After the California gold discovery in 1848, people rushed from across the nation to the mining regions of the West Coast. In early 1849, John Howard Watson arrived in California to seek his fortune. Stories handed down say that before this he had lived in Georgia and Texas, married, killed a man, read some law, and owned a slave. Soon after arriving, Watson was elected to the State Assembly but resigned in 1850. A month later he was elected judge of the Third District, comprising Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties, and he resigned again the next year. In 1852, Fecundo Rodriguez sold two square leagues of the Rancho de los Rodriguez, or Bolsa del Pájaro, to Judge Watson and Durell Gregory for $400. Later that year, Sebastian Rodriguez sold all of the one undivided half part of Rancho Bolsa de los Rodriguez to them for $4,000. This land was the site of the village of Pájaro, the future Watsonville. In 1861, Judge Watson left Watsonville for Nevada and never returned. After trying mining, he became Justice of the Peace in Mountain City and died in Elko, Nevada, on August 2, 1882.