Ygnacio Martínez was an important figure in the development of Contra Costa County, California

Contra Costa County, California

Contra Costa County is a primarily suburban county in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 1,049,025...

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Life

Ygnacio Martínez was born in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. He was a soldier in California by 1822. He married Martina Arellanes and had at least seven children, six daughters and one son. He was the fourth Alcalde of San Francisco in 1837. He was given the Rancho El Pinole

Rancho El Pinole

Rancho El Pinole was a Mexican land grant in present day Contra Costa County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Ygnacio Martinez...

 Mexican land grant, which included the Alhambra Valley. One of his daughters married William A. Richardson.

He died in June 1848 in San Jose

San Jose, California

San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

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