What we call Brookdale was the last stand of the redwood forest that once stretched along the San Lorenzo between Felton and Boulder Creek. When the Santa Cruz County Lumber War broke out in 1893, the 400-acre tract on both sides of Clear Creek was owned by Grover and Company, one of the principal combatants.
The Grover firm, founded by brothers from Maine, enjoyed success in Soquel and Santa Cruz for nearly 30 years. Stephen Freleon, considerably younger than his late brother James, shared control with his nephew, Dwight.
Everything changed when well-heeled competitors moved in and claimed the smaller company’s territory as their own. Grover and Co. fought back against the Loma Prieta Co., “feeling they could meet any prices which the latter might establish, no matter how low.”
Forced to increase production, the Grovers harvested their San Lorenzo Valley land. In February 1893, they purchased the nearby sawmill of J. W. Peery and began to cut trees around Clear Creek. By May, the newly-acquired Grover mill was “running full blast.”
The commercial battle soon escalated. In November, a fire at the Grover’s Clear Creek depot destroyed hundreds of cords of wood. That same day another blaze nearly destroyed one of their buildings in Soquel.
Loggers, teamsters and mill workers were recruited by the score. Their presence attracted the neighborhood’s first entrepreneur. “Peter Pundt,” a former customer recalled, “set up a little roadside stand, consisting of a keg of beer and a counter where he kept a couple of boxes of crackers. Peter always cautioned us: ‘The beer is free, but I am charging you for crackers.’”
The economic battle was a costly one. “Prices of lumber fell with such an unprofitable thud that the profits disappeared.” The Grovers continued cutting through 1895, moving their mill closer to Clear Creek as the harvest progressed. However, as one observer noted: “It was plain to see that the men with the most capital would eventually win.”
In January, 1897 Grover and Co. declared itself insolvent. Its principal creditor, the Bank of Santa Cruz County, stepped in to arrange a satisfactory disposal of the firm’s remaining assets. The bankers had little sympathy for Dwight Grover, who had a penchant for fast horses and bad investments. He was allowed to retain possession of his homestead and little else.
Considerable thought was given, however, to the future of S. F. Grover, a former director of the bank and an old friend of its officers. They were equally fond of his wife, who was prominent in social affairs, active in the temperance movement and an advocate of woman’s suffrage. They decided to help salvage the family’s fortune by transferring the company’s 400 acres on Clear Creek into her name. And so, on June 29, 1897, Mrs. Sarah Ann Grover became the owner of the future site of Brookdale.
- Randall Brown lives in Boulder Creek and works in Felton. He wrote the history of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District and is the co-author of “Santa Cruz’s Seabright.”
