1

A History of Carmel Valley’s

Berta Ranch 1887-1999

© Carmel Valley Historical Society

2

Historical Overview

A long-term economic depression coupled with social and

political turmoil in Europe saw a record number of Swiss immigrate

to America in the late 19th Century.

This migration was facilitated by the period’s steam-driven

ocean liners and their affordable third-class passage. At the same

time the labor-hungry industrialization of America was in high gear

while the prairie states offered free farmland to those who agreed

to live on the land for three years. Most Swiss took advantage of

the free farmland out west and many joined communities where

Swiss already had settled in California.

For over a century John Berta and his descendants helped

shape the history and character of Carmel Valley. Although the

Berta Ranch itself no longer exists, its history lives on in these

pages for all to read, learn, and enjoy.

Jeff Ohlson Carmel Valley Historical Society

3

John and Attilio Berta

emigrated from the Maggia River

Valley in Ticino, an Italian canton

in Switzerland. Pictured at right, it

featured a rugged terrain similar to

Carmel Valley. This Ticino canton

also had many vineyards and dairy

farms so it is no wonder why these

early settlers were attracted to

Carmel Valley. During this time

period many Swiss families immigrated to America or Australia due to food shortages and

economic hardships in Europe.

John Berta’s brother Attilio was already a successful vegetable broker in San

Francisco when he sent for his brother John to come to America in 1882 and work in

his vegetable business. Just 19 years old, John immigrated to New York where he

worked in a French restaurant long enough to earn train fare to San Francisco. Attilio

originally purchased property in Watsonville where he and John raised vegetables and

chickens and had cows for milking.

Through his brother’s vegetable business, the two brothers became familiar with

the many vegetable producers in California’s central valley. Eventually, Attilio and John

became aware of land for sale in Carmel Valley and in the late 1880s Attilio purchased

1,000 acres from local land owner-developer Joseph Steffani who founded Camp

Steffani, an early 1900s fishing retreat. This first 1,000-acre parcel made up the

westernmost section of the Berta Ranch. A second 1,000-acre parcel just east of it was

purchased in 1892 to make up the final 2,000 acres of what was to become the historic

Berta Ranch, a pastoral land of rolling hills, grasses, and oaks.

John Berta moved to Carmel Valley in 1887. When their brother Attillio died, John

and his sister Mary became co-owners of the Berta Ranch. The ranch sold in 1999 and

was divided into the 8 parcels now known as the Village Ranches.

4

The Berta Ranch was located at the far west section of the Tularcitos Land

Grant; along its western border was the Los Laureles Land Grant. It was situated

between the Holman Ranch on the west and Rancho Chupinos on the east.

Western

boundary

Eastern

boundary

BERTA RANCH

The outline of the 2,000+ acre Berta Ranch is outlined above

on the History Center’s topographical map.

The boundaries of the original westernmost 1,000-acre parcel

are shown below as viewed from Robles del Rio ridge.

5

The ranch’s main house, garage, old barn, dairy, corrals, and hog sheds are shown above,

circa late 1940s. Patrick Berta’s home, built in the mid-1940s, is seen up the hill from the

main house.

The 2006 photo below shows how the ranch looks today. A new barn is in the middle of the

photo (see arrow) and Lawrence’s home is to the right and up the hill. Patrick’s home is

seen to the left of the new barn. The original homestead is seen in the foreground with only

its garage and dairy still standing.

6

Over its 112-year existence the Berta Ranch was home to four generations of the

Berta family where all fourteen of John and Carmela’s children were born. They lived,

worked, and contributed their own personal stories and legacies to this historic ranch as well

as to the community beyond.

The ranch was first devoted to dairy cows and in the early 1900s the dairy was

comprised of dual-purpose Durham Shorthorn cattle that provided both beef and milk. Leo

Berta recalled the names of the four teams of draft horses: Tom & Jerry, Roxie & Bertie,

Barney & Lucy, and Kate & Dolly. As a young boy Leo recalled getting chased many times

by two milk cows, Ebony & Christina, that for some reason never chased the adults! They

made enough butter and cheese to last the family all year and shipped the excess to San

Francisco by rail.

The family started infusing Hereford blood into the cattle herd in the 1920s. They

also raised and butchered their own hogs using a large cast iron pot of boiling water to

scald the carcass before scrapping it. Grade horses were used to herd cattle and

Percheron, Belgian, and Clydesdale draft horses were used to pull both the smaller wagons

and larger wagons for hauling the thresher and loads of barley or hay.

The growing of barley was a core product of the ranch. Early harvesting of grain

was hard work and all done by hand. The barley would be harvested and placed on the

ground where horses were used to stomp on the hay to separate the grain. The men would

then use pitchforks to separate the straw from the grain. The grain would then be gathered

and put through a hand-turned fanning mill to blow the chaff from the grain. In later years

the grain would be hauled by wagon to a gasoline-motor driven separator (thresher). They

used to go to other ranches to thresh barley, but in the late 1940’s the family purchased a

harvester and did it for themselves and others.

Cattle were sold at the ranch and then driven to slaughterhouses in Salinas or

Monterey or to the stockyards in Salinas for shipping by rail to San Francisco, Denver, or

other destinations. Recurring drought periods made cattle raising unpredictable and, like

many ranchers, the Berta’s would sell or rotate cattle to other grazing pastures. It was

7

common in early 20th Century cattle ranching to drive herds over the Carmel Valley and

Laureles Grade roads. There were few cars and everybody understood cattle and horses

so there was no need to close the road; only farms and ranches existed then and fences

lined Carmel Valley Road. John Berta’s original “JB” brand registration in the 1918

California Brand Book is shown below.

8

These cowhands are branding a calf in the old corrals of the

Berta Ranch, April 1936.

9

Early Ranch Life

Daily life was far different than today’s with no electricity, modern water supply,

telephones, or refrigeration. Kerosene lamps were used for lighting the main ranch

home and out buildings before carbide lamps were introduced in the early 1920s. A

battery operated radio was added to the ranch in the late 1920s and the butane stove

was introduced in the 1940s.

Roads had to be built and brush had to be cleared. Leo and Patrick Berta were

heavy equipment bulldozer operators who also helped build the roads in other Valley

developments. All supplies had to be provisioned at the ranch before winter as the

Valley roads were often muddy and had many curves and steep grades. Each family

member had to do their assigned chores to make a well run home and ranch. Each of

the Berta children had assigned chores before and after school.

Doctoring a calf at the old barn and corral. The cattle are Herford/Shorthorn

crosses. The road cut into the far hillside leads to the western part of Berta Ranch.

10

Daily ranching chores included haying, gardening, cattle and horse tending,

milking cows, and farming. They made bacon, Boston butts (from the hog’s shoulder),

and once-a-year salami (mixture of beef and pork) which was mixed with spices and

hung and aged. Butter was made by skimming off the cream from the milk and

churning by hand.

Other chores included making wine, cheese, jerky, bread, as well as canning

vegetables and jams and jellies. Later in life the children recalled day-long gingersnap

and sugar cookie making-sessions baked in the wood stove. These big batches of

cookies were doled out two to each child after school and would last the family a couple

of months.

Water for the ranch came from

springs high in the hills that were piped

down to the ranch. One of the springs on

the west side of the ranch was named

after John and Attillo’s sister Mary - Aunt

Mary’s Spring fed into two troughs for the

cattle. On the east side of the ranch were

the High Spring, the Bucket Spring, and

the Clam Spring that were joined together

to feed water to the house and barn

areas. There was very good water

pressure produced by gravity when no

electricity was available.

John’s wife Carmela made most of the clothes which were all hand-washed

before the family had a hand-worked washer. A wood stove was used for cooking food,

heating water, and for heating the house. After felling the oak trees, a 2-man crosscut

saw was used to cut it into firewood lengths and then split. The sheer volume of

firewood burned made this a time-consuming and back-breaking chore. It is no wonder

that subsequent homes built by the Berta men had other heating sources than

firewood!

Aunt Mary

11

Prior to getting the family’s first car in 1918, their primary transportation was a

horse-pulled spring wagon (a box structure hung on leaf springs). The driver sat on the

right seat where the brake was located and there was a “jockey box” located near the

front seat where incidentals were kept. It would take several hours to get to Salinas or

Monterey from the Berta Ranch. A larger wagon was used to haul heavy loads such as

taking hogs to the slaughterhouse.

The Berta family was some of the first parishioners of Our Lady of Mount

Carmel Church in the Village which was built from Frank DeAmaral’s barn in 1947. On

Sundays the family would often have picnics at the ranch or invite another family to join

in on the barbecue. Other times the family would go in the spring wagon to visit the

Piazzoni family about 6 miles away (3 miles as the crow flies).

Starting at five years old, the Berta children went to the one-room Tularcitos

School where John Berta was clerk of the trustees. The school was located just

beyond the Russell Ranch (now Stonepine Estates). One of the school’s special

occasions was eighth grade graduation which was attended by all families having

schoolchildren. The school children would entertain and cake and ice cream

were served.

The Piazzoni family pays a visit to the Berta Ranch, circa 1920s to 1930s.

12

John Berta is standing in front of the separator used to thresh barley, circa 1927.

Harvesting barley on Berta Ranch - Patrick Berta on ground with pitchfork; Peter

Berta on wagon with pitchfork. The ground grain was fed to the pigs and the hay

to cattle and horses. George Seideneck photo, undated.

13

Patrick Berta is shown on the far right sewing barley sacks at the thresher.

A team of four draft horses was used to pull this large wagon purchased from Jim

Wolter. They are hauling barley to the thresher at Berta Ranch’s Willow Spring

field. This method of harvesting grain has now passed into history. George

Seideneck photo, circa 1940.

14

The wagon shown in these photos was used to haul barley. It still sits on

the old Berta Ranch site today.

15

This “dump rake” is shown with the hay barn, weight scale, and corrals in the

background. Although built in the 1950s, it is still functional.

After the barley was cut, it was left to dry in the field for two or three days. The dump rake would then be used to rake the barley, repeatedly dumping it into windrows by use of a foot pedal. A loader was pulled behind a wagon straddling the windrow to lift hay into the wagon where men on the wagon would distribute the load.

Leo Berta on the ranch, circa late 1940s.

16

Leo and Mary Berta (nee O’Neill)

are pictured at the old barn and

corral before taking a ride on the

ranch, circa mid-1940s.

The photo above looks south-

southwest over the ranch. The

road seen on the far hill is the

main road coming into the ranch

up Klondike Canyon.

They were married in San

Francisco in 1946 and together

raised their seven children:

Dolores (Ransom), Tim, Maureen

(Roscorla), Ray, Liana (Olson),

David, and Don. Mary died in

1995; Leo died in 2003.

17

Ray Berta recalled the commanding vistas as seen from the top of the ridge: to

the west and north are all of Monterey Bay, the Salinas Valley, the Gabilan and

Diablo Ranges, the Santa Cruz Mountains, and up the coast north of Santa Cruz.

The Santa Lucia Mountains are to the south and to the east are Mt. Toro and the

ranch lands of the Sierra de Salinas stretching all the way to Arroyo Seco.

Looking north with the new barn in the foreground and far hills the family called

“The Ridge.” The tractor is shown hauling barley; when the barn was filled the

overflow was stacked behind the corrals, circa 1960.

This view looking

north from Los

Tulares overlooks

the Berta Ranch

property with Mt.

Toro on the left

horizon.

18

Leo and Ray Berta and Chris Harrold moving Berta Ranch Hereford/Angus

cross cattle on the Holman Ranch in November 2001. It was common practice

to rotate cattle between available pastures. The Blomquist Ranch to the east and

the nearby Holman Ranch were among the local ranches used.

This was Leo’s last ride before his death. He spent this day on the half

Arabian/half Saddlebred mare Gypsy gathering cattle on the ranch’s steep slopes

and roping calves during branding.

19

Ranch Barbed Wire

The ribbon-type barbed wire pictured above is over a century old and came

from a shared fence line between the Berta Ranch and Rancho Carmelo near

Klondike Creek. It was patented in 1879 and mass produced until the early 1900’s

by several manufacturers, likely by one of the steel mills in DeKalb, Illinois. The

wire segment shown was in continuous use until 2014 and the same barbed wire

is still in place on the ranch’s perimeter fences.

As true in all western states, barbed wire such as this changed the lives of ranchers and farmers forever and played a significant role in settlement of the west. When Attillio and John Berta started their ranch in 1887, cattle raising was the largest industry in the west with barbed wire range wars and barbed wire cutting vigilantes still a fact of life in Texas. The Indians referred to the wire as “Devil’s Rope.”

20

Ranch Tools

This is a spring-operated coupling device. Its center connecting rod is uncoupled by pulling on the spring rod. It is easily reattached after hooking it to a rope or cable. In this way a tractor driver could uncouple the load without requiring assistance or leaving the tractor. This device would function just as reliably today as it did a century ago and may have been hand made.

This is an early 1900s slotted screwdriver made by the Swallow Airplane Co. of Wichita, Kansas that made several notable airplanes during the 1920s. It incorporated a hinged lever that was part of the handle. When opened, it provided a fulcrum to allow a greater torque to be applied to the screw. It had an aluminum handle and hinged lever.

This is an antique soldering iron. Early soldering irons were heated by open flame or forge before electric irons became available. A soldering iron was used to melt solder to join metallic parts together.

This tool was known as a “butter press.” Its function was to squeeze butter into round sections to facilitate cutting into round sections for sale or ease of storage.

This is an “Enterprise Tinned Meat Chopper, No. 22” made in Philadelphia in the late 1800s. It was used to manually produce sausage or other ground meats. The front plate is screwed on tightly and different rings could be used to render coarse or fine grinds.

This is a period “bush axe” made for clearing brush or pruning trees.

This tool’s usage is unclear. It was most likely used as a meat hook for hanging hog or cattle carcasses.

21

Farm Implements

Clockwise, L to R: BROADCAST SEEDER, cart-mounted used to spread oats, barley, rye, or wheat seed;

GANG PLOW, horse or tractor drawn, hand-operated “walk behind” 3-bottom plow; LETZ FEED

GRINDER, driven from a belt-driven pulley powered by steam or gas engines to grind crops and roughage

for animal feed; CYCLE MOWER, horse drawn, ground-driven cycle mower used for cutting grasses and

grains. These implements were donated by the Berta Family to the Carmel Valley Historical Society.

22

The Berta Family

John and Carmela with their first five children, circa 1902.

John married Carmela Morelli in 1892 and they had 14

children, all born on the ranch between 1894 and 1916.

L to R: John, Ancilla, Attilio, Isadore, Candida, Joseph, and

Carmela.

All 14 children were together at their mother Carmela’s funeral

in 1956. Standing, L to R: Sister Claire Helena, Joseph,

Ancilla, Lawrence, Attilio, Anne, Candida, Sisto, Peter, Leo,

and Esther. Kneeling, L to R: Patrick, Raphael, and Isadore.

23

Left photo: All but Joseph and Candida are present in this photo.

Back row: Isadore, Sisto, Attilio.

Middle row of six, L to R: Esther, Ancilla, Raphael, Peter, Helena, and John.

Front row of five, L to R: Leo, Pat, Anne, Lawrence, and Carmelo.

Right photo: John’s wife Carmela (nee Morelli) immigrated to America from

Cevio, Switzerland.

Bottom photo: L to R in back: Leo, Raphael, Sisto, Lawrence.

L to R in front: Ancilla, Esther, Anne.

24

Ancilla Anne Esther

Sisto Sister Claire Helena Raphael

25

Patrick Peter Leo

Leo Lawrence Isadore

26

Lawrence (on left) and Leo on a hill overlooking the Berta Ranch.

Lawrence Berta (left) and Leo Berta (right) with good friend Vic Silva

(center) who lived on the nearby Piazzoni Ranch.

27

Leo (left) and Lawrence (right) formed a partnership after John Berta’s death in 1940. They

retained their father’s “JB” brand and continued to raise cattle on the ranch.

Leo spent a lifetime ranching in the hills of the Sierra de Salinas and Gabilan ranges. He

retired from ranching in 1987 at age 87. In 1996 he was honored with the Vaquero of the Year

award at the Monterey County Fair.

Lawrence, youngest of the 14 children, lived in Monterey County his entire life. As was Leo,

Lawrence was honored with the Vaquero of the Year award. Lawrence moved to the Rancho

Cienaga del Gabilan when the family leased it in 1959, then moved back to the Berta Ranch in

1980 where he remained until the ranch was sold in 1999.

28

Peter Berta proudly holds up his catch of steelhead trout taken from the

Carmel River. His 1956 Ford station wagon is pictured in background.

29

Berta Family Genealogy

30

Credits

This history could not have been possible without the expert and

passionate help of Ray Berta who provided the Berta Family photo and

genealogical archives as well as his vivid memories of the Berta Ranch

and family. Tim Berta’s insightful review was also very helpful.

Ray Berta and Jeff Ohlson met many times during 2015 and 2016

to produce this history.

Photos

Berta Family photo archives.

Carmel Valley Historical Society photo archives.

George Seideneck photo collection.

Julie Chase Baldocchi collection – photo of Leo Berta, page 26.

Jeff Ohlson photo collection.

References Hagemeier's BARBED WIRE IDENTIFICATION ENCYCLOPEDIA, 5th

edition, 2010. The Berta Ranch barb wire was identified as wire #

915B. It was patented by Jacob Brinkerhoff of Auburn, New York,

under U.S. Patent # 214,095 dated April 8, 1879. Barb wire and fence

posts were donated to the Historical Society by Laurie Petkus.

Monterey Peninsula Herald, Oct. 28, 1973; article reporting the

accidental death of Patrick Berta, age 60, while operating his tractor

on Carmel Valley’s Kahn Ranch.