beginning of an influx that changed the face of the County for good. Solari 

 apparently sold out his share to Cheda within a few years. 226 



By 1870 Cheda, at age 34, had a thriving dairy ranch where he milked 85 

 cows and made 8,500 pounds of butter the previous year. He employed six 

 laborers, including his brother Pete, paying $2,000 in wages during the year. 

 With wife Antonia (or Antoinette) and three children, Philamenia, Emaragilda 

 and Silvio, Cheda had made a good life for himself in just a short time. By the 

 end of the year all his neighbors but one were fellow Swiss. Cheda returned to 

 Switzerland with his family, and son Virgilio was born there in 1875. The 

 family returned to Marin County by 1878 but settled in San Rafael where 

 Cheda bought a hay, grain, wool and coal business. The ranch was leased out 

 and the Cheda family never returned. 227 



Cheda leased the ranch in 1883 to one F. Magee. Residents of the area 

 voted for a school tax in 1884 which established the Tocaloma School District. 

 By September a schoolhouse had been erected at the entrance to the Cheda 

 Ranch and 26 children, most from the paper mill upstream, appeared for school. 

 Across the small creek from the school house stood an open-air dance pavilion, 

 used by the local residents until the 1920s. 228 



Gaudenzio Cheda died at age 54 in 1889 and left the ranch to his heirs, 

 the ranch staying in the family under the name Cheda Estate Company for 

 much of this century. Early in the century the large original Cheda home 

 burned and was replaced with a more modest bungalow. The family leased the 

 ranch to various dairymen, including (during this century), a Mr. Bettencourt, 

 the Xavier Brothers, who developed the Grade A dairy, Peters Oakland Central 

 Creamery for a short time and finally, Ray Valconesi. Neighboring dairymen 

 Armin Truttman and Don Mclsaac bought the milk contract from Valconesi in 

 1965 and moved the operation off the ranch. 229 



In 1972 the property was sold to Laurence and Elizabeth Bono; the Bonos 

 then sold to a group of land developers calling themselves Cheda Ranch 



226 Deeds Book F, p. 87, MCRO; Marin People. Volume II (San Rafael: Marin County Historical 

 Society, 1972), pp. 171-172; Mason, Earthquake Bay, p. 41. 



^'Population and Agriculture Schedules, 9th U. S. Census, 1870. 



228 Marin County Journal. October 18, 1883; Marin Journal. June 19 and September 11, 1884; 

 interview with Don Mclsaac and Rae Codoni. 



229 Death Records, MCRO; Marin Journal. October 31, 1889; interview with Don Mclsaac. 



388 



