1
10
39
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/b1ac726d2d5b6efbc080fe6d6c5412f7.pdf
16732801e2a5f31879c6f7c37bd6a021
PDF Text
Text
Henry Cowell and His Family (1819--1955)
By Laurie MacDougall
Henry and Harriet Cowell, Carriage House at the Cowell Ranch, circa 1890s
CONTENTS
Introduction
The Gold Rush and the Early Years (1850-1865)
Lime and the Lime Business
The Santa Cruz Years (1865-1897)
The Tragic Year (1903)
The S. H. Cowell Years (1911-1955)
Notes and Research Bibliography
1
�Introduction
The S. H. Cowell Foundation is named after Samuel Henry Cowell, last surviving member of a
colorful family, whose history is intimately linked to the explosive economic growth of the
central California coast following the Gold Rush. The story of the Cowell family spans two
generations, beginning in 1819 with the birth of Henry Cowell, the head of the family and
creator of the family fortune, and ending with the death of his son, S. H. Cowell, in 1955.
Between the mid-nineteenth century, when Henry arrived in central California, and the midtwentieth century, when S. H. died, central California underwent a dramatic change from a
sparsely settled frontier wilderness to one of the wealthiest, most densely settled areas in the
most populous state in the Union. As a consequence, the family fortune - created originally
through the manufacture of lime - was transformed by 1955 into a fortune in real estate.
Several themes run through the family saga. As a family, and as individuals, the Cowells
contributed to charitable causes. This trait is first seen in Henry as early as 1867, when records
show his company made a contribution of $16.50 to a school run by the Sisters of Charity. (1)
This is by no means the only instance of Henry Cowell's generosity. An open letter published in
1879 from fifteen Santa Cruz teachers thanked Henry Cowell for "cashing our warrants upon
the deficiency in the county treasury becoming known." (2) (It is also interesting to observe that
this early philanthropy demonstrates a sympathy for educational institutions that bore fruit in
the second generation when Henry's eldest son, Ernest, made a bequest to the University of
California at Berkeley which ultimately built the Ernest V Cowell Student Health Center.)
Another important family trait was a deep personal reserve, probably as a result of Henry's
New England heritage. The Cowells - individually and as a family - shunned the spotlight. They
lived quietly, circumspectly. (3) Few photographs and almost no direct quotes exist. (4) As a
consequence, most of what is known about the Cowells today comes from two sources - the
descriptions of those who knew the Cowells, as recorded in the latter years of their lives, and
newspaper accounts - both of which are subject to inaccuracy and bias. Despite these
drawbacks, however, such sources make it possible to reconstruct a good deal about the
personal saga of the Cowell family, and the origin and growth of the family wealth.
The Gold Rush and the Early Years (1850-1865)
In order to appreciate the business climate in which this fortune was begun and expanded, it is
necessary to understand the economic and demographic impact the Gold Rush had on the
development of San Francisco and the whole of central California.
As John S. Hittel wrote in 1882:
"The Pacific side of the North American continent was, in 1845, almost beyond
the range of thought and traffic of the refined and wealthy Caucasian
communities on the shores of the Atlantic. Difficult of access, obscure in its
2
�civilization, poor, sparsely populated as to much of its area, unproductive,
without machinery, which is the accompaniment if not the main basis of recent
progress, our coast seemed destined to remain without much improvement until
some distant time in a vague future. No steamships plowed our harbors; no
locomotive rattled through our valleys; no well-graded wagon road crossed our
mountains; no telegraph wire was ready to carry hasty messages; and north of
Mazatlan there was neither regular postal service nor newspaper." (5)
To put it in specific terms, in 1848 the population of San Francisco was estimated to be
approximately 15,000. Two years later the population was counted at 93,000. By 1852, the
population had exploded to 260,000. 6 As a result of the Gold Rush, San Francisco's population
had increased 1700% in four years. 7 But the Gold Rush brought more than just people to the
central California coast - it brought trade, too. More people meant that more goods and
services, more housing, more of everything was needed; and it was supplied by a new breed of
entrepreneurs that braved the arduous journey to California to seek their fortunes.
It was certainly a journey to deter all but the most motivated. "To reach California from the East
required a slow, laborious and dangerous journey by stage or wagon across arid plains and
daunting mountains, or by ship around the Horn, or by muleback across the malarial Isthmus of
Panama." 8
Henry Cowell and his older brother, John, were among those determined adventurers who
braved this journey. The Cowell brothers left the family home in Wrentham, Massachusetts, not
far from Boston, while in their thirties. Nothing is known of their personal lives prior to their
arrival in San Francisco. However, thanks to a private genealogical study, a good deal is known
about the Wrentham Cowells. 9
The Cowells were moderately prosperous farmers, who had lived on the same land for well
over a hundred years by the time Henry was born. The progenitor of the family, Joseph Cowell
(1673-1762), came to Wrentham in 1677. Henry's grandfather, Major Samuel Cowell (1736/71824), fought in the French and Indian War with the forces under General Jeffrey Amherst that
captured Crowne Point and Fort Ticonderoga. According to the account of his son Benjamin
(Henry's uncle), upon hearing of the Battle of Lexington, the Major dropped his oats measure in
the field, called out his company, and marched to Roxbury by the next morning. Henry's
grandfather fought at Bunker Hill and continued to serve throughout the Revolutionary War,
seeing action in the campaigns in Rhode Island.
The Major had eleven children, of whom three were sons. One of these, Samuel Jr. (17741861), sired five sons, the youngest of which was Henry (1819-1903). It may be surmised that
the family farm offered limited prospects for the youngest member of such a large family,
which may have played a role in Henry's decision to undertake the difficult journey to
California. Nevertheless, Henry's enduring feeling for the land and for the occupation of his
ancestors may be deduced from the fact that, as late as 1875, when he was a very successful
3
�manufacturer of lime, he is listed in the records of registered voters of Santa Cruz County as
"farmer." 10
The exact date the Cowell brothers arrived in San Francisco is not known. However, the San
Francisco Directory unequivocally places them in business in the city by 1850 under a listing for
John Cowell, merchant. Henry is not listed by name that year, but changes in the listings in
subsequent issues of the Directory offer tantalizing clues about the business relationship
between the brothers. John was clearly the dominant partner in 1850, and for several years
thereafter. By 1858, however, it is clear from the listing (which reads "Henry Cowell, storage
and commission") that Henry is in complete control. 11 The business in which they were
engaged appears to have been drayage and storage, and its assets included a warehouse and
wharf, built, according to a notation in the Directory, in 1853. 12
The Cowell brothers' business endeavors flourished immediately. This is clearly indicated in a
letter written by their cousin, Benjamin Cowell, Jr., to his wife on May 7, 1851 following one of
the devastating fires that frequently swept San Francisco during this period:
"...Cousin John Cowell, poor fellow, has lost his all, so he says. He lost his new iron store,
which is nearly half a mile distant from ours, and $30,000 worth of goods he had
recently landed. He says he must commence over again, he lost everything but what he
stood in, he did not save even a shirt to his back...He wanted to know if I had two razors,
said he had not saved even a razor...He said when I got burnt out and lost my other
razor he would give me this one back again...P.S. I have just come from cousin John
Cowells [sic], he is in quite good spirits. I find he has still quite a large property left, in
land, and he says he saved $5,000 in specie in his safe and is out of debt, he will do very
well." 13
Indeed, the brothers did do very well. During this early period, however, Henry had other things
on his mind beside business. He returned east, where he married Harriet Carpenter (18221900) of Rehoboth, Massachusetts in 1854.14 They returned to San Francisco and began raising
a family. In the next twelve years of marriage six children were born: Roland (18571858); 15 Ernest Victor (1858-1911, referred to herein as Ernest and sometimes known as Ernest
V. or E. V.); Isabella Marion (1858-1950); 16 Samuel Henry (1861-1955, generally known as S. H.,
but also as Harry, particularly when younger); Sarah Elizabeth (1863-1903); Helen Edith (18661932).
Meanwhile, two other intrepid young men, Albion P. Jordan and Isaac E. Davis, had made the
difficult journey west around the same time as Henry and John, and arrived in San Francisco by
1850. Jordan's father had been a lime manufacturer on the east coast, so he knew the business.
He met Davis when both were working for a steamboat that plied the Delta between
Sacramento and San Francisco. A biography of Albion Jordan, written in 1911, states that "by
accident" the two men came in possession of some limerock from the Mt. Diablo area.(17)
Following Jordan's instructions, they burned the limerock in the furnace of the steamboat and
discovered it to be of particularly fine quality. Realizing the importance of this discovery, they
4
�immediately quit their positions with the steamboat company and within a short time had
established a business called Jordan and Davis in Santa Cruz. While Henry and John were
building up their drayage business in San Francisco, Jordan and Davis flourished 80 miles to the
south, and soon became the largest lime manufacturing company in the state. 18
Lime and the Lime Business
In order to understand the development of the Cowell business, it is essential to know
something about lime. According to one source, "Limestone is one of a select few raw materials
that are absolutely necessary to modern industry and our present form of
civilization." 19 Limestone is the raw material from which lime is manufactured. Today lime is
widely used in various chemical industries, such as soap, glue, varnish and paint, glass, paper
and sugar, as well as in construction industries. 20
It was in these, the construction industries, that lime played a particularly vital role during the
second half of the 19th century. As the principal ingredient in mortar, plaster, and stucco, lime's
importance to the building industry cannot be overemphasized.
Before Jordan and Davis discovered the
presence of significant limerock deposits in
central California, all lime had to be brought
around Cape Horn. This was prohibitively
expensive. Consequently, a majority of the
building that occurred in central California
during the boom period around the Gold Rush,
particularly in San Francisco, was of wood. The
Pack Mules Used as Lime Carriers, Cowell Ranch, 1912
frequency of devastating fires that plagued San
Francisco as a result during this period is welldocumented. 21 There are enormous variations in the characteristics of limerock deposits, and
in the quality of the resulting lime. To build solid, durable structures, first-rate lime is a
necessity. The limerock deposits in Santa Cruz County yielded lime of this quality. 22 In addition
to rich deposits of the raw material - limerock - Santa Cruz offered an abundance of the timber
needed to fuel the lime kilns that rendered limerock into lime. The final element that ensured
the success of the enterprise was the location of Santa Cruz on the northern edge of Monterey
Bay, providing easy transportation of the finished product by sea to the primary market, San
Francisco.
5
�The Santa Cruz Years (1865-1897)
By 1865, Henry was in control of a thriving business in San Francisco, with significant assets,
including at least a warehouse and wharf located on the busy San Francisco waterfront. 23 This
would have been success enough for most men, so what prompted Henry to take the step he
took next? Is it related to what happened in the business relationship between Henry and
John? 24 Why did Henry make sweeping changes in his business and personal life that would
uproot his young family and completely change their lifestyle from urban to rural? The answers
to these questions will never be known. What is known is that his drayage business was
successful enough to enable him to purchase Jordan's share of Jordan and Davis for $100,000 in
that year, when Jordan became too ill to continue in the business. 25 The company was
renamed Davis and Cowell, and Henry moved his entire family to Santa Cruz, where they lived
for the next 32 years, 26 although he retained business ties to San Francisco. 27
The home the family occupied was a farmhouse on
the large ranch that constituted the lime
manufacturing operation. 28 This ranch was a selfcontained world that provided all needs for the
family and the firm's employees, with orchards, a
dairy business, cattle and pigs, vegetable gardens
and fruit orchards. It was also self-supporting in
terms of the industries necessary to manufacture,
package and distribute the lime. The business not
only quarried the limerock on the ranch, it also
included a lumbering operation that provided the
Two of the Three Cowell Sisters
fuel to fire the lime kilns, a cooperage that made
the barrels in which the lime was shipped, a drayage operation that brought the barrels of lime
to the company warehouse and wharf, to be shipped on company schooners to San
Francisco. 29 The company managed the entire process from the acquisition of raw material,
through manufacturing, to distribution of the product.
According to George Cardiff, who managed the Cowell Ranch during its last years of operation,
the quarrying of the limerock was done by hand labor, with picks, shovels, hand drills and
gunpowder. The limerock was loaded on carts that were drawn by mules along a wooden
tramway to the lime kilns. Meanwhile, other workers felled trees in 8 foot lengths in the
forested portions of the ranch, and these were brought on wagons drawn by ox-teams to the
kilns.
Frank George, the Cowell ranch manager for 50 years, provided the following information
about the operation of the kilns:
6
�"It took 325 tons of selected limerock to fill a kiln. An arch was first constructed from
the rock; the arch went the length of the kiln and the fire was placed under it. After the
arch was constructed, the balance of the rock was placed on top until the kiln was filled.
After the burning, 135 to 150 tons of lime remained. When wood was used it took 140
cords of 8 foot wood to complete the burning and the total time needed was 6 days...An
even heat had to be kept - the temperature was somewhere between 1500 and 2400
degrees. The size of the rock determined to some extent the time needed to 'cook' it.
Since no chemical determinations were run in those days, the men judged whether or
not the rock was done by its appearance. At night the rock was transparent; in the day it
had a yellow-golden color when cooked. The rock did not decompose into powder; it
remained in solid chunks and was placed in the barrels that way. The lime powder one
sees today has undergone a grinding process before being bagged." 30
The barrels were then loaded onto large wagons, drawn by ox teams from the ranch down the
1.6 miles of gentle incline to the company warehouse, located on the cliffs above the company
wharf. 31 Several eyewitness accounts exist of the method for loading the schooners anchored
on the wharf. 32 From the warehouse on the cliffs above, a small trolley ran down to the wharf
below. The barrels of lime were loaded on the car, which descended by gravity along the trolley
tracks to the wharf, and from there the lime would be loaded on the waiting ships. An old horse
would follow the car down, then be hooked onto it to pull it back up. This would be loaded
while another car descended.
A description of the business written in 1897 states that the company employed 175 men, and
had a payroll of over $100,000 a year. 33 This latter figure is substantiated by George Cardiff,
who said that Henry Cowell only paid his men once a year, when he would make the trip to San
Francisco to get $90,000 to $100,000. Henry and his bookkeeper would then sit all night in the
paymaster's house with the gold, and pay off the men the next morning. 34
The ranch required 300 tons of grain, and over 1000 tons of hay a year for its livestock, which
included 75 horses and mules, and 50 yokes of oxen, in addition to "extensive dairy interests."
The company mined and distributed bituminous rock and "its superior quality is so generally
recognized that it is shipped to all parts of the Pacific Coast and even beyond." 35 Another
source says of the Cowell's bituminous rock mining operation that it is "the largest deposit of
bituminous rock on the coast, and one that also turns out the finest quality bituminous. To
develop this property large sums have already been expended, but the vast increase in the
demand for the article warrants it." 36 The company was also engaged in the importation of
cement, plaster, hair, marble dust, fire tile, fire bricks and fire clay. 37 In addition, the ranch
provided tan bark and peeled oak for the tanning industries that were very active in Santa Cruz
County during this same period. 38
By this time, the company had undergone more changes. Isaac Davis died in 1888, and Henry
Cowell had purchased his share of the business from his heirs. The business had been renamed
the Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company. And, perhaps most significantly, Henry Cowell
had been busy acquiring land.
7
�At their most extensive, the Cowell family holdings stretched from as far north as Canada
(Texada Island), down along the coast as far south as San Luis Obispo. While some of the
holdings were added by his sons after his death, the majority of the acquisitions were made by
Henry Cowell himself. At the time of S.H. Cowell's death in 1955, the listing of family holdings
included acreage in the following California counties: Butte, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Kern,
Merced, Monterey, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis
Obispo, San Mateo and Yolo. The total of these land holdings was 82,491 acres. Not counted in
that total were a number of prime San Francisco lots under an acre. These included the
company offices at 2 Market Street, at the intersection of Market, Sacramento and East Street
(now Embarcadero). 39 This site is presently occupied by the public space in front of
Embarcadero Four, of the Embarcadero Center, and the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Other prime San
Francisco financial district properties included the corner of Clay and Sansome, Drumm Street
near Sacramento, and the corner of Grant and Sutter Streets.
Henry Cowell had an instinct for land that was part of his heritage as a New England Yankee
farmer. He was primarily seeking new limerock deposits and grazing land for
livestock. 40 Fortunately, these extensive land holdings turned out to be situated squarely in the
path of central California coastal progress, which perpetuated, and even augmented, the family
fortune.
While Henry Cowell was busy creating a fortune, his family was busy, too. His five surviving
children were growing up in the town of Santa Cruz. All children attended the Bay View
Elementary School, and are listed among the top students scholastically, particularly Sarah, who
was listed in the Santa Cruz Sentinel for three years in a row as having the highest average in
the school. 41 The boys, Ernest and S. H. (known in his youth as Harry), are remembered as lively
lads. According to Ernest Otto, well-known Santa Cruz newspaperman and unofficial historian,
"The Bay View School had some of the most sportsmanlike boys of the early day prominent
families who were good with their fists. Among them were...Ernest and Harry Cowell." 42 The
girls, Isabella, Sarah and Helen, are remembered as very bright and pretty, although, according
to George Cardiff, "They never had beaux. The old man wouldn't allow boys coming around the
house at all." 43
Apparently Ernest and S. H. were both quite athletic. S. H. was a great roper, according to
George Cardiff, and loved working with the livestock. As a boy, his father gave him two oxen
calves a year old. S. H. broke them as a plow team and his father gave him $200. "That was the
only spending money I had when I was a boy," S. H. told Cardiff as an adult. 44
A physical description of S. H. exists from 1892, when he was 31 years old. He is described in
the Great Register of Santa Cruz County as blond, with blue eyes, 5 feet 10 3/4 inches in height,
with no visible marks. His athletic ability is further attested by the fact that he was a member of
the Alert Hose Team while he lived in Santa Cruz. There were several hose cart companies of
volunteer firefighters active in Santa Cruz during the 1880s. According to Ernest Otto, S. H. "was
always in the lead when the team competed in hose tournaments. He was very popular with
this wonderful hose team." 45
8
�A physical description of Ernest from about the same period comes from the same source. The
Great Register of 1896, when he was 37, describes Ernest as light complected, with gray hair
and blue eyes, and 5 feet 7 inches in height. His relatively small stature didn't stop Ernest from
pursuing his own extensive athletic activities, however. The yearbook of the University of
California at Berkeley, the Blue and Gold, lists numerous activities and interests for Ernest while
he attended as an undergraduate. His athletic activities include football (he was captain of his
team), baseball (he played third base and centerfield), field events such as shot put (16
pounds), mile foot race (he placed second at the 1879 Field Meet) and the standing broad
jump. In addition to these activities, he is listed as a member of the whist club, the Durant
Rhetorical Society, and a member of the "Oft in the Stilly Night" Glee Club. He belonged to
Sigma Delta Phi fraternity, and served on the Board of Directors of both his freshman and
sophomore classes.
Virtually nothing is known about Henry's wife, Harriet, during this period. However, several
sources mention the familiar sight of the Cowell family in their high-topped buggy, driving each
Sunday to attend the First Congregational Church, of which they were longtime members. 46
As Ernest and S. H. grew up, they became involved in different aspects of the family business.
According to George Cardiff, Ernest and his father, Henry, were "altogether lime," whereas S. H.
was a true Westerner, who loved livestock and the range. "He was a cattleman. All cattle." 47 All
three Cowell men, however, had reputations as excellent employers. Numerous sources
substantiate that concern for employee welfare was a widely recognized trait of the Cowells. 48
During the last years of the nineteenth century, the Cowell family business and holdings grew
so extensive that several branch offices were opened, and the main operation was moved to
San Francisco. With this move, in 1897, the family finally left Santa Cruz, although they
continued to frequent the Cowell Ranch for recreation and business. Ernest moved to Tacoma
to manage the branch office there. 49 During this period he married, the only one of the Cowell
children to do so. The marriage produced no children, however.
The Tragic Year (1903)
The year 1903 was fateful for the Cowells. Henry Cowell was shot in the shoulder in a boundary
dispute with a man named D. Leigh Ingalsbe. The rather lurid newspaper accounts of the
incident indicate this dispute was of long-standing, and refer to the severe loss of blood
suffered by Henry. 50 It is worth noting, although the news accounts did not, that Henry was 84
at the time.
The shooting occurred in March, and Henry appeared to be on the mend. However in May,
Sarah, his daughter, was out for a buggy ride at the Cowell Ranch in Santa Cruz with the wife of
the ranch manager. Evidence suggests the horse bolted, as the ladies' hats were found a half
mile from the place where Sarah was finally thrown out of the runaway buggy. She died within
an hour. 51 She was 40 years of age. 52
9
�By August, her father was dead. News coverage of the event makes no mention of the fact of
his daughter's death and its possible effect on his own recovery, yet it is suggested in the text:
"The latter (Ingalsbe) shot Cowell with a revolver, the bullet taking effect in the shoulder. The
injured man apparently recovered from the effects of the wound, but lately it had bothered him
and is said to have completely wrecked his nervous system. He was taken ill several days ago
and became worse until he passed away yesterday morning." 53
Henry left an unusual will. It was characterized by the San Francisco Chronicle, in its coverage,
as "peculiar." It was a holographic (or handwritten) will, dated January 21, 1902, and began
with the clause: "In the name of God, amen, I, Henry Cowell, being of sound mind and good
health, knowing the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death, make this, my last will,
revoking all former wills made by me." The remainder of the sheet on which this was written
was left blank, and another blank sheet was attached. At the top of the third sheet Cowell
wrote that he appointed his daughter, Helen, to be his executrix, and gave as his beneficiary the
Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company. The blank spaces were evidently to have been filled
in with bequests. The Chronicle goes on to estimate Cowell's net worth as
$3,000,000. 54 Because his children jointly held ownership in the Henry Cowell Lime and
Cement Company, they shared equally as actual beneficiaries of the will.
After the double tragedy, Ernest took over management of the business on behalf of the
surviving Cowell family members, and was soon faced with a new disaster, the great San
Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
This catastrophe had several notable consequences for the Cowell family. Sources indicate that
company losses were heavy. Shortly after the event, the Santa Cruz Surf maintained the Henry
Cowell Lime and Cement Company suffered a loss of a million and a half dollars. 55 Despite the
massive losses, however, the Cowells set what the newspaper's headline called "A Noble
Example," by giving $5,000 to the San Francisco Relief Fund. The article goes on to say:
"Facing the situation, Mr. Cowell is strong of heart, but sees some heavy obstacles to be
encountered besides collecting insurance and going ahead to build...The Cowell
Company's building in San Francisco produced a rental of $100,000, which was entirely
swept away as well as a new ten-story building and lime and cement warehouses. The
Cowell warehouse was one of the last buildings to burn, going down on Saturday
forenoon in a heat that passes power of description...As to the future, Mr. Cowell stands
in with the optimists, although not to the time limit of the most sanguine. He says San
Francisco will be rebuilt just as fast - not as men and money can build - but as fast as
material can be furnished."
And, as Ernest foresaw, the Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company prospered during the
building spurt that followed the San Francisco earthquake and fire. In fact, during that same
year, Ernest brought to fruition a plan he had been preparing for moving with the times, to
engage in the manufacture of portland cement. The Santa Cruz Surf notes: "A pet project which
E.V. Cowell has been nursing for a year or more has come to light...[he] has visited every
10
�important cement making plant in the world and it is understood that it will be his ambition to
surpass in the perfection of machinery and facility for handling the product anything of this
character on earth." 56
Ernest's "pet project" was nothing less than building Cowell Portland Cement Company, and the
adjoining town of Cowell, California in Contra Costa County, which would be a company town
serving the employees. This was a timely business move, as portland cement was in the process
of replacing natural cement as the preferred building material. 57 Ultimately, this business grew
to include a railroad, the Bay Point and Clayton Railroad Company. Meanwhile, lime would
continue to be produced at the Cowell Ranch and several other limerock quarries owned by the
parent company, Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company.
However, Ernest would not have much time to manage the family business and the family
fortune. He died in 1911 at the age of 53, leaving an estate estimated to be worth over one
million dollars, which included one quarter interest in Henry Cowell Lime and Cement
Company, stock in the Bay Point and Clayton Railroad Company, stock in Cowell Portland
Cement Company, and real estate and livestock assets. 58 His will (which, like his father's, was
holographic) and the ensuing probate proceeding were the basis of a number of lawsuits over
the next few years, challenged separately by his widow, Alice M. Cowell, and by his surviving
kin, S. H., Isabella and Helen.
Ernest V. Cowell's will is an interesting document. It specified a lifetime annuity for his widow of
$1,000 per month. She occupied three rooms at the Fairmont Hotel at that time, and contested
the will on the grounds that $1,000 was insufficient for her needs, requesting $1,850
instead. 59 Ultimately the court upheld her $1,000 annuity, but also awarded her a family
allowance of $1,500 per month during the probate period. The Cowell siblings contested this on
the grounds that she should get one or the other, but not both. She subsequently sued the
estate to gain outright control of the annuity principal of $250,000. The court disallowed this
request as well.
The will also specified that Ernest's alma mater, the University of California at Berkeley, receive
the bulk of the estate, $750,000, or $250,000 each to build a stadium, a gym and a hospital on
campus. 60 His brother and sisters brought suit to declare the bequest illegal on the grounds
that it violated a new California law limiting the percentage of an estate that could be given to a
charitable institution. Apparently they did not object to the bequests themselves, but did not
want company stock sold to pay them. This explains their seemingly contradictory behavior
when, after numerous suits and countersuits, the issue was finally settled in 1915. The judge
declared the bequest to the University of California at Berkeley void, whereupon S. H., Isabella
and Helen promptly announced that they would personally make good the bequest as
stipulated in their brother's will. 61 Ultimately, the Ernest V. Cowell Student Health Center was
constructed to serve the health needs of generations of Cal students, and a substantial financial
contribution was made to construct the men's gymnasium as well. 62
11
�Another interesting stipulation in the will called for a bequest of $1,000 to every employee of
Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company who had been with the company 20 years or more,
and $500 to every employee of 10 years standing, $1,000 to every employee of the San
Francisco office of 3 years or more standing, and $500 to each staff member who had been with
the San Francisco office for 2 years.
The will also established a $10,000 trust to provide a scholarship fund for students from Santa
Cruz, enabling them to attend the University of California. 63 Thus, in his last will and testament,
Ernest carried out several family interests and concerns that had been established by his
father's philanthropy many years before and would be reflected in the personal philanthropy of
S. H., Isabella and Helen, specifically in the areas of education, health and employee welfare.
The S. H. Cowell Years (1911-1955)
There were now three surviving members of the Cowell family, S. H., Isabella and Helen. None
of them had married, and they lived together in various combinations, either at the Cowell
mansion on Jackson Street in San Francisco (opposite Lafayette Park), or in the Cowell estate on
22 acres in Atherton, until their deaths.
Upon Ernest's death, S. H. took control of the family business. Because of his interest in
livestock and horses, he made several changes in company holdings. He purchased some prime
grazing land, and horse breeding farms. For a while he raised white Herefords, experimenting
with purebred bulls, according to George Cardiff, who added: "He enjoyed himself. He loved
horses and cattle. That was his hobby. He was an outside man." 64
His interest was not confined to horses and cattle, however. At various times he raised angora
goats at the Cowell Ranch, and experimented with raising exotic non-indigenous breeds of
animals such as elk and, even, buffalo. 65 Such was his love of animals that a 1912 magazine
article about a visit to the Cowell Ranch makes reference to the numerous animals there,
including "two fat little lambs [that] came around from the kitchen door," cats, dogs, peacocks,
black Minorca chickens, white turkeys, tame quail and, of course, horses. "And every step or
two you see another horse, one of the fine carriage horses, either taken out of a buggy or
harnessed into a buggy, or tethered for a bite of grass, or led for exercise; and all these finegrained, fine-strained horses are pets, and Mr. Cowell calls them all by name." 66
According to George Cardiff, S. H. had the finest racehorses in the state. "He had racehorses, all
kinds of racehorses. He sent his trainer back east and brought in a carload of horses that all had
records right up to two minutes, which at that time was fast. And one day we were up at the
races in Sacramento, and he was winning. 67 These horses he brought in, each one was winning
their races [sic] right along. I said, 'Gee, Mr. Cowell, it must be wonderful winning all these
races.' He said, 'George, there's absolutely no honor in it. Here I go...out and buy these horses
all trained, and they've all got their records, and I bring them here and they win. Now where is
12
�there any credit? If I raise a colt, and make it run, and get a record out of it and all that, there
would be some honor in it. But there is no honor in this.'" 68
S. H.'s feeling for nature extended to the land as well, and he stopped the annual burn-off of
brush that had taken place on the Cowell Ranch for many, many years to allow the land to
revert to its natural state. 69 He visited each of the Cowell family holdings on a regular basis,
and at each he had a saddlehorse kept for his own use so he could personally inspect the
land. 70
In addition to his concern about the land, S. H. was concerned about the welfare of his
employees. George Cardiff remembers that whenever S. H. visited the Cowell Ranch, he would
rise at 6:00 to have breakfast in the cookhouse with the men. 71 Adalbert Wolff, who worked as
timekeeper on the Cowell Ranch in 1915, substantiated the fact that the Cowell employees
were well-treated. "The food was wonderful, always ample and good," he recalls. And about
S.H. himself, Wolff said: "He treated his men fairly...everybody said that there was a feeling he
treated them well...I'm sure that if anybody had been hurt on the ranch, Mr. Cowell would have
taken care of him." 72
George Cardiff, too, had the highest praise for S. H. as an employer. "Mr. Cowell was a man that
was wonderful with his employees...he never let a man go. He lost money the last few years
(which didn't mean anything to him), but as he said, those old men had been at that all their life
[sic] and knew nothing else, and if he didn't keep that running, where would they go?" 73
S. H. was concerned with preserving other things as well. The nature and locus of the Cowell
family business had changed dramatically since the days when lime was brought down to
Cowell wharf by huge ox-teams. The wharf itself, unused after the railroad came through Santa
Cruz and replaced ocean hauling, had broken up in a storm years ago. The Cowell Warehouse,
too, was unused. In order to preserve in perpetuity the beach below the cliffs where the
warehouse stood, S. H. deeded what became known as Cowell Beach to the City of Santa Cruz
in such a way that it could never be sold.
Meanwhile, Isabella and Helen were living together in the Atherton mansion that Henry Cowell
had built many years before. They took annual trips to Europe, but little else is known about
their activities. News accounts suggest that Helen had bad luck with automobiles. In 1919, she
was sued by her gardener, who charged that the car she was driving collided with his
"machine." He was awarded $15,000. 74 Then in 1930, another news account indicates she was
hurt in an auto accident, although her chauffeur was unhurt. 75
Despite these setbacks, however, there was time for joint family philanthropy, as S. H., Isabella
and Helen built Blindcraft, which later became the San Francisco Association for the Blind, then
Lighthouse for the Blind in 1924. 76 This three-story reinforced concrete building still stands, at
the corner of Howard and Seventh Streets.
13
�Then, Helen died in 1932 at the age of 66. She left no will, so, as her only surviving kin, S. H. and
Isabella were clearly her heirs. Isabella ordered the supports of the Atherton house to be pulled
out from under it, so that the top half of the structure toppled over. Thus it sat for many years.
Isabella further ordered that a high wire fence be put up around the semi-demolished
house, 77 and she moved into the Cowell mansion in San Francisco, where she lived with S. H.
for the remaining 18 years of her life.
During this time, the Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company continued to prosper. Under the
umbrella of this parent company, several companies continued to do business, producing
products under the names of Mt. Diablo Cement and Cowell Santa Cruz Lime. Isabella served
with S. H. as a director of the company, and several reports exist that were prepared in
response to her queries about different aspects of the business, suggesting that she was
actively involved in management affairs. 78
In 1950, at the age of 92, Isabella died, leaving S. H. Cowell the only surviving heir to the Cowell
fortune. Isabella's will, holographic like her father's and Ernest's, was handwritten in 1934 on
lined notebook paper. In it, she made a number of bequests. She left a memorial to her sister in
the form of a bequest of one million dollars to build the Helen Cowell Children's Hospital in
Sacramento. 79 She left her jade and art collection to the M. H. deYoung Memorial Museum and
the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, and made one curious additional stipulation. She
ordered that the residence she shared with S. H. on Jackson Street in San Francisco be torn
down (as she had ordered the Atherton residence that she had shared with her sister
demolished 18 years before). The proceeds of the sale of the property were to be given to the
Old People's Home, located then on Pine Street. 80 S. H. liked the mansion too much to allow it
to be demolished, so instead he gave the dollar value of the property to the Old People's Home
to honor the intent of the bequest yet retain the home he had lived in for so many years. 81
Isabella's estate was valued at $5,529,451. 82
At the time of his sister's death, S. H. was 89 years old. He had already taken the steps
necessary to conserve the natural beauty of Cowell Beach, but there was more to be done.
George Cardiff remembered that S. H. wanted the redwoods on the Cowell property preserved.
Through a complex set of maneuvers with the County of Santa Cruz and the State of
California, 83 in 1953, on the San Lorenzo River near Felton, he created the Henry Cowell
Redwoods State Park in memory of his father. 84 Included in the 1,732 acre park are 40 acres
known as the Welch Big Tree Grove, which include one of the oldest and finest stands of
redwoods known to exist. 85
Then, in 1955, S. H. Cowell, last member of the Cowell family, died at the age of 93. His obituary
noted: "He had been bed-ridden since he broke his leg in a fall last November. Death was
attributed to pneumonia. He would have been 94 on Monday." 86
The will of S. H. Cowell, like that of his brother, Ernest, made bequests to long-time company
employees. But the most significant stipulation in the will was the provision for the creation of
14
�a foundation that would carry on the philanthropy practiced by his family during their lifetimes.
And so the S. H. Cowell Foundation was established.
Notes and Research Bibliography
Notes
1. Santa Cruz Sentinel, October 5, 1867.
2. Santa Cruz Sentinel, October 4, 1879.
3. Thomas Majors, "The Majors Family and Santa Cruz County Dairying." Transcript of an
interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano in 1967. (University of California, Santa Cruz,
McHenry Library, Special Collections.) "The Cowells were friendly to a certain extent, to some
people they knew, but otherwise they were kind of distant, you know, and reserved. They
picked friends, but not too many."
4. This is not only evident from the scanty record. Frank Blaisdell, in an interview with Elizabeth
Spedding Calciano, said: "The Cowells were opposed to having pictures taken or anything
recorded about them. They weren't friendly, you know, they weren't what you would call
mixers." Frank Blaisdell, "Santa Cruz in the Early 1900s." Transcript of interview conducted in
1967. (University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special Collections.)
5. Hittel, John S. Commerce and Industries of the Pacific Coast. (A. L. Bancroft and Company,
1882.)
6. All these figures are cited by Robert Glass Cleland in From Wilderness to Empire: A History of
California. (Alfred Knopf, New York, 1959.)
7. The San Francisco City Directory for 1852-3 states, "Some idea of the rapid march of the
country in those times may be formed from the fact that on a single day, the first of July [1848],
there arrived 17 vessels, with 889 passengers."
8. Birmingham, Stephen. California Rich. (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1980.)
9. All information about the Cowell ancestry is found in an unpublished study by Roger Barnes,
"The Cowells of Wrentham, Massachusetts." (Carmel, California, 1972.)
10. The Great Register of Santa Cruz County, 1875.
11. The San Francisco Directory for 1852 gives a listing for John Cowell and Company,
merchants, at 157 Sansome Street. Again, Henry is not listed by name. The 1854 Directory lists
Henry for the first time, and notes that he boards at 147 Sansome, just down the street from
John. (Their cousin, Benjamin Cowell, Jr. is listed as living at 130 California Street, also nearby.)
By 1856, the business is listed as follows: "Cowell's Warehouse, John Cowell, proprietor, located
at the corner of Battery and Union Streets. Building and Wharf erected in 1853." Henry Cowell,
agent, is listed at Union on Telegraph Hill, and he is listed again, at 155 Sansome, the same
address given for John, although it is not clear whether this is an office or residence. By 1858,
however, things have altered dramatically. John is not listed, nor is Cowell's Warehouse. Now
the listing reads "Henry Cowell, storage and commission, corner Union and Battery, office 155
Sansome." His residence is given as Union near Montgomery Street.
12. San Francisco Directory for the Year Commencing October, 1856.
13. Letter in the files of the S. H. Cowell Foundation office.
15
�14. San Francisco Alta, December 2, 1854. Who's Who in California 1928-1929 gives the date of
the marriage as 1851. This is almost certainly incorrect.
15. Records at Sutro Library in San Francisco indicate Roland Cowell was buried on August 7,
1858, aged 1 year, 4 months and 14 days, in Lone Mountain Cemetery, Grave 11, Tier 5,
Children's flat.
16. Isabella's death certificate, on file at the S. H. Cowell Foundation office, gives Oakland as her
place of birth. Other sources suggest different places around the Bay Area that the family might
have been living at the time: Roland's burial place and a listing for Henry Cowell's business in
San Francisco are inconclusive; yet other sources, cited in Debra Morstein's "Remembrance of
Pogonip's Past," refer to the family living on a ranch in San Rafael, which was rumored to be the
first of what were to be Henry's extensive land holdings.
17. The entire account is found in History of Santa Cruz County with Biographical Sketches by
Edward Martin. (Los Angeles Historical Record Company, 1911.)
18. Ibid.
19. Oliver E. Bowen and Cliffton H. Gray, Jr., "Limestone and Dolomite Resources of California."
(California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 194, undated.)
20. Ibid.
21. Indeed, the letter from Benjamin Cowell quoted above, dated May 7, 1851, vividly describes
but one of these fires: "It was awful and terrific, beyond description, never has this continent
witnessed such a scene, over one thousand houses enveloped in flames at once, a perfect sea
of fire."
22. In 1882, John Hittel wrote of the Santa Cruz limerock: "The rock is a mountain limestone,
containing a large percentage of carbonate of lime, and yielding, when well calcinated, a
material excellent for the purpose of the mason and plasterer."
23. A contemporary painting of Cowell's Wharf in San Francisco, based on an old photograph,
hangs in the office of the S. H. Cowell Foundation.
24. It is known that John returned to Wrentham at some point during this period, purportedly
because of ill health. (Roger Barnes, "The Cowells of Wrentham.") The details of what actually
happened cannot be reconstructed, and the only source, the San Francisco Directory, raises
more questions than it answers. After John's name disappears from the Directory for 1858 and
1859, in 1860 John Cowell is listed as a boarder at the Tremont House. Is this the same John
Cowell? And is it the same J. G. Cowell who is listed in 1863 as a clerk with the Davis and Jordan
Company which Henry would join as co-owner within two years? The matter is not cleared up
by the 1865 Directory, which lists Henry Cowell, of Davis and Cowell Company at the corner of
Sansome and Jackson (the same address given in 1850 for John Cowell, merchant), and J. G.
Cowell, accountant with Davis and Cowell. Unsubstantiated sources suggest John was the
original contact with Jordan and Davis (notes by Elizabeth Calciano in the Cowell file in Special
Collections at McHenry Library at the University of California at Santa Cruz). This lends credence
to the suspicion that it was, indeed, John who was initially employed by Jordan and Davis after
leaving the drayage business in Henry's hands.
25. Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 15, 1865.
26. The date the Cowells left Santa Cruz to move back to San Francisco is given in most sources
as 1897. This date is substantiated by George H. Cardiff, long-time manager of the Cowell
Ranch. The possible source of confusion about this issue is a newspaper article in the Santa Cruz
16
�Sentinel News on November 8, 1953, which gives the date as 1879. It seems possible, even
probable, that this is a simple typographical error.
27. The San Francisco Directory after 1865 continues to list Davis and Cowell as having offices in
San Francisco, specializing in "Santa Cruz Lime." This is further substantiated by the
contemporary painting of Cowell's Wharf in San Francisco that hangs in the office of the S. H.
Cowell Foundation. It is based on a photograph with the date of 1866.
28. The farmhouse and many of the ranch's historic outbuildings still exist today as part of the
University of California's Santa Cruz campus, which was purchased from the S. H. Cowell
Foundation for a modest sum in 1961.
29. Very complete descriptions of the various operations are provided by George H. Cardiff in
his interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano.
30. Elizabeth Spedding Calciano, "Random Notes on the Cowell Family." (University of
California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special Collections, 1967.)
31. That incline, then called Lime Kiln Road, is the present-day Bay Street. The warehouse
occupied the site of the present-day Dream Inn. The company wharf was in active service until
the railroad came to Santa Cruz in 1876 (Leon Rowland). Thereafter, the wharf was neglected
for many years, and finally broke up in a storm on December 31, 1907.
32. Leon Rowland (Rowland Scrapbooks) and Ernest Otto (McHugh Scrapbooks).
33. Phil Francis, Beautiful Santa Cruz County: A Faithful Reproduction in Print and Photography
of its Climate, Capabilities and Beauties (1897). Another contemporary source, Master Hands in
the Affairs of the Pacific Coast (Western Historical Publishing Company, 1892), gives the
number employed as 150.
34. George Cardiff interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano.
35. Phil Francis, 1897.
36. Master Hands in the Affairs of the Pacific Coast, 1892.
37. Ibid.
38. Phil Francis, 1897.
39. The source of this information is an appraisal of S. H. Cowell Foundation properties dated
February 2, 1955.
40. This is supported by George Cardiff, who said Cowell bought land in pieces, "because he was
always picking up all the limerock he could."
41. Newspaper articles in Special Collections at the University of California at Santa Cruz give
the final grades for the Cowell children for the years, 1876, 1877, and, 1878. All were
consistently in the 90s. Bay View school still exists, although it no longer occupies the same
building as when the Cowell children attended.
42. McHugh Scrapbooks, Volume I.
43. Interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano. The observation is supported by Ernest Otto,
who agreed that the Cowell girls were very pretty, and added that they attracted the attention
of "many of the gay blades in town," but that Henry forbid any of them to pay calls on his
daughters. (McHugh Scrapbooks.)
44. Interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano.
45. McHugh Scrapbooks.
46. Ernest Otto describes this as a sight he witnessed repeatedly as a boy. Other sources refer
to it as well, possibly using him as an unidentified source.
17
�47. Interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano.
48. George Cardiff, and Adalbert Wolff, in particular.
49. Master Hands in the Affairs of the Pacific Coast. (1892).
50. San Francisco Chronicle, August 5, 1903. "D. Leigh Ingalsbe is said to be insane as a result of
a boundary line dispute dating back for several years, during all of which time bad blood had
existed between Henry Cowell and the Ingalsbes."
51. San Francisco Chronicle, May 15, 1903. "Miss Cowell was found lying face downward on a
pile of rocks. Tenderly she was carried to a place near a tree, the men doing all they could to
restore her. She died an hour later." The Chronicle gives as the cause of death a fractured skull
and broken neck.
52. Sarah's will specified that her estate be divided equally between her sisters, Isabella and
Helen, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, July 13, 1904.
53. San Francisco Call, August 5, 1903.
54. San Francisco Chronicle, August 25, 1903.
55. Santa Cruz Surf, April 26, 1906.
56. Santa Cruz Surf, December 19, 1906.
57. Portland cement (so-named because it has the same color as the natural stone quarried on
the Isle of Portland, a peninsula on the south coast of Great Britain), was invented in 1821. As a
cement mixture, it was superior to natural cement. However, the first portland cement factory
in America was not established until 1871, in Pennsylvania. At first portland cement
manufacturers developed their own formulas. In 1898, manufacturers used 91 different
formulas. Not until 1917 did the U.S. Bureau of Standards establish a standard formula for the
manufacture of portland cement. (World Book Encyclopedia, 1988.)
58. San Francisco Chronicle, April 18, 1911.
59. San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 1912. The list of expenses Mrs. Cowell provided for the
court sheds light on her lifestyle: $450 per month for rent at the Fairmont; $100 per month for
the services of a nurse; $10 per day for her own meals; $5 per day for the nurse's meals; $600
per month for her automobile; $250 per month for doctor's bills.
60. San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 1911.
61. San Francisco Chronicle, February 7, 1915.
62. San Francisco Chronicle, December 18, 1817.
63. All details about the will are listed in the San Francisco Chronicle, April 18, 1911. Details
about subsequent suits are found in San Francisco Chronicle articles dating from 1911 to 1917.
64. George Cardiff interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano.
65. San Francisco Chronicle, December 2, 1930. A news article states that 15 buffalo arrived in
Santa Cruz by special car, from Gardiner, Montana, at the entrance to Yellowstone. They were
turned loose to range in a 60-acre paddock on the Ranch.
66. Josephine McCrackin, "The Home Ranch of the Cowells," Overland Monthly, July, 1912.
67. Conceivably, this was on or near the date of July 3, 1928, when the Sacramento Bee notes S.
H. had two winners, Crawford, the champion trotter of the Pacific Coast and Bobby O,
champion pacer of California.
68. George Cardiff interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano.
69. Ibid.
70. Santa Cruz Sentinel News, November 8, 1953.
18
�71. George Cardiff interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano.
72. Adalbert Wolff interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano.
73. George Cardiff interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano. He is referring to the fact that S.
H. continued to provide room and board for Cowell Ranch employees long after the production
of lime had stopped there. In fact, these workers were provided for until their deaths.
74. San Francisco Chronicle, October 1, 1919. The headline reads "Society Girl Sued for Auto
Accident." She was 53 at the time.
75. San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 1930.
76. Records on file in the office of the S. H. Cowell Foundation in San Francisco.
77. San Francisco Examiner, May 9, 1948.
78. Records on file in the office of the S. H. Cowell Foundation in San Francisco.
79. The bequest was insufficient for the purpose, but with the help of a $1,500,000 grant from
the S. H. Cowell Foundation several years later, it became the Helen Cowell Children's Center of
the Sacramento Children's Home. The Center is a 20-bed residential facility for emotionally
disturbed children.
80. San Francisco Chronicle, May 12, 1950.
81. San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1955.
82. San Francisco Chronicle, April 19, 1951.
83. According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel News, November 8, 1953, S. H. proposed to turn over
1,612 acres of his land in San Lorenzo Valley to the state for a park if the county would add the
Big Trees property which had previously been donated to the county by its owner, Joseph
Warren Welch.
84. The same article notes that, according to S. H., it was the wish of his father, Henry Cowell,
"to see such a park be set aside for public use."
85. California State Parks brochure.
86. San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1955.
Research Bibliography
Quotations from the following volumes are used with the permission of the University
Librarian, University of California, Santa Cruz, according to agreements between the
interviewees and the Regents of the University of California:
George H. Cardiff, "Santa Cruz and the Cowell Ranch, 1890-1964."
Thomas Earl Majors, "The Majors Family and Santa Cruz County Dairying."
Adalbert Wolff, "The Cowell Ranch, 1915."
Barnes, Roger.
"The Cowells of Wrentham." (Unpublished, Carmel, California, 1972.) University of
California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special Collections.
Birmingham, Stephen.
California Rich. (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1980.)
19
�Blaisdell, Frank.
"Santa Cruz in the early 1900s." Transcript of interview conducted by Elizabeth Spedding
Calciano in 1967. University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special
Collections.
Blue and Gold, Volumes IV, V, VI.
(University of California, Berkeley.) Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
Bowen, Oliver E. and Cliffton H. Gray, Jr.
"Limestone and Dolomite Resources of California," California Division of Mines and
Geology, Bulletin 194 (Undated.)
Calciano, Elizabeth Spedding.
"Random Notes on the Cowell Family." (Unpublished, dated 1967.) University of
California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special Collections.
Cardiff, George H.
"Santa Cruz and the Cowell Ranch, 1890-1964." Transcript of interview with Elizabeth
Spedding Calciano conducted in 1967. University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry
Library, Special Collections.
Robert Glass Cleland.
From Wilderness to Empire: A History of California. (Alfred Knopf, New York, 1959.)
Dong, John.
"The Cowell Ranch Cookhouse." Transcript of interview with Elizabeth Spedding
Calciano conducted in 1965. University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library
Special Collections.
Elliot, A. W.
"Cowell Scholars; A History of the E. V. Cowell Scholarship Fund, 1907-1963."
Questionnaires completed by graduates of Santa Cruz High School who were recipients
of scholarships, with photocopies of letters.
Francis, Phil.
Beautiful Santa Cruz County: A Faithful Reproduction in Print and Photography of its
Climate, Capabilities and Beauties (1897). University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry
Library, Special Collections.
The Great Register of 1872, Santa Cruz County, California.
The Great Register of 1875, Santa Cruz County, California.
The Great Register of 1892, Santa Cruz County, California.
The Great Register of 1896, Santa Cruz County, California.
Hittel, John S.
Commerce and Industries of the Pacific Coast. (A. L. Bancroft and Company Publishers,
San Francisco, 1882.) University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special
Collections.
Hubbard, Henry G.
"Mines and Mineral Resources of Santa Cruz County," California Journal of Mines and
Geology, January 1943, Volume 39, No. 1. University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry
Library, Special Collections.
20
�Majors, Thomas Earl.
"The Majors Family and Santa Cruz County Dairying." Transcript of interview conducted
by Elizabeth Spedding Calciano in 1967. University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry
Library, Special Collections.
Martin, Edward.
History of Santa Cruz County with Bibliographical Sketches. (Los Angeles Historical
Record Company, Los Angeles, 1911.) University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry
Library, Special Collections.
Master Hands in the Affairs of the Pacific Coast.
(Western Historical Publishing Company, 1892.) University of California, Santa Cruz,
McHenry Library, Special Collections.
McCrackin, Josephine J.
"The Home Ranch of the Cowells," Overland Monthly, July, 1912. No. 3, pp. 17-22.
University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special Collections.
McHugh, Tom.
"McHugh Scrapbooks," containing Ernest Otto's newspaper column, "Santa Cruz
Yesterdays," dating from the 1940s and 1950s. University of California, Santa Cruz,
McHenry Library, Special Collections.
Miscellaneous papers relating to the E. V. Cowell bequest.
File of the Office of the President, University of California at Berkeley Archives.
Morstein, Debra.
"Remembrance of Pogonip's Past; An Historical Overview," December, 1987. Office of
the S. H. Cowell Foundation.
Newspapers.
Pacific Sentinel
Sacramento Bee
San Francisco Alta
San Francisco Call
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Examiner
Santa Cruz County Times
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Santa Cruz Sentinel News
Santa Cruz Surf
Watsonville Pajaronian
Rolle, Andrew.
California: A History. (Harlan Davidson, 1963.)
Rowland, Leon.
"Rowland Scrapbooks," containing "News and Notes from the Santa Cruz Historical
Society," written by Leon Rowland, Secretary of the organization and sometime news
reporter. Scrapbook contains articles dated from 1937-1952. University of California,
Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special Collections.
San Francisco Directory, 1850 through 1869.
California Historical Society, and the San Francisco Public Library, Publications Room.
21
�Wagner, Fred.
"Blacksmithing and Life in the Santa Cruz Area, 1890-1930." Transcript of interview with
Elizabeth Spedding Calciano conducted in 1967. University of California, Santa Cruz,
McHenry Library, Special Collections.
Whiting, Russ.
"Patriarchy of the Cowells." Berkeley Daily Gazette/The Independent, February 1, 1969.
University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special Collections.
Willey, S. H.
"An Historical Paper Relating to Santa Cruz." 1876. University of California, Santa Cruz,
McHenry Library, Special Collections.
Wolff, Adalbert.
"The Cowell Ranch, 1915." Transcript of interview with Elizabeth Spedding Calciano,
conducted in 1967. University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library, Special
Collections.
Source
Text and photographs are from: Henry Cowell and His Family (1819--1955) published by the S.H.
Cowell Foundation, 1989. Used with the permission of the Foundation. The photograph of the
pack mules is from “The Home Ranch of the Cowells” by Josephine C. McCrackin, Overland
Monthly, July 1912.
It is the library’s intent to provide accurate information, however, it is not possible for the library
to completely verify the accuracy of all information. If you believe that factual statements in a
local history article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library.
22
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Santa Cruz History Articles
Description
An account of the resource
Original articles by library staff and by local authors and material from historical books.
Articles on Santa Cruz County history, many with illustrations, are available here.
The Santa Cruz Public Libraries is grateful to our local historians and their publishers for giving permission to include their articles. The content of the articles is the responsibility of the individual authors.
It is the library's intent to provide accurate information. However, it is not possible to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a variety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in an article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AR-204
Title
A name given to the resource
Henry Cowell and His Family (1819-1955)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Cowell Family
Cowell, Henry
Lime Industry
Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Co.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
MacDougall, Laurie
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Henry Cowell and His Family (1819--1955) published by the S.H. Cowell Foundation, 1989.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Cruz (County)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
En
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
ARTICLE
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Used with the permission of the S.H. Cowell Foundation.
Biography
Industries
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/619693b39cf22285c405a882ba003a15.pdf
3fc7d20d80994b6dcad40600140bbe74
PDF Text
Text
The Home Ranch of the Cowells
By Josephine Clifford McCrackin
[Editor’s Note: The N-word is used in this article as the name of a dog.]
The Gate through which we drove had been put up in 1854, and every pointed paling brought from San Francisco,
together with the posts supporting the arch which even now proclaims the grandeur of the place to which it led. Not
that it was at all picturesquely dilapidated, any more than was the house, which had been the home, those early years,
of Harry Cowell, one of the very largest of the large landholders of California throughout the State, who still had a
fondness for this, his country home, near Santa Cruz. The son now living, S. H. Cowell, spends about one-half his time
here, year in, year out, living in the same house, modernized only as far as necessary, but in the same state of
stupendous completeness as the entrance gate.
I had long wanted to see "the old Cowell place;" I had heard
so much of the gardens and the grounds and the ancient
Monterey Cypress there, but was always told that though I
might walk to the place, I should never be able to walk over
it, which I realized while driving over it in a very
comfortable carriage.
Any one familiar with the growth of trees in California can
imagine the size of the English walnuts forming the avenue
from the gate to the wide circle of Monterey cypress, and
the size of these latter trees. Those who have not seen
these cypress can never picture to themselves the great,
The Entrance to the residence on the Cowell home ranch.
straight trunks of the trees, about which fluted columns are
clustered that reach up into the branches, where these rise
tall and dark from the shaft. Nearer to the house, the cypress avenue opens upon a view of the building, one-storied,
dark red, with wide veranda and windows wide and deep. Roses, fifty years old; the Passion vine of Mission times; a
jessamine that has learned to climb by force of circumstances, all these droop and sway from the branches of locust, elm
and other New England trees that seem to hold house and garden in their shelter. And here is something else from New
England, a water-lily in the fountain basin, the particular Nymphaea that has the light pink fragrant blossom; and it came
from Wrentham, Massachusetts, from the old, old Cowell home, which still belongs to this conservative family. In the
center of this fountain basin, where ferns and foliage plants are always kept moist and cool by the drip and the spray, is
a most remarkable growth—a young Monterey cypress, which has seeded itself and is pushing its way up among a lot of
other things that were never planted, but grew there at their own sweet will.
1
�Though I was a complete stranger at the place, the dogs seemed to take me on trust. Wonder, the big water spaniel, and
Hector, a lovely satin-haired Irish setter, quite deaf and almost blind with age; but Nigger, the watch dog at the stable,
said: "How do I know but what you want some of our fine horses?" So I said: "Never mind, Nig.; here are lots of things to
welcome me."
For though I was greeted at the front door, two fat little lambs came around from the kitchen door; they were orphans,
and they never lost sight of each other; and a fat, black cat came, and a fat, short-tailed yellow cat, and pretty soon they
all lay down together, the nearest approach to the lion and the lamb, for Buffy may have been the descendant of a wild
cat.
Hector, the Irish setter, immediately took possession of the seat I had occupied in the buggy, and before it was fairly on
the way again he was fast asleep. In this way he drove all over the ranch, and to the farthest outposts at Felton, well
aware that he was carefully looked after and protected.
The day was fine; we were in no hurry to go in, and I was out to discover what I could. A peacock! The most magnificent,
proudest, most graceful bird I ever saw. Yes, graceful; no lady could have managed her six-yard-long train better, and his
train must have been fully that length, and of the most gorgeous, green-gold shimmering colors that ever were, with a
neck and breast of the rarest blue under the heavens. How I did want to see his tail spread! It was said that the vain bird
would go into a trance when he spread his tail and you held a looking glass before him. Yet you could not help but
respect the bird for his domestic habits; he sleeps every night on the same locust tree, a main stem bending clear over
like a branch, and the places of his wife and the four pea-chicks are beside him, rain or moonshine. Their daytime
residence is in the orchard, where there is most always bloom of some kind among the trees, oranges, almonds, lemons,
cherries, peaches, olives, quince and pears.
But they are not the only residents there, gold pheasants, silver pheasants, Japanese importations, beautiful black
Minorca chickens, white turkeys, young and old, numberless wild birds, robins, larks, anything that will feed with the
chickens; though the flock of tame quail generally feed with the pigeons in the other corral, where the trout basin is
situated. And every step or two you see another horse, one of the fine carriage horses, either taken out of a buggy or
harnessed into a buggy, or tethered for a bite of grass, or led for exercise; and all these fine-grained, fine-strained horses
are pets, and Mr. Cowell calls them all by name.
I had seen so much of this part of the ranch that while we were taking lunch in front of the open fire-place, above which
a niche is let into the wall higher up, I ventured to make a suggestion to Mr. Cowell. I said: "The interior of your house,
or this part of it, is in Mission tints; that niche is certainly a reminder of Mission days; then why not take down the large
vase and put a small statue in place of it, the statue of some saint, of course."
At the time I had Saint Francis in my mind, who called the birds his little brothers of the air; but when I had seen the rest
of the ranch, or a greater portion of it, I came to the conclusion it should be Saint Anthony, for he takes care of beasts as
well as birds; and though Mr. Cowell is not a saint, nor even a Catholic, he said, simply: "Every living creature wants a
home;" and every living creature for miles around drifts to that ranch for food and shelter, whether wild or tame.
Before leaving the house for our drive, Mr. Cowell laid before me a book, day-book or entry-book, I believe it is called, in
clean, clear handwriting, his father's, and he turned to the day and month we were writing, but it was in 1860.
Beautiful though the ranch is with its long stretches of green fields and meadows, its hill plateaux covered with great,
spreading live-oaks, its mountain sides o'ertopped with redwoods, its glens and canyons filled with laurel and madrone,
ever and again there rises a sheer, threatening wall of rock suddenly from out among waving trees and gurgling springs,
or a deep fissure drops suddenly hundreds of feet beside the road you are passing over. This, strange to say, is where
the lime rock was taken out in years gone by, and if you keep your eyes open, you will see some of the ancient lime kilns,
more picturesque now than while the fires were hot in them, for redwood and madrones now grow from their top.
2
�To be sure, there are still lime-kilns of that kind on this vast estate; but I knew there was quite a modern institution at
their Rincon kiln, where oil is burned, and this Mr. Cowell had promised to show us at the end of our drive. But there are
so many things new to me: the factories, mills, blacksmith shops, on the place; the vegetable gardens for the three
hundred odd men to be fed from; the abattoir, the corrals, the pastures; the dams with their colts; the cows with their
calves; the sheep in care of their herder; and one band without herder, the fat porkers ready for the oven.
Then come the heavy teams meeting us, enormous, heavy horses, six of them always, all bred on the ranch drawing
enormous loads. I know these well; many a word of praise had their drivers had from me, an officer of the Humane
Society, on the streets of Santa Cruz, though I did not know Cowell was the owner. Mule teams, too, and pack-mules,
sleek and fat, and working hard.
Across, on a rising hillside, a glistening snow seems spread.
"Fred Swanton's lawn-mowers," I am told; the flock of
Angora goats that keep the grass down on the new Casa del
Rey Golf Links, at the Country Club home.
But it is not this I am looking at; oh, no. The golf grounds lie
away down at our feet, though it is said there is a superb
view even from there. What, then, must it be from here, so
many hundred feet higher that the golfers below look like
ants, and the golf links like a child's play-ground. All this
below is of the Cowell land, too; but the most sublime point
is this, where the carriage stops. I thought I had seen all of
Photo of grazing Angora goats
Santa Cruz, separately and in one, on different occasions,
but I see it now for the first time as a whole. Now, really, I
don't want to boast of Santa Cruz because it is my home, but only because it is truly a grand sight. A large, widespread,
picturesque city, white, with strips of green forest in its outskirts, and the broad, blue, sun-smiling ocean enfolding it, till
the green hills and the dark blue mountains of the Santa Cruz Range, come down to the Bay of Monterey in the east, to
hold the City of the Holy Cross in their embrace.
Then we drive on, for miles, it seems to me, to Rincon, quite a village of workmen's houses with the boarding house in
the center, across the track from the formidable-looking plant of tank houses, oil reservoirs, and I don't know what-all
on this side of the railroad track. I heard the noises long before we got here, but I said nothing: I only tried to think,
"Who's afraid?" Then we enter this most modern-constructed of kilns, and all sorts of blazing, super-heated, red-hot
wonders pass before my bewildered eyes.
"Now, we'll go above," says Mr. Cowell, holding out his hand to help me up a sort of iron staircase, no doubt quite safe
to mount.
But I shrink back. "N-n-no, th-thank you, not to-day," I quaver; "I'm a little nervous."
"Oh, you're afraid," he says, quite dispassionately. "Very well, you can look at it from a distance."
And another ton of lime rock being dumped into one of the cylinders above, with the rush and the crash of an
earthquake, just then, I get down and out as quickly as I know how.
Then moving away to a convenient distance from this modern imitation of a—we will say Biblical place of eternal
punishment, I sum up my impression of this wonder of our century in the words: "A Hades in three stories; and since I
have been through a part of it myself, I mean to be very careful after this how I consign my worst enemy to eternal
torment in that hottest of all places."
3
�Sources
This article, with photographs, was published in Overland Monthly, July, 1912, pp. 17-23.
The content of this article is the responsibility of the individual author. It is the Library's intent to provide accurate local history
information. However, it is not possible for the Library to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a
variety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in a local history article are incorrect and can provide documentation,
please contact the Webmaster.
4
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Santa Cruz History Articles
Description
An account of the resource
Original articles by library staff and by local authors and material from historical books.
Articles on Santa Cruz County history, many with illustrations, are available here.
The Santa Cruz Public Libraries is grateful to our local historians and their publishers for giving permission to include their articles. The content of the articles is the responsibility of the individual authors.
It is the library's intent to provide accurate information. However, it is not possible to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a variety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in an article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AR-021
Title
A name given to the resource
The Home Ranch of the Cowells
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
McCrackin, Josephine Clifford
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This article, with photographs, was published in <i>Overland Monthly</i>, July, 1912, pp. 17-23.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1912-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
En
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
ARTICLE
Subject
The topic of the resource
Cowell Ranch
Cowell, Henry
Cowell, S.H.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Cruz (County)
1910s
Biography
Homes
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PAPER
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CF-48407
Title
A name given to the resource
New Visitor's Center opens at Henry Cowell State Park
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1984-09-14
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<i>Santa Cruz Sentinel</i>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Parks and Beaches
Cowell, Henry
Parks and Beaches-State
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1980s
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
NEWS
DOCUMENT
Clipping branch location: Downtown
Clipping filed under: Parks and Beaches
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/95612a85195f9fb703a932e4f7fd45ab.PDF
577ca2767cf48232cdf7aa7fa041ec1e
PDF Text
Text
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PAPER
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CF-34489
Title
A name given to the resource
Trustees Select Cowell Land For New School Site
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1959-08-25
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<i>Santa Cruz Sentinel</i>
Subject
The topic of the resource
West Lake School
Cowell, Henry
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
NEWS
DOCUMENT
Clipping branch location: Downtown
Clipping filed under: West Lake School
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/7e27cf7dc05995b4458e2997e09a39dd.PDF
70c3c3be2d0eeb3f3f94a0405b0ada8c
PDF Text
Text
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PAPER
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CF-22364
Title
A name given to the resource
Rustic old relics of past lend grace & beauty to UCSC
Description
An account of the resource
Photos of historic Cowell Ranch buildings.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1967-04-19
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<i>Central County News</i>
Subject
The topic of the resource
UCSC-History
Cowell, Henry
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1960s
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
NEWS
DOCUMENT
Clipping branch location: Downtown
Clipping filed under: UCSC-History
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PAPER
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CF-22340
Title
A name given to the resource
Rustic old relics of Cowell Ranch lend grace & beauty to Santa Cruz campus
Description
An account of the resource
Photos of ranch buildings. Source published in Aptos.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1966-04-19
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<i>Central County News</i>
Subject
The topic of the resource
UCSC-History
Cowell, Henry
UCSC-Crown College
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1960s
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
NEWS
DOCUMENT
Clipping branch location: Downtown
Clipping filed under: UCSC-History
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/6f6315b97541a270482d788e517e9faa.PDF
3ef9d1610b69b9ea92d5395d10ab1148
PDF Text
Text
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PAPER
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CF-22227
Title
A name given to the resource
Regional History Project, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz
Description
An account of the resource
Catalog of manuscripts.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Calciano, Elizabeth Spedding
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
0000-00-00
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<i>University of California, Santa Cruz</i>
Subject
The topic of the resource
UCSC
History
Cowell, Henry
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Undated
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
NEWS
DOCUMENT
Clipping branch location: Downtown
Clipping filed under: UCSC
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/c6eec2ecd258525588627d4e8cb1ef8e.PDF
3cd7ecb496436653e37d73b8b33c44c0
PDF Text
Text
����
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PAPER
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CF-22223
Title
A name given to the resource
Cowell Ranch: Preserving the Past For Present-Day use
Description
An account of the resource
Historical and modern photos. 2 copies
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pierce, Nona P.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1984-08-01
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<i>Coastal Homes Magazine</i>
Subject
The topic of the resource
UCSC-History
Cowell, Henry
Lime Kilns
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1980s
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
NEWS
DOCUMENT
Clipping branch location: Downtown
Clipping filed under: UCSC-History
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/aa81eb8474c77dc907cec3c2142889bc.PDF
61a09dbb2f2d45d6eeb717ac14024236
PDF Text
Text
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PAPER
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CF-22217
Title
A name given to the resource
Impact of UC Plans on a Quiet City: Santa Cruz Sees Change
Description
An account of the resource
Photos.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bodovitz, Joseph
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1960-12-26
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<i>San Francisco Examiner</i>
Subject
The topic of the resource
UCSC-History
Cowell, Henry
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1960s
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
NEWS
DOCUMENT
Clipping branch location: Downtown
Clipping filed under: UCSC-History
-
https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/df13b17154e830ad967dec55b8506b45.PDF
140efe86649e9e38dd307090c63bad00
PDF Text
Text
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Local News Index
Description
An account of the resource
An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.
It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel</em>, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.<br /><br />Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.<br /><br /> In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from <em>The Mountain Echo.</em> The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see <a href="https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/134957#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0">The Mountain Echo</a>.
Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/">Ask Us.<br /><br /></a>
<p></p>
While there is some overlap between this index and <a href="https://www.santacruzpl.org/historic_newspaper_index/">the Historic Newspaper Index</a><a> (approximately 1856-1960), they are different databases and are searched separately.</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
PAPER
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CF-19500
Title
A name given to the resource
The UCSC Cook House... And the Way it Looks Today
Description
An account of the resource
Photos by Vester Dick. On reverse: She Has No Quarrel With Progress [demolition of Nelson house on Soquel Dr.]; New Art Form [artist Steven Desmond].
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Koch, Margaret
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-02-21
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<i>Santa Cruz Sentinel</i>
Subject
The topic of the resource
UCSC-History
Cowell, Henry
Lime Kilns
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1960s
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
EN
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
NEWS
DOCUMENT
Clipping branch location: Downtown
Clipping filed under: UCSC-History