Sarah Lim: The story behind that old barn

In early presentations about UC Merced, an image that was often shown featured an old barn and a lone tree on rangeland in the shadows of the Sierra Nevada foothills.

You may have wondered about their origins and what happened to that old barn and that old tree.

The barn marks the headquarters of the Smith Ranch in Merced, which consisted of more than 16,000 acres at one time. The exact age of the barn has not been determined, but the Smith Ranch was one of the oldest sheep ranches in Merced County.

The barn and the lone tree have long symbolized the pioneering spirit of the first research university in the 21st century. Indeed, the barn’s former owners, the Smith brothers, were pioneers. Cyril C. and Dorillius G. Smith were native Mainers who came to California because of the Gold Rush in 1852. After their successful individual business ventures, they joined forces in 1858 to raise sheep in Tuolumne, San Luis Obispo and Merced counties.

Cyril C. settled in Snelling after marrying Mary E. Kellett-Morton in 1860. They had two children, Cyril Morton who died at the age of 17 months in 1870, and Elmer E. who was born Oct. 25, 1871. Elmer would later marry Ursula A. Ryan and have two children of his own, Cyril Eugene and Virginia Ursula. Their bequests would become the Cyril Smith Trust and Virginia Smith Trust.

UC Merced was built on the Virginia Smith Trust land.

One of the earliest Smith land records in Merced appears in the 1866-67 Merced County assessment roll where it shows that C.C. Smith and Bros. owned 160 acres. The 1866 Board of Supervisors’ minutes described a Smith’s sheep corral in an area surveyed by the county. The Smith brothers acquired some more property by April 1871 as they were assessed $2 per acre for 240 acres.

The major acquisition of land by the Smith brothers took place sometime between 1871 and 1872 as they anticipated the value of the land would increase in and around the new town of Merced due to the coming of the railroad.

The Merced County assessment roll recorded on April 3, 1872, shows two different entries of the Smiths’ property taxes. The first listing shows C.C. Smith and Bros. owned 11,000 acres mostly in Township 6 South and Range 14 East and partially in Township 7 South and Range 14 East, and the second listing shows they had 1,880 acres in Township 6 South and Range 15 East.

By 1874, the Smith brothers, raising tens of thousands of sheep and lambs, were well-known in California’s wool-growing industry. In addition to stock raising, Dorillius G. also engaged in wool manufacturing as he was one of the incorporators of the Merced Woolen Mills in Merced Falls. For unknown reasons, the Smith brothers decided to dissolve their partnership and D.G. became the sole proprietor of the business.

Although Dorillius G. ran the business and paid taxes for all the property in Merced County, in reality, the Smith brothers continued to share ownership. Cyril C. took over taxpaying duty in 1879 and inherited the land in all three counties, totaling 30,000 acres, after D.G. died in 1883.

Although it is difficult to determine when the barn was built, it is clear the barn was part of a fully functional ranch. In addition to the barn, there was a farmhouse, tank house, scale house, corrals and several windmills. Cyril C. never lived on the ranch as he raised his family in Merced on 15th Street. After Cyril C. passed away in 1900, Elmer took over the ranch operations and later built his residence at 760 W. 20th St. His former residence is now the law office of Morse, Morse and Morse.

According to historian Dr. Alan Paterson, author of “Legacy of the Land: A History of the Virginia Smith Trust,” the lone eucalyptus tree was planted in 1943 by Helen Stewart, whose family lived and worked on the ranch. By the 1980s, the barn and the tree were all that remained.

As we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of UC Merced, we are also celebrating the pioneering spirit of Merced’s founders. The Smith brothers may not have foreseen the building of a university on their rangeland, but they believed in hard work and perseverance and in being the trailblazers in building a better life for their children and grandchildren.

Likewise, UC Merced is building a brighter future for the children of the San Joaquin Valley and it is our pleasure to celebrate this important milestone with a museum exhibit.

So please join us at the opening of the “UC Merced at 10” exhibit at the Courthouse Museum at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15. At the reception, Bob Carpenter, who led the campaign to establish UC Merced, and UC Merced history majors will give a PowerPoint presentation about the history of our young campus.

This story was originally published October 8, 2015 at 9:37 PM with the headline "Sarah Lim: The story behind that old barn."