In honor of Women's History Month, let us look at another Pioneer woman of Rancho San Pablo: Fredericka Blume.

Fredericka Johanning was born on 22 May 1842 in Prussia [Germany]. She arrived c1866 and married Heinrich "Henry" Blume in November 1867. Henry, also an immigrant of Germany, had arrived in San Francisco in 1856. Henry first settled near Pinole but sold out and moved to a farm in San Pablo, consisting of three hundred and fifty acres where he engaged in dairying and farming. After marrying Henry, they settled in San Pablo and continued farming and ranching. Heinrich was a prominent member of the community. They had five sons, Henry, Frederick, William, Carl and Albert; and one daughter, Frederica who died as a small child at two years of age. The boys received their education at the "big school" on San Pablo Avenue (near today's LeRoy Heights). Their social life revolved around occasional wagon trips to town--San Pablo. Their home was host to many social events and celebrations attended by local pioneering farming families of the county. Unfortunately, Heinrich died in the summer of July 1895 at age 58.

After the death of her husband, Fredericka didn't let any dust settle on her. Although she was now a widow at age 54, she kept farming the land. The main cash crops were hay and grain, but she also had beef cattle, milk cows and chickens, from which they sold butter and eggs. An orchard and garden provided much of the family's food. She also has pigs, rabbits, guinea hens, pigeons, peacocks and bees on the farm. Left with five sons to raise, she took in boarders; in the 1900 Census, 2 are listed as farm laborers, and 2 others as well drillers. Fredericka then purchased 996 acres of Rancho San Pablo for $29,000 from Elizabeth Dover Emeric in November 1899.

In 1905, Fredericka built a new luxurious home while maintaining the now 1,000-acre farm in San Pablo with the help of her five sons. It was unusually large and luxurious for a farmhouse having seven bedrooms, a parlor, kitchen, dining room, two bathrooms and running water (electricity was added in 1929). The original house was used as a chicken house. The water was provided from a 6,000-gallon water tank and windmill. Heat was provided by the fireplace and the kitchen stove.

During that time, there was speculation of oil on the Blume property and the surrounding land. In November 1911, the Standard Oil Company purchased 127 acres of land from Fredericka Blume for $125,000; equivalent to $4 million today. Although she had sold most of the land to the Standard Oil, she leased back 400 acres for farming and kept 36 acres around the home. By November 1913, Standard Oil was in negotiations with A. C. (Carl) Blume to purchase 800 acres of the ranch at $210 per acre for the purpose of establishing an enormous "tank farm." Fredericka had also become a stock owner in the Central National Bank and the Central Savings of Oakland.

Fredericka died on 15 December 1925 at age 83, and unfortunately, she had no proper Will in place. Half of her estate was valued at $140,000 in cash on deposit in various banks in Richmond and Oakland. In addition to the cash, the estate consisted of $40,000 in stocks in the Central National and Central Savings Banks of Oakland; $7,000 in Liberty Bonds; $47, 570 in promissory notes and $3,000 in incidental assets totaling $237,570 ($4.2M today). Not bad for an 83-year-old widow! Her four surviving sons, Henry, Fred, William and Carl inherited and shared in her estate equally and continued to run the farm until the late 1940s.