Short-Meriner Family by Brian Crawford

"The History of a Pioneer Marin County Family"

Much of San Rafael and San Anselmo were once owned by the Short brothers, Jacob and John Orey Baptiste (J. O. B.). This is the story of how the teenage brothers came to Marin by wagon train in 1846 with two young sisters and their widowed mother Jane Meriner.

A fictionalized account of the arrival in Marin County of the Short-Meriner family in 1846. The family became prominent Marin pioneers and once owned much of San Rafael and San Anselmo (including my own home). Jane Meriner, a 37-year-old widow, her two teenage sons by her first marriage, J. O. B. and Jacob Short, and her small daughters by her second husband, Elizabeth and Catherine Meriner, drove their covered wagon along the California Trail from Missouri to San Rafael. They were friends of the Donner party and traveled part of the way with them, crossing Roller Pass instead of Donner Pass and getting across just before the storm that doomed the Donners. Since there are many accounts of the California Trail, this account describes only the final part of their journey, from the end of the Trail at Johnson’s Rancho in Yolo County and across the Central Valley to the San Rafael Mission, where they lived in the abandoned buildings. 60 pages, with maps and illustrations.