Juan Bernal and His Family, Co-Owners of Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados

A look at the lesser-known settlers of the Moraga Valley

By Susan Skilton, AG©

(Published in the Fall 2024 issue of The California Nugget – California Genealogical Society)

In 1841, the Mexican government granted Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados in Contra Costa County, California, to cousins Joaquin Moraga (1793–1855) and Juan Bernal (1802–1847). While the Moraga family’s history is well-documented and commemorated— in the name of the town of Moraga, a school named after Joaquin Moraga and the preserved Joaquin Moraga adobe home—the Bernal family’s history remains relatively unexplored, likely because they vacated the property earlier than the Moragas. Joaquin Moraga’s contributions and legacy are extensively recognized through various memorials, books, and discussions, highlighting the Moraga family’s life on the grant and their ancestors. In contrast, the story of Juan Bernal and his descendants has not received comparable attention, making this exploration of their legacy all the more significant.

This article documents Juan Bernal and his wife, Maria Encarnacion Soto, and their children, providing evidence that the family resided on the land grant prior to 1854. The Bernal family, as co-owners of the property, played a crucial role in the Rancho’s history. Records, such as court documents and census enumerations, offer valuable insights into this lesser-known Mexican land grant family.

Diseno of Rancho Laguna de los Colorados

(Diseño of Rancho Laguna de Los Colorados, Salvio Pacheco, 1835. Bancroft Library, Online Archive of California.)

Juan Bernal and His Family

Juan Bernal was born on 1 November 1802 at Mission Santa Clara (in present-day Santa Clara County), the son of José Apolonario Bernal and Teodora Peralta, and was baptized the same day.1 Juan Bernal married Maria Encarnacion Soto on 18 June 1830 at Mission Dolores in San Francisco, Alta California.2

Juan Bernal was a soldier in Yerba Buena (later called San Francisco) in the 1830s and served as an elector and militia man in that location in 1837.3 He and his wife had multiple residences, moving between the settlements in San Francisco, San Jose, and the Rancho north of San Jose, in the area now part of Contra Costa County, California, that they, along with the family of Joaquin Moraga, had acquired from the Mexican government.

Joaquin Moraga and Juan Bernal requested a land grant in Alta California from the Mexican government.4 The land boundaries were indicated on a map, called a diseño, created by Salvio Pacheco5, who testified on 13 June 1862 in a U.S. court that he presented the land grant petition (espediente with diseño) to the Mexican government in Monterey, Alta California, on 19 October 1835.6 With the title “Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados” (ranch of the lake of the redwoods), the large parcel of over 13,000 acres of land was awarded to them by the Mexican government in 1841.7 The formal document (espediente) was filed in the Monterey archives held by Mexico and copied into the U.S. land case files.8

The diseño, a legal document included in the land case files, does not include distance measurements, but rather indicates key features of the land and the rancho, such as springs, corrals, hills, and wooded areas. The land was bounded on the south by the establishment of San Jose, one of the early towns.9

After California entered the United States in 1850, all Mexican land grants in the new state needed to be proved and then affirmed by the U.S. government. The Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados land grant went through many iterations of surveying, confirmation, and contestation until it was eventually upheld by the U.S. government in 1878, when the patent to the land was awarded.10 The lengthy court process was typical for the experience of Mexican land grant awardees. The U.S. government upheld most of the claims, but the process took many years in most instances. As with many of the land grants, the passing of time and the new government system with a changing culture and economy had a major effect on Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados. By 1875 almost all of the land originally held by the Bernal and Moraga families had been sold off or acquired by others. Soon after, the last of the Moraga family remaining on the land was evicted from their adobe, having lost title to all the land.

The Bernal family claimed to have lived on the northern part of the Rancho, never officially divided between the two families. They called their part of the Rancho “Santa Clara.”11 The Bernal family owned land in several locations in Northern California, and at times lived on the San Antonio Rancho with Juan Bernal’s uncle, Antonio Peralta and his family. In addition, Juan Bernal was blind by the early 1840s, limiting his movements, so he may not have been seen by some of his fellow Rancho residents.12 Several affidavits in the U.S. land claims files claim he never lived on the Rancho.

Elam Brown, who lived in the northern part of the Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados, testified in U.S. court on 13 June 1862 that he knew Joaquin Moraga personally before 1840 and that Juan Bernal never lived on the Rancho and that his widow lived on the Rancho only beginning after the year 1846.13 José de Jesus Martinez made a similar statement in the land claims case.14

Juan Bernal did reside on the Rancho, where he owned land and buildings, and where he probably ranched. The most compelling evidence for Juan Bernal’s residence on the Rancho is the testimony by Joaquin Moraga in the Rancho land claim case. In 1854, Joaquin Moraga stated that he and Juan Bernal lived on the Rancho with their families from before the land grant was awarded in 1841, that Juan Bernal lived on the Rancho with his family until his death, and that Joaquin Moraga, the deponent, was still living on the property.15 There can be no better witness to the Bernal family living on the Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados land grant than the co-owner of the land.

As noted above, Juan Bernal and his family owned land and lived in different locations in the 1830s and 1840s, perhaps conveying to other residents on or near the Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados that the Bernals were not settled there. The Bernal family resided at times on Rancho San Antonio, located to the south of Palos Colorados. The family also had properties in San Jose and San Francisco.16 Juan Bernal was an elector in a primary election on 31 December 1837 for the Alcalde (local magistrate) of Yerba Buena (the early name for San Francisco).17

Juan Bernal owned lot 59 in San Jose in 1840s

(In San Jose, Juan Bernal owned lot 59 in the 1840s. Historic Map & Atlas Collection, San Jose Public Library)

San Jose Properties

Land owned by Juan Bernal and Encarnacion Soto in Pueblo San Jose (settlement of San Jose) in the 1840s (and unknown dates) is documented on an 1854 map of pre-1854 residences (see lot on map). The map index documents the names of the owners,  but it is important to note that there was more than one person named Juan Bernal who resided in San Jose before 1850. Juan Bernal likely owned or resided on lot 59. His namesake, Juan Pablo Bernal, born in 1810, owned lot 47.18 Both lots with buildings are located on the east side of the old road to Monterey.19

San Francisco Properties

Encarnacion Soto de Bernal was awarded title to building lot number 37, consisting of 50 varas (about 138 square feet) on 7 December 1844 in Yerba Buena by Francisco Guerrero, the Alcalde of Yerba Buena.20 Land shared by a married couple in Alta California was sometimes purchased by one or the other spouse, usually as a matter of convenience in transferring title from the owner to the purchaser.

Juan Bernal wrote his will on 29 March 1847.21 The will was witnessed by his uncle, Ygnacio Peralta, and a cousin, Francisco Peralta, residents of the Peralta Rancho.

A map created in the 1870s by Ferdinand Von Leicht, a cartographer and civil engineer, called the “Von Light map” in the land claim case files, and labeled Exhibit U.S.A. Number 2, is annexed to several depositions.22 The map was challenged as inaccurate and disallowed from the court case, and it does appear to take liberties with distances. This map, however, is one of the few to show both Bernal adobes on the land grant.23 The location for the original adobe is almost certainly incorrect but the documentation of the structure is likely accurate and informed by what Von Leicht learned from the residents in the region. The second, newer adobe where Encarnacion lived after her husband’s death, is placed relatively accurately in the northern portion of the Rancho, in the portion later considered part of the Acalanes grant (as boundaries changed by the decisions of the U.S. courts).

Map of Rancho Lagua de los Colorados by Ferdinand Von Leicht

(Map of Rancho Lagua de los Colorados by Ferdinand Von Leicht (abt. 1870s), “California, U.S., Private Land Claim Dockets, 1852-1858,” Ancestry.com,)

Horace Carpentier, a lawyer who represented the Moraga family, testified that the widow, Maria Encarnacion Bernal, lived on the Rancho.24 This statement is supported by the 1852 California state census showing Maria Encarnacion with her second husband, Ramon Higuera, and the children she had with Juan Bernal and with Ramon Higuera.25

Juan Bernal constructed two adobe homes on the Rancho. He and his family lived (perhaps off and on) in the first adobe, which existed by the time of the 1841 land grant. Its location still needs to be determined. He left the second building in his will to his wife.26 Juan Bernal died in 1847 and, consistent with the wishes expressed in his will, was buried in the San Francisco Mission Dolores cemetery on 2 May 1847.27

Juan Bernal’s second adobe, constructed close to the time of his death, was situated in the far northern portion of the Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados land grant, a small area later determined to be a part of the Acalanes land grant patent. His widow, Maria Encarnacion, occupied the new adobe (as of the late  1840s). This adobe, labeled “Widow Bernal’s adobe,” in the far northern portion of the former land grant is documented on several maps included in the land claims files.28

The Death of Juan Bernal

Shortly before his death, Juan Bernal and his family lived at Rancho San Antonio, south of Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados, where Juan and Encarnacion’s son, Juan Francisco Zesareo Bernal, died at the age of about five years.29

After Juan Bernal’s death, Maria Encarnacion married Ramon Higuera on 25 July 1849 at Mission Santa Clara.30 The record identifies Maria Encarnacion’s parents as Francisco and Ana Maria (Higuera) Soto and Ramon’s parents as Estevan and Margarita (Soto) Higuera, and states that Maria Encarnacion was previously married to Juan Bernal.

Juan Bernal’s inventory was filed on 29 February 1856 in Solano County, California, and probate occurred on 21 September 1857.31 Due to insufficient funds to pay the estate debts, real estate was mortgaged and sold. In 1854 and 1855 Encarnacion mortgaged all her property in the Rancho for the sum of $2,000.32 This venture was unsuccessful, and Encarnacion and her second husband Ramon Higuera were sued for the sum and ordered to pay by the courts.

1869 lease agreement between Francisco Galindo and Joaquin Feliz

(1869 lease agreement between Francisco Galindo and Joaquin Feliz, Contra Costa Historical Society.)

The 1850 U.S. census for Contra Costa County has not survived. However, the 1852 California state census shows the blended Bernal and Higuera family on the Rancho.

As noted above, Maria Encarnacion lived on the Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados with her second husband, Ramon Higuera, and her children. Ramon Higuera, age 24, a rancherio (rancher and ranch owner), headed the household.33 Maria Encarnacion was listed as Concepcion rather than Encarnacion, an entry error similar to the name shown for her as the mother on the baptism record for her son, Juan Tomas Bernal.34 The 1852 state census shows her age as 40. The children in the household were Guadalupe Bernal, 21; Nicolas Bernal, 18 [?]; Polinario [Apolinario] Bernal, 16; Juan Bernal, 14; Reyes Bernal, 11; and Refugio Higuera, age 2. Reyes and Refugio were the only female children listed. Refugio was likely a child of Ramon and Encarnacion. The Bernal family appears on page 32 of the census, and the Moraga family (also living on the land grant) appears on page 38, suggesting the enumerator recorded data from the northern portion (the known residence for the Bernals) to the south.35

In 1860 some of Encarnacion’s Bernal children lived on the Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados property, listed adjacent to the Moraga family in the census.36 Where Ramon and Encarnacion lived in 1860 still needs to be determined.

The children of Juan and Encarnacion Bernal may have lived in the original Bernal adobe in 1860 (likely, given the size of the family) or in the Moraga adobe. Ramon and Encarnacion were not listed in the household with their children and searches for them did not reveal their residence that year. Ramon and Encarnacion almost certainly lived in the northern part of the Laguna de los Palos Colorados land grant in September 1869, when Francisco Galindo leased about 65 acres of land situated about 150 yards north of the house “now occupied by Widow Moraga” to Joaquin Feliz (spelled Filez in this record).37 The lease agreement was recorded on 30 August 1870 in Contra Costa County.

In 1870 Ramon and Maria Encarnacion lived in Fremont, Santa Clara County, California, where they were enumerated with two young males, both named Juan Bernal, in their household, one age 10 and one age 8.38 The children may have been grandchildren of Encarnacion’s.

By 1880 Ramon Higuera was a widower, living in the Mayfield district of Fremont and boarding with other laborers.39 The entry in the U.S. census indicates he was born in California to parents born in California and was widowed.

Children born to Juan Bernal and Maria Encarnacion Soto

  1. José Guadalupe y Ylario Bernal was baptized 23 January 1831 at the age of two days at Mission Santa Clara.40
  2. Juan Francisco Zesareo Bernal was baptized 28 February 1833 at the age of three days at Mission Santa Clara.41 He died on 20 August 1838 at Rancho San Antonio. He was buried on 22 August 1838.42
  3. Juan Francisco Bernal was baptized 23 February 1840 at the age of twenty-one days at Mission Santa Clara.43
  4. Maria Gregoria de los Reyes Bernal was baptized on 11 March 1842 at Mission Santa Clara. She was born on 6 January 1842.44
  5. José Tomas Bernal was baptized on 26 December 1836 at Mission Dolores in San Francisco.45 He was buried on 24 January 1846 in the Mission Santa Clara cemetery.46
  6. José de Jesus Eulogio Bernal was born on 10 March 1846 and baptized on 3 May 1846.47

Susan Skilton is a professional genealogist accredited by ICAPGen in Pacific States and Canada (Western Provinces) research. She can be reached at skskilton@ gmail.com.

Endnotes

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” General Editor, Steven W. Hackel (The Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 2006), Juan Bernal, baptized 1 November 1802, at Mission Santa Clara, Alta California, accessed May 2024.

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” Juan Vernal to Encarnacion Soto, married 18 June 1830, at Mission Dolores in San Francisco, Alta California.

 

  1. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California… (San Francisco: The History Company, 1886), vol. 2 (1802-1824); vol. 19, p. 718; digital image, Google Books (http://books.google. com : accessed December 2023).

 

  1. California (United States), Bureau of Land Management, California Private Land Claim Docket Number 574, Laguna de Los Palos Colorados Bernal Heirs; digital image, “California, U.S., Private Land Claim Dockets, 1852-1858,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed December 2023).

 

  1. “Diseño del Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados: Calif,” Land Case Map D-560; digital image, Bancroft Library, Online Archive of California (https://oac.cdlib.org : accessed May 2024).

 

  1. California (United States), Bureau of Land Management, California Private Land Claim Docket Number 574, Laguna de Los Palos Colorados Bernal Heirs; digital image, “California, U.S., Private Land Claim Dockets, 1852-1858,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed December 2023).

 

  1. Ibid. The claim and the name of the portion of the land as “Santa Clara” appear in several affidavits of witnesses in the land claims case.

 

  1. Office of the Board of Commissioners to ascertain and settle the Private Land Claims in the State of California, Transcript and Proceedings in Case No. 590, Joaquin Moraga Claimant vs. the United States, Defendant, for the place named “Laguna de los Palos Colorados,” (12-18.), Moraga History Center, Moraga, California.

 

  1. The area of the original settlement of San Jose was greater that the current city of the same name in Santa Clara County.

 

  1. United States, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office, Land Office, [not provided], Serial Land Patent, Certificate 2067, issued 10 August 1878, land in Contra Costa County; digital image, “Search Documents,” General Land Office Records (http:// www.glorecords.blm.gov : accessed June 2024). Also, United States, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office, Land Office, [not provided], Serial Land Patent, Certificate 1327274, issued 10 August 1878, land in Contra Costa County; digital image, “Search Documents,” General Land Office Records (http://www. glorecords.blm.gov : accessed June 2024).

 

  1. California (United States), Bureau of Land Management, California Private Land Claim Docket Number 574, Laguna de Los Palos Colorados Bernal Heirs.

 

  1. Solano County (California) Will Books, 24 papers, pp. 9-14, will of Juan Bernal, written 29 March 1847, Contra Costa County Historical Society. The will was originally filed in Contra Costa County. It was later registered in Solano County on 29 February 1856 (transferred from Contra Costa County due to conflict of interest for a new judge, previously Bernal’s counsel).

 

  1. California (United States), Bureau of Land Management, California Private Land Claim Docket Number 574, Laguna de Los Palos Colorados Bernal Heirs.

 

  1. Office of the Board of Commissioners to ascertain and settle the Private Land Claims in the State of California, Transcript and Proceedings in Case No. 590, Joaquin Moraga Claimant vs. the United States, Defendant, for the place named “Laguna de los Palos Colorados,” (103-124), Moraga History Center, Moraga, California.

 

  1. Ibid., 32.

 

  1. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California… (San Francisco, California: The History Company, 1886), vol. 2 (1802-1824); vol. 19, p. 718; digital image, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed June 2024).

 

  1. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California… (San Francisco, California: The History Company, 1886), vol. 3 (1802-1824); pp. 705, 712; digital image, InternetArchive (https://archive.org : accessed December 2023).

 

  1. Herbert L. Hagemann, Jr., “Juan Pablo Bernal,” The Pacific Historian, Volume 8, Number 4 (1964), 180-190, Scholarly Commons, University of the Pacific (https://scholarlycommons. pacific.edu : accessed June 2024). Juan Pablo Bernal built a home on Market Square about half block from its intersection with San Carlos Street in San Jose. This matches the details for lot 47. Juan Bernal, born in 1802, likely owned the other lot, 59.

 

  1. “1854 Pueblo San Jose,” map, Historic Map & Atlas Collection (San Jose Public Library California Room), SJLibrary (sjlibrary.org :accessed May 2024).

 

  1. Francisco Guerrero, Alcade, San Francisco County (California), Spanish Blotter B, 1839-1846, Doña Encarcion Soto de Bernal from Mexican Government, lot 37 in Yerba Buena (San Francisco), Alta California, Mexico, dated 7 December 1844; FamilySearch Digital Collection 8277950; digital image, Catalog, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed December 2023).

 

  1. Solano County (California) Will Books, 24 papers, pp. 9-14, will of Juan Bernal, written 29 March 1847, Contra Costa County Historical Society.

 

  1. California (United States), Bureau of Land Management, California Private Land Claim Docket Number 574, Laguna de Los Palos Colorados Bernal Heirs; digital image, “California, U.S., Private Land Claim Dockets, 1852-1858,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed August 2024.

 

  1. Ibid.

 

  1. Ibid.

 

  1. 1852 California State Census, Contra Costa County, p. 32, Line 23, Ramon Higuera household; digital image, “California, U.S., State Census, 1852,” Ancestry (https://www. ancestry.com : accessed December 2023).

 

  1. “De Leon v. Higuera,” Opinion, Casetext (https://casetext. com : accessed December 2023), complaint filed by De Leon against Ramon Higuera.

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” Juan Bernal, buried 2 May 1847 at Mission Dolores in San Francisco.

 

  1. California (United States), Bureau of Land Management, California Private Land Claim Docket Number 574, Laguna de Los Palos Colorados Bernal Heirs.

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” Juan Francisco Zesareo Bernal, buried 22 August 1838 in the cemetery at Rancho San Antonio, the Rancho where he died two days earlier.

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” Ramon Higuera to Encarnacion Soto, married 25 July 1849, at Mission Santa Clara, Alta California.

 

  1. Solano County (California) Probate Court, Probate packet of Juan Bernal, dated 1856; FamilySearch Digital Collection 7097452; digital image, Catalog, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed December 2023).

 

  1. “De Leon v. Higuera,” Opinion.

 

  1. 1852 California State Census, Contra Costa County, p. 32, Line 23, Ramon Higuera household; digital image, “California, U.S., State Census, 1852,” Ancestry (https://www. ancestry.com : accessed June 2024).

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” Jose Tomás Bernal, baptized 26 December 1836 at Mission Dolores in San Francisco. The name of his mother is given as Concepcion Soto rather than Encarnacion Soto.

 

  1. 1852 California State Census, Contra Costa County, p. 38, Line 33, Joaquin Moraga household; digital image, “California, U.S., State Census, 1852,” Ancestry (https://www. ancestry.com : accessed June 2024).

 

  1. 1860 U.S. census , Contra Costa County, California, population schedule, sheet 71, dwelling 551, family 549, Guadalupe Bernal household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www. ancestry.com : accessed June 2024). Joaquin Moraga had died by this time, and his son José Moraga headed the household adjacent to Guadalupe Bernal.

 

  1. Contra Costa County (California), County Clerk, lease deed packet number 52, Francisco Galindo to Joaquin Filez [Feliz], filed 1 September 1870; Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados folder, Contra Costa County Historical Society, Martinez, California.

 

  1. 1870 U.S. census, Fremont, Santa Clara County, California, population schedule, sheet 32, dwelling 262, family 254, Ramon Higera [sic] household; digital image, Ancestry (https:// www.ancestry.com : accessed June 2024).

 

  1. 1880 U.S. census, Fremont, Santa Clara County, California, population schedule, E.D. 1, sheet 7, dwelling 49, family 49, A. Armigo household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www. ancestry.com : accessed June 2024).

 

  1. Mission Santa Clara (Catholic Church, Santa Clara County, Alta California), Register, p. 201, Number 8400, Jose Guadalupe y Ylario Bernal, baptized 23 January 1831 at the age of 2 days; digital image, “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library.”

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” Juan Francisco Zesareo Bernal, baptized 28 February 1833 at the age of 3 days at Mission Santa Clara.

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” Juan Francisco Zesareo Bernal, buried 22 August 1838 in the cemetery at Rancho San Antonio, the Rancho where he died two days earlier.

 

  1. Mission Santa Clara (Catholic Church, Santa Clara County, Alta California), Register, p. 269, Number 10.015, Juan Francisco Bernal, of the Pueblo, baptized 23 February 1840 at the age of 21 days; digital image, “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library.”

 

  1. Mission Santa Clara (Catholic Church, Santa Clara County, Alta California), Register, Number 10.211, Maria Gregoria de los Reyes Bernal, born on 6 January 1842, baptized on 11 March 1842; digital image, “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library.”

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” Jose Tomás Bernal, baptized 26 December 1836 at Mission Dolores in San Francisco.

 

  1. Mission Santa Clara (Catholic Church, Santa Clara County, Alta California), Deaths, Volume 2, Añode, 1846, p. 30, Number 7926, Jose, buried 24 January 1846; digital image, “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library.”

 

  1. “The Early California Population Project: A Database Compiled and Developed at the Huntington Library,” José de Jesus Eulogio Bernal, born 10 March 1846 and baptized 3 May 1846 at Mission San Jose.