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1.
Educate, support and
inspire youth in their appreciation of music and its power;
2.
Honor veterans both
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of heritage through the dissemination of information gathered through research;
4. Research and provide
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Seek for various
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Mission Peak: Silent Southbay Sentinel
The A. A. Moore
Rancho,
Peak Meadow
Ranch, and the
Moore, Starr
and McClure families of Mission Peak
Mission Peak, known to bygone
inhabitants under several different names, has been a silent witness to the
comings and goings of those who have gathered around her – aware of her presence
amidst their activities. While the Indians and the Spanish inhabitants had their
own experiences in this area, the focus of our effort begins after this area
became part of the state of California and fell under the authority of the
United States.
The eastern boundary of the Rancho de
Agua Caliente (owned by the Higuera family) ran down the middle of the small
valley just below the cliffs and the nearest rancho to the East was in the Sunol
valley, so the Peak, consequently, was never placed in one of the Spanish
ranchos. After California became a state, the government surveyed the areas
outside the Spanish land grants. Thomas W. Millard, a two-year resident of
nearby Centerville, bought a large portion of the Higuera Rancho and some
property on Mission Peak.
Thomas Millard had come from New York to
California in the fall of 1853, sailing by way of Nicaragua. His Mission Peak
land purchase took place in 1855, and he immediately built a home, a barn and a
carriage house. On this farm he and his wife, Caroline, had and raised five
children. Like the other children from the surrounding farms, they attended the
one-room school house that stood about one to two miles southeast of the Peak.
In 1856 he planted a vineyard on the fifty-acre area of the small valley below
the cliffs and engaged in general farming. In the 1890's, however, the grapes
were decimated in a blight that hit the area when a phylloxera infestation
killed many of the original vines. In 1870 he sold his part of the Higuera
Rancho to Edward J. Palmer. Artifacts left on the property by the Millard’s
(wagon wheels, hubs, bean pots, etc.) were given as gifts by a later owner to
friends that visited often. A few items have been passed down
to McClure family
members. A fire poker, a brick made by the Millard’s, a piece of china, a silver
pitcher, metal pieces from Mr. Millard’s blacksmith shop and a few other items
are interesting clues to the quality, independence and industriousness of the
early pioneers and farmers.
Many families bought property around
Mission Peak – some to farm and to raise families. Others purchased property as
an investment. One young boy worked as a thirteen and fourteen-year-old herding
sheep in the hills surrounding Mission Peak. Many times he was chased up trees
by grizzly bears. Later in life he wrote his memories, Genealogy and Recollections,
and had copies printed for his family. Here began his love
and appreciation for open space. As an eleven-year-old he came across the plains
from Illinois in a covered wagon with his father, William Whiteside Moore, and
many other family members. William had come alone to California by ox team in
1849. After successful mining during the gold rush of 1849, he returned to
Illinois. Upon disembarking in New Orleans, his erstwhile friend and partner
disappeared with both their gold bags. In the book Genealogy and Recollections, the author states, “Always carry your own sack.” In April
1853 the Moore family left their home, called “Belle Fontaine”, in the southern
tip of Illinois near Caskaskia and came west to find their fortune, again. This
young boy’s name was Albert Alfonso Moore and he would find his fortune.
After sheep herding young Albert then
turned cowboy and worked punching cattle with vaqueros on several Spanish ranchos. During this time he began learning about the history behind the
ranchos. At a very young age he had decided on Law as a profession and in 1866
became the first law student to be accepted into the Alameda County courts to
practice law. He was twenty four years old. Within five years he was purchasing
property in the Mission Peak area.
In 1880 A. A. Moore built his Victorian
home on the southeast corner of East 20th and 6th Avenue
in Clinton, now East Oakland, and by 1885 he had also purchased approximately
1,000 acres encompassing an area from the Alameda Creek up into the hills behind
Mission Peak to the old end of Mill Creek Road. He built a summer home,
outbuildings and a swimming pool. At first the “pool” was simply a big dirt
hole-in-the-ground – more a pond than a “pool”. This was then lined with
concrete. It was, of course, the center of the summer activities for the family
and their friends. This pool is said to be the oldest pool in Alameda County. A. A. Moore named this location after the home he left in Illinois, “Belle
Fontaine”. All of his children experienced life at this ranch, which in later
years, would come to be known as the Old, Old Ranch. A group of Chinese laborers
were brought in to work on the roads, and there was a Chinese cook.
This group of four photographs shows the
family with friends at “Belle Fontaine” during the summer of 1903. The top left
picture shows A. A. Moore with his daughter, Carmen Moore Starr, with her first child, (his first grandchild), Walter A. Starr Jr., who was called Peter. Peter
died in 1933 in a mountain climbing accident. The Chinese cook can be seen in
the bottom left picture.
Fearing that land would devalue after
the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, Moore sold this property to the Spring Valley Water Company. In later years this was bought by the San Francisco Water
Company who is the current owner. It is leased to the East Bay Regional Park
District and what is referred to on their hiking maps as “The Old Homestead” is
actually the site of “Belle Fontaine”. Within months after selling Belle
Fontaine, A. A. Moore began trying to buy it back, and continued that effort,
unsuccessfully, for twenty years.
There are two years which are generally thought of as focus years in
history in the United States – 1876 because of the 100th anniversary celebration of the establishment of
the government of the United States and 1900 because it was the turning of the
century. In 1876 each county in every state wrote a history about its founding
and the men and women who influenced their growth. By 1876 A. A. Moore had already been the District Attorney for Alameda County. His brother-in-law,
Samuel P. Hall, would have that same position several years later. The turn of
the nineteenth to the twentieth century was considered to herald the great
changes in industrialization and the cosmopolitan atmosphere that would spread
from the cities to the countryside. The great changes from rural America to
industrial America, from wagon to automobile, showed up not only in the nation
but in families as well.
This photograph above shows
A. A. Moore and his family in 1898, before any of his children married. It
was a time of family togetherness and great hope for the future. While not an
overtly religious man in attendance at any particular church, he was well read in the Bible and every Sunday evening the family would gather around a fire pit
in the gardens of the home in East Oakland. They would sing well known hymns of
the day and enjoy the company of family. He loved his family and did whatever he
could to enable them to live close by that he might enjoy his grandchildren.
This idea of the fire pit was
also carried on at the Rancho, at Peak Meadow Ranch, and beyond. The houses
built at the new rancho surrounded an area that originally was where the wagons
would turn around. In the picture to the left, through the right rear wagon
wheel, you can see the cement edge of the swimming pool. This was the second
swimming pool that A. A. Moore had built. The pool was an oval shape about 100
feet long and 50 feet wide. There was a slide at the deep end of the pool. A
rowboat was also used in the pool. The building in front of the horses is the
tack room, feed room and storage. To the left of the photographer, out of the
picture, is the main ranch residence, and behind the camera are several other
homes for the married children and their families.
This was the Rancho purchased
after the sale of the original 1,000 acres to the Spring Valley Water Company.
This rancho, known as the A. A. Moore Rancho and later by those at Peak Meadow
as the Old Ranch, comprised approximately 1,400 acres. Mill Creek Road ran
through the middle of it and ended at the center of the family homes. It went
from the end of Sheridan Road, over Mission Peak and down to where Ohlone
College is now. Cattle were run on the property and all the springs were used
for both the stock and the houses.
Life seemed to go smoothly
for Albert, Annie, and their six children. The two sons married. A. A. Moore Jr.
married Florence Blythe Musgrave and Stanley Moore married Marion Goodfellow.
Daughters Jacqueline married John Joseph Valentine Jr. of Wells Fargo Bank, Carmen
married Walter Augustus Starr, a cattleman, and Margaret married Donald McClure,
an attorney who became an Assistant District Attorney for Alameda County in 1930. Daughter Ethel Moore never married but
gave her efforts in pursuit of children’s issues and World War I Relief work
before she died in 1920.
Homes were built at the
Rancho to accommodate the new expanding families. While the Moore children grew
up in the city of Oakland and had nothing to want for, they were taught the
importance of open space and living in the country and all its necessary
exertions. This was passed on to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. To provide further enjoyment of the outdoors, A. A. Moore created an animal park
for his growing brood of grandchildren. He had elk, llama and buffalo in the
park. The buffalo in the Game
Park came from the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The bull and cow calves
had been purchased about 1910. It is uncertain where he got the llama and elk.
In approximately 1916 a hiker
was traveling the trails on the Rancho unaware that there was a game park in the
hills. He went around the bend of the trail he was on and came face to face with
the full grown bull buffalo. At the snorting and pawing of the ground by the
bull, the man turned tail and apparently ran the four to five miles down
the road to Solon’s Saloon in Mission San Jose. He figured the bull was on his
tail the entire way down, and he never looked back. He shared the tale of his
adventures with the listeners in the bar, one of whom happened to be Donald
McClure, who had stopped off from work for a beer on the way home to the Ranch.
Everyone at the Rancho had a hearty laugh that evening. The bull never made a
move to follow the man.
After years of grazing and
being treated almost like pets, the buffalo had become more cantankerous than
Moore realized. At one point the ranch hands complained about how difficult they
were. To show these men how easy it was to bring in the buffalo, Moore went out
one day on his own to find them. He proceeded to get chased up a tree at the age
of 75. He stayed there for several hours until the ranch hands came by and
rescued him. After that, the buffalo were shot and their heads mounted. The bull
hung over the fireplace in the main residence on the Rancho. The other head,
affectionately known as “Josephine”, ended up hanging in the Upper House at Peak
Meadow Ranch until 1960, when it was then hung in the ranch workshop at the end
of Mill Creek Road. Roan and Kandace McClure are pictured above at the Rancho
with the bull. The family is now in the 6th generation of descendants
who have enjoyed the Rancho.
Every year there was a family
outing to the Alameda Creek where A. A. Moore used to fish for salmon when the
creek used to run through the Rancho. After the creek was dammed in 1912, there
was no more fishing. But the family made an all day picnic out of it. Here is
Margaret Moore in her swimsuit in 1913 at the Alameda Creek family outing. These
outings took place every year until 1960.
After A. A. Moore’s death in
1928 and the dividing up of the Rancho lands among the family, these picnic
trips to the Alameda Creek continued. They required travel by both horseback and
vehicle because there were more people than available horses. The Peak Meadow
Ranch horses would be ridden by the McClures over to “The Old Ranch” to join the
Moore family. Both groups would ride the rest of the way to the Alameda: Those
who did not ride horseback over the hills, traveled in cars to the Creek. At the
end of the day’s activities, those who had ridden horses switched places with
those who had driven over so that everybody got a chance to ride. In 1959 as the
group was riding down the trail to the Alameda, Stuart McClure was in the lead.
As he passed some rocks on the side of the road, a large coiled snake starting
rattling. The horse jumped, Stuart drew the pistol he wore on his hip for just
such moments, shot the snake and the horse landed. It took just about that long.
Riding behind Stuart was his son, Roan A. McClure. That experience was
emblazoned into the mind of this 9 year old – never to be forgotten. While there
may have been some variation in the actual occurrence, that is a son’s memory of
his father. Experiences like these were weekly events when living at the ranch.
Because you lived there, things like this were bound to happen.
With the coming of World War
I, Donald McClure entered military service and left for overseas combat duty
from the Rancho. This same scenario would echo twice more in the Twentieth
Century as family members went to serve in the military and left for overseas
combat duty from the Ranch – Stuart McClure and several cousins during World War
II, and his son, Roan A. McClure for service in Vietnam. All three generations
returned to the much needed peace and serenity of the open spaces and family at
the ranch. A fourth generation, Roan McClure’s son Dallin, returned from Korea
after a year of Army duty in 2005 to spend a day at Peak Meadow Ranch, having
been invited there by East Bay Regional Park District personnel. It was a
fitting gift to a returning veteran, and one made more special by the family
connection. He had also brought
home a Russian-born wife. Here are two photos of Dallin and Mila.
From 1914 to 1920 three
family members preceded A. A. Moore in death. He placed an eighteen foot monument on
top of the peak, capped by both an electric light and an American flag, as a
memorial to those family members. His son, A. A. Moore Jr. died
in a car wreck in 1914; his wife, Jacqueline Anne Hall (Annie) Moore, died in
1919; and his daughter, Ethel Moore, died in 1920.
The monument was in the form of a large cone made of cement and local rock.
There were sections of galvanized pipe placed in the cement forming a ladder to
climb to the top and replace the bulb and hang the flag. The monument stood for
approximately 20 years (1920-1942). During WWII at the request of the government,
the family took down the monument, rolling the broken up granite base over the
cliffs toward Peak Meadow Ranch. Two granite pieces were taken, inscribed and
replaced on Mount Margaret, a promontory point north of the end of Mill Creek
Road, closer to the family homes. These remained there until about 1999, when
they were placed on the main Rancho property still owned by family members.
Mount Margaret had been sold out of the family.
If you have occasion to be at the top of
the peak, you can locate where the monument stood by the pipe shaft sticking out
of the ground. You will also find cemented areas around the shaft. That was the
base for the flagpole going up through the center of the monument.
During the drought in the 1970’s the
ground on the peak became very dusty and slippery. Trying to help a stranded kid
goat, Roan A. McClure, great-grandson of A. A. Moore, was on the Peak and began
slipping down the face between the cliff outcroppings. Clawing the dust covered
ground to get a hold on something that would halt his accelerating descent, Roan
happened to catch his right fore finger on a piece of rock sticking out of the
dust. It was enough to stop his slide and fall,
and allow him to get a foothold
to climb to safety. But something about that rock caught his attention. The
surface of the rock hidden from view, which his finger had touched, was polished
smooth. So, on the way to safety, Roan dug the double softball-sized rock out of
the dust and dirt. Upon discovering that is was a piece of the original
monument, he began looking around for other pieces. What he eventually found, in
the boulder-strewn area below the cliffs, was the main granite base of the
inscribed memorial. He rolled it into the Peak Meadow Ranch house enclosure in
1978 and returned twenty years later with David Frost and Dan Reasor to remove
the base in an effort to remake a new monument.
PEAK MEADOW
RANCH
Albert A. Moore purchased the 120 acres
that included the cliffs of Mission Peak that would later comprise Peak Meadow
Ranch in 1921. He owned the eastern adjoining property, including both sides of
Mill Creek Road from three 
miles up the road from Mission San Jose to six miles.
Upon the death of A. A. Moore in 1928, his land was divided between two
daughters, Carmen Moore Starr, whose son, Allan, eventually sold to the East Bay
Regional Park District, and Margaret Moore McClure, who owned the western face
of Mission Peak which included the 120 acres from approximately where the hang
gliders now take off north of Mission Peak to the single tree seen from below in
Fremont on the horizon at the south end of Mission Peak. This single tree
location was named Horse Heaven. This is where the horses were taken when they
were too old. They were put down so they wouldn’t suffer. One of the
EBRPD trails is named for this.
Peak Meadow Ranch sits atop Mission Peak
overlooking Fremont and the San Francisco Bay. When fog rolled in to cover the
bay area, many times McClure family members or their guests would step out of
the four residences, below the imposing cliffs, to view the top of the fog layer
covering the entire Bay and the surrounding cities. From this point of view,
Peak Meadow Ranch was an island in the middle of a cotton ocean, warmed by the
sun above and enveloped in the peace that salved the stresses from another
world. The property called Peak Meadow Ranch included the land from Horse Heaven
on the south (the single tree immediately to the right of the top of Mission
peak on the next ridge) to the Upper Gate (near the hang gliders launch site),
encompassing the Peak Meadow Valley under the cliffs of Mission Peak. The single
tree on the horizon can be spotted in many of the ranch photographs. The last of
the acquisitions of Albert Alfonso Moore to complete his rancho surrounding the
upper 3 miles of Mill Creek Road and all of Mission Peak, this property was
inherited by his youngest daughter, Margaret Moore McClure in 1928. When
Margaret and Donald McClure took over the property as theirs, it would be used
as a summer home. Their twelve-year-old son, Stuart Loring McClure, named the
place Peak Meadow Ranch.
An enthusiastic
hiker and adventurer, Stuart proceeded to explore his new domain. At the top of
the canyon where the head waters of the north branch of the Agua Caliente Creek
poured forth, Stuart found an old spur – what is called a second generation
conquistador spur. It is estimated to have been made between 1670 and 1690 in
Mexico. This has been displayed in the family homes for three generations. It
could have belonged to an ancestor of Fulgencio Higuera and may have been used
by Fulgencio when riding to check on the water source for his home that the
creek provided. The Higuera Adobe still stands below Mission Peak as another
witness to days gone by.
Link to another article about the discovery of the above spur.
“Five miles into the hills and a hundred
years into the past” described a visit to the Ranch. Without electrical power
the homes were lit by the sun during the day and kerosene lamps and candle
chandeliers by night. A large fireplace in the living room of the main house
kept it warm during the winter. An icebox, and later a gas refrigerator, kept
the perishable food cold during the warmer weather. Cooking was done in an
outdoor fire pit or a wood burning stove inside and in 1952 a propane stove was
installed.
Driving to Peak Meadow one drove 3 ½
miles up Mill Creek Road. Then going through the “Lower Gate” on the right, you
drove another mile and a half on a dirt road which, during the worst of winter
weather, you had to walk over carrying whatever supplies you might need.
Sometimes you walked over, caught one of the horses and rode back to the lower
gate to bring the supplies over.
Half of Peak Meadow Ranch was in the
beautiful canyon. The view of Peak Meadow from the spring at the top of the
canyon gave one a feeling of separation from the cares of the rest of the world
– a peace that few people could enjoy. That was, and still is, one of the draws
of this part of Alameda County. The view from above looking down the canyon to
“The Flat” and the view from below, on “The Flat”, looking up the canyon
captured this solitude. But unless you were in the middle, right where the
houses started at the creek, one missed the jewel of the ranch – the million
gallon swimming pool. Each year at the beginning of the summer season, the
family would gather with old clothes, bristle brooms and gallons of chlorine to
bleach the pool from the winter’s accumulation of algae. During the summers from
1948-1978, chlorine and acid were used to keep the pool crystal clear. Prior to
that, it was emptied several times a year to clean out the algae. The pool had
been constructed using a Fresno Scraper, a horse drawn road scraper. The drain
and pipe were placed in the bottom and sheep wire was used in the concrete to
hold it together. A gravity flow water system was installed bringing water first
from the creek into the pool and then, later, from the spring at the top of the
canyon. Here is Margaret McClure in 1929 turning on the pool water from the
first pool tank at the canyon end of the pool. It was hidden behind a bay tree
planted to cover the sight of the tank.
Snow fell a number of times but was most
interestingly captured by Stuart McClure as a teenager with his box camera
looking south from the top of Mission Peak. Photo on the left is aimed at the
Old, Old Ranch and the photo to the right shows the canyon above the houses at
Peak Meadow Ranch. You can see the Horse Heaven tree on the right ridge in the
photo.
Link to wikipedia collection of audio files containing a radio interview
about the history of Peak Meadow Ranch
STRUCTURAL HISTORY
THE MAIN RESIDENCE or MAIN HOUSE:
Nestled in a grove of locust trees, the
main residence of Peak Meadow Ranch was also the home built by Thomas Millard in
1855. His house was smaller than the current structure. The locust tree at the
north end of the house was planted by Mr. Millard. That tree split and fell
several years ago but has been left as a windbreak in the event of a repeat of
the 1943 wind disaster. The others have seeded from that first tree. There are
three olive trees that are just down the slope from the house. They block the
house now from being seen by those down in the valley below. But from 1928
through 1981 the tops were pruned annually opening the view of the Southern San
Francisco Bay and the Santa Cruz mountains to those in the house. The original
home was almost a rectangle with a straight front and two straight ends, but the
cliff side of the house was not straight. The front door of the original
building was where the door is on the porch overlooking the Bay. There was a
drive area coming up to the right corner of the house and then across the front,
so a person could get out of a carriage and step up into the house. The drive
was lined on the right with pink amaryllis that were still growing in the 1990’s
– 140 years of bulbs – and they were beautiful. After the remodeling in 1928,
some of the bulbs were transplanted along the cliff side of the building.
In 1928 when the property was taken over
by Margaret and Donald McClure, Noble Newsom, an architect friend of the family,
drew the plans for both the remodeling of the house and barn as well as the
plans for the chimney and fireplace. The plans for the fireplace and chimney
were so simple and well done
that two teenage boys were hired to do the
job, which they completed in two weeks during the summer of 1928. They lived at
the ranch, cooked their own food and completed the job that has lasted almost 80
years.
The inside of the house was lined in a
redwood with an almost sateen finish to it. We have been told that mills today
don’t know how to duplicate this effect. There were large candle chandeliers in
the two big rooms – the living room with the fireplace and the music room at the
north end of the house. Besides that there were many kerosene lamps that lit up
the rooms.
THE BARN or THE UPPER HOUSE: In 1855 the barn sat simply on the slope
of the hill. The blacksmithing area was on the south end of the building. Much
of the cast off material can be found down the side of the creek bank. Some of
the items slowly made their way down to the clay pit directly below the barn
just over the property line of the Rancho del Agua Caliente. Pieces of porcelain
the Millard’s used also ended up there.
In 1928 there was a remodeling job done
turning the barn into three bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs. The center of
the barn roof was raised and a large single bedroom with a small closet and
built in bookcase was created upstairs with a small porch on the west side. A
potty was used upstairs during the night. Again as in the other buildings, there
was no concrete foundation put in. For many years the old barn doors were used as
tables on the terrace down at the Main House to feed the many visitors who would
always be coming to enjoy the Ranch. In 1946 a kitchen was added using a part of
the northern bedroom and an extension toward the cliffs. You can see the
extension in the right corner of the picture to the right. Stuart McClure had
married during World War II, and this would be his home.
While he had been overseas in the Army,
his wife, Neblett McClure, spent the daytime building a rock outlined terrace on
the south end of the house. This was quite an undertaking as she first had to
build a six foot high retaining wall to hold the dirt in place. Rock by rock and
wheelbarrow load one after another filled both the time and the area. The task
was finally completed. Stuart arrived home to not only improvements at home but
to meet his 3 year old daughter for the first time.
While some marriages last forever, some
seem to come and go. Donald and Margaret McClure were divorced in the 1933, and
Margaret never remarried. Stuart McClure’s first marriage to Neblett also ended
in divorce. She returned home to Virginia taking their daughter, Torrence, with
her. He then married Elizabeth (Betsy) Adams Winkelman in 1948. Betsy added her
handiwork by building a free-standing rock barbeque using the local rocks. Some
of these were quite sizeable. The barbeque was about eight feet long and five
feet wide at the base and about five feet tall with a fire pit in the middle.
This was used by the family for over thirty years until the East Bay Regional
Park took over the property. The park personnel took the rocks from the barbeque
to build a rock wall on the hill above the barn to keep the dirt from eroding
down into the building. One can see when walking by that it has done the job
quite well. But the wall couldn’t keep heavy winds from blowing off the upstairs
western porch.
THE CLIFFHOUSE: The Cliffhouse, so named because of its
relative proximity to the cliffs above, was the bunkhouse and storage center for
the Ranch. In the center was a bedroom for two single beds with dressers, a
closet and a bathroom with toilet, sink and shower. The bedroom entrance was
French doors with eight panes of glass in each door. Inside there was a shade on
each door as well as a set of curtains that could be drawn closed from each
side, hanging on wooden rings that came from A. A. Moore’s house in Oakland.
There was a window in the back right corner of the bedroom to let in plenty of
light. As you can see from the picture taken from above on the Peak, the
Cliffhouse was about forty feet long and fifteen feet wide with an extra five
feet added on for the covered porch. From 1957-1968 the sons of Stuart McClure
used it as their summer residence. The two older boys, Woody and Steven, used it
first and, when they went off to college and careers, the two younger boys, Roan
and Duncan, used it until they also went on to work and the Army.
The room on the north end was the
storage area for a buckboard wagon and a two-wheeled cart, with all the
harnesses hanging on the back wall. In this room there were two windows on the
front looking onto the porch but the entrance, two large out-swinging barn-style
doors, was on the end of the building. The south end of the building was the
tack room – for saddles, bridles, grooming equipment and extra feed. The outdoor
summer furniture was also stored in there for the winter. It also had two
windows on the front, but the end had two entrances – one each at the front and
back wall of the structure. You can see one open in the picture of the goat.
In December 1943 there was a terrific
storm with a north wind that blew the north roof off the main house and blew
down the north end and the covered porch of the Cliffhouse. Various family
members came over to help with the clean-up, and because of shortages in
building supplies due to World War II, it was not restored – only repaired to
the point of usability.
The almond tree seen in front of the
repaired Cliffhouse was planted by Mr. Millard in the 1850’s, along with the
other single trees seen in the various photographs. There were peach, apricot,
almond, quince and apple trees. They were still producing after 100 years, but
then died from age and lack of care. The almond tree and the apricot tree, where
the goat was tied, were used for tying up the horses in preparation for saddling
them. Thirty years later, in the winter of 1973, a south wind came barreling
down the canyon and blew down the south end of the Cliffhouse. It was again
decided not to restore but just repair what could be used. The cart, which had
been stored in this end of the building, had been taken away in 1965 and the
buckboard was down in the dump, and without riding horses there was no need for
the tack. Above the Cliffhouse toward
the canyon, there was an Indian sweat lodge that the boys used as “The Fort”, in
which they played their make believe games.
After 25 years without protection from
the harsh elements of nature, this building is of no further use. The extended
back wall is gone, and what is left standing is just the bunkhouse shell – doors
are gone and there is seemingly nothing to keep it standing. Yet it still stands
as a temporary witness to the echoes of the footsteps of the men and women, the
boys and girls of the past. There was never a foundation – just cornerstones. If
there had been a cement foundation, it might have withstood the winds. The roof
shingles are mostly gone and everything is open to nature. Nature is slowly
taking it back.
THE COTTAGE: This building, next to the main
residence, was built entirely out of redwood in 1928. It had a bedroom with
closet, a bathroom with shower, sink and toilet, two windows that had the
western view of the San Francisco Bay and a covered porch that went the length
of the western side of the building. It was originally to be for the caretakers
who would live there, but they were only there for one year. After the stock
market crash in 1929 this couple would leave. Stuart L. McClure would use this
building as his house from the age of thirteen until World War II (1929-1946).
After that it would be used by friends and family until Margaret McClure needed
someone to drive her around and care for her. Then her care giver would stay
there. Until the East Bay Regional Park District took over, there was no heating
or insulation in any of the buildings. At different later times, depending on
the needs of the ranger living there, the propane tanks were added and then the
wood burning stove. It is now used as a workshop. You can see a part of the
cottage in the picture of the Main House that shows the chimney and the terrace.
CARRIAGE HOUSE: This building was built about 1855 and
was gone before 1921, when Thomas Millard died. The only evidence of its
existence is the foundation outline of rocks. It sits about sixty feet down the
slope from the main residence. There was a U-shaped drive that came south from
the Carriage House around to the front of the residence that had pink amaryllis
lining the edge. One can still see some of the original bulbs shooting forth
each spring below the terrace of the Main House.
ACTIVITIES AT PEAK
MEADOW RANCH
With only a dirt road to access the
ranch, heavy weather periods would allow access by foot, horseback, wagon and
then four-wheel drive vehicles. Better weather and an annually graded road made
other vehicular access possible. Of course use of the buckboard made living at
the ranch all the more fun for the youth. Stuart McClure had numerous friends
(Johnnie Metcalf, John Calendar, Lawton Shurtleff, among others) who enjoyed
many visits to the ranch.
In the
picture to the left Margaret McClure is at the
reins with Stuart McClure standing and one of his friends sitting on the end of
the buckboard collecting rocks from the flat to build the rock wall above the
houses in the house enclosure. Stuart wanted to build a wall that might help
stop rolling rocks from entering the enclosure and hitting the houses. The wall
he and his friends built started above the Pool and Upper House and went north
toward The Flat, ending near the twin oaks above the Main House on the Peak
slopes. Some of the rock walls on the ranch were so old that when a biologist
friend came to visit during the 1950’s, he indicated that some of the lichens
growing on the rocks were well over a thousand years old. Unfortunately, the
walls he looked at have been torn apart by hikers during the past 25 years
(1981-2006).
One can just make out the rock wall in
the right half of the picture stopping at the twin oaks. These oaks from
1921-1940 were identical in size and shape and then the one on the right started
to grow faster than the other.
Having a large piece of property enabled
12 year old Stuart to enjoy driving his 1912 Dodge truck. Here is Stuart with
friends in the back of his truck. He is sitting on the running board holding his
octagonal barrel .22 Pump action rifle, which he used for hunting small game at
the ranch. One of his favorite pictures was of his friend, Johnny Metcalf, and
him coming back from successfully hunting a wildcat in the canyon at Peak Meadow
Ranch.
From the time Stuart attended college at
UC Berkeley, Margaret let him use their car, and she used either a horse, or
horse and wagon, to get supplies while living at the ranch. Following college,
Stuart worked as a newspaper reporter for both the San Jose Mercury and then the
San Francisco Examiner. He interviewed the first boatload of survivors from the
Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor when they arrived in San Francisco in December
1941. After that he enlisted in the Army and spent the next 4 years in Europe.
Stuart arrived home with a jeep he had purchased from the Army in France. He
shipped it to New York and drove it across country to Peak Meadow Ranch. This
jeep was used at Peak Meadow Ranch for the next 20 years. It was transportation
for Margaret McClure between Piedmont and the ranch, used for camping trips to
the Old, Old Ranch during the summer, and all the work at the ranch. Above shows
Margaret in the jeep at the Lower Gate, and to the right are Roan and Duncan
McClure, 2 of Stuart’s 4 sons, by the jeep in front of the Cliffhouse, having
brought some lumber to the Ranch to build a temporary extension on the end of
the Cliffhouse.
HORSEBACK RIDING: Harnessing up a horse to the cart became
a recreational activity after the 1940’s. This picture shows Stuart McClure
getting a horse named Sherri Luck used to pulling the cart during the summer of
1956. Horseback riding was a natural activity for everybody visiting the Ranch.
Many of the children of guests had never had the opportunity to ride, so during
the afternoons an adult,
generally Stuart, would walk them around the House Enclosure on the back
of one of the more docile horses.
As the horses died, it was necessary to
add new stock. Stuart’s horse, Moonray, had gone lame and had to be put down.
Many years later, Roan McClure, while working at Weibel Winery, learned the
following story about the last horse Stuart purchased. Fred Weibel Sr.
found out that Roan was the son of Stuart McClure, and he sought Roan out and
shared this story about Stuart. Fred owned a horse named April Love in the
1950s. After several years the horse wouldn’t let anyone ride him or even get
close to him, so Fred advertised it for sale. The horse was almost 17 hands.
Stuart went to see the horse in the corral at the winery. He offered Fred $50
for the horse with its bridle. The offer was accepted on the spot. Stuart told
Fred he would come by the following Saturday and get the horse. On that Saturday
he arrived with a saddle and blanket. His wife, Betsy, dropped him off and drove
back through Mission San Jose and up to the Ranch by way of Mill Creek Road.
Fred wasn’t immediately available so Stuart went into the corral by himself. The
corral could be seen from the kitchen window where Mrs. Weibel was doing dishes.
She didn’t know about the sale or who this man was. She thought he was going to
get killed, as the horse had attacked others before. She ran screaming to get
Fred in the winery building. Fred said they both ran to the corral in time to
watch the most astounding scene. Stuart was standing in front of the horse,
holding the horse’s ears and talking to him. Then he turned around and got the
blanket from the corral fence and walked to the horse that hadn’t moved. After
putting the blanket on the horse, Stuart returned to the fence, got the saddle,
and saddled the horse. He then got on the horse, turned to Fred and his wife,
tipped his hat, thanked them for the horse, and, spurring him into a gallop,
rode straight toward the corral fence nearest the Peak, jumped it without any
problem and rode up Mission Peak to the Ranch. Stuart renamed the horse Zorro.
April Love just didn’t fit the great sorrel with a white blaze and white
forelocks.
One of the horse
activities included riding down Mission Peak to the Hidden Valley Ranch Rodeo
near the Weibel Winery. One remembrance comes from Roan’s older brother, Steven.
“It
was decided that Stuart, Woody, Steven and Roan would make the trip via
horseback, while the rest would be driven by Betsy to the rodeo location. This
of course required four horses, one more than was actually available, so the day
before the trip, Woody and Steve made a trip to the Moore’s ranch (over the hill
about an hour and a half by horse) to pickup an extra horse named “Senator”.
Senator was quite overweight, slow and lazy; it wasn’t clear whether the person
who named him had a sense of humor about politicians and their predilection to
be slow fat and lazy or whether the title was more of an honorific. In any case,
Woody and Steve rode back with Senator at the end of a halter rope so we could
go on our adventure to the rodeo.
Sure
enough, we set off early the next day; Stuart on Zorro, Woody on Cricket, Steve
(much to his disgust) was assigned Senator and Roan on Amigo. Everything went
swimmingly (no pun intended) till we came to a small creek. It was a hot day,
and the horses were snorting and sweating profusely, so we stopped at the creek
to let them get a drink.
At this
point an unusual thing happened. Amigo, who usually was fairly well behaved,
decided to test his rider. He stopped in the middle of the stream, only a few
feet deep, bent his front legs and started to lie down so he could roll.
Undoubtedly he wanted to cool off and perhaps his back was itching. In any case
his activities elicited a scream from Roan, who promptly dismounted before he
got rolled on himself. Of course allowing Amigo to roll would have been an
unmitigated disaster, even with Roan having dismounted, as the saddle would have
been ruined not to mention possible injury to Amigo himself (so much for the
idea that horses are smart).
While
Woody and Steve contented themselves with shouting at Roan to kick the horse
(rather than dismount) and once dismounted to jerk Amigo to stand up by pulling
on the reins, Stuart realized that Roan was not old enough or strong enough to
do either. So he leapt off Zorro, letting his horse’s reins fall to the
ground, ran over to Amigo and grabbing his reins gave couple of good whacks
across Amigo’s neck and rump. At this point, Amigo having realized that he was
dealing with a person of quite a different stripe than his previous rider,
decided to do an about face, promptly jerked to his feet, and acted as if he
didn’t understand what all the commotion was all about (displaying the fact
that horses can be smart). After that little adventure the rest of the trip went
off without a hitch, we arrived at the rodeo where of course the rest of the
family, who had come by car, had to be filled in with the gory details of our
escapade.”
An
interesting note regarding the longest lived horse at Peak Meadow Ranch. Cricket
was the foal of Bug, and was born in the flat near the Twin Oaks in 1941. She
lived her entire life on Mission Peak riding over the expanse of the A. A. Moore
Rancho and in parades in Mission San Jose. She could jump any fence on the ranch
– corral, barbed-wire, anything. The night before she died in 1977, she returned
to the spot on which she was born, lay down and went to sleep – never to awaken.
The photo to the left is Cricket in 1976.
SWIMMING: Swimming was the next favorite activity
during the summer. From 1930 when this first picture on the right shows Stuart and his
cousin, Mary Belle Moore, at the canyon end of the pool near the water tank, to
the 1970’s with a more modern shot of Betsy McClure and Jay Browne, another
Moore cousin, at the house end of the pool, swimming was the main activity
throughout the summer. From 9AM until dinner time, the children wore bathing
suits, unless there was some hiking or horseback activity in which they were
involved. And in the evening before dinner, there was a “50 foot rule”. The
children were to entertain themselves without bothering the adults during the
cocktail hour.
GOATS ON MISSION PEAK
During the early 1930’s Margaret
McClure put two long haired goats up on the cliffs. She named them Pyramis and
Thisbe. Pyramis is pictured here tied to the apricot tree. The breed is unknown,
but they multiplied prolifically. The herd got so big that they were raiding the
local gardens and causing other problems. A goat hunt on horseback was organized
just prior to WWII and the herd was hunted all the way to Mt. Hamilton. If there
are any feral goats over there, they are most likely descended from this first
group.
About a quarter century later,
in 1965, Julie Goodale, from San Leandro, and Roan A. McClure, under the
direction of Margaret McClure, built a pen at the south end of the Cliffhouse
and two white kids were bought from Tony Maldonado in Sunol – a male and female (Capra aegagrus hircus)
that were named George and Gwen. They were named by Margaret for Julie’s parents
who brought them from Sunol. After about a week getting them used to the place
by keeping them in the pen, they were taken up the canyon, shown where the creek
was, and then were let go on the cliffs. They became a herd of about 25-30.
Margaret McClure wanted to watch them during the day as they jumped among the
cliffs. It was hoped by Margaret that the two white kids would produce other
white goats, but somebody learned about the goats on the Peak and left some
brown ones loose up there. So, the goats were a mixed color.
About 1996 the EBRPD decided to
catch all the goats and give them to a goat rancher that ran his goats on Park
property. They caught all but 7 or 8 of them. These few have dwindled down to,
as of 2005, one lone billy goat. A mountain lion probably got the others one by
one. Getting close to this goat, one realizes how cagey it has become.
THE PEOPLE OF MISSION
PEAK
Albert Alfonso Moore was the first man
to own Mission Peak in its entirety. Having known the mountain since his youth,
he wanted to own it; and he was eventually able to do just that. Along with his
wife, Annie, and their six children who grew up under the afternoon shadows of
Mission Peak, numerous grandchildren and friends made a lifelong habit of
visiting and making extended stays at the Ranch – the Old, Old Ranch, the Main
Rancho and Peak Meadow Ranch.
After A. A. Moore died in 1928, two
daughters and one grandson were interested enough to receive property from his
estate. Carmen Moore, far right in the family group picture had married Walter
A. Starr, and they wanted to run cattle on the property. Their grandson, Peter,
still owns the piece on which Walter and Carmen built their home which was
designed by Julia Morgan. Margaret Moore, the youngest daughter, had married
Donald McClure, and they finally chose the western 120 acres that became known
as Peak Meadow Ranch. A. Arthur Moore, grandson of A. A. Moore, used the Main
Rancho Residence for his family, which is now owned by his daughters, Marianna
and Alison.
Pictured here are Margaret Moore and
Donald McClure on a date at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland in 1913, Margaret
Moore McClure on her terrace at Peak Meadow Ranch in 1980, and Donald McClure in
his uniform at the end of World War II.
The McClure family had been in the
vicinity of Mission Peak since 1853. The picture of two small children and the
African American lady (taken in 1894) shows just how quickly one can go back in
history. The small boy on the left is Donald McClure. This lady had been born as a
slave and knew Donald, his mother, her father, his father and grandfather. She
had known 5 generations of the Eastland family starting in Tennessee. This was
Rebecca “Aunt Becky” Eastland. She is buried in the family plot in the Mountain
View Cemetery, Oakland, California.
Here (above right) is the family group
(taken 1907) of Donald McClure (top center) with his mother Mabel, father James
Wattson McClure, and his brothers Richard Alfred McClure (on the right) and
Malcolm Eastland McClure (bottom center).The photo
of three people on horseback was taken in
Mission San Jose about 1879. James Wattson McClure is the boy on the right with
two of his older sisters. They are three of the four children of Richard
Alexander McClure and Elnora Lothian Henion McClure.
The parents are pictured on the left and
in the middle. The man on the right is John Kip Henion, the father of Elnora. All three lived in Mission San Jose or Washington Township, Alameda County,
California from 1853.
In 1997 there was a re-enactment of a
pioneer trek. This group, individually representing pioneer ancestors, pulled
handcarts from Mount Margaret at the end of Mill Creek Road, over the back of
Mission Peak and down to Ohlone College. This was done on the 150th
anniversary of, and to honor, the Mormon Pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley.
Roan A. McClure played the part of his great-great-grandfather, Richard A.
McClure. He is in the picture to the left kneeling with a Hawken black powder
rifle. Kneeling next to him is his son, Dallin. Both are wearing coon skin caps.
Dallin took the part of his great-great-great-grandfather, William Whiteside
Moore, who came to California in 1849 during the gold rush.
The second photo (above left) shows the group
in the swale below Mount Margaret preparing to depart on the trek. Dallin is on
the right edge of the group. The next photo (right) shows Dallin on the trail,
about half way to Ohlone College. The last shot at left
shows Roan McClure riding just
before the end of the trek at Ohlone College.
In 2006 the McClure
family presented the East Bay Regional Park District with a special citation and
commissioned the creation of the patch shown above. The EBRPD council meeting agenda
can be seen at the following link http://www.ebparks.org/district/minutes/05_02_06.htm . Below
is the citation text:
To The Board of Directors and Staff of the East Bay Regional
Park District
October 24, 2005
The family of Margaret Moore McClure, from whom the
Park got Peak Meadow Ranch and on her 114th birthday, would like to express appreciation
for the care that your staff has taken in the on-going care over 24 years and costly
preservation of Peak Meadow Ranch. In 2004 family members decided to get together
and do something to perpetuate the heritage that our grandmother always tried to
pass on to us – something that might be passed on to others besides our family –
appreciation and sharing of one’s heritage. Our family commissioned this patch. The four colors of the landscape symbolize the seasons, from the snows of winter
that fell a few times, to the green of spring, the tan grass of the summer to the
darker ground as fall came and deepened the foliage color of the earth. Since the
beginning of Peak Meadow Ranch there have been five generations of the McClure family
and a number of troops who have, as Boy Scouts or Scout leaders, enjoyed hiking
and camping at Peak Meadow. That is the reason for the BSA Insignia. From the Moore
ownership of Mission Peak to four generations of McClure’s working and living at
Peak Meadow to the take over by the EBRPD, three generations left from here for
war and four generations returned to Mission Peak from overseas military service,
to its peace and quiet. Each family member, along with three Park staff who were
especially helpful, have received a patch with their name in red. This small token
is an expression of our appreciation.
Through all of the history and
activities that have taken place on Mission Peak, the land remains with little
change and the animals continue to inspire. On one particularly beautiful visit
to Peak Meadow Ranch, Roan and Kandace McClure were treated to a special display
in the treetops near the houses. As they stood there enjoying the scenery, a
pair of golden eagles were preening and playing in the top of the oak trees.
The active on-going life at Peak Meadow
Ranch really died in 1960 when Stuart McClure was killed in a car crash. He was
Margaret McClure’s only child. All the visits and activities following that
seemed to be just coasting to the end. Stuart and Betsy had dreamed of building
their retirement home at the top of the canyon – a beautiful spot filled with
peace and Mission Peak in the foreground.
On Valentine’s Weekend 2004 Roan and
Kandace McClure went for a hike to the very top of the Peak Meadow Ranch property. On the site of his parents’ dream, they spoke of their own dreams and
set a course for their own future. Turning East from Peak Meadow Ranch there is
a large rock from which one used to be able to see the Sierras. Kandace is
pictured there, seemingly at the top of the world. Separated from the hikers on
Mission Peak, this little portion of Peak Meadow bespoke the future in
remembering the past.
There is an idea that the land can take
on the character of the people who live on it. For a period of time that might
be true - but only for a time. There are marks and impressions made by those who
use the land. A path becomes a road, then a highway becoming the ribbon tying
a nation together. An Indian scout, mountain man, pioneer, farmer,
teacher, representative and a leader tie the community together in a web of
service. Through it all the land remains and regenerates. The deeper you allow
your roots to go, the stronger your feelings of appreciation grow – for the
land, for the way you use it and for the way you leave it. It is called
stewardship.
For you who climb to the top of Mission
Peak, don’t just walk over the land to see the view. Walk through the land,
understand the history, become part of it. Drink in the beauty and let the peace
envelope you in its arms of enduring strength. If done this way, you may exert
yourself, mentally in the learning and physically in getting to the top, but
your abilities will have been strengthened far more than you realize :
physically, mentally and emotionally.
We hope that
you have enjoyed this expression of appreciation for what our ancestors have done
for us. May we meet you on the trails of Mission Peak in the days to come. We look
forward to it.
Here are some further links for anyone who enjoys history and genealogy.
Link here for further history of Margaret Moore McClure’s
family
Link here for the
family of Walter A. & Carmen Moore Starr
Link here for the family of Stanley Moore
Link here for the family of John Joseph and Jacqueline Moore Valentine
Link
here for the family of Albert A. Moore Junior
Link here for the Moore Family Ancestry
The Hall Family Line, Crossing the Plains and back into history
McClure and Henion
Family, From America back to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and across the water.
Eastland
Family History, California, Texas and beyond
Rudolf Herman Stichtenoth, San Francisco
History to Germany with Weber, Trau and Minkel families.
Adams Family, California
Agricultural Pioneer and a sideline to history with the Woods and Harris families
Edmonstons and Bealls before the White House
Fisher and Murray families into Indiana
and Florida History