Pescadero’s Civil War general and the ‘Big Cheese’

Steele, born in Delhi, New York in 1819, served as a major in the war with Mexico. He came to San Mateo County at the end of that conflict and lived on a ranch south of Pescadero near his brother, Isaac, and cousin Rensselaer. According to a 1943 article in La Peninsula magazine, Steele returned to the army immediately after the Civil War began and rose rapidly through the chain of command, first as a major, then lieutenant colonel, followed by colonel, brigadier general and finally major general. Steele returned to San Mateo County when the war ended but died soon after. An item from the Times-Gazette of Jan. 11, 1868, reported he died “suddenly of apoplexy at San Mateo and his burial took place in San Francisco.” He never married.

Steele’s Pescadero kin did not serve in the war, but they did their bit. That’s where the cheese comes in. So does Mark Twain.

His brother Isaac and cousin Rensselaer were among the most successful dairy farmers in California. So successful that in 1864 they had the idea to fashion a gigantic wheel of cheddar to raise funds for the Sanitary Commission, a forerunner of the Red Cross. It was not an easy task. The Steeles got a lot of help from their neighbors on the coast who pitched in and milked 1,500 cows to make the 3,800 pounds of cheese that debuted at the Industrial Fair held by the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco where people paid 25 cents to glimpse the 7-foot wide by 2-foot deep cheese. Most of the cheese sold for 50 cents a pound after it was displayed for a month. Some of it was sent to the White House so President Lincoln could sample it. The California Milk Advisory ranks the cheese among its “Milestones in California Cheese History.” Indeed, this cheese stood alone.

Mark Twain, then writing under his real name, Samuel Clemens, reported on the massive cheese in the San Francisco Daily Morning Call, concluding that “it is the contribution of two whole-hearted brothers and it is worth twenty-five cents to look upon such a monument of kindly Christian charity.” Twain wrote several stories about the cheese but ended up being fired for not checking his facts. Perhaps his pink clip had something to do with Isaac and Rensselaer being cousins, not brothers.

By the 1870s, the Steele Brother Dairies was the second largest owner of milk cows in California. The Steeles also owned apple orchards and raised beans and wheat. Along with their 7,000-acre holdings on the Peninsula, the Steeles had property in Marin and Santa Cruz counties. Today, their farmhouse is part of the Green Oaks Creek organic farm in Pescadero.

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.