This is gold, thank you! Is this archive publicly available? Did you have to trawl through microfiche to find it?
No microfiche on this one, some others I’ve had to, it’s not the best. I have many more pages I can share too if you’re interested, I was mostly interested in pulling items related to the Jarvis’s but also ended up setting aside a decent amount for potential future episodes for the Mel’s, McMullin, Fitch, Kloss etc. These pages were the more meaty ones with lots of info. The CDNC was among the best sources for this episode because the Santa Cruz Sentinel is digitized and searchable there. Different versions of it do show up as different papers fyi. You can find lot’s of land transfers in the paper but also general info about this new wine industry springing up in Vine Hill. They really do describe the vineyards in good detail most of the time. I’d love to see what you continue to come up with also!
On the link I sent there is a newspaper starting in “0160”. That’s an article from 1870 and mentions that in only 6 years the vineyards had been carved out gigantic forests. To me that seems like 1863 really is the likely start by them on Vine Hill. That Vineyard would go on to become Fontenay.
There’s a nice sniglet hidden deep in the papers where it says “The vineyard set out by G. M. Jarvis is owned by H. Mel. It is the largest on Vine Hill, containing thirty-seven acres.” - that was John’s block, not George’s. I think George actually managed to buy 480 acres initially through John and also William Williams. John then bought Branciforte Creek previously owned by Morgan (and pretty much guaranteed to have been an entirely separate original transaction due to its nature) and then Union.
George actively advertised buying and selling vineyard land with guaranteed clear titles so there probably is some truth there. Whether he was active in the original purchase or bought up lots as others didn’t want them or some other way. It is almost humorous to see the ads he had in the papers because he is selling everything you can think of. I think Morgan died prematurely, unless that were multiple Morgans in the area. At least 2 of John’s other vintner friends died or were seriously injured in stage crashes on the treacherous roads.
I went to the Santa Cruz records office today and had fun pulling a few deeds. I think I now know the story of Union with 95% confidence.
Some time in or before 1868: Jacob Ahlgren borrows $1,000 from Blochman & Cerf at the usurial rate of 1.5% per month presumably secured by land in Section 10 which he settled but does not yet own. I don’t have this documented, but we learn it later.
Dec 21, 1868 Ahlgren sells land at W½ SW¼ Section 10 (80 acres) to George Morris, Joseph Enos & William Howard for $1,300 - I have this deed.
Ahlgren’s patent comes through on December 2, 1870, the prior sale transfers it to Morris et al, so now everything is legal and above board. Right? Welll…
Feb 4, 1871 Morris & Enos sell the same land to John C. Morgan for just $5 - I have this deed.
Clearly this indicates some kind of encumbered title or structured transfer
July 1872 Blochman & Cerf file a foreclosure lawsuit against Ahlgren, Morris, Enos, and Morgan for the $1000 plus interest. This appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel (3 separate instertions) - available online.
Morgan resolves the title. this is inferred but required; he has to satisfy or settle the mortgage otherwise he cannot later sell the clean parcel. I don’t have the documentation, but it’s logically necessary.
May 10, 1873 John C. Morgan sells to Walter J. Lay a property 7.63 acres (metes & bounds) located inside SW¼ Section 10 for $100 - overlapping the modern day Union vineyard. (I found this deed)
March 10 1875 Lay’s patent is granted for 160 acres which ever so slightly overlaps the land he already owned. Fun fact: Lay doesn’t actually buy the land, it’s granted due to an Arkansas Land Scrip that he owns. That’s a completely different rabbit hole. (Patent at BLM online)
February 1877: Walter sells his land to (I think it’s his brother) Albert for $3500 in gold (I found the deed)
Albert immediately turns around and sells “undivided one half” of the property (ie 50% ownership) to John Jarvis for $4,000 in gold. (Yep I have the deed)
In 1878 Morgan acquires the patent to 160 acres to the west of his holding via a bounty land warrant awarded to Cornelius McLaurin
So in Feb 1877 John Jarvis acquired a 50% stake in what is now part of the Union Vineyard.
Receipts are here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YpVTInxJGf2yN0FlCu1HlUgUGp1u2bN4&usp=drive_fs
That’s great! Thanks for doing that legwork. There are so many tangles in the story of the early Santa Cruz wineries and vineyards. The story of this vineyard being planted so early by John has always been ridiculous, hopefully at some point more people start printing the truth about it. I love the descriptions in the papers of the writers making their way up to the vineyard.
One other thing I found - looks like Barker took a loan of $1850 against his parcel while in Arizona in 1879.
The wife Almira stayed in Santa Cruz. So perhaps she was managing the land, but more likely someone else was farming it for them - maybe not Jarvis, more likely someone who didn’t own land of their own, like Albert Riley.
Here is a little I have about what I think is ta mention of Morgan possibly growing grapes. But -there is also a John W Morgan I have info on who was very prominent early settler it seems, in later days he lived near Pajaro but had been in the county since 1860, so perhaps earlier in his life he was in the Vine Hill area and a James H Morgan - just to make it extra confusing and something to watch out for in your research. David Gharkey was the borther in law of John W Morgan I’ll see if I have any more from this Vine Hill area.“Samuel Morgan tells me that the first grapes here were planted on the Potrero, near the Indian reservation, northerly from the old Mission and west from what is now Kron’s tannery and within the present limits of Santa Cruz, by David Gharkey. They were Isabellas brought across the plains in 1852, by him and planted the next year and claimed by him to be the first Isabellas grown in California
The Orchard and vineyard industries in the middle and northern parts of the county made but slight advancement prior to 1880, most of the plantings being for family use, or at most a few acres.
Some of the more prominent early growers in the above- named districts aside from those already mentioned were: J. Parrish, A. A. Hecox, H. Daubenbiss, V. Humphrey, J. Morgan, B. Pilkington, H. Morrell, Taylor, Burrill, Curtis, Schultheis and C. McKernan.”
I’ll look through other docs to see if I have more, there is alot of infor about JW Morgan if you believe he might be a relative to the JC Morgan.
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My starting coordinates were off, here’s the corrected locations of the Ahlgren and Lay parcels.
I’m pretty certain that this is accurate to a few feet
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Next week I’ll go back to the records office and try to tie things down further. Frankly I got pretty lucky first time out.
Yeah some days are better than others when out researching things like this and digging through old papers and Microfiche. It’s unfortunate the area doesn’t have a wine library, they can be a huge help. I’ll keep looking through what I have also.
If you haven’t already, try contacting local archivists - they’re usually super helpful and know exactly where the obscure land records and maps are hiding.
In the Santa Cruz Sentinel I found a foreclosure notice / sheriff’s sale: Odd Fellows’ Savings Bank vs. Albert Riley and Ann Riley with a decree of foreclosure and order of sale.
In the text the sheriff described the property he’s ordered to sell to satisfy the debt "being the same land and premises conveyed by Albert Riley to Ann Riley by deed dated July … 1878…”
From the foreclosure notice, the judgment against Albert Riley and Ann Riley was: $1,694.48 — principal + interest plus $42 court costs
I reconstructed the plot best as I could according to the description. It lies wholly within the William Williams and John C Morgan patents, and borders Jarvis Road/Branciforte Creek/Blackburn Gulch, encompassing the modern day Branciforte Creek vineyard.
Wow great work. That newspaper is such a valuable resource, so many great things hiding in there.
Albert was an unlucky guy. He spotted the potential of Branciforte Creek for vineyards in the early 1860s and began homesteading it. By 1870 he had 10 acres of vines producing. Unfortunately, and probably unbeknownst to him, the 200 acre plot he was farming had been claimed by the Southern Pacific RailRoad company, as a swap for other land they owned. They claimed it in July 1866, renewed their claims in 1868 and 1870 and finally released it in 1873. George Jarvis grabbed one 40 acre parcel, the other 160 acres went to John C Morgan, a property speculator it seems, who acquired it by means of a Soldier’s Land Warrant that he’d purchased from one Cornelius McLaurin. Riley continued to farm the land and grow grapes, I still need to determine exactly when he purchased the land from Williams and Morgan. By 1878 he was in financial difficulty - he tried to transfer the property to his wife’s name but that didn’t work, the land was seized and sold. I’m assuming it was bought at auction by John Jarvis.
So next time I go to the recorder’s office I’ll try to get the receipts for that.
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August 19th 1865:
“We are indebted to John Nutter for sample clusters of fine Grapes, raised in his vineyard, near the San Jose road, eight miles east from Santa Cruz.”
So Nutter probably planted in 1860-61. Interestingly he put his farm up for sale in 1867, before the land was patented.
Nutter sold his farm to Henry Place some time 1867-1870
Both Scott and Nutter were on Vine Hill Road somewhere, either on the State of California land, or where John Rodgers patent lies (or possibly but less likely inside Rancho San Agustin)
Lots more to dig into here. I found an article from 1864 makes it clear that Nutter had vines planted in 1861 that were producing by fall of 1863. It implies that Jarvis’s vineyards are not yet producing.
1967:
John Nutter, Esq., has about seven acres of vineyard, about three-quarters of which are bearing. Rev. C. N. West has about seven acres, about two bearing. Wilson & Murphy have about two acres. Wm. Williams, Esq., has ten acres, about three acres bearing. Messrs. Lays have about eight acres. Messrs. Johnson & Taylor have about five acres growing vines. John W. Jarvis has twenty acres of vineyard, and I have twenty odd acres besides the piece of five or six acres I offer for sale; so you see our neighborhood contains about eighty-four acres of vineyard.
1964:
In the Mountains
“We do not write what follows for the purpose of illustrating the ego, but to invite attention to the vast mountain region of this county, the beauty, the value and the resources—even the chorography—of which is so imperfectly known.
We turned from the San Jose road into that leading to the Blackburn creek. The road after reaching the creek winds up its valley. On this creek, a pure, cold stream of crystal water about four miles from town, is the old McPherson saw-mill. It has the dilapidated appearance of having seen better days. The timber in its immediate vicinity has been pretty well appropriated. About a mile further up is the saw-mill of Button & Warner. These premises indicate energy and prosperity. The mill is in perfect order. New buildings have been erected. The sleek cattle feed on the abundant pasture. Huge saw-logs are scattered about. One redwood Titan, not yet sawed into sections, lay prone, extending many a rood.
The scenery grows more interesting as you advance up the valley; it now assumes a rural beauty and magnificence that cannot be surpassed. Not to speak of the contour of the hills, the vegetable profusion is really wonderful. It is three-storied. Hundreds of feet above your head the giant redwoods and firs stretch out their arms toward each other; beneath, the tidy madrone, the living green of the buckeye, the wild honeysuckle with its wealth of white plumes and the modest cerulean blue of the ceanothus is intermingled; beneath these is a luxuriance of wild flowers—the whole forming one continuous parterre. From the banks the long ferns wave their feathery fronds in your very face. The crimson and gold of the columbine is contrasted with the pale fleur-de-li- s. The dark trilium waves over the violet. The very grass is floral.
The road at length becomes a mere trail. As you leave the creek you leave also the region of flowers. Over the hills, through grease-wood and manzanita, we followed the trails. Here are the haunts of the grizzly; we noticed further down a trap for these animals, formed of logs, which by no means seemed alluring to us, but it may possibly be sufficiently so to entice a grizzly bear.
Far up among the hills is the mountain ranch of Messrs. George and John Jarvis. With these friends we partook of a bountiful dinner. Their ranch extends over hundreds of acres. There will be no necessity for primogeniture in their generation nor that of their children. The situation of their dwelling is upon a plateau from which you have one of the grandest prospects upon this planet. You look down over a succession of green hills to the blue waters of the Bay of Monterey, eight miles distant. The hills seem to you like hieroglyphics on the temple of the Almighty. It were as if God had stretched down his arm, and with his finger written on the solid earth ‘magnificent,’ as the boy writes mottoes on the sea shore. You are at the head of the Blackburn creek. The hills terminate in this valley, and here lap over each other like the leaves of the iris. At your feet are the springs which are the sources of the creek which thence winds toward the bay around the ends of the hills thus lapped together. On this ranch are two fine, young vineyards.
About a mile from Jarvis’, toward the southwest, is the ranch of Rev. C. N. West. Through this we passed on our return. Here is also a fine vineyard.
Adjacent is the ranch of John Nutter, Esq. Here is a model vineyard of about ten acres. This vineyard is only three years old, yet quantities of grapes, celebrated for size and flavor, were sold from it last Fall. This year Mr. Nutter will have several tons of grapes for market. It is not uncommon for cuttings to bear grapes the second year.
The mountains of Santa Cruz are quite different from the cold, rocky hills of the Eastern States. Hardly a stone can be found upon them. Their foundation rock is soft chalk into which the moisture and even the roots of vegetables penetrate. This rock is covered with a rich vegetable mould to a depth varying from zero to a hundred feet. They are elevated above the line of fogs which prevail upon the coast. Frost upon them is almost unknown; the days are hot, the nights cool, but mild and balmy. They seem to be especially adapted to the cultivation of the grape. The grapes hitherto grown upon them are far superior, both in size and quality, to those of the southern counties of California.
The ranches of which we have spoken, and all the ranches in the mountains, are situated upon plateaus or in valleys where there is level land for the cultivation of grain. It is not unlikely, however, that these level portions are the least valuable parts of the mountains. There is scarcely a hill among them that is not susceptible to the cultivation of the grape. In the Santa Cruz mountains are not less than a million acres of land pronounced by the United States Surveyors unfit for cultivation, belonging to nobody; yet it is not utopian to suppose that these mountains may, from their adaptability to grape culture, become the most valuable agricultural part of California, even as the hills of Attica were the most valuable portion of Greece.
From Nutter’s you have a pleasant road through forests of verdure, and meadows gemmed with cowslip gold and lupine amethyst to the Santa Cruz and San Jose road.”
There are a couple good articles like that which give you such a great overview and visualization of the area at the time. John Nutter was a lawyer by training and was the assistant DA for a time in Santa Cruz, he sold his farm and went back to Wisconsin from what I can tell. The area was still called Vineland when he put the vineyard up for sale, before the Vine Hill name took hold. There was also a confederate sympathizer named George Nutter in nearby Blackburns Gulch but he was from NY and likely unrelated.