Information Panels at the Rancho Higuera Historical Park
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RANCHO HIGUERA HISTORICAL PARK The Ohlones and the Mission San Jose he Ohlones were the After the founding of Mission San Jose at Oroysom mission church and other buildings, but their way of Tindigenous people on June 11, 1797, this land became part of the vast life was irrevocably changed. of this area and had a mission lands. A road shaded by olive trees was built village called Oroysom from Mission Santa Clara to the circular steps of east of this site. As Mission San Jose. The Higueras later built their adobe hunters and gatherers along this road. Portions of it still survive. they ranged far and Acorns from oak trees provided sustenance for the Ohlones. Baskets were used to gather the acorns. wide. They wove (Museum of Local History) baskets using various roots and willow branches and had lively commerce with other villages. A number of huge stones, some of them eight feet in diameter and each with several grinding holes, 1826 water color by William Smyth of vaqueros roping a cow. Mission San Jose and Mission Peak are in the were once found along background. (Bancroft Library) Agua Caliente Creek, Ohlone vaqueros (cowboys) managed the expanding which runs through this mission cattle herds that roamed the hills and valleys, property. The Ohlones including this land of the Agua Caliente (Warm used them to grind Springs). The cattle were a source of wealth for the acorns gathered from the mission, and later for the ranchos. Ships sailed down oak trees that grew in the the San Francisco Bay to the Mission Embarcadero, canyon. near present-day Union City, where they exchanged Motars and Pestles (Photo by Julianne Howe) Natural springs and Founding of Mission San Jose (Painting by Hal Booth) manufactured goods from the East Coast for the dried creeks provided fresh water. There were edible plants Life in Oroysom changed after the arrival of the hides (leather for shoes) and the tallow (fat for soap and an abundance of animals, fish and fowl.T he Spanish Franciscans. They brought their religion and and candles) from the cattle. a new way of life as well as their cattle, horses and natives navigated the bay in boats they built with tule An earthquake on October European fruits and vegetables. The founding of the reeds. 21, 1868 destroyed the mission had some negative consequences for the original 1809 adobe church. A large Ohlone burial site was once located near the Ohlones who were brought to live, work and worship It was reconstructed and corner of Curtner Road and Mission Boulevard. The there. They learned new skills and built the adobe graves were dedicated on June 11, 1985. carefully excavated and relocated to the Ohlone Cemetery on Washington Boulevard. Mission bell in front of the reconstructed An Ohlone fisherman drags a tule boat into the water. adobe mission church. (Photo by Lionel Illustration by Michael Harner (The Ohlone Way) 1826 pencil drawing of the Ohlones at Mission San Jose by William Smyth (Bancroft Library) Goularte) RANCHO HIGUERA HISTORICAL PARK The Rancho del Agua Caliente and The Higuera Adobe fter the ulgencio’s grandfather, Ygnacio Higuera, Amissions were Fcame to California with the Juan Bautista de secularized by Anza Expedition in 1776. Fulgencio’s father, Jose Mexico, their lands Higuera, was granted the Rancho Los Tularcitos were divided into in 1821. His restored adobe home is located in huge ranchos, present-day Milpitas. Some of the olive trees that which were granted lined the road from Mission San Jose to Mission to the “Californios” Santa Clara still survive near Jose Higuera’s adobe. who had served Fulgencio’s widowed sister, Marie Josefa Higuera the Spanish Molina, married Robert Livermore. They lived at Typical washday at the warm springs. Rancho Las Positas, near present-day Livermore, (Watercolor by Nancy Pratt) but once a month she would bring wagonloads of clothes to be washed in the waters of the hot springs while she visited her family. Map of Rancho del Agua Caliente. (Historical Atlas of Alameda County, 1878) Higuera. Named even adobes were originally on this rancho. after the hot SThis adobe, built about 1840 for use as a springs south of family home, is the only one that survived. It was Mission San Jose, surrounded by structures common to rancho life, Rancho del Agua such as corrals, a springhouse (to keep food cool), Fulgencio Higuera built several adobes and The restored Higuera adobe in 1979. ran cattle herds on Rancho del Agua Caliente. (Photo by Philip Holmes) a smokehouse and an outhouse. The Agua Fria (Museum of Local History) Caliente (Ranch (Cold Water) Creek near the adobe and the springs in the hills above and Mexican of the Warm provided water. governments. Waters) originally had about 9,000 This adobe is sometimes called the Galindo-Higuera In 1836 the lands acres. The ranch around this park Adobe because of its early association with Juan supported 12,000 Crisostomo Galindo. He was the son of Nicolas were granted to head of cattle, Fulgencio Francisco Galindo and Maria Teresa Pinto Galindo who came several hundred with the Juan Bautista de Anza Expedition in 1776. He Higuera and his horses and many The branding iron and the brand believed to have belonged to married Ana Maria Jacoba Bernal, and their children wife, Valentine the Higuera family. (Museum of Local History) Juan Crisostomo Galindo in later life. sheep. married into other prominent Californio families. (Museum of Local History) RANCHO HIGUERA HISTORICAL PARK The Curtner, the Silva and the Goularte Families enry Curtner, an enterprising American, rom 1904 to 1918, the Joe Silva family oaquin “Jack” Goularte, an immigrant from Harrived at Mission San Jose in 1852. Fmoved into the ranch house and Jthe Azores, worked as a foreman for the He worked for farmers in the area. In 1856 leased this Curtners. In 1927 he and his wife, Adelaide, Curtner returned home to Indiana to property purchased this property and moved their marry Lydia Kendall. By 1868 he was able as a dairy growing family to purchase the portion of Rancho Agua farm. Each into the ranch Caliente that included morning Manuel Silva rented the dairy farm from the Curtners. house. They had the adobe. He continued they took (Museum of Local History) many farm animals, to buy adjoining the milk in10-gallon cans to the Warm including work Dr. Stanley Innes (left) bought the farm from Jack Goularte (right) in 1945. (Photo courtesy of Lionel Goularte) properties until he The Goularte family used the Higuera adobe for storage. horses, saddle owned over 6,000 acres (Photo courtesy of Lionel Goularte) horses, milk cows and many calves. from “Mission Peak to In addition to large the Bay.” walnut, prune and He hired James Leitch, apricot orchards, they a skilled carpenter, grew hay and corn and a great variety and others to build The dirt road to the Goularte farm from Curtner Henry Curtner, for whom Curtner Road Road. (Photo courtesy of Lionel Goularte) is named, once owned 6,000 acres from a new ranch house, of vegetables. They “Mission Peak to the Bay.” (Courtesy History San José) a bunkhouse, a sundried the fruit and stored it in the adobe until it could be sold. slaughterhouse, barns for storing hay, barns Apricots were cut, sulphured and The Silva children holding flags. The Silva children with a steer. Note the sun-dried on large trays in the fields. for horses and dairy barns. They built a (Museum of Local History) barn in the background. Many neighboring families helped Their fifteen (Museum of Local History) with the work. concrete building where (Photo courtesy of Lionel Goularte) children worked milk was cooled and Springs Train hard and enjoyed exploring the processed and added Depot, which was hills and playing with friends who a lean-to shed to the on the southwest lived on neighboring farms. They corner of present- adobe. attended the original Warm Springs The Joaquin “Jack” and Adelaide family in 1924, with nine of day Warm Springs their children. They later had six more children. In 1869 the Curtners Grammar School, which is gone, (Photo courtesy of Lionel Goularte) Boulevard and but its replacement is still on Warm Springs Boulevard. built a large, redwood, Warren Avenue. Italianate, seventeen- The “Peanut Five Goularte sons served their country room mansion on the Train,” a small during World War II. Unable to find James Leitch, a skilled carpenter, helped lower portion of their enough help to work the farm, Jack sold build many structures in the area. freight train (Museum of Local History) property (modern This wagon, hitched to a horse, was used to dropped off it to Dr. Stanley Innes in 1945. Without address is 45588 Wabana Common). They deliver milk in large 10-gallon cans. (Museum of Local History) empty milk the care and protection of an onsite had six sons and two daughters. After Henry cans from the day before and picked up owner, the buildings and equipment died in 1917, his son Arthur inherited the Three generations of the Goularte family picnic suffered.T he farmhouse burned down in the filled milk cans and mail sack and near Agua Fria in the 1930s. Note the “oilcloth” ranch and moved into the mansion. tablecloth on the table. 1947, and the adobe fell into disrepair. delivered them to Oakland. (Photo courtesy of Lionel Goularte) RANCHO HIGUERA HISTORICAL PARK Preservation Efforts, The Land Developer, and Reconstruction of the Higuera Adobe he adobe slowly deteriorated erected a temporary roof over the Tand a large crack developed adobe that was made of canvas in an end wall.