Sutter County
Biographies
VALENTINE E. BERNAL
The life-record of an honorable and upright citizen and an industrious and successful horticulturist is illustrated in the career of Valentine E. Bernal, prominent among the native sons of the Golden State. He was born at Cresta Blanca, Alameda County, February 14, 1863, the second son of the late Jose Bernal, who was the oldest son of Don Augustine Bernal, Sr., the owner of the grant known as Rancho El Valle de San Jose, which consisted of 48,000 acres. 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, at whatever period of the year. The Bernal family dates back many years and has many distinguished descendents to its credit. Jose Bernal served under the Mexican flag at Santa Teresa in 1846. His mother, who was Senorita Alta Gracia Higuera, was born in Alameda County, near Pleasanton, and came from a very well-known and honored Spanish California family. Cresta Blanca, where Valentine Bernal was born, was formerly a rich stock farm. His parents sold the ranch and moved to Vallecitos, three miles east of Sunol, and here they passed away, the father in 1879, and the mother in 1899.
Valentine E. Bernal attended the public school in Alameda County and St. Joseph’s Academy at San Jose from 1880 to 1881. He was reared on the Jose Bernal rancho at Sunol, and became a practical and expert horseman at an early age. He carried out the wish of his dying father by taking care of his mother, and was named executor of the estate; its affairs were finally settled in 1896 with the selling of 1550 acres to Mr. Fredericks. Mr. Bernal then moved to Sunol, where he resided for ten years, later moving to Oakland. During his residence in Sunol, he was a member of the official board of the California Jockey Club, at Emeryville. He then engaged in establishing the Bernal Detective Agency at Oakland, doing private work for eighteen months, and at times working in connection with the Federal Secret Service, at Washington, D.C. In February, 1912, Mr. Bernal came to Live Oak and purchased a residence and seven lots. To these he added, by subsequent purchase, ten acres in Sunset Colony, No. 1, which he has developed to peaches. He also has charge of an eleven-acre prune orchard.
At San Francisco, on August 12, 1910, Valentine E. Bernal was united in marriage with Miss Lena Rotemeyer, a native of Missouri, who has lived in California since 1902. They have been blessed with a son, Joseph W., who was born December 8, 1912, at Live Oak, Cal. Descended from a notable California family, Mr. Bernal is deeply interested in all that pertains to the welfare and development of his native State. Politically, he is a Republican.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 403