San Benito County History

This section is excerpted from A Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California by Henry D. Barrows and Luther A. Ingersoll, and published by The Lewis Publishing Company in 1893.

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American Settlement of San Benito Valley.

One of the first American settlements in the San Benito valley was begun by Jacob Watson in 1854, near the site of the present town of Hollister. Prior to that time the valley was occupied as a stock range by the owners of Mexican land grants. The neighboring foot-hills and mountain ranges were the home of deer, antelope and bear. From 1861 to 1870 much of the valley now used as a sheep range, the Hollisters and Flint, and Bixby & Co., having engaged in breeding improved sheep in this section, which was then a portion of Monterey county.

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This section is excerpted from A Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California by Henry D. Barrows and Luther A. Ingersoll, and published by The Lewis Publishing Company in 1893.