Sacramento was certainly a much different place in the late 19th century, as the city’s number of commercial dairies was about equal to the number of carpenters and builders and the number of restaurants.

With this information in mind, it should not be surprising to discover that the even more rural Pocket area, which at the time was just seven miles south of city limits, also included its own commercial dairy, known as the Grangers Dairy.

Furthermore, considering the Pocket’s rich Portuguese roots, which were planted back around the days of the Gold Rush, it should also not be surprising to learn that this dairy was a Portuguese-owned and operated business.

The Portuguese family who owned this very successful business for 44 years was the Seamas family.

 

The Seamas connection

Many local residents are familiar with the name Seamas, since upon a recommendation from Portuguese members of the community, the city named a Pocket area street, Seamas Avenue. The street was given its name as a tribute to Emanuel “Babe” Seamas, the last owner of the dairy.

Although Seamas Avenue, Grangers Dairy Drive, just to the west of the Elks Lodge No. 6 building at 6446 Riverside Blvd., and a housing development in the north Pocket area, called Grangers Dairy, are the lone physical reminders of the dairy’s existence in the area, in its day, the dairy was a very noticeable part of the community.

The road to the creation of Grangers Dairy began with the emigration of Manuel Simas Sebastiao to America. Manuel’s name was later changed to Manuel Seamas.

At the age of 17, Manuel, a native of Pico Island in the Azores islands of Portugal, traveled for a month on a ship, which arrived in Boston in August 1865.

Soon finding employment in the New England area, Manuel initially worked for $7 per month before having his pay increased to $15 per month just three months later.

Determined to make his way to California, Manuel, while working a later job on a whaling ship, abandoned his position on the ship and boarded a steamer in Panama that was routed for the Golden State.

Manuel, who worked on the steamer in exchange for his stay on the ship, arrived in San Francisco in 1868.

Although Manuel desired to head to Sacramento, he was met with the dilemma of not having $5 for the fare to board a Sacramento-bound vessel.

Fortunately for Manuel, he encountered one of his friends from his homeland, who assisted him in hiding in a trunk on a boat headed to Sacramento.

Manuel eventually found work in West Sacramento as a harvester, but his time there was met with a tragic experience as he cut off one of his fingers, spent two weeks in a hospital and later caught malaria.

With plans to return to his employment as a whaler, Manuel was instead convinced to become a miner in Pilot Hill in El Dorado County.

Moving from Pilot Hill to Sierra City, near Truckee, in Sierra County about three years later, Manuel spent two more years mining for $50 per month.

Manuel’s decision to stay in California resulted in his marriage to the Azorean-born Roselina Silveira. The couple was married at St. Rose’s Church at 7th and K streets on Oct. 28, 1877.

 

Away to the Pocket

Initially living together in Sierra County, Manuel and Roselina moved to the Pocket area in 1878.

In 1896, Manuel established his dairy and had a house built for his family on the old Riverside Road – now Riverside Boulevard.

Since the location of the historic road was slightly altered as a result of later development, the former location of the road ran in front of the Seamas’ ornate Victorian house, which was located at the postal address of Route 8, Box 925 in the approximate location of the Elks lodge building.

Manuel, who with his wife had four children – Babe, Anna, Leonora and Mae – operated his dairy for about 21 years.

During the early years of the 27.7-acre Grangers Dairy, milk was delivered to customers in the Land Park area via Manuel’s horse-drawn delivery wagon, which read on its sides, Grangers Dairy, M. Semas. The name “Seamas” was intentionally misspelled “Semas” in hopes that non-Portuguese people would phonetically pronounce the name accurately.

Manuel delivered to the nearby Land Park area, since most people living in the Pocket at the time did not have a need for such deliveries, as residents of the Pocket generally owned their own milking cows.

The dairy experienced a substantial setback in the winter of 1904, when a large flood washed through the dairy and other parts of the Pocket. The dairy recovered from the incident, however, and continued its operation.

With his father’s retirement from the dairy at the age of 70, Babe began operating the business in 1917.

Twenty-three years later, Babe decided to retire from the business himself and sold the dairy to the Crystal Cream and Butter Co.

The dairy’s property and house, however, stayed in the Seamas family for many years thereafter.

Although few details are known regarding the daily operations of the dairy, several photos on file with the Portuguese Historical and Cultural Society present a valuable visual representation of the dairy.

Among these photos, which range in age from the early 1900s to the 1930s, are photos of Manuel, Roselina, Babe and Anna Seamas, the family’s Victorian house and the dairy’s cattle, barns and milk preparation and bottling house.

During an interview conducted by Pocket historian Dolores (Silva) Greenslate with the now-late Clarence Nevis in the early 1980s, Nevis, who was a neighbor of the Seamases, indicated that he believed that the milk preparation and bottling house may have been sentimentally constructed in the likeness of Manuel’s former Azorean home.

Being that the structure was made of stone, it served as an ideal place for keeping the milk cool.

In the background of the only photograph of the preparation and bottling house, a small road separating this building from the barns can be seen.

Although it is not evident in the photograph, this road, Greenslate explained, led directly to Riverside Road, thus providing a simple beginning for the milk deliveries.

Although she never visited the dairy, Greenslate, who grew up in the Pocket, said that she remembers seeing the dairy from Riverside Road and added that the Seamas house was the most impressive house in the Pocket.

“Nothing compared to that house in the Pocket,” Greenslate said. “It was just a beautiful place and a pleasant sight along Riverside Road.”

Greenslate added that although she remembers seeing the Seamas family at Portuguese gatherings at the Portuguese hall, the family generally mingled with a more affluent crowd.

“(The Seamases) mostly socialized with the people who were more wealthy like in those pictures there (of social gatherings at their home),” Greenslate said. “I don’t recognize any of those people (in the photographs). Those were business people or others who were more in the wealthy group. I do remember talking to Babe Seamas and his wife and my mother and Babe were good friends. He was a very nice and pleasant man.”

 

What remains of Grangers Dairy

With nearly 70 years removed from the closure of the Grangers Dairy, the only artifact in the city’s archives from the dairy is a half-pint milk bottle with a chipped neck that was donated by Nevis on Oct. 2, 1982.

Despite the absence of many artifacts and landmarks identifying the old dairy, Greenslate said that she has plenty of memories and pride regarding the Seamas family and their house and dairy.

“The Grangers Dairy is a part of history that I will never forget, because it was an early day Pocket business and because of the grandeur of that house,” Greenslate said. “Other than the brickyard (that was located near today’s Greenhaven Lake), the dairy was the most recognizable business in the Pocket. The Seamas family was also memorable in that they were socially inclined and that they could afford big parties. We weren’t envious of them though. We were proud of them as representatives of the Azores that they were able to come here (to America) and become so successful.”

 

E-mail Lance Armstrong at lance@valcomnews.com.