While recently working on a story, I had occasion to
research the history of the Santa Clara Valley. Today that area which is just
south of the San Francisco Bay is known as South Bay. Part of it also makes up a section of Silicon
Valley, a prominent electronics research and manufacturing region.
However, the landscape today is far different from what it was 150 to 200 years
ago.
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| San Jose looking from the north toward center of the city. |
Although most of Santa Clara Valley is highly urbanized now,
at one time it was largely agricultural. The first Spanish name given to the
area was "Llano de los Robles" ("Plain of the Oaks") in
1769 by José Francisco Ortega. The name by which we know it today was after the
Spanish Franciscan mission built by Father Junipero Serra, Mission Santa Clara
de Asis founded in 1777. It served, and relied upon the labor of, the first
documented inhabitants of the land, the native Ohlone.
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| Mission Santa Clara de Asis |
However, the missions were formed while Alta California was
still under Spanish rule. When Mexico broke from the Spanish crown in 1821,
eventually the region was forced to recognize the new government. The Mexican
government soon began selling off church lands in a process known as
"secularization." The original intent was to return church lands to
the native population. The practice involved selling church lands to the
highest bidders. By 1839 only 300 Indians remained at the Mission Santa Clara.
The rest of the land was sold into large ranchos
owned by the wealthy Californios, the
rural land owning gentlemen of Alta California. That era lasted until the end
of the Mexican-American War, the discovery of gold and the influx of Amercans
from the eastern United States.
Like most of California, the earliest agricultural activity
by Europeans in the Santa Clara Valley was cattle. Next saw wheat cultivation.
But, due to its mild climate, good soil and water supplied by an artesian
aquifer, the Santa Clara Valley came into its own as a land of orchards and farms
producing a large variety of fruits and vegetables. Because of the railroad
having been extended to the region, the produce could be shipped all over the
nation.
With its scenic beauty resulting from thousands of acres of blooming fruit trees this valley was known as “the Valley of Heart’s Delight” because of its high concentration of orchards, flowering trees and plants.
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| Valley of Heart's Delight, about mid- 20th century |
When the water table dropped wells were pumped. Many
orchards were small with housing and fruit growing in a dispersed pattern. Santa
Clara County was soon producing almonds, apricots, carrots, cherries, pears,
plums, prunes, tomatoes and walnuts.
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| Santa Clara Valley |
The last half of the 1870s saw the establishment of seed
farms. In
1874, R. W. Wilson began a seed-producing company based in Santa Clara. Due to
poor health he sold the operation in 1877 to Charles Copeland Morse and A. L.
Kellogg. Morse built the company up, and in
1884 bought out Kellogg and incorporated as C.C. Morse & Co.
As fields were cultivated, a shortage labor developed. In
the nineteenth century those needs were met by Chinese and Japanese immigrants,
then later in the century by Italians and other immigrants from Southern and
Eastern Europe, especially ad canneries were built. During the twentieth
century there were an influx of Filipino immigrants and increasing numbers of
immigrants from Mexico who during World War II became the dominant agricultural
workforce.
Although the urban areas of the Santa Clara Valley have
little resemblance to the region as it existed 150 to 200 years ago, there are
occasional hints that speak of the Valley’s past. While burgeoning business
interests and strong political views dominated north in San Francisco and
surrounding cities, and the sentiments of resentful Californios and immigrants for the South turned the Los Angeles,
San Bernardino and El Monte regions into hotbeds of sedition, particular prior
to and during the Civil War, the Santa Clara Valley fed the nation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn
Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was
published by Fire Star Press. Her novelette, A
Christmas Promise,
along with the first two novellas in the Eastern
Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, was published by Prairie Rose
Publications. Too
Old for Christmas, was self-published in 2015.
Zina Abbott Author Links:
