Bridget Albini was raised on a dairy ranch along the Estero Americano, about 3 miles south of the town of Bodega. She attended Potter Elementary school in Bodega, then Tomales High School. She obtained work as a housemaid for Robert & Bessie (Gaver) Steitz in Petaluma. Bessie and her brother, Po, owned about 20 large ranches, including the ranch directly to the west of the Morelli Ranch in Occidental. She met Bap Morelli at a dance in Camp Meeker, and they were married about two years later.

Bridget was a wonderful cook and had a great sense of humor. She loved practical jokes and she loved to sing Italian folk songs with her sisters Helen, Jane and Emma, an example of which is contained in the attached sound clip “La Mula.”

Bap was born on the Morelli ranch in 1910. Along with numerous cousins, he attended the Occidental District grammar school located on the east side of Harrison Grade Road, approximately one quarter mile south of Morelli Lane. He went on to Analy High School in Sebastopol where he graduated in 1927. He worked for several years in the bootleg alcohol business with his brother-in-law Charles Garzoli where he was a lookout scout earning $100 per day, which was more than 10 times the normal daily wage at that time. This was such a profitable experience that in 1932 he set up his own alcohol still on his uncle Tony’s property, located on the west side of North Fork Creek, about 400 feet south of Tony’s northerly property line. According to legend, the US Treasury agents received a tip from a snitch, so they raided the business on its very first day of operations. They arrested his cousin, Peter Morelli, who was managing the still at the time. A small article in the Press Democrat stated:

“Federal Prohi officers from Santa Rosa and Sacramento
on Monday morning seized a 250 gallon still, 50 gallons
of alcohol, and 2,000 gallons of mash and arrested
Pete Morelli, 25, on a ranch northeast of Occidental.
Morelli is in the county jail in lieu of $2,000 bail set
by Commissioner McAlpine before whom he was taken
after his arrest on a possession charge.
Federal Prohis from the Santa Rosa office scouting in
the Occidental district on Sunday smelled the odor of
the mash and wired to Sacramento for additional
officers to come to this county to assist them in the raid.”


Eventaully, Bap quit the alcohol business (after his father used an axe to chop up a copper cooling coil) and went to work for the County Road Department in Occidental. He lived on the ranch until his marriage in 1936, at which time he rented a house from his uncle, Lee Morelli, that was located about 1.5 miles from the ranch. Several years later he moved back to the ranch where he managed all the farm activities in addition to his regular job with the County Road Department. He inherited the ranch when his father died in 1951. He served as a member of the local school board for many years and was an active member in the Druids Frederick Sieg Grove #94 in Occidental, the grove that was founded by his father and his grandfather. In 1970, before reaching retirement age, he was diagnosed with colon cancer, and he died about a year later.

When Bap died in 1971, the ranch passed to his wife, Bridget, and when she died in 1996, the ranch passed in equal portions to the estates of their three children. The County of Sonoma would not allow the ranch to be divided, so it was sold in 2001 to the Dutton Family which continues to produce premuium wines from grapes that they grow on the property. See the included aerial photo of the ranch.