spent his time in the city. Abbott kept up-to-date with dairy innovations, being 

 perhaps the first in the area to try and purchase a cream separator. Howard 

 wrote in 1884, "Abbott has just got in operation at his place The Machine which 

 separates the cream from the milk by centrifugal force & thinks it will benefit 

 him nearly 20% in his business of Butter Making & Selling." The San Rafael 

 newspaper reported the next month: 



The Fay cream separator has had a trial at Mr. 

 Abbott's dairy. The milk was divided in equal parts, 

 one-half going into the machine, and half set in the 

 old way, say 1,000 pounds in each. The separator 

 produced the greater weight of cream, but at the 

 churning it made a half-pound less of butter, showing 

 a greater amount of buttermilk. The test was made 

 under some disadvantages to the new method, and it 

 is probable another trial will be made, with steam 

 power brought from the city. The innovation is so 

 much esteemed that Mr. Claussen [E ranch] will 

 probably take two, and so will Randall and Johnson 

 [Pierce ranch]. A machine will separate seventy 

 gallons an hour. 163 



Abbott also farmed hay on W Ranch, with 25 acres producing 4 tons in 1890. 

 He retired in May 1899, after 22 years of faithful work for Howard. 164 



Howard's son, Frederick Paxon Howard, moved to the ranch after Abbott 

 left and spent his days there as a "gentleman farmer." His siblings, Maud, 

 Harold, and Oscar, lived in the east and Europe, showing no apparent interest 

 in the ranch. Charles Webb Howard died in 1908, leaving the ranch to his 

 estranged wife, Emma Shafter Howard. Mrs. Howard lived the life of a socialite 

 in San Francisco while her son ran W Ranch in high style. After Mrs. Howard's 

 death, however, the family began to squabble over the Point Reyes property. 

 Historian Jack Mason wrote of the events to come: 



Fred Paxon Howard had been a gentleman farmer, 

 like his second cousin Payne, on his mother's W 

 Ranch . . . which was flourishing through these years. 



163, 



Marin County Journal. April 10, 1884. 



164 C. W. Howard to Theron Howard, March 18, 1884. Howard Family Collection; Marin 

 Journal. July 17, 1890 and May 25, 1899. 



298 



