Places
Rancho El Potrero de Santa Clara
Hand
drawn Map of Santa Clara Area, c. 1846.Mission Santa Clara was founded in January 1777 just west of the Guadalupe River, which provided year-round fresh water for drinking and irrigation needs. The tract of land between Mission Santa Clara and the Guadalupe River served as pasturage – or el potrero - for the mission’s herd of several thousand cattle. The potrero was also a buffer between the mission and the pueblo of San José, which was established in November 1777 on the eastern side of the Guadalupe River. The Mission’s cattle and the pueblo’s cattle mixed together in the potrero, worsening the strained relations between the mission fathers and the pueblo’s residents.
In 1844, Governor Manuel Micheltorena granted El Potrero de Santa Clara to James Alexander Forbes, as part of the Mexican government’s ongoing effort to shift lands from mission ownership to private hands. In 1856, Forbes sold 2000 acres in the potrero to Commodore Robert F. Stockton; the area then became known as the Stockton Ranch (or Rancho). Stockton, who resided in New Jersey, decided to develop a nursery on the property. He dispatched one Christopher Shelton to California, who established the nursery in 1853. In addition to strawberries, asparagus, and other fruits and vegetables, Shelton brought with him California’s first honeybees.
