Rancho Santa Teresa was a 9647 acres (39 km²) Mexican land grant

Ranchos of California

The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...

 in present day Santa Clara County, California

Santa Clara County, California

Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...

 given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa

José Figueroa

General José Figueroa , was a General and the Mexican territorial Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835.Figueroa oversaw the initial secularization of the missions of upper California, which included the expulsion of the Spanish Franciscan mission officials.This also involved the issuing of...

 to José Joaquín Bernal. The grant extended west from Coyote Creek to the Santa Teresa Hills

Santa Teresa Hills

The Santa Teresa Hills are a mountain range in Santa Clara County, California, located partly in the city of San Jose. They are one the landforms around the Almaden Valley.-Rancho San Vicente:...

, and included present day Santa Teresa

Santa Teresa, San Jose, California

Santa Teresa is a neighborhood in the south of San Jose, California, USA. It is east of Almaden Valley, surrounding Santa Teresa Boulevard, with access to Highway 85...

.

History

José Joaquín Bernal (1762–1837), a member of the 1776 De Anza Expedition, was a soldier at the Presidio of San Francisco and by 1805 at the Pueblo of San José. 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

Rancho Valle de San Jose (Bernal)

Rancho Valle de San José was a Mexican land grant in present day Alameda County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Antonio Maria Pico, Agustín Bernal , Juan Pablo Bernal , and María Dolores Bernal de Suñol...

 in 1839. In 1844, the Treaty of Santa Teresa was signed at the rancho by Governor Micheltorena

Manuel Micheltorena

Manuel Micheltorena was a Brigadier General of the Mexican Army, Adjutant-General of the same, Governor, Commandant-General and Inspector of the Department of the California...

 and former Governor Alvarado.

With the cession

Mexican Cession

The Mexican Cession of 1848 is a historical name in the United States for the region of the present day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S...

 of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...

 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

Public Land Commission

The Public Land Commission, a former agency of the United States government, was created following the admission of California as a state in 1850 . The Commission's purpose was to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.California Senator William M...

 in 1853. The grant was one square league, and 4460 acres (18 km²) was confirmed by the U.S. District Court. But the 1867 official survey and patent

Land patent

A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...

 to Agustín Bernal in 1867 was for 9647 acres (39 km²).

In 1855, another of José Joaquín Bernal's sons, Bruno Bernal (1799–1863) moved to his Rancho El Alisal

Rancho El Alisal

Rancho El Alisal was a Mexican land grant in present day Monterey County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to brothers Feliciano and Mariano Soberanes and to William Edward Petty Hartnell. Alisal means Alder tree in spanish...

, leaving the ranch to his sons Ygnacio (1841–1906), Francisco and Antonio.

Historic sites of the Rancho

• Rancho Santa Teresa Historic District/Santa Teresa County Park.
• Bernal Adobe Site.
• Santa Teresa Spring. Ygnacio Bernal's son, Pedro, established the Santa Teresa Springs Water Company around 1910.
• Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch. The ranch was passed down through descendents of Jose Joaquin Bernal. In 1858, Carlos Maria Gulnac, son of William Gulnac, married Joaquin's grand-daughter (Ygnacio's sister) Rufina Bernal. Their daughter, Susan Gulnac, married Patrick Joice. The Joice family ran the ranch until it was sold to IBM in 1980.