Julia Pfeiffer Burns - Pioneer Rancher
Julia Pfeiffer shod horses, plowed, hayed, roped and rode with any man on the coast — and better than most.
Julia Pfeiffer was adept at any kind of ranch work. She shod the horses, plowed the fields, harvested the hay crop and looked after the cattle. She could ride and rope as well as any man. When she married John Burns, there was an obstacle - her aging parents needed someone to carry on. She wrote to her youngest brother Frank who agreed to take over, allowing Julia to wed at a church ceremony in Monterey in 1915. Julia became the dominant figure on Saddlerock Ranch. John Burns refused to ride a horse down the steep slopes and Julia was often seen riding pell-mell down a ridge after stray cattle with John far up the ridge picking his way down on foot.