The Long Story.....
Our story begins in Lodano, Ticino, Switzerland with the birth of Guiseppe Natale Tunzi in 1841. Lodano was a small village. In 1850 the population was approximately 140 people. Guiseppe was the 3rd of 6 children. Somewhere in his mid to late 20s, Guiseppe emigrated to Argentina. This was likely due to the Swiss Laws of Primogeniture by which the oldest child would inherit the parental estate. In 1868, Guiseppe married Rosa Serodino. Rosa and her family were also from Switzerland, but from the town of Russo. It is unclear if the two knew each other prior to arriving in Argentina. Guiseppe and Rosa’s first two children, Carlo Natale (born 1869) and Pasquel Guiseppe (born 1871) were both born in Argentina. Sometime after the birth of the two boys, an outbreak of Yellow Fever in Argentina sent the family back home to Switzerland. Interestingly, Guiseppe and Rosa were required to remarry in the Swiss Catholic Church to legitimize their two young sons.
Guiseppe immigrated to the United States in 1874 leaving Rosa and the children behind in Switzerland. Due to extreme poverty, food shortages and the conscription of their youth into passing armies, many Swiss villages paid the costs for their young men to leave. The men were asked only to repay their passage when they were able to do so. Guiseppe’s next older brother, Fillippo Lorenzo Tunzi, also immigrated, but to Australia, in 1855 (According to his great-granddaughter, Maria, he repaid his passage after he arrived in the gold fields in Bendigo). Guiseppe arrived in San Francisco and walked to Pleasant Valley in El Dorado County building barns along the way. As a carpenter, he walked throughout the Mother Lode building barns and other structures. Many of these still stand today including ours!
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Rosa and the boys immigrated a year later, in 1875, staying in San Francisco with cousins (Buzzini) until Guiseppe came for them. Prior to leaving Switzerland, Rosa repaid their village with money Guiseppe had sent her along with her passage to the US. Their third son, John Amelio, was born in Pleasant Valley in June of 1877.
1878 found the family settled on their new Home Ranch alongside Horse Creek in Amador County (Mount Echo District). The following years brought several children. Mary (born 1880) was followed by Julia (1882), then Albert (1884), and George (1887). Unfortunately, in 1883, Mary died as a result of a rattlesnake bite.
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Guiseppe was naturalized in August 1884 thus becoming an American citizen. Rosa and the two older boys, both under the age of 18, were naturalized at that time through the “derivative” clause of Immigration Law. At some point between Guiseppe’s arrival in the US and his naturalization, the family name changed, likely due to transcription errors, from Tunzi to Tonzi.
The original Tonzi home 1890ish. Left to right: John, Albert, Guiseppe, Julia, Rosa, George, Joe
Guiseppe, now called Joseph Tonzi, continued his carpentry work adding stage stop barns into the mix. His two older sons ran a family drayage business, hauling supplies to the stores and mines in the Mother Lode area. The family began to run cattle at the Home Ranch, eventually purchasing mountain property to use for summer grazing. They were an enterprising family also dabbling in talc, quartz, copper and molybdenum mining as those minerals were located on parts of the ranch property.
As the young men married and settled down, they chose professions which allowed them to be closer to their homes and families. Carlo, now known as Charles, had a store and various other enterprises in Sacramento. Pasquel Guiseppe, now known as Joe, became a Standard Oil dealer and a saloon keeper in Ione. John and Albert remained on the ranch. John was the stockman and Albert (Bert) continued with the drayage business.
As the mines became less productive and the gasoline automobile became more prevalent, the need for 6 mule teams to haul goods dwindled. After his marriage to Myrtle Gebhardt in January 1906, Bert moved to the San Francisco area where he continued his drayage business. His services were sorely needed and in high demand following the San Francisco Earthquake in April of 1906 as automobiles had a hard time negotiating the torn-up streets. Following the birth of their first child, a son named George in 1907, Myrtle and the baby also moved to San Francisco. George was named for Bert’s youngest brother, who died tragically in a swimming accident in 1906 at age 18. Once in San Francisco, Myrtle contributed to the family coffers by making ladies hats while Bert continued his drayage business also working as a stevedore, loading and unloading ships in the harbor. Their second son Earl Albert (“Young Bert”) was born in San Francisco in 1913. George and Young Bert attended both Catholic and Public Schools in San Francisco.
Guiseppe and Rosa with grandson George
1910 saw John married to Ella Mason. Rosa had purchased another ranch, known as the Green Ranch, about 10 miles west of the Home Ranch. John and Ella established themselves there and started their family. They had 3 children John Arthur (1911), Russell Robert (1913) and Mary Ella (1915). To date, the Green Ranch is still owned by members of John’s family.
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In 1911, Charles H. Henderson, a neighbor to the south of the Home Ranch passed away. In his will, he left a plot of land in Ione to Julia Tonzi (Guiseppe and Rosas’ daughter) and the rest of his property and personal possessions to Rosa Tonzi. Rosa and her daughter Julia were his close neighbors as well as his friends and had been his caretakers during his illnesses. He did not want to leave the property to his brothers in New Jersey because he knew they would only sell it quickly for the proceeds. At the time of this inheritance, Rosa settled Julia at the “Henderson Place” where Julia continued to ranch until her death at the age of 99 in 1981. Along the way, in 1913, Julia married August Borello, a chef in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Unfortunately, August passed away 5 years later from acute appendicitis. In about 1920, Julia married Mark John Paine but she later divorced him because, as she would say, he was not up to her work ethic! Upon Julia’s death, she left the Henderson Ranch to her nephew George, eldest son of Bert and Myrtle. This property now forms the southern boundary of the current Home Ranch holdings.
Julia Tonzi Paine 1949 at the Home Ranch
Guiseppe passed away on 7 January 1921 leaving Rosa alone on the ranch. John and Julia helped her as well as they could while still running their own ranches. Bert and Myrtle’s son George also helped out spending his summer vacations with his grandmother Rosa until he graduated high school in 1926. At this time, Bert and his family moved back to the Home Ranch with Rosa. Young Bert continued his education in Ione schools. George helped his father and grandmother on the ranch until he returned to the Bay Area to enroll in Marin Junior College in 1928. Following college he returned to Ione helping, through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), to build watering troughs throughout the ranch. Most of these concrete troughs are still in service today.
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Following a fire at neighboring Goffinet Ranch in 1930, George met Elmerie Rupley, daughter of prominent Central House rancher, Elmer Rupley. George and his father Bert were traveling the area selling tickets for a raffle to help rebuild the Goffinet ranch house. Years later, Elmerie would tell her story about the handsome young man (George) and his father meeting them on the road while she and her family were moving their sheep. Just as Elmerie’s father called her to come meet the men, an old ewe birthed twins right in front of her. She was terribly embarrassed but it made for a very memorable first meeting.
George and Young Bert 1917 ish
Rosa passed in 1932 leaving the Home Ranch to her son Bert who continued to run it with his son George. George and Elmerie were married in November 1933. Ranch work, CCC and short time work at Snyder’s Sawmill in the Buckhorn area of Amador County were not enough to sustain a family during the Great Depression so George took and successfully passed a State of California Civil Service Examination and oral board. He reported for work at Preston School of Industry in Ione on 15 June, 1934. He worked for the State, at Preston, for 32 years, retiring in 1966. During this time, George continued to work on the ranch with his father. George and Elmerie lived in the Castle at Preston School of Industry until 1939, when they purchased a house in Ione so as not to raise their daughters inside the reform school. George and Elmerie had two daughters Elmerita, known as Rita, in 1937 and Cynthia in 1943. When Bert passed away in 1958, George and his family took over complete management of the Home Ranch for Myrtle. This included the summer grazing contract with the US Forest Service as they had purchased the ranch livestock from Myrtle. Upon Myrtle’s death in 1958, the property was divided between the brothers with George retaining the Home Ranch and Young Bert another portion of the ranch a few miles away.
Bert and Myrtle at the Home Ranch 1956
George and Harry 1931 at the Henderson Place.