Marin County has a long history of dairy production dating back to the 1850s. Soon after the discovery of gold, San Francisco needed milk, butter and cheese to feed its fast-growing population. Immigrant dairymen, many from Portugal and Switzerland, found the rolling hills and grasslands of Marin optimal for cattle grazing and established dairies around the county. In the early days, towns such as Bolinas and Tomales shipped dairy products to San Francisco by schooner. When the railroads came to Marin, Sausalito became a hub of transport for Marin and Sonoma dairies to get their products to The City. In a January 2020 Marin IJ article, historians Mike Moyle and Dewey Livingston, working on a comprehensive county dairy map and database, estimated that there have been close to 350 dairies operating in Marin over the last 170 years.
The Roberts Dairy of San Rafael was founded in 1898 by Rachel Armstrong Roberts and her husband John with just two Jersey cows. Their home and dairy were in what was then called “Happy Valley” and what we know today as the Montecito neighborhood just east of Highway 101. The family’s home and dairy were near the corner of Mary St. and Mission Ave. Through hard work, business acumen, and a wide-ranging home delivery service, the Roberts Dairy became a leading producer of milk and milk products in Marin. By the late 1930s, the Roberts’ along with their son-in-law, Niles Lundgren, had purchased five other parcels of land in West Marin and northern San Rafael grazing over 1000 head of Jersey dairy cattle.
Rachel Roberts is in the foreground of the photograph with her husband John and her family behind her and to her left. Immediately on her right is Sayles Turney, part owner
and manager of the dairies. By 1938, when this photograph was taken, the company had a fleet of trucks delivering milk and dairy products to homes and markets around the county. During the 1920s and 30s, the dairy won awards for their cows and milk products at County Fairs and Dairy Shows while transforming their business from hand-milking to the more modern machine-milking. It was also one of only two Marin dairies to be accredited by the State of California as having disease-free herds.
Rachel died in 1943 and the dairy’s management passed to her daughter and son-in-law. Numerous want ads to hire milkers and foremen begin appearing at that time, no doubt a by-product of the Second World War’s impact on non-military employment. One read, “ FOREMAN - Must milk. Very essential in Grade A dairy, wife to cook. Room, board $250/mo.”
By the 1950s the dairy delivery-service business was going out of fashion and larger operations were dominating the market. Newspaper articles about the Roberts Dairy focused on a more community-oriented operation as local school children, Girl Scout and Brownie groups toured the facility to learn about the dairy business or earn “nutrition badges’ for their troops. By 1958 Roberts Dairy had ceased operations and the land and buildings were sold off by the family. The San Rafael Salvation Army Thrift Store now sits on much of the land that once churned out milk, butter and cheese for Marin county residents.
Thank you to Costanza Perry for her newsletter article on Roberts Dairy for the Montecito Area Residents’ Association.
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)