When Christine and I bought our farm in 2008 we learned just a tad about its history. From the early 1900's through the '80's it was owned by the Bettencourt Family. Mayrose Bettencourt was quite well known in the area and we soon discovered that if we were talking to anyone locally who was 50 or older, we would just say we bought the old Bettencourt place and they'd immediately know where we were talking about. We've tried to learn more history about this property without much luck. Then, a couple of years ago, I heard about a book called Wax by local author Therese Ambrosi Smith a work of fiction about a Half Moon Bay woman named Tilly Bettencourt who leaves home to become a "Rosie" at the shipyards in Richmond, CA. I contacted Therese who explained that she knew of the Bettencourts, but that the character was not in any way related to them. But, we talked about local history and our farm (Therese is now a loyal member of our U-Pick Club) and just last week Therese brought me a short interview with Mayrose (attached) that she found that was prepared by the Spanishtown Historical Society of Half Moon Bay in 1973.
I thought folks would like the interview because it gives a flavor of what farming and ranching was like in the early 1900's. Mayrose talks about working for the Mayrose Meat and Dairy Product company (hence his nickname) and explains that all the local farms made cheese. He used to go to the Steele Ranch (now Pie Ranch) to collect cheese there and when he had to take goods to Redwood City he went by horse and buggy over Tunitas Creek Rd - then dirt, of course - and it took him a day to get there. Skyline was considered "wild country" back then (maybe some of us still think so!!).
So, please enjoy this tiny slice of HMB history and if you know anything about the Bettencourts, please email me or add it to the comments below.