CADRA

Posted by Carolyn Schwab on Monday, October 09, 2006 at 08:47:29 :

San Rafael Independent
Thursday, April 4, 1946
page 1

Marin's Oldest Dies, Aged 102

JACKO CADRA, 102 year old retired Marin ranch worker whose favorite boast was the sardonic comment that "I lived long enough to see three presidents of the United States assassinated", died yesterday at the Marin County Hospital in Lucas Valley.

The gnarled, bewhiskered farmhand was the oldest patient at the institution, and is believed to have been the oldest resident of Marin County. He entered the county farm in 1940.

Although essentially a "rolling stone", he settled down to work on the J.C. Poncia ranch in Snake Road, near Pistolesi, in western Marin County, in his later years.

Born in Switzerland in 1844, he came to the United States 18 years later. In 1865, he returned to his native land.

He yearned for the "new world", however, and after 18 years in Europe, boarded a ship to come back to the United States. He traveled to the Pacific Coast, never to leave this area again.

A non citizen who never learned to read or write English, Cadra in his earlier years, would collect his monthly farm pay, go to town and disappear until the money disappeared also - which usually wasn't very long, acquaintances said.

Cadra was not married and had no known relatives.

He had been employed through the years at various ranches on the Marin-Sonoma line, county farm authorities said.

Funeral services were held at the Frank J. Keaton mortuary in Sausalito today, followed by interment.