Early Settlers

For centuries before the 1800s, Amah Mutsun native peoples, often referred to as Costanoan or Ohlone, lived in four small clans around Gilroy, sustaining themselves on acorns, berries, mushrooms, pine nuts and wild fruit, fish and small game, and leaving ancient grinding stones and cavities in boulders as some of the few remaining artifacts of their thousands of years in the region. In 1768, the King of Spain directed Father Junipero Serra to bring the Christian religion to California, and in the late 1790s local natives were relocated to the mission grounds at either San Juan Bautista or Santa Cruz. In 1775-1776, Juan Bautista de Anza brought 240 men, women and children on a 1200 mile overland journey from Mexico and Arizona to the Santa Clara Valley as the first non-native settlers of California. In 1810, Don Ygnacio Ortega received the 13,066-acre Spanish lands of Rancho San Ysidro, and these Hispanic settlers created the valley’s agricultural heritage. In 1814, John Gilroy, who had left his ship in Monterey, became the first permanent English-speaking settler in California, later made his way to Rancho San Ysidro, and married Don Ortega’s daughter Maria Clara. After 1849, prospectors came from around the world seeking gold, but although little was found locally, the fertile land made agriculture the source of the valley’s prosperity, while ranchers, farmers, and lumbermen traveled by horse-drawn carriages to Monterey Street for supplies and to ship their products to market, making the former El Camino Real the center of commerce for Gilroy.

Gilroy, California · United States