Parsons had married Minerva T. Wittenberg, daughter of Peter 

 Wittenberg for whom the tallest mountain on the Point Reyes Peninsula is 

 named. Minerva, nineteen years old at the time of the purchase, was born in 

 Georgia and raised in Texas and on her father's mountain-top ranch above 

 Olema. By 1870 the Charles and Minerva had produced two children, Charles, 

 born in 1865 (died at age 18 in 1883), and Ella, born in 1867. According to the 

 1870 census, Parsons employed his brother, John, and his wife's brother, also 

 named John, and a carpenter. John Parsons lived on the ranch with his wife 

 and two children. The family lived in a house on the Olema-Bolinas Road while 

 developing a dairy on the hill above. This family home likely was Daniel Olds' 

 original home, or may have been built by Parsons in 1865 or shortly thereafter. 

 The house has survived and is now occupied by William Pinkerton at Five 

 Brooks (see page 187). 86 



Parsons built a house, creamery, barn and various outbuildings on the 

 ranch, at a site overlooking the Olema Valley less than a mile up Bolinas Ridge 

 from Five Brooks. By 1870 Parsons, in partnership with Swiss dairyman Joseph 

 Righetti, operated a dairy of 74 milk cows, 40 cattle and 35 pigs. Parsons and 

 Righetti produced 10,000 pounds of butter that year, as well as wheat, oats, 

 barley and hay, all valued at almost $8,000. The partners paid out $1,200 in 

 wages and board that year to Righetti 's three Swiss-born milkers. Righetti and 

 his hired hands probably lived at the dairy ranch on the hill. 87 



Charles Parsons had a keen interest in Marin County roads and 

 transportation; he served as the roadmaster of the Olema Valley district in 

 1867, maintaining the county road with the help of paid laborers. As early as 

 1865 he owned half interest with W. L. Barnard in a livery business in San 

 Rafael, the county seat and largest town in Marin County. Barnard sold his 

 share to Alva Jewell, a west Marin neighbor of Parsons, in 1879 and the 

 business became known as Parsons and Jewell. Later that year Parsons sold 

 his share to Jewell's brother, William, and the business name changed to Jewell 

 Brothers; that business was dissolved in 1886. 88 



86 Population Schedules of the 8th and 9th Censuses, 1860 and 1870; Plat of Rancho Tomales y 

 Baulines, 1858, PENS; "Plat . . . Bolinas to Olema," 1867, California Historical Society; Marin 

 County Journal. September 20, 1883; interview with Earl Lupton. 



"Schedules of Agriculture and Industry, 9th U. S. Census, 1870. 



88 Marin County Journal. March 16, 1867, August 14 and September 25, 1879; Marin Journal. 

 March 18, 1886; Deeds Book E, p. 313, and Book I, p. 284, MCRO. 



196 



