Honoring Novato's Generations: Meet Parade Grand Marshal Herb Rowland

Editor's Note: This story and the photo accompanying it were contributed by the Novato 4th of July Committee.

Novato, CA — Apparently, Ignacio Pacheco was a feisty guy. So says his great-great-great grandson, Herb Rowland, who can’t wait to tell a story to back it up.

Pacheco was one of Novato’s earliest settlers. His 1840 Mexican land grant stretched from the shores of San Pablo Bay near modern-day Bel Marin Keys all the way the Pacific Ocean. Rowland lives on a remaining slice of that land in a stately home built by his forebears in 1876. He and his wife Deb operate the Pacheco Family Winery, just off Alameda del Prado between two places named after his great-great-great grandfather, Ignacio and Pacheco Valle. Novato newbies might call it “just north of Burger King.”

As a living/breathing history lesson on two feet, Rowland and Deb might just represent the deepest-rooted family of settlers in Novato (the indigenous population is another fascinating story). People who have lived here for decades have heard certain surnames over and over – Grossi, Zunino, Perachiotti, Manzoni, Tinsler, Nave, Rempe to name a few – and even seen some of them on street signs. You wonder when people from those families first settled here and if any descendants still live here.

This year’s Novato Fourth of July Parade theme is Honoring Novato’s Generations, and it seems fitting to have Herb Rowland leading the march down Grant Avenue.

Back to feisty ol’ Ignacio Pacheco. Born in San Jose in 1808, he was the son of a Mexican soldier who became a soldier himself. At age 30, when he finished his military career as a sergeant, he settled on a tract of land that would be granted to him by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. This is how Herb, a renowned trial attorney in the Bay Area, starts to tell the story:

In about 1846, Pacheco challenged U.S. Army Major John C. Fremont to a duel.

“It was right where Boca restaurant is today. That’s where Ignacio’s original adobe was, circa 1840,” Rowland said. “Fremont was coming up through the North Bay area, probably on the orders from the president, essentially to start a revolution in California.”

With 25 uniformed troops and his guide and Spanish interpreter Kit Carson, Fremont rode up what’s now Ignacio Boulevard into Pacheco’s corrals and demanded his best horses. The Pachecos were known as having the best horses in California “to support their racing gambling addition,” Rowland said with a chuckle. Pacheco had received word ahead of time that Fremont was stealing horses along his route, so Pacheco had sent all his best horses up to Mendocino County to thwart the expected heist.

“All that were left were the swayback nags,” Rowland said. “Fremont says through Kit Carson, ‘I want your best horses,’ and Ignacio points to broken-down horses and said in Spanish, ‘There they are.’ Fremont accuses Ignacio of lying, and Ignacio jumped off the fence railing and said, ‘Nobody calls me a liar.’

“Ignacio looked at Carson and said, ‘Tell him I challenge him to a duel. Pistols or swords?’ Carson interpreted the words and Fremont answered, ‘Pistols.’ Carson leaned in and told Fremont, ‘Ignacio is the best shot in California.’ Fremont says ‘Swords, then.’ Carson tells Fremont, “He’s the best swordsman in California, too.”

With that, Fremont got on his horse, took his troops up the road to Sonoma and started the Bear Flag Revolt. And that’s how Mexico lost all of California.”

How many people can tell a story like that about one of their own relatives?

Before we go further, this must be said: The Rowlands pronounce their last name with “Row” rhyming with “cow” or “sow,” unlike the way everybody in town pronounces Rowland Boulevard and Rowland Way like “row a boat.” The next time you’re driving over Highway 101 to the movie theater or Costco, spring that awesome local knowledge on whoever is sitting next to you.

With other family members and business partners, Herb and Deb Rowland started the Pacheco Family Winery in 1970 to honor Ignacio Pacheco, who is believed to be the first person to plant grapes in the North Bay region. The 70-acre property has about five acres of vineyards from which about 800 cases of wine are made each year. Why is it so dear to the Rowlands? The plot is the oldest piece of agricultural land in California that has been continually farmed by the same family, and believed to be the state’s second oldest property of any kind to be lived upon continually by the same family. Even the Rowlands’ grandkids have heard about the family legacy.

“I’m a lucky man,” Rowland said. “They’re learning about the family and how long we’ve been here. They’re here (at the ranch) as often as they can be, and they love it.”

While pruning grape vines on a recent day, Rowland said, “This is my therapy. My first love is farming. I’m carrying on a tradition of 175 years.”

The first time Rowland participated in the Novato Fourth of July Parade was 2015, when the winery was named Novato Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year. This time he’s the grand marshal.

“As a fifth-generation Novatan, it’s a great honor,” he said. “There are not many of us left, but we still have contact with our family roots here.”

So does the Grossi family. Young Bryce and Paige Grossi, children of ranchers Dominic and Nancy Grossi, represent the fifth generation of a Novato family as well. The Grossi dairy and homestead is just west of the city limits, across from the entrance to Stafford Lake Park.

Domenico Grossi and his wife Teresa emigrated from Switzerland in the 1890s and bought the ranch off Novato Boulevard in 1934. The youngest of their 10 children, George A. Grossi, bought the ranch from his parents in 1940. Back then it was 650 acres, bisected by Novato Boulevard. George grew up at what was called the 800-acre home ranch, just west of today’s Grossi dairy and now named the James Grossi Family Marindale Ranch. It’s inactive today but has been in the family since 1917.

George Grossi sold part of the current Grossi Family Dairy in 1951 so the North Marin Water District could create a new reservoir. The concrete foundation of the old milking barn sits at the bottom of what we call Stafford Lake today. Several other buildings were demolished before the dam was erected, and still other structures were moved across Novato Boulevard and are still operational at the dairy today. In the late 1960s, more Grossi property was sold to the County of Marin so it could create Stafford Lake Park.

The next generation kept the dairy going as George’s son, also George, married the daughter of another local dairyman and began buying the ranch property. The following generation included Dominic Grossi, who lives and works at the dairy today with wife Nancy and their two kids. Dominic’s grandmother, Mary Grossi, is 90 and still living at the ranch.

There are many other stories to tell. We urge you to visit the Novato History Museum at 815 DeLong Ave. or join the Novato Historical Guild by visiting Novatohistory.org. Meantime, let’s Honor Novato Generations during our parade.