Rancho Santa Teresa was a

Mexican land grant In Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California, ranchos were concessions and land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an indu ...

in present-day

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

given in 1834 by Governor

José Figueroa José María Figueroa (1792 – 29 September 1835) was a Californio politician and military leader. He was a General and the Mexican Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835. His ''Manifesto'' (1835) was the first book published in Calif ...

to José Joaquín Bernal. The grant extended west from Coyote Creek to the Santa Teresa Hills, and included present-day Santa Teresa.

History

José Joaquín Bernal (1762–1837), a member of the 1776

De Anza Expedition Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was a Novohispanic/Mexican expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as on ...

, was a soldier at the Presidio of San Francisco and by 1805 at the

Pueblo of San José San Jose, California, is the third largest city in the state, and the largest of all cities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, with a population of 1,021,795. Site chosen by Anza For thousands of years before the arrival of ...

. In 1819 he retired from the army, and in 1826 he settled his family of eleven children near Santa Teresa spring, ten miles south of San Jose. In 1837, Jose Joaquin Bernal died, leaving an estate to be divided equally among his widow and his ten children. Four of his children were granted Rancho Valle de San Jose in 1839. In 1844, the Treaty of Santa Teresa was signed at the rancho by Governor Micheltorena and former Governor Alvarado. With the

cession The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdicti ...

of California to the United States following the

Mexican-American War Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

, the 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...

provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim was filed by Agustín Bernal, son of José Joaquín Bernal, with the

Public Land Commission The California Land Act of 1851 (), enacted following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the admission of California as a state in 1850, established the California State Lands Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican l ...

in 1853. The grant was one square league, and was confirmed by the U.S. District Court. But the 1867 official survey and

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

to Agustín Bernal in 1867 was for . In 1855, another of José Joaquín Bernal's sons, Bruno Bernal (1799–1863) moved to his Rancho El Alisal, leaving the ranch to his sons Ygnacio (1841–1906), Francisco and Antonio. The ranch was passed down through descendants of Jose Joaquin Bernal. In 1858, Carlos Maria Gulnac, son of William Gulnac, married Joaquin's granddaughter (Ygnacio's sister) Rufina Bernal. Their daughter, Susan Gulnac, married Patrick Joice. The Joice family ran the ranch until it was sold to IBM for IBM Research – Almaden in 1980. Santa Clara County acquired most of the Joice land, including the historic buildings, from IBM for Santa Teresa County Park.

Historic sites of the Rancho

*Rancho Santa Teresa Historic District/ Santa Teresa County Park. *Bernal Adobe Site.Remains of the J.P. Bernal adobe
/ref> *Santa Teresa Spring. Ygnacio Bernal's son, Pedro, established the Santa Teresa Springs Water Company around 1910. *Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch/Santa Teresa County Park.

References

{{California history Santa Teresa Santa T