The Mason-Taylor Ranch

By Debra Staab

At the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains, just east of the present day intersection of Summit Road and the Old Santa Cruz Highway, there is a fairly large swath of flat land.  In 1852, after an arduous three-day journey from Los Gatos in an oxen-drawn wagon stuffed with all of their belongings, John and Susan Schultheis must have been ecstatic to find this level landscape.  The adventurous couple promptly established a homestead in the area next to a small lagoon.  Some say that Schultheis Lagoon (also called Laguna Sacra) was frequented for centuries by local Native Americans when they traveled between the mountains and the coast.

The Schultheis were experienced farmers, and they worked hard to clear brush and cut trees to make way for orchards, vineyards, and grains.  They built a log cabin and their four children, Martin, Edward, Frank, and Alice, were born at the Summit.  Susan was also a nurse and midwife who traveled as far as Boulder Creek to provide medical assistance to other early pioneers.

Volney Averill was born in 1847 and grew up in Vermont and Illinois. As a young man, Volney fought in the Civil War until it ended.  He then spent a couple of years working as a traveling salesman peddling farm equipment before finding his way to California.  Volney took work on a farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains but left less than two years later.  After a couple of years farming in the Midwest, he returned to the mountains in 1873.  That’s when Volney met Alice, the daughter of John and Susan Schultheis.

Volney and Alice were married on June 2, 1873 in a redwood grove on the Schultheis property.  Alice’s dad sold 15 acres of the north side of his land to the young couple, including the redwood grove.   The Averill family maintained the existing orchard and later bought another 60 acres where they planted French prunes.  The couple eventually had seven children.  On June 2, 2023, ancestors of the Schultheis held a 150-year Anniversary remembrance celebration of the Averill marriage on the same piece of land.

Another early arrival in the Santa Cruz Mountains was John William Taylor who emigrated from England in the early 1900s with his wife Jenny and her son John (Wood).  They spent several years learning the tricks of the trade of growing fruit as a commercial enterprise.  The Taylors settled in a place called Cherry Hill which was not far from the Laurel train depot. The couple had four more children Dorothy, Robert, Cecil, and Ruth. The parcel came with an orchard of cherry trees, and the Taylors planted French prunes. It took the whole family to pick and pack the cherries and to harvest, dry, pack, and ship dried prunes to the San Francisco market.

A young Bob Taylor did not like picking cherries perched high up on a tall orchard ladder precariously set into steep hillsides, and he swore that he would never own hilly farmland. When a ranch hand position opened up at the flat Averill prune orchard, Bob jumped at the chance.  A few years later, Bob lucked into an even bigger opportunity when Arthur Averill (son of Volney and Alice) agreed to sell him a portion of the ranch.  In 1943, on the back of a $7,000 bank loan, Bob Taylor was the proud owner of 15 acres of flat orchard land.  He acquired a modern track layer tractor and added headlights so he could work the orchards day and night. Bob worked hard and paid off his bank loan in one year.

Not long after, Bob brought his parents and sister Cecil and her husband to live with him in the Georgian Victorian house the Averills had built in 1895.  Bob was now in his 30s and still single. In his retirement, John Taylor liked to walk, and he often trekked to the nearest shopping center, Holy City.  On his way down the Old Santa Cruz Highway, John sometimes stopped to chat with neighbors.  One particular neighbor had a young granddaughter named Barbara.  She was part of the Jacobson family who operated the Polly Prim Bakery in Los Gatos for many years.  John had an ulterior motive for visiting this house—he thought Barbara and Bob would make the perfect couple, and he arranged for them to meet.  As they say, the rest is history.

Bob and Barbara married in 1949, and he built a farmhouse just for them on the eastern side of the property.  Barbara added beautiful flower gardens, grew vegetables, and, along with Bob, became very involved in the community.  The couple built a fruit shed and opened the farm stand to the public in the 1950s. By the 1960s, the old fruit trees had been producing for over 100 years, and it was time to retire them.  The French prunes were pulled out and  replaced with apples.  Later, Bob added multiple varieties of peaches, pears, nectarines, plums, persimmons, cherries, citrus, and figs.  For the next 45 years, the couple continued raising fruit for market.  The Victorian house survived the 1906 earthquake but was ultimately demolished after the 1989 shaker. Sadly, in his later life, Bob suffered from both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.  He passed away in 1992 at age 84.

Barbara kept the ranch running on her own over the next decade.  She leaned on the ranch caretaker and had a great deal of help from family and friends to keep it going. It was hard work and she missed Bob.  Then she met Phil Mason, a widower and local home builder.  The Masons were also a Summit area pioneer family having arrived on the mountain around 1870. Barbara and Phil married in 2004, and she moved to his Stetson Road home, leaving the ranch in the hands of her able caretaker.

Barbara had made a new life for herself with Phil, and by the mid 2000s she thought about selling the Taylor Ranch.  Phil’s son Roger was captivated by the history of the Santa Cruz Mountains and did not want that prized historical land to be developed.  In 2010, he purchased the 15 acre parcel, and the property became known as the Mason-Taylor Ranch.  Phil Mason died in 2015. The community lost Barbara in early 2023 at the age of 95.

Today the Mason-Taylor Ranch continues to thrive as a heritage orchard.  Roger has continued the practice of dry farming—no irrigation makes the fruit sweeter.  He also transformed the ranch into an organic fruit farm by eliminating the use of all chemical pesticides. There are now over 2,000 organic fruit trees, including fifteen types of apples, five varieties of plums, five types of pears, three kinds of peaches, two types of nectarines, and several kinds of citrus trees.  Roger also introduced the community to fresh pressed cider.  

The farm stand still stands proudly at the entrance to the ranch.  Besides fruits and vegetables, honey, eggs, and cold cider are available.  All sales are conducted via the honor system of leaving your payment in a small locked wooden box on the wall.  Fresh organic produce boxes from Tera Farm can be ordered here.  Hand-made soy candles are also for sale.

The original Schultheis log cabin is still there, now encased in protective siding.  The building is believed to be the oldest continuously lived in house on the mountain.  The story is that Susan Schultheis treated Mountain Charlie’s wounds there after his famous bear attack in the early 1850s.  The farm’s caretaking family has lived there for generations.

The farmhouse built by Bob Taylor for his new bride in the early 1950s remains intact.  After Bob passed, it was important to Barbara to maintain the house as Bob had left it.  As a result it has been preserved mostly in its original form.  The house is now a private residence.

During apple picking season, every September and October, Roger offers orchard tours to over 30 local school groups.  Also in September this historical property, in conjunction with the Loma Prieta Museum, appropriately hosts an annual History Day event and BBQ. This year it will include live music, food, wine tasting, games, a silent auction, a book exchange, and more.  

History lives on at the Mason-Taylor Ranch.  You can visit the property and its farm stand located at 22849 Summit Road any day.  For a more immersive tour, stop by Mountain History Day on September 20, 11-4 for a most historical event.  Find the latest news from the Mason-Taylor Ranch on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=masontaylorranch. For more on the Loma Prieta Museum visit https://www.lomaprietamuseum.org/.

Sources:

Mountain Network News, February, 2015, p. 15.

Barbara Taylor, Mountain Orchardist by Ann Wahlenmeier (not sure if it’s from the MNN or another newsletter).

Payne, A Howling Wilderness, 1978, pp. 104-106.

Direct interviews with Roger Mason.