It vexed his sister Maud that he presumed to "live on, 

 use and have income from that particularly choice 

 ranch," especially when--as she claimed--he refused to 

 account for the income it produced. Maud, who had 

 been living in Europe on a family allowance, "wanted 

 out" of the family combine, and offered her share of 

 Point Reyes to her brothers for $100,000. Two of 

 them lived in the east: Harold was in a mental 

 institution, and Oscar Shafter Howard, a composer of 

 sorts, lived at the Lamb's Club in New York City. 

 Neither objected but Fred, who was president of the 

 family corporation, did. Maud hired a young San 

 Francisco lawyer, Jerome B. White, and sued her 

 brothers to force a partition of the Point Reyes 

 holdings. 165 



Maud Howard won the lawsuit, and the family members sold their interest in 

 the land individually to millionaire San Francisco brewer John G. Rapp for a 

 total of about $400,000. Rapp quickly sold off the ranches on the Point, but 

 kept W Ranch and, after Fred Howard left, set to work making the Bear Valley 

 Ranch into a 20th century dairy farm. 166 



John Rapp, son and namesake of one of San Francisco's most prominent 

 beer producers, had the resources to improve the Bear Valley Ranch both for 

 business and comfort. Prohibition had closed down the family business the 

 same year that Rapp made the ranch purchases. For his family's enjoyment, 

 Rapp built a "magnificent country home" in 1923 on a hill near Oscar Shafter's 

 centennial sequoia, about half a mile up Bear Valley from the ranch complex. 

 The house, reportedly costing about $12,000 to build, was of a rustic character, 

 along the lines of a hunting retreat with an eye for entertaining. A wide porch 

 looked out over the Olema Valley. On the creek below, Rapp had a dam 

 constructed, which formed a pond large enough for boating and swimming; 

 changing rooms were available at pondside for guests. The family, including 

 three daughters and a son, enjoyed horseback trips to the ridges, swimming, 

 hunting, and hiking all over the property. Guests were frequent, some of whom 

 were allowed to set up tent camps on the property during the summer. One 

 family, that of Robert Menzies of San Rafael, kept a tent camp on the hill near 



165 Mason, Point Reyes, p. 94. 

 166 Ibid.. pp. 94-95. 



299 



