Merry Christmas

Henry Dakin dresses up as Santa Claus for Christmas at Laurel Glen

Henry Dakin was known for his dramatic story telling. Ruthalee, his oldest daughter, recalls seeing him pacing back and forth down by the barn memorizing stories later to be told either to the guests during the days when Laurel Glen was a small resort or for neighbors who visited.

One neighbor recounts how Henry slipped out unnoticed during an evening gathering at Laurel Glen and reappeared at the door as a vagabond. He then came in and told a story about his (fictional) situation without being recognized by the guests. He used those same talents to engage his daughters and relatives as Santa Claus during Christmas.

Isaac's Last Days

Ruth, Isaac (left) surveying the farm from the veranda and Henry tending his plants

When Henry and Ruth moved back to the Santa Cruz Mountains, they lived there three years before Ruthalee was born. Though she was only 6 months old when Isaac died, Ruthalee remembers her mother's fear that in Isaac's near blindness he might inadvertently hurt Ruthalee's eyes. Maternal fears about eye injuries seemed to be common through most of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Henry & Ruth Allegra Begin at Laurel Glen

Laurel Glen Main House Surrounded by fruit trees

Ruth Allegra was native to the Santa Cruz Mountains. She was born on the Adams Ranch December, 1889, officially known as Wrights, California. Others identify the ranch as at Skyland. Judging by the Skyland Community Church (est. 1887), which is about 1.1 miles south of San Jose - Soquel Rd and the same road on which the Laurel Glen was found, Ruth was born only a (very long) stones throw from where Henry was living at the time. It turns out that the Chamberlains attended that church while they lived on the Ranch. At the time it was Presbyterian. The Adams brothers were wealthy folks for whom Ruth's father, William Whitney Chamberlain (b1858 Damariscotta, ME), had worked in Fort Bragg when he first came to California from Maine in 1886.

The Adams brothers were friends of Whitney's in college (perhaps nearby Bowdoin College - famous for Whitney's relative Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain). When Whitney was told his ill health would likely be helped by living in California, Whitney took the Adams' advice and came to their Fort Bragg ranch. When they moved to the Santa Cruz Mts., Whitney, his wife and daughters, Alice (b1884) and Edith (b1886), born in Medicino, came with them as their ranch manager. It was at their ranch that Ruth was born. One of the Adams brothers later became the founder of the Common Wealth Club of San Francisco

When Ruth returned to the Santa Cruz Mountains it was like coming home in some ways. Though the rest of her family was back in Pleasanton or otherwise scattered in Northern California, Ruth was back to her roots.

Ruth Allegra holding Alice Irene and Henry trying to get the attention of a somewhat distracted Ruth Elizabeth (c1924)

The household was different than Henry had left it. His mother, Laura Jameson Dakin, had died in 1893 when Henry was 37, and still on the farm. But, Isaac was now 90, had failing eye- sight and would live only another three years. Clearly, Ruth was in charge of the household, while Henry commanded the farm.

Pheobe Hearst & Laurel Glen

Henry met Ruth while he was working for Phoebe Hearst at Hacienda del Pozo. Ruth was at home and Edith (Ruth's sister) was working at the Hearst estate, where Henry was the horticulturalist. Edie and Henry became aquainted and he was invited to the Chamberlain home on that account. There he met Ruth. Ruthalee, Ruth's daughter, remembers the story, "Since Papa and Aunt Edie were fairly opinionated, things eventually began to move in Mama's direction. Mama may have been home because she had become ill and had to leave nursing school."

Phoebe Hearst was famous for being William Randolph Hearst's mother, but had wealth and position in her own right: she was the first woman regent of UC Berekely and one of its most generous benefactors

Not long after they met, Henry and Ruth were married in December of 1916. Henry was 53 and Ruth was 27. Ruth was often sick and, as Ruthalee recalls, "Papa said he married her to make her well." They moved to Laurel Glen to take over management of the Fruit Farm. By this time Isaac (Henry's father) was old and well advanced in years. Henry took over to support his father as well as his new bride.

The old San Jose/Soquel Road that passed by Laurel Glen Fruit Farm

The east side of the main house of Laurel Glen, Henry in the wagon

The root cellar used to grow mushrooms and store perishable goods

The grape lattice next to the main house

Henry taking a nap on the veranda of the main house, surrounded by plants he had collected from Mexico and elsewhere

Ruthalee speculates that moving to the relatively isolated Laurel Glen Farm may have spared Ruth's life from the flu epidemic of 1919. Ironically, it was that epidemic that claimed the life of Phoebe Hearst.

Henry Wanders and Then Settles with Ruth

Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, Hearst home, near Pleasanton, Alemeda County

"When finished with the vineyard, (I) went to Mexico for a couple of years. Then to the Hearst place in Pleasanton. (I) was there five years. (I) grafted walnut trees there and in that section. (My) work compared with that of Geo. Payne Sr. who grafted for government all along the Pacific Coast."

Hacienda del Pozo de Verona was Phoebe Hearst's palacial estate for which Henry had been hired to bring all sorts of vegetation back from Mexico. It was there that Henry met and married Gertrude McMillan in 1911. That didn't last long. She thought Henry was rich and part of the social group surrounding Mrs. Hearst. Five years later he met and married Ruth Allegra Chamberlain in 1916 and returned to the Laurel Glen Farm with his new bride.

Ruth Allegra Chamberlain Dakin

Henry Goes to Work for Phoebe Hearst

Henry (center right) takes a balloon ride

"Mrs. Phoebe Hearst wrote to ask me to go to Mexico for her after studying Spanish in San Francisco." Mrs. Hearst had sent Henry to San Francisco to learn Spanish with the intention that in 3 months she would send him to Mexico to bring back plants and trees for her property. After 18 months, instead of heading for Mexico, Hearst sent Henry to Sonoma to put a 250 acre vineyard in shape. Arriving in October, he sized up the watershed and had the creek cleaned out below a $7,000 bridge. This precaution saved the bridge from a storm that took out both the Glen Ellen and Eldridge bridges above it.

In the vineyard, he found two blocks of vines trimmed short when they should have been trimmed long. By staking these vines, Henry was able to double the crop the first year. Also, the first winter he grafted all the Rupestris St. George roots that had been missed when the vineyard was grafted, thus trebling the crop the second year.

During these years, Henry continued his civic leadership. He was a trustee of the district grammar school and Sonoma City Union High School which was just being formed. He was a member of the Sonoma County Republican Central Committee. The paper called him the best orator in Sonoma City for the "after dinner" speeches he gave.

He also went through the vice grand chair in the Odd Fellows. Odd Fellows day being April 26, and his birthday being April 24, he gave a party to which fifty people from Sonoma City were invited. The newspaper said "it was the best party ever given in Sonoma Valley and a bachelor gave it!" Lieutenant Governor Warren Porter of Watsonville told him, "Dakin, I think you made a mistake ever going to work for Mrs. Hearst. You could have had anything you wanted in Santa Cruz."

Then came the earthquake in 1906 and in 1907 Henry left for Mexico.

Henry Dakin Begins Public Career

H.R. Dakin presides as president of the Santa Cruz County Fair

When the family moved to Santa Cruz, George Schell, a Knights Ferry lawyer who had helped frame the recent California constitution, asked his mother and father if Henry could come to work in his office. Henry said "he (Schell) would make me his partner almost immediately, but according to my rule I couldn't leave the farm."

"At 21 I registered as a horticulturalist." He was elected director of the Santa Cruz Fruit Growers Union, at one time was its president. Then Henry was elected president of the county fair and first horticultural commissioner for the Soquel District.

He had become well known all over the county and a seat in the state assembly seemed to be waiting for him when a serious injury in 1900 caused him to give up that pursuit.

Henry Dakin

It's not hard to find soul in our family. The pictures and words of those from times long past sound stoic and terse at times, but beneath the surface is a longing for life and spirit. Henry Dakin (April 25, 1863, far right) had a vocation of nurturing life. He lived in Knights Ferry in central California when this picture was taken. He was about 7 yrs old.



















He came to Santa Cruz, CA, with his mother, Laura, father, Isaac, sister, Alice and brother, Wilbur, in 1877 when he was about 13. That is about the time this picture of Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz downtown was taken.

In the fall of '77, the family moved to Laurel Glen. Moving effectively ended school, but not learning. Henry writes, "I wasn't strong in body, but had a mind, and had to do something with it, so decided to study mankind... lived with God all my life."


















Isaac's vision for the new home was expansive. In a few years, he and his sons had planted orchards, dammed the stream into a pond and built several structures to house guests. They had built the more than 100 acres into the Laurel Glen Fruit Farm and Resort. Most of the summer boarders were upper class residents of San Francisco. A regular part of summer routine was meeting the afternoon train in Santa Cruz. Boarders did not make reservations, but simply came and were met by hospitable Dakins at the Capitola station.




















"I looked after the children and helped entertain the boarders and every fruit season sold fruit and sweet corn, all the while mingling with all the people, learning from the people."


Growing up, I thought of Henry as a kind of lonely man. I've changed my mind. As he worked his orchards in the foothills of Soquel by himself, he carried in his mind and heart all that he had learned and continued to learn from people and from God.

It's been a long time since I watched a tractor plow a field. Even longer since I watched with two of my best friends. It was like magic how those discs turned old weeds into dark Santa Clara Valley soil.

We had big plans in those days. We started a tunnel under the driveway. It would stretch down the street, around the corner and come up in Skeeter's front yard. We already had a garbage can lid down there to cover the hole. It would have been a much more convenient way to get to Skeeter's. Parents didn't like us crossing the street. We had big plans.

One of us grew up to be an artist. Another became a community organizer. The other, well we're not quite sure, but certainly he became a scientist or an architect or a dancer. Surely, he pursued dreams bigger than himself.