 

 made "extensive and valuable improvements thereon in buildings and fences". 

 They built ranch buildings along Olema Creek at the center of the western 

 edge of the property, with a simple farmhouse nearby. Randall's granddaughter 

 wrote of "the huge barn built by [Randall] without the use of a nail . . . ." 

 Another dairy complex was built about a mile south of the main ranch on the 

 county road. 52 



Nelson sold his share in January of 1860 for $3000 and went to work for 

 his longtime friends, the Olds, on the next property north; he eventually 

 became involved in the growth of the village of Olema, where he opened the 

 Point Reyes House, a bar and billiard parlor, ran the stage line to San Rafael 

 and for many years owned the Olema Hotel, a centerpiece of the town for more 

 than 50 years. 53 



The 1860 census recorded W. E. Randall, age 38, as having land valued at 

 $3625 and an estate of $2150; Sarah's two sisters and a brother lived at the 

 ranch as well. Randall had improved 300 acres of his land, owned 32 milk cows, 

 two head of oxen, four horses, 40 other cattle and nine pigs; the previous year 



51 Munro-Fraser, Marin County, p.425; [GGNRA Park Historian] James P. Delgado, untitled 

 manuscript dated September 18, 1980. Delgado's article appeared in a edited form in Mason, 

 Historian, pp. 584-586. According to family tradition, son Raymond was born in an Oregon fort 

 during an Indian massacre. 



52 Land Case 68 ND, U.S. vs R. Garcia, Bancroft Library, pp. 83, 85; interview with Boyd 

 Stewart; "Personal History of William Edgar Randall and His Wife, Sarah Seaver Randall," 

 manuscript by an unidentified granddaughter of the Randalls, circa 1955, in park files. The author 

 appears to be Rue Randall Clifford, who wrote a brief history of her family in 1955 at the time of 

 her donation of Randall's Gold Rush diaries to the Bancroft Library. The manuscript notes that 

 the old barn fell into the creek in the early 1950s. 



M Deeds Book E, p. 530, MCRO; Marin County Journal. March 20, 1869; 9th U. S. Census, 

 1870. John Nelson died in 1898. 



146 



