Santa Clara County

Biographies

 

BRUNO BERNAL, JR.

 

 

 

SURNAMES: CASTRO, DUARTE, COMELIO,

 

A worthy pioneer whose hallowed memory all who knew him delight to honor was the late Bruno Bernal, who was born on the Santa Teresa rancho, south of San Jose, on February 14, 1857, the youngest son of Bruno Bernal, Sr., the pioneer and wealthy ranchman, and owner of the Santa Teresa grant. He came to Santa Clara in the early days, and became one of her foremost citizens. He was married a second time to Miss Blanda Castro, and from this union sprang the subject of this story and three daughters. His brother-in-law was General Castro.

 

Bruno Bernal, Jr., grew to manhood on the home ranch, and he lived at home until he was twenty-one years of age. Then he came to San Jose, and for many years thereafter he conducted a cigar store here, and after that, removing to San Luis Obispo, he likewise was a merchant for fifteen years. He was married to Miss Josephine Comelio, the daughter of Antonio and Luella (Duarte) Comelio, a gifted lady born on April 26, 1862, the eighth child in a family of twelve, three of whom survive the father and mother. She attended Notre Dame convent, and was a most popular young woman among her musical associates.

 

Mr. Bernal died on May 5, 1920, an honored member of the Pioneer Society of Santa Clara County, and also of the Foresters.

Eight children were granted Mr. and Mrs. Bernal. Bruno Arthur resides at Oakland, is married and has one child; Rebecca died at the age of fourteen; Edward R. resides at home; William, the fourth in the order of birth, died in infancy, while William, the next-

born, also lives at home; Salvadore is single and a lieutenant in the San Jose Fire Department; Adele remains with her mother and is an accomplished young woman in music and the drama, having attended Notre Dame Convent and the School of Expression of the College of the Pacific. Jose, the youngest, also enjoys the shelter of the paternal roof.

 

Edward R. Bernal served in the One Hundred Fifteenth Ambulance Truck supply, and was overseas for eight months; he received his honorable discharge from Camp Kearney on May 4, 1919. William Bernal served as a bandmaster on the U. S. S. Huntington, which made nine trips overseas in the transport service. Salvadore served for three years as a sergeant under General Funston in Mexico, and he also enlisted for service in the recent war as a member of the One Hundred Ninety-Fifth Infantry. The oldest son, Bruno, worked in the shipyards, and Miss Adele gave entertainments to the boys in the camps, and did all she could to sustain the morale of the brave boys in khaki.

 

 

Transcribed by Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 508

 

PEDRO A. BERNAL

Bernal-Marl Fertilizer Company founder

 

 

 

Surnames: PATRON, GINOUX, GAY

 

   A native son of Santa Clara County and a worthy representative of one of the prominent Spanish families of California, Pedro A. Bernal first saw the light on the Santa Teresa Rancho on October 19, 1868.  He is a son of Ygnacio and Jesusita (Patron) Bernal, the former one of the best known and highly esteemed men of the county, and whose sketch will be found on another page of this history.

 

   Pedro A. Bernal attended the Oak Grove public school and topped off his studies at the University of Santa Clara in 1886-7-8, from which college his father was a gold medal student, and took a business course at the Garden City College and graduated from the normal penmanship department of this college.  After leaving college Pedro came back to the home ranch and worked for a time, then secured a position in Mexico with the firm of Losoya & Sons, chemists, mine owners and operators and large landowners, and the three years he spent there enlarged his vision and experience a great deal.  Returning to California he then went to work for the P. G. & E. Company as storekeeper in San Jose and remained with the concern until 1904, which year he started on a trip that occupied his time for over one year and took him to the important centers of Europe and throughout South America, where he visited an uncle in the Argentine.  The money he spent on his journey he had saved from his earnings the previous years, and he there by secured a postgraduate course by practical experience that has enabled him to hold his place with the leading men of the state in business and finance and in developing the resources of the county.

 

   Before going on his extended travels Mr. Bernal had seen a deposit of some kind of mineral wealth on the home ranch, but did not know what value it had; when in England he found some of the same formation and secured samples of it; also of some from South America.  He had them analyzed after he reached home, and also some of the local product, and found the latter on a par with the foreign matter.  He had investigated the uses to which the finished product was put and knew there was an unlimited field for his special kind of fertilizer in the United States, and in consequence he decided he would develop the field from the Santa Teresa Rancho supply.  He sent to St. Louis for a twenty-ton mill, and this he set up with his own hands and began grinding out the fertilizer that now is so widely known as the Bernal-Marl Fertilizer.

 

 For seven years he worked to introduce to the ranchers of this county and the San Joaquin Valley the great value of the fertilizer to the soil, and then he had fully convinced himself that the supply was inexhaustible and concluded to interest capital to expand the manufacture and distribution of the product.  This prehistoric deposit of lime shell marl is only found in paying quantities worthy of development in three sections of the globe--in England, in South America, and on the Santa Teresa Rancho in Santa Clara County, Cal.  From the twenty-ton mill he first erected--and, by the way, this is still doing duty in refining the marl--there is now installed at great expense, an equipment with a 1,000-ton capacity per day of eight hours.  The Bernal-Marl Fertilizer Company is incorporated under the laws of California with A. J. Ginoux, of Oakland, as president, and F. Gay, secretary.  Mr. Bernal is one of the salesmen and demonstrators of the company, and for every ton of marl shipped from the ranch, Mrs. Ygnacio Bernal receives a royalty.  The company own three trucks of seven-ton capacity, and hire others, to distribute the Bernal marl to their customers within a radius of forty miles from the plant; also have a station on the Southern Pacific Railway called Bernal-Marl, and a shipping point at Coyote and one at Edenvale, where cars are loaded for points in various parts of California.  They also have water-shipping facilities.  As yet they have been unable to supply the demand in this state.  There is an unlimited supply covering over 100 acres and the development company have a lease of twenty years and a contract for all minerals that may be found under the surface of the earth where they are working.  Full credit is accorded Pedro A. Bernal for his persistency of purpose and his stick-to-it-iveness in thus developing one of the mineral products of this earth that has proven such an aid in replenishing the soil and thereby bringing greater profits to the producer.

 

   Mr. Bernal, who is still manager of his mother's interests, is a very experienced orchardist and rancher and is making the Bernal Ranch pay splendid dividends.  He is independent in his politics, supporting the best men for public office, and is a member of the Catholic Church.  To all enterprises for the advancement of the business, educational and social problems in the county, Mr. Bernal is always found ready to do his duty, and his public spirit is well known to all with whom he has come in contact.

 

 

Transcribed by Joseph Kral, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County, California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 376

 

YGNACIO BERNAL

Rancho Santa Teresa

 

 

 

Surnames: Sanchez, Berryessa, Agraz, Patron,

 

One of the best loved men of Santa Clara County, Ygnacio Bernal, was born on February 25, 1841, in the same adobe house on the Teresa Rancho where his father, Don Bruno Bernal first saw the light, and he died on April 22, 1906. Between these dates he helped materially to develop his native county and to uphold the traditions of the Spanish Dons of the earlier period.

 

His grandfather, Joaquin Bernal, was sent to Mexico and California in 1769 by Carlos III of Spain to investigate the mineral wealth of the country as a mining engineer and assayer and for the valuable services he gave his sovereign he was granted favors and had his pick of land grants in California.  He selected Santa Teresa, which consisted of 10,000 acres, and part of this is still in the possession of the Bernal heirs. When Joaquin Bernal petitioned the Mexican government in 1834 to have the title confirmed he stated that he was ninety-four years old, had a "posterity of seventy-eight children," had "2,100 head of cattle, 1,200 sheep, three mares and fifty tame horses." This is one of the very few grants in the state that had not passed entirely out of the family to which it was first granted, there still being 374 acres of the most valuable land in the county owned by the Ygnacio Bernal family. Joaquin Bernal had been educated at Barcelona, Spain, and was a very brilliant man of parts. He married Josefa Sanchez, who lived to be 110 years old and at that age she was able to thread needles for her grand-

children.

 

Among the children of Joaquin Bernal and his wife, we mention Bruno Bernal, grandfather of the present generation of Bernals now living on the ranch. He was born there in an adobe house in 1800 and in his time was one of the prominent men of the locality and entertained with the true Spanish hospitality. He succeeded to part of the Santa Teresa acres and devoted much of his time to raising horses. At the time when General Fremont made his expedition through California he and Captain Weber took 300 broken horses, some of the best in the state, for their soldiers and forgot to pay for them. Bruno Bernal married Antonio Maria Ortega, one of the heirs of eleven leagues of land known as the San Ysidro Grant, part upon which the city of Gilroy was built, but through neglect she never got any part of her inheritance.

 

Over the Santa Teresa hills is situated the San Vincente Rancho, granted to Jose Berryessa, who married one of Joaquin Bernal's daughters. This is one of the richest grants in the state, for upon it is located the Almaden mines that have been producing quick-silver for ninety years and the total in dollars runs into the millions. It was once abandoned by Antonio Sunol after he had spent $400 in trying to develop it. Mrs. Berryessa sold it for $60,000 to the Almaden Mining Company, which now owns a great part of the land. Upon the Bernal ranch is situated the Santa Teresa Spring, noted for its medicinal qualities and for the fact that it never ceased to flow its usual amount, no matter what period of the year. These springs are visited by many each year.

 

Ygnacio Bernal attended the Santa Clara College in 1854-5-6, and was among the first students there after it was established. He was one of the gold medal students for his standing in classes and high grade upon completing his courses there. Returning to the ranch acted as secretary to his father and virtually managed the affairs of the ranch, as he was quick at figures and an expert linguist, speaking fluently four languages. at the age of nineteen he was united in marriage with Miss Jesusita Patron, born in Lower California and who came here with her brother. During their trip they were lost for about three months, but arrived in safety at Monterey. At the time of her marriage she was sixteen years old. They were parents of nine children, five of whom are still living: Pedro A., the discoverer of the marl deposits on the home ranch; Ynez, widow of S. F. Agraz and the mother of a son, Urbano; Salvador F., is married and has a daughter Jane, he is a resident of this county; Miss Jacoba P., is at home with her mother; Antonio A., is married and resides at Madrone and has a son, Antonio A., Jr. The following children have passed  away: Ygnacio, Dionicio and Anita C.

 

 Mrs. Bernal resides at the home place and to her is given great credit for rearing her family  and keeping the ranch ownership in the Bernal family. Mr. Bernal was devoted to his wife and family, and in their forty-five years of married life he was only separated from her about a month, when he went to Mexico as an interpreter. He was a man of imposing appearance, kindly disposition, lovable nature and was a friend  to every one who knew him. He planted the first orchard in this section, had the foresight to see that the fruit industry must become the largest branch of industry in this county and had implicit confidence in it.

 

The Bernal family are prominently associated with the present day development of the county, they believe in progress and are public spirited and supporters of all worthy projects for the general advancement of the county, where they hold an honored position. They are devout Catholics. The family have many relics of the days of Spanish occupation which have been plowed up on the ranch and which are valued very highly by them, among them a sweet-toned bell that the herd mare wore, also old Spanish spurs used in breaking wild horses, house keys, etc.

 

As a matter of interest and romance there is supposed to be buried on the Santa Teresa ranch a treasure of $10,000. This money belonged to an old French saddle maker, Changarra by name, who come to the ranch in the '30s and Don Bruno Bernal gave the man a place in an adobe where he could carry on his work. Not only did he make saddles for Mr. Bernal but many which he sold. As he would get some forty or fifty made up he would start out and dispose of them, going as far south as Santa Barbara. He made serviceable saddles, not the ornate gold and silver mounted kind that the Spanish Dons used for their trips and visits. The Frenchman made considerable money and as there were no banks Changarra buried his cash, changing its hiding place every time he added to the hoard. He was known to have accumulated $10,000 when he made his last journey to dispose of his wares. On his way back from Santa Barbara, between Paso Robles and Bakersfield, he camped for the night, sleeping under an oak tree. In the morning he was found dead and the buried treasure on the Bernal ranch at once became an

object of search, but to this day it has not been recovered and people have been searching for it ever since the death of "Old Changarra." Seers, mediums, occult persons have been sought in hopes of disclosing the hiding place but it still remains "buried treasure."

 

 

Transcribed by Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County, California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 4038