East Contra Costa County

Carol A. Jensen

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781439618318
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Ho for California! The terminus of the first overland immigrant pack train destined for California was John Marshs adobe, Brentwood. Since 1841, East Contra Costa County has been a grain and fruit basket to the world, a recreational playground for resort living, and a home for health and family life. Its wheat was exported for brewing Guinness beer, and fresh apricots, peaches, and cherries still bring produce fanciers for summer harvest. Weekenders houseboat, wakeboard, and fish through the regions thousands of miles of delta waterways. This sentimental history of the communities of Brentwood, Bethel Island, Byron, Discovery Bay, Knightsen, and Oakley reveals the importance of these California Delta communities in settling and developing the Golden State.

Two

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

This real-photo postcard of 1917 shows large-production wheat farming in the delta. Only a few men were required to harvest thousands of acres of dry farming land in the greater San Joaquin area. Traveling photographers moved out of their studios and captured real lives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Twenty-four horses harnessed in teams of six pulled this combination header and thresher through the wheat fields. The grain stands chest high on the man in the foreground. The area between Stockton and Brentwood was the largest wheat-producing area between San Francisco and New Orleans between 1880 and 1890.

Farm skills from the Midwest translated easily to California with gainful employment for all. As this postcard reports from son to father, “Am getting along fine. Will probably write to you tomorrow. Otto.”

The abundance of grain harvested in the delta necessitated a railroad for transport. The San Pablo and Tulare Railroad, later absorbed into the Southern Pacific Railroad, moved grain from the Central Valley to Port Costa, Contra Costa County, for shipment aboard. Shiploads of grain went to Ireland—not to feed the population, but to brew Guinness beer.

This real-photo postcard shows over 30 horses hauling the harvester across the field. More than 100 acres of grain per day could be harvested in this manner. It took more men to prepare and harness the horses than it did to process the threshing.

Delta lands are alluvial soils consisting primarily of fertile peat lands. The grain is heavy, but the land itself is soft. The equipment is not heavy, but pulling a harvester over peat lands is similar to driving a car with four flat tires. The equipment sinks into the ground and requires tremendous effort to roll.

This view of a grain thresher shows the small wheels and effort required to move the machine through the field. The blades of the harvester turn with the movement of the equipment through the field. Specialized crops and large-scale farming epitomized California agriculture from the start.

Horse and steam power exist side-by-side in this early description of Holt Brothers agriculture equipment. The 24-horse team represented in the lower left is soon replaced by steam-powered tractors and harvesters. Holt Brothers, of Stockton, were early inventors of specialized farm equipment designed for delta needs.

Furrows are cut 16 inches apart for miles using this early steam-driven tractor and furrow. Farming in California involved many sections of land (640 acres) dedicated to a single crop. The small-scale Tennessee farmer with 20 acres of corn and a mule would not recognize the scale of agriculture in the West.

Steam tractors replaced 24-horse teams, but the e...