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Spotlight at the Ranch, the Historic Mosher Ranch
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Published: Thursday, March 17, 2011 5:39 PM PDT in the Elk Grove Citizen
You may have already done it, but if not, NOW is the time to mark your calendar for a spectacular June event – Spotlight at the Ranch. This new fundraiser for the Elk Grove Community Foundation will take place on Sunday, June 12, 2011, and it looks like it will have something for everyone—young, old, and everything in between. Here are four reasons why you need to attend Spotlight at the Ranch in 2011.
Scholarships - The biggest reason to attend is because the main focus of the Ranch event is the support of our local scholarships. Those who attend Spotlight Elk Grove will celebrate the hundreds of students from Elk Grove high schools who have received financial assistance from Foundation scholarships for college and career.
Friends, Food, and Fun - Another reason to make June 12 a priority is that Spotlight events have a great reputation for getting folks together. You will be able to visit with friends you have not seen for a while and meet many new ones. As usual, there will be plenty of food, and this year, there will be barbecue as well. And, Spotlight will be fun with the Ranch specialty of great music and lots of entertainment.
Melba Mosher – It is because of the generosity of Mrs. Mosher, an Elk Grove Supergrad, and her family that the Foundation has been able to arrange the Sunday gathering at the Grant Line Road Ranch. She has lived on this Ranch east of Highway 99 and south of Elk Grove Boulevard for the past 60 years. Everyone who knows the Mosher family knows their reputation for wonderful parties at the Ranch.
Great History – Wait until you hear the background of the Moshers as well as the story of the Grant Line Road Ranch. The story of the Ranch stretches all the way back in California history as part of Jared Dixon Sheldon’s historic Omochumnes Land Grant of 1844! Agriculture has always been the focus at the Ranch, especially cattle, and you will be right there where it all happened over the years.
Now, to get to the details of Spotlight at the Ranch, June 12, 2011, the chairperson of the Ranch Committee is Marsha Holmes. Like Melba Mosher, Marsha is also an Elk Grove Supergrad, and her family history in the area goes back many years. Laura Gill, our Elk Grove City Manager has graciously agreed to be the honorary chairperson of Spotlight at the Ranch, and there will be a host of dignitaries joining her there.
The gates to the Ranch will open at 1 p.m., and the activities will continue until 7 p.m. The entertainment has these superb headliners: the Kyle Rowland Band, Nat Brown, and Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers. For the younger Ranch visitors, there will be a petting zoo, face painting, a balloon artist, and many other activities. Spotlight tickets will soon be available at $20, but children ages 12 and under are free. Admission will include parking, entertainment, children’s activities, a tour of the restored 1885 farm house, a carriage display, a chance to win door prizes, and bottled water. All of the following will be for sale: food (the barbecue as well as other food), beverages (wine, beer, soft drinks), event T-shirts, CDs by the performing artists, and more.
For folks who do not know the Mosher family, here is a little summary. William (Bill) Mosher moved to the Grant Line Road Ranch from Clarksburg in 1937 when he was 12 years old. An Elk Grove Supergrad, he graduated from Elk Grove High School in 1943, as did his Supergrad sister, Madelyn, who became Madelyn Valensin. If you are a reader of History Happened Here, you will recognize Madelyn as the person I often referred to as “the Countess of Hicksville.” She and Bill are no longer with us, and we miss them both.
Melba Ledbetter graduated from Elk Grove High in 1945. Her family is from Sloughhouse with many, many connections to early California history along the Cosumnes River as well as south Tahoe. The library at Cosumnes River Elementary School is called the Faye and Lester Ledbetter Library in recognition of all their contributions to education.
The next generations of Moshers are also Supergrads, just like their parents, and they will all be involved with Spotlight at the Ranch. They are Bill Mosher (Class of 1971), Faye Krull, (Class of 1973), and Ouida Garms, (Class of 1977). With their spouses, Kay Mosher, Bob Krull, and Herbert Garms, the families continue in the spirit of farming and community service that has been part of their family for many years. Melba’s support of community organizations is stellar, and she has been involved with many including Project R.I.D.E., the Strauss Festival, and the Elk Grove Historical Society.
The history part of the Ranch is legendary. The entire area was first the home of our Miwok people, and then in 1844, Jared Dixon Sheldon was granted the Omochumnes Rancho from the Mexican government of California. That is how Grant Line Road got its name as it marked the boundary of the land grant. The 18,661 acres on the north side of the Cosumnes River stretched from today’s Highway 99 far into the foothills of what is today’s Rancho Murieta. Sheldon shared the property with his partner, William Daylor, and the Mosher Ranch site was part of the Lower Daylor Ranch.
We all know what happened next with the discovery of gold, but the history phase that followed was agriculture. The Mosher ranch site in the 1880s and early 1900s was known as a great hop ranch with Sam Hoover a pioneer in hops. The Hoover place is the present Mosher Ranch, and it was Hoover’s son who built the big, old house that you will be able to tour at Spotlight.
Since 1937 the Grant Line Road Ranch has been in the Mosher family when it was acquired by William and Rosaslyn Mosher. Their son, William (Bill - Melba’s husband) was a sheepherder, dairyman, horseman and cattleman. He was honored by the Mexican government for his contributions to the betterment of the immigrant agricultural working communities. This excerpt is from History Happened Here, Book 2 and was written in 2002 by the third William (Bill) Mosher, my long ago student at Joseph Kerr: “Three of my four great grandparents were native Californians, and the fourth one came here when he was two years old, so my California roots go back a long way. The Moshers, Ledbetters, Bartons, and Kyburz families have been involved with cattle for many years, some since 1854.”
The Elk Grove Community Foundation thanks the Moshers for providing us with this wonderful opportunity to support scholarships and get connected to the history of our area.
1. History Happened Here, Book 1-River, Oaks, Gold -- $20
2. History Happened Here, Book 2–Fields, Farms, Schools -- $20
3. Images of America-ELK GROVE -- $20
4. We the People, A Story of Internment in America - $20
Tax is included…$3.00 for shipping 1-2 books. Remember that all book proceeds go for scholarships. Make your check payable to Laguna Publishers. Tell me who you want the books signed to and send me your order - P.O. Box 692, Elk Grove CA 95759. Call me at 916-685-0606 or 916-205-1267 – or email me at elizabethpink@gmail.com. Check out my web page at www.elizabethpinkerton.com.
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