Castro Family
The Rancho Period - Rancho San Pablo
Sometime between 1813 and 1817, the Spanish priests who had established San Francisco's Mission Dolores founded an outstation in San Pablo, where they grazed sheep and grew crops. During this time, many of the Huchiuns were moved to Mission Dolores and forced to live in exile, allowed to return to their homeland only twice a year. In 1823, after Mexico took possession of California from Spain, the Mexican government formally awarded the Huchiun land to Don Francisco María Castro for his service in the Mexican army, and the Mission Dolores priests surrendered the land to him. Castro retained some of the Huchiuns to work on his rancho, but by this time, the tribe had been destroyed as an organized group. In 1852, an agent of the United States Government discovered 78 Native Americans working on Castro's rancho. In poor health (they had no immunity to diseases introduced by the Europeans), these native Americans were probably the last of the San Pablo-area Huchiuns.
"Rancho San Pablo," as Castro named his land, was 90 square kilometers, from Cerrito Creek in El Cerrito to the south, to Pinole Creek to the north, and east to the present-day towns of El Sobrante and Lafayette. The early Mexican settlers used Rancho San Pablo primarily for grazing their herds of cattle, which they watered in the creeks or the springs adjacent to San Pablo, Wildcat, and other local creeks. Like the Huchiuns, Don Francisco Castro recognized the importance of living near abundant sources of fresh water, building his family's first adobe on Wildcat Creek (near today's Riverside School in Richmond). By this time, however, much of the family's land had been sold to or taken over by other European settlers. Castro had died in 1831, and the manner in which he had divided up his land among his heirs led to considerable confusion.
After Castro died, that adobe began to deteriorate, so his sons built a new one for their mother between Wildcat and San Pablo Creeks near San Pablo Avenue and Church Lane in San Pablo. Most of Castro's sons built their own homes nearby, between the two creeks, although Victor built his farther south, on the banks of Cerrito Creek in El Cerrito. In 1852, his son Joaquin attempted to verify family ownership of the rancho through a commission established by the United States Government. Title was not cleared until 1894, and in the intervening years many newcomers settled on the rancho land, often acquiring property through questionable means. Other parcels were acquired legally-although very cheaply-as the Castros were forced to sell off their land to pay legal fees.
Suggested reading; The Long Road to Rancho San Pablo; by Frances Conley**; 1989; 34 pages; Contra Costa County Library. The story of Francisco Castro, whose herds of cattle once roamed the entire northeast shore of San Francisco Bay. It begins with the family’s departure from Sinaloa, Mexico as part of the Anza expedition and continues forward to the eventual establishment of Rancho San Pablo.
Source: http://www.elcerritohistoricalsociety.org/ecprintfiles/CastroFamily.pdf
Map of Rancho San Pablo c1840-1849
Branding Iron of the Castro Ranch
Don Francisco María Castro was the son of Joaquin Ysidro de Castro, one of the founding settlers of the Pueblo of San José and Maria Martina Botiller. He had come as a boy with his family to California from México with the De Anza Expedition in 1775.
Castro was a corporal in the artillery company of the Presidio of San Francisco. He married María Gabriela Berryessa (1780-1851) of the Berreyesa family on 16 February 1795. The two made their home in San José and produced thirteen offspring between 1796 and 1824. He was the owner of a considerable number of cattle, sheep and horses and an overseer of a rancho area that was previously used by Mission San Francisco de Asís as pastureland on the Contra Costa (opposite coast). After serving as alcalde [mayor] at San José, he requested permission to claim the rancho area as his own on 15 April 1823 and was granted 17,938-acres that same year by Governor Luís Antonio Argüello. It became known as Rancho San Pablo (Cuchiyunes). He and his family moved to the rancho sometime after 1824. Rancheros had large herds of livestock grazing on these vast land holdings, and to identify what was theirs, each owner had his own specific brand. Seen here is Don Castro’s brand. The branding iron became a symbol of the old west.
Castro died on 21 December 1831 at his San Pablo Rancho. His heirs were granted Rancho San Pablo in 1834. His daughter, María Martina Berryessa y Castro married Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado at Mission Santa Clara in 1839. When Governor Alvarado retired, he moved with his wife Martina to her family estate at Rancho San Pablo in 1848.
After California became a state in 1850, the Castro-Alvarado holdings were sold to the new settlers, and dozens of small ranches were established over the next two or three decades. It was one of the first ranchos established in the East Bay area.
Castro Ranch Road including other streets, creeks and places in the East Bay area are named after the Castro family.