1861, and Daniel Olds, Sr. moved to San Rafael, where he died at age 89 in 

 1874. 105 



The California Farmer correspondent visited the Daniel Olds, Sr., ranch 

 in 1862, and spoke critically of the operation: 



Here was a farm of 2000 acres, with 250 head of 

 stock, 100 cows. Kept 50 cows in 1861, and made 150 

 pounds of butter a week. Was not making butter now; 

 cows were poor, by means of short feed in winter and 

 no root-crops raised. When root-crops are so easily 

 raised, we are surprised that Ranchers and Dairymen 

 have suffered fifty head of cattle to perish this winter 

 on this Ranch. 



The writer compared the dismal situation at Olds' ranch with that of Baldwin 

 and Karner's successful dairy to the north, and asked, "Is it right, aside from 

 the pecuniary interest, for stock-owners to keep stock and allow them to perish 

 in our winters from starvation?" 11 



Fifty acres in the center of the Olds ranch had been purchased earlier in 

 1856 by Victor Post and then sold to John Garrison of Alameda. Garrison, 

 apparently a friend of his neighbor to the north, Homer Strong, became the 

 superintendent of Samuel P. Taylor's Pioneer Paper Mill on Lagunitas Creek 

 over Bolinas Ridge from the Olds Ranch. Garrison lived in a two-story house at 

 the south end of today's Stewart Ranch with his wife Mariah, his four children 

 and the local schoolteacher, James Bailey. According to the 1860 census, 

 Garrison operated a dairy of fourteen cows, making 5,000 pounds of butter the 

 previous year, probably from cows owned by Daniel Olds. He also grew wheat, 

 oats, barley, Irish potatoes and hay, presumably leasing extra land from a 

 neighbor. Garrison moved to Mendocino County and sold his property to 

 Nelson Olds on September 29, 1870. 107 



105 Population and Agriculture Schedules, 8th U. S. Census, 1860. 



106 The California Farmer. April 4, 1862, p. 1. The journal apparently confused Daniel Olds Sr. 

 and Jr.; Daniel Olds, Jr. was a county supervisor (see Supervisors Minutes. 1861-1862, Marin 

 County Civic Center) at the time and often called Judge Olds, while the former was evidently 

 mistakenly called Daniel Olds, Jr. 



""Deeds Book C, p. 50 and I, p. 300; Mason, Historian, p. 602-603; Population and Agriculture 

 Schedules of the 8th U. S. Census, 1860. By 1919, the Garrison house was occupied by Capt. E. 

 W. Newth, who sold feed and grains and traded goods to and from Alaska. See the Marin Journal. 

 July 3, 1919. Newth lived on the ranch until around 1925; the house stood abandoned for many 



213 



