José Joaquín Estudillo was a Mexican

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...

 citizen of Alta California

Alta California

Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...

 who was the second alcalde

Alcalde

Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

 of Yerba Buena

Yerba Buena (town)

Yerba Buena was the original name of San Francisco when in the Spanish Las Californias Province of New Spain, and then after 1822 in the Mexican territory of Alta California, until the Mexican American War ended with the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, when California became a territory of the...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 (the precursor to San Francisco

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

), and whose land holdings, known as Rancho San Leandro

Rancho San Leandro

Rancho San Leandro was a Mexican land grant in present day Alameda County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José Joaquín Estudillo...

, formed the basis of the city of San Leandro

San Leandro, California

San Leandro is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is considered a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco. The population was 84,950 as of 2010 census. The climate of the city is mild throughout the year.-Geography and water resources:...

.

Biography

He was born at the Presidio of Monterey

Presidio of Monterey, California

The Presidio of Monterey, located in Monterey, California, is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. Currently it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center .-Spanish fort:...

, to José María Estudillo

José María Estudillo

José María Estudillo , was an early settler of San Diego, California and was a governing official during San Diego's Mexican period.-Life:...

, a Spanish soldier; his brother José Antonio Estudillo

José Antonio Estudillo

José Antonio Estudillo was a Californio and an early settler of San Diego, California when California was part of New Spain.-Life:...

 also played an important role in the settling of California. José Joaquín joined the Spanish Army himself at the age of 15 as a soldado distinguido ("distinguished soldier") at the Monterey Presidio. It is unclear when he moved to Yerba Buena, but records indicate that he was the commissioner in charge of the secularization of Mission San Francisco de Asís

Mission San Francisco de Asís

Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...

 at the beginning of 1835. In July that year he petitioned the alcalde

Alcalde

Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

, Francisco de Haro

Francisco de Haro

Francisco de Haro was the first Alcalde of Yerba Buena in 1834.-Life:De Haro was born in Compostela, Nayarit, Mexico and came to San Francisco in 1819. He was the first Alcalde of Yerba Buena in 1834. He was instrumental in planning the street grid of the town along with Englishman William A....

, for a land grant

Land grant

A land grant is a gift of real estate – land or its privileges – made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service...

 in that area. Haro forwarded the request to 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...

, who denied the request on the grounds that the ayuntamiento (Town Hall) attached to the Mission did not have the authority to grant such requests. The governor reversed himself a few months later in September, however, stating that a building-lot could be granted to Estudillo, provided it was not within two hundred varas (yard

Yard

A yard is a unit of length in several different systems including English units, Imperial units and United States customary units. It is equal to 3 feet or 36 inches...

s) of the beach, and that other persons might obtain grants of the same kind and establish themselves there, although no records exist to show that Estudillo did receive such a grant afterwards. In November 1835, he was elected alcalde of Yerba Buena. While alcalde, Estudillo approved the first grant under the terms set by Figueroa to William A. Richardson.

After his one-year term, Estudillo, his wife, and ten children moved across San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

, settling just outside the Peraltas' Rancho San Antonio on San Leandro Creek

San Leandro Creek

San Leandro Creek is a year-round natural stream flowing along the east side of the range which comprises the Berkeley Hills and the San Leandro Hills, immediately east of Oakland. In the hills, it runs into Upper San Leandro Reservoir and then Lake Chabot, both manmade lakes lying north of the...

, the first settlers in what would later be known as Eden township. He petitioned Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado

Juan Bautista Alvarado

Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo was a Californio and twice Governor of Alta California from 1836 to 1837, and 1838 to 1842.-Early years:...

 to receive a land grant for the land between San Leandro Creek and San Lorenzo Creek

San Lorenzo Creek

San Lorenzo Creek is a year-round natural stream flowing through Hayward, California, into San Francisco Bay at the Hayward Regional Shoreline.-Watershed:...

 in January 1837. Five years went by without a reply. Realizing that his original petition had been lost, he sent a second one in 1842. This time, Alvarado granted him the 6829 acres (27.6 km²) Rancho San Leandro (named after Saint Leander, Estudillo's patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

) that he requested. That same year, Ignacio Peralta

Ignacio Peralta

Hermenegildo Ignacio Peralta was a Spanish settler in California, the eldest son of Luís María Peralta.-Biography:...

 would build his adobe across the creek from Estudillo.

The cession of Alta California to the United States

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...

 and the California Gold Rush

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

 marked a turning point in his life. After the influx of Americans, the price of cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

 increased from $2/head to $60. Estudillo sold off his entire stock, and built a grand house in 1850, lavishly furnishing it with wares from around the world. On the other hand, squatters overran his land and wreaked havoc with his horses and cattle (before they were sold), so much that their encampment became known as "Squatterville". It was only through the efforts of two of Estudillo's sons-in-law, John B. Ward and William Heath Davis

William Heath Davis

William Heath "Kanaka" Davis, Jr. was an early settler of San Diego, California.-Life:Davis was born in 1822, in Honolulu, Sandwich Islands to William Heath Davis, Sr. and Hannah Holmes Davis, a daughter of Oliver Holmes, royal governor of Oahu, and relative of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.. Both...

, that the squatters were brought under control. Ward and Davis later laid out the town site that would become San Leandro.

Estudillo died in 1852. His descendants donated the land where his magnificent house stood for construction of St. Leander's Church. That site was declared California Historical Landmark

California Historical Landmark

California Historical Landmarks are buildings, structures, sites, or places in the state of California that have been determined to have statewide historical significance by meeting at least one of the criteria listed below:...

#279, and sits on the street that now bears his name, Estudillo Avenue.