HOMESTEADING IN SUGARLOAF

HOMESTEADING IN SUGARLOAF
Larry Maniscalco, History Docent
September 2015
On the first day of 1863, a war-weary President Abraham Lincoln took a brief moment to sign into law
the Homestead Act of 1862. That landmark piece of legislation would provide the stimulus for the
establishment of an estimated two million small farms on 270,000,000 acres – about 10 percent of all
land in the United States – speeding settlement of the nation and privatizing ownership of much of the
country.
EARLY U.S. LAND POLICY
Land policy in this country can be traced to our earliest days as a nation. The treaty of Paris that ended
the war with England in 1783 gave the fledgling United States over 270 million acres of lands east of the
Mississippi, not including the original 13 colonies. These lands were to be used as payment for soldiers
who had fought in the Revolutionary War. A Land Ordinance was created in 1785 that established the
basis for land surveys into 36-square mile townships and subsequent land sales at no less than $1.00 per
acre for tracts no smaller than 640 acres. The first land patent in the U.S. was issued in 1788 to John
Martin for 640 acres in what is now Belmont County, Ohio.
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 doubled the size of the nation. To cope with the growth in both supply
and demand for land, the General Land Office (GLO) was created in 1812 as part of the Treasury
Department, assuring that all land records would be in one place. At district land offices, tracts of
surveyed public lands were sold at auctions to the highest bidder at or above the minimum price set by
Congress. Public land sales boomed. The Land Act of 1820 set the minimum price for land at $1.25 per
acre on tracts as small as 80 acres. Subsequent public lands were added to the nation’s store following
the Mexican War, the Oregon Treaty with England, the purchase of Alaska from Russia and the
annexation of Hawaii.
THE HOMESTEAD ACT
The passage of the 1862 Homestead Act allowed settlement of public lands and required only proof of
residence with improvement and cultivation of the land. Any citizen or person intending to become a
citizen who was at least 21 years of age, and the head of a household and who had not taken up arms
against the United States government or given aid or comfort to its enemies could make application.
This latter provision excluded all of the citizens of the Confederacy from participation; but their rights
under the act were restored at the end of the Civil War and in the 1866 revision of the Homestead Act.
With five years residence and improvements and cultivation of the land, an applicant could receive up to
160 acres free and clear with only a $15 fee. The Morrill Land Grant Act combined with the Homestead
Act to authorize the granting of public lands for agricultural education and experimentation and the
1866 and 1872 mining laws declared all public mineral lands free and open to exploration and
occupancy.
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The Homestead Act remained in force until 1976. The final homestead patent under the 1862
Homestead Act was initiated in 1974, two years before the end of homesteading, and was awarded in
1988 to Kenneth W. Deardorff for less than 50 acres near Lime Village in western Alaska.
[Note: All of the laws in this brief review of U.S. land policy were invoked in the granting of homesteads
in the area in and adjacent to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, including the Land Act of 1820, the Bounty
Land Acts of 1842 and 1855 (which authorized scrip for military pay that could be used to purchase
land), the Homestead Act of 1862 (Public Law 37-64), the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 (which was
combined with the Homestead Act), the Mineral Patents under the “Chaffee laws” of 1866, and the
General Mining Act of 1872.]
HOW DID ONE BECOME A HOMESTEADER?
According to a 1911 article that appeared in the San Francisco Sunday Call, “There is vacant land
awaiting the settler in every county of California except San Francisco County. It ranges from the finest
agricultural, dairy and grazing land to the arid desert; it Includes mountain and plain, timber and mineral
land. The state is divided into eight land districts, each with a local or branch land office in it, where
entries are filed, notices of final proof made and all other details of acquirement are attended to. Having
found a spot which appeals to him as a likely place for a homestead, what is the homesteader to do
next? What lies before him? The first thing he must do is to file his entry (see Appendices A & B). This
costs him a trifling fee and excludes others from his claim as long as he makes good. He must then,
within six months, make his "settlement" —that is, forsake any other home, build his house and settle
on his claim. Thenceforth he must continuously reside upon and cultivate his land either (1) for a period
of five years, (less time served in war in the United States Army or Navy or Marine Corps), at the end of
which period he may make his final proof of residence and cultivation and obtain his land on the
payment of another trifling sum; or (2) at the end of his period of continuous residence and cultivation
he may commute the balance of his time by the payment of $1.25 an acre of land entered. Notice of his
intention to make final proof must be advertised for three weeks in advance and his evidence must be
supported by four witnesses, at least two of whom must accompany him when he makes the proof
before the local land officer or county clerk (see Appendix C).
“The problem that occupies most homesteaders is how to live during the early period of residence,
before the land is on a paying basis. It is assumed that the homesteader has sufficient funds to provide
himself at the start with tools, farming implements and enough provisions to keep him going for a few
months at least. He is very apt to make a failure if he has not, for few hitherto unimproved homesteads
pay from the start. If the homesteader has enough money to keep him going for a year, or if he has an
Independent income sufficient to keep him going until his crops yield, he is all right, provided that he
knows the capabilities of his land and understands how to avail himself of these capabilities. Otherwise,
he must expect some sore straits.
“Many homesteaders, during their period of making good, or at least the early months of it, can keep
themselves going by doing odd jobs for neighbors when not working on their own places, or by engaging
in some business upon their land. For example, some homesteaders keep a cow or horse—they usually
do—selling the milk of the cow and perhaps renting the horse to neighbors or to campers. Others, if
adept, conduct a small carpentering or blacksmithing shop, or pursue some other trade on their land,
besides cultivating it. In California it is a common practice, if the land, water and other conditions are
favorable, to raise chickens or hogs, both of which will nearly always yield revenue early. A man with a
family often keeps himself going during the first months of the year, and afterward, too, by having his
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wife and daughters and young sons raise chickens, while he with his older sons cultivate the fields, clear
the forest and do the other heavy work. It all really depends upon the immediate circumstances and the
resourcefulness of the homesteader.”
SOME EFFECTS OF THE HOMESTEAD ACTS
It is interesting to note that the possibility of obtaining free land in America under the 1862 Homestead
Act became known fairly soon after its passage outside the United States causing people to immigrate to
America sometimes only for this reason. Statistics don’t exist to show how many people came from
Europe to America solely to homestead, but a guess is tens of thousands. According to Milo Shepard, the
first Ranger of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, many of the homesteaders in and around the boundaries of
the park were of European decent.
According to the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, the current administrator of
public lands: “The opportunities that homesteading gave to people were remarkably broad for its time.
People from all walks of life had the ability to obtain free land from which they could reap continuing
economic benefits, thereby having permanent means to improve their lives and the lives of their
children and grandchildren. Thus, homesteading provided a pathway for success in America that
required only hard work and dedication to succeed. In the playing out of homesteading, the nation itself
would be benefitted by the promotion of new settlements and the economic benefits that would arise
from them. Although homesteads could not be patented until they were surveyed, those wanting
homesteads were in most cases given preference rights to lands on which they previously “squatted”
without legal rights or before making a formal homestead application.”
Only about 40 percent of the applicants who started the process were able to complete it and obtain
title to their homestead land.
HOMESTEADING IN SUGARLOAF
Research conducted by the Sonoma County Genealogical Society, revealed that there were 4,046
homestead declarations filed in Sonoma County between the years 1860 and 1921. Government Land
Office (GLO) archives in the online resources of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) identified no
fewer than 68 homesteads in and around the area that is now Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. The
homesteads in and around what is now Hood Mountain Regional Park were also included among the
GLO data due to the proximity of what were then neighboring ranches. (See Appendix D for an array of
homesteads by name, date, document number, map sector and acreage.)
According to SRSP historical files, John D. Bowen is reputed to be the first homesteader in the area of
the park. His 160-acre homestead, which was patented on May 1, 1867, was located just outside the
south boundary of the park above the campground and is now covered by a vineyard owned by the
Thatcher family. The U.S. Census for 1880 includes an entry for a John D. Bowen who is listed as a white
54-year old single male from Pennsylvania who was employed as a farmer. As well, in the Glen Ellen
section of the 1903 Santa Rosa City Directory the name of a John D. Bowen is listed as a farmer. If these
sources are accurate, Bowen would have been 41 years old when he received the land patent for his
homestead.
Other homesteads of historic interest in the vicinity SRSP include the Luttrell, McCormick, Fitzsimmons,
Hamilton and Cookson homesteads whose properties have expanded the original boundaries of the
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park. (See Appendix E for a map of all known homesteads in and around Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.)
The homestead that is of greatest significance to the history of the park is, no doubt, the Hurd
Homestead also known as the Bear Creek Ranch (Appendix F). The site of the Hurd’s homestead today is
accessible to hikers in the park who walk the various routes to Bald Mountain and then descend the
High Ridge Trail for approximately one mile to the remains of the Hurd family’s permanent home and
the intact and picturesque Red Barn (Appendices G).
THE HURD HOMESTEAD
In 1914 Ray and Bertha Hurd loaded their household goods and the first six of their 10 surviving children
onto a horse-drawn wagon and began the short but arduous journey from Napa Valley to their
permanent home on a rugged 160-acre parcel of land on the far side of Mayacamas ridge near Bear
Creek. When the dirt road ran out, they continued up the mountain by foot, packing their belongings on
their backs or on sleds behind the horses. Their first task was to construct a home. It was only a 12x12 ft.
wood shake cabin with a dirt floor (Appendix H), but it would be followed later by a larger and more
permanent house and a large red barn as well improvements to the land which would meet the
provisions of the Homestead Act and would by 1920 have secured their right to ownership of the
property.
The Hurds were typical of many of the Midwestern homesteaders in Sonoma County. Ray Hurd was born
in Iowa on September 28, 1878 and died at age 96 on September 4, 1975 in Napa. He was one of seven
children. His father, Thomas D. Hurd (1838-1927), was born in Olean, N.Y. and his mother, Anna Agustus
Wilhemina Menge (1850-1929), was born in Germany and died in Sebastopol. Bertha Alice Hurd (nee
Saunders) was born in Bridgewater, South Dakota on June 28, 1883 and died near Blue Lake, California
on July 12, 1956 (Appendix I). Her father and mother were born in S. Dakota. Bertha had six sisters, one
of whom, Myrtle Cookson, lived on the nearby Cookson homestead, north of the Hurd ranch on the
Napa side of the Mayacamas ridge (Appendix F). A second sister, with the surname Harrison, lived on
the Vertosa ranch on the north side of Bald Mountain by Silver Oaks. Bertha married her husband Ray in
1901 and gave birth to eleven children, one of whom (Edwin) died at age 11. The Hurd progeny included
Raymond, the eldest, born in 1903 and his siblings Ralph (1905), Fern Hurd Williams (1906), Hazel Hurd
Harding (1908), Edwin (1909), James (1910), Grace Hurd Williams (1912), Pearl Hurd Mora (1915),
Francis (1922), Alvin (1926) and Irma Hurd Mitchell (1928). Ray and Bertha had 24 grandchildren and 25
great-grandchildren. The size of the extended Hurd clan was estimated in 1981 to be 682 persons and
family reunions held at the Bear Creek ranch attracted as many as 200 persons.
Senior State Archeologist Breck Parkman has descried life at the Bear Creek Ranch from its beginning in
1914 to when it was sold in 1930: “The family was almost completely self-sufficient, due in part to their
geographic isolation. They raised a few cows and had chickens and turkeys, and they grew vegetables in
a small garden (turnip, beet, radish, corn, etc.). A small orchard, including walnuts and apricots, was
planted near the house and a fruit cellar was dug nearby. The family did a lot of canning and they put
away dried apples and sweet corn as well. Bertha cooked on a big wood range, which also heated the
house. During deer hunting season, when hunters roamed the local hills, she would often cook for the
hunters, feeding them at the family's dining table.
“Because the children had to be away all week, attending school down in the Napa Valley, Ray in 1916
constructed a small schoolhouse at the homestead and then hired a teacher, who lived with the family
as if she was a part of it. From then on, the kids went to their own school until they were in high school.”
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[Note: There were approximately 35 people living on neighboring ranches, including two children on the
Cookson ranch (the Hurd children’s cousins Samuel and Leonard) and two children on the Fitzsimmons
ranch.]
“When accidents occurred, and there were definitely a few of those, Bertha took care of the injuries.
One of her children, Alvin, almost cut his foot off on a broken bottle and another, Francis, almost bit his
tongue in two. A third child, Grace, was bit by a rattlesnake. In all of these cases, Bertha took immediate
action. For Alvin's cut foot, she stopped the bleeding by pouring sugar into the wound, which allowed
her the necessary time to get him to the doctor. She treated little Grace's snakebite all by herself, with
no trip necessary to see the doctor.
“In 1917, another of Ray and Bertha’s children, Raymond (Appendix H), lost his leg in an accident at the
naval shipyard on Mare Island. He came back to the homestead and secluded himself there for the next
three years, self-conscious of his missing limb. A few years later, a neighbor decided to end his life. He
placed a lit stick of dynamite on a stump and then sat down beside it to keep it company. Afterwards,
the son of the dead man came to live with the family. [Note: The neighbor’s name was thought to have
been Johnson, possibly a ranch hand on the Fitzsimmons ranch.]
“In the early 1920s, the family and another of their neighbors constructed a road that would allow them
access to the Sonoma Valley. In the 1920s, though, this area was being used as a nudist retreat, one of
the earliest such camps in northern California. The road passed near this unseen camp and it was the
cause of great speculation among the kids, as evidenced in an interview conducted with three of them in
1983.
“In 1930, Ray and Bertha sold their property to a businessman who lived in the Napa Valley. The new
owner used the property as a deer hunting club and added a new structure or two of his own, including
a deer dressing shed complete with a 1942 date and the print of a deer hoof scratched into the concrete
floor. In time, the property changed hands once again and was later leased out to several different
tenants. In 1967, more than 30 “hippies” are said to have been living on the ranch and it was estimated,
by a neighbor, that as many as 90 people spent the weekends there. During a weekend in 1967, the old
house burned to the ground, apparently the result of an untended candle.”
SOURCES
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Information Center, www.blm.gov
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records for the State
of California, County of Sonoma, Township 7 North, Range 6 West, Mt. Diablo Meridian.
Dutton Arthur. “Uncle Sam Still Has California Farms to Give Away For a Song.” The San Francisco Sunday
Call, Volume 109, Number 123, page 5, April 2, 1911.
“Homestead Declarations.” Amended Index, Sonoma County, California.” Second edition, 2011, Sonoma
County Genealogical Society. Heritage Books, Westminster, Md., Sonoma County Library History Index #
929.379418
“Sugarloaf Ridge State Park: An Historic Sketch (Draft),” Christina Jones, Cultural Heritage Section,
California State Department of Parks and Recreation, April 1977.
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“A Forgotten History from the Far Side of the Ridge,” E. Breck Parkman, Senior State Archeologist,
California State Parks, Diablo Division, Science Notes Number 192, December 28, 2011.
“Hurd Family Oral History,” Unit Ranger Linda Gresham, Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, August 27, 1983
Ancestry.com
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APPENDIX A
SAMPLE HOMESTEAD APPLICATION
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APPENDIX B
SAMPLE PROOF OF ELIGIBILITY
8
APPENDIX C
SAMPLE PROOF OF IMPROVEMENTS
9
APPENDIX D
HOMESTEADS IN THE VICINITY OF SUGARLOAF RIDGE STATE PARK
NAME
DATE
DOC. #
MAP SECTORS*
ACRES
ADAMS, EDSON &
PUTNAM S N
8/11/1877
2445
K4
80
ALEXANDER, LEVI
8/15/1898
20231
K7
51.09
ANDERSON, ANDREW
10/15/1889
3/17/1892
10997
3968
K6
K6
144.92
80
BARHAM, AUBREY
1/20/1928
18161
K8
170.75
BASHAW, JOHN
8/1/1872
3481
R26
160
BILTY, STEVEN A DOUGLAS &
TERRY, MARY J. &
TERRY, THOMAS J.
10/25/1889
65312
R13
160
BOWEN, JOHN D.
5/1/1867
760
K22,23,26
160
BRADLEY WILMOTH E. &
LOWERY, WILMOTH E. &
LOWERY, JOHN J.
4/22/1901
7642
K10
160
BROCKMAN, HARMON C.
2/10/1891
3511
R23
80
CARPENTER, HOWARD B.
6/1/1889
11112
K15
160
CLARK, HAIGHT
6/22/1911
2969
K5
160
CLAYTON, CHARLES F.
1/8/1894
5038
K17
160
COOKSON, CHESTER E.
7/12/1921
8916
K9
40
COOKSON, ELMER S.
4/8/1921
7746
K3,4,9,10
160
COX, HENRY T.
1/18/1917
5277
K17
101.53
CROSBY, JAMES
5/1/1874
375
R 26,35
160
10
NAME
CURRIER, ADDISON H.
DATE
6/16/1921
DOC. #
7088
MAP SECTORS*
K8
ACRES
152.86
DEALY, DAVID J.
8/1/1872
151
R24
160
DEALY, MARCUS J.
1/15/1872
1478
R23,24
160
ECK, ADAM
8/20/1878
6259
R14,23
160
FITZSIMMONS, MAX A.
5/19/1915
6391
K9
160
HAMILTON, ETHEL L.
5/29/1918
8733
K10
160
HAMILTON, JAMES P.
5/10/1870
2353
K26, 27
141.67
HARDY, JOHN &
VON QUITZOW, ALBERT
2/15/1875
90869
K22
160
HASENMAIER, JACOB F.
7/1/1874
431
K14
160
HASTIE, ELIZABETH L.
10/15/1889
10557
K8,9
120
HENDLEY, LUCY E.
1/23/1914
5474
K27
40
HENDLEY, JOHN M.
5/20/1884
4/29/1892
8914
4062
R23,26
K27
160
160.28
HENDRICKSON, DAVID B.
3/26/1892
4027
K7,18
175.74
HOFFMANN, FRANK S.
4/23/1917
8085
K27
14.24
HUNT, DANIEL O.
10/1/1883
9035
K5
40
HURD, RAY
8/5/1920
7745
K9,10
160
JACOBSEN, MAX
5/20/1884
9102
K4
160
JOHNSON, CHARLES W.
11/20/1877
862
R26,35
143.89
LAWRENCE, WILLIAM &
RILY, ERASTUS F.
11/26/1889
114802
K6,31
164.86
LOW, JAMES
2/20/1872
508
K4
160
11
NAME
LUTTRELL, HERBERT LEE
DATE
6/24/1890
12/29/1890
DOC. #
13313
13846
MAP SECTORS*
K22
K15
ACRES
40
160
LUTRELL, FRANK M.
5/1/1889
12713
K21
160
MANNY, SIMON
2/5/1872
636
K22
160
MATHIS, JACOB A.
10/15/1889
10362
R13
160
MC CONNIE, HENRY
8/1/1871
2793
K4
160
MC CORMICK, MARY J.
2/3/1883
5/20/1884
8303
8898
K4,5
K6
162.92
160
MC CULLOCH, THOMAS S.
8/20/1881
1560
R26
80
MILLS, RICHARD
6/1/1889
11066
K6
162.92
NOYES, BARTHOLOMEW
5/10/1887
9020
K15
40
NUNN, ALEXANDER
5/20/1872
3310
R35
167.87
NUNN, HUGH
6/20/1872
282
R35
160
PATTEN, MARTHA
3/17/1892
3949
K20,21
165.17
PETERSON, JAMES B.
6/29/1916
3392
K27
40
PEUGH, THOMAS M.
1/5/1872
6127
K15
160
PLUCHER, GEORGE
11/20/1872
697
K23
160
RILEY, ERASTUS F. &
LAWRENCE, WILLIAM
11/26/1889
114802
K6,31
164.86
ROGERS, MARGUERITE J.
7/16/1914
5473
K21,22,27,28
162.35
ROHRBACH, WILLIAM A.
7/16/1919
9342
K6,7
162.96
ROWLEY, ALICE
8/18/1914
5531
K21,22
160
RUIZ, ADRIANO
3/26/1892
4074
K8
153.43
12
NAME
RYAN, THOMAS JOSEPH
DATE
6/24/1890
DOC. #
13314
MAP SECTORS*
K23
ACRES
40
SAMUELS, JANE & JAMES
4/14/1894
4959
K6,7
165.84
SANGER, SAMUEL T.
10/27/1914
6239
K17
160
SHAW, JOHN G.
2/1/1894
4/2/1913
19009
2567
K18
K18
142.18
109.4
SILVIA, EVERETT CURTIS
7/5/1949
37459
K21
110.83
SIMON, NARCIS
5/20/1884
8955
R14
160
SKILLIN, DANIEL H.
9/25/1888
10292
K15
160
SPENCE, ROBERT A.
11/3/1891
3726
R13
108.73
STRIEFF, JOHN
4/22/1899
7107
K7
130.18
WARD, FRANCIS MOORE
6/3/1896
5984
K20
156.55
WEEKS, FRANK P.
6/2/1891
9780
K1,6
163.24
* USGS map sections for the Kenwood Quadrangle [K] and the Rutherford Quadrangle [R]
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APPENDIX E
MAP OF HOMESTEADS WITHIN AND ADJACENT TO SLRSP
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APPENDIX F
HURD HOMESTEAD PLAT MAP WITH ADJOINING HOMESTEADS
(Hurd: Section 766423, Center of Map)
Note: the black one meandering through section 10 is the boundary line between Sonoma County to the
left and Napa County to the right.
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APPENDIX G
THE HURD HOMESTEAD RED BARN
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APPENDIX H
HURD FAMILY HISTORIC PHOTOS
Bertha Hurd and Children in Front of First Cabin
Raymond Hurd (Ray Hurd Jr.)
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APPENDIX I
BERTHA HURD”S OBITUARY & GRAVESTONE
Bertha Hurd Obituary
Bertha Hurd Gravestone
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