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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San Benito County in 1892.

An Benito county constitutes one judicial district, of which Hon. James F. Breen is the superior judge. The other county officers are: John L. Hudner, district attorney; C. C. Cargill, assemblyman; E. E. Holbrook, sheriff and ex officio tax collector; Rody Shaw, county clerk, ex officio recorder, and auditor; D. F. McPhail, assessor; E. B. Montgomery, treasurer; J. N. Thompson, school superintendent; W. K. Brown, surveyor; D. McCarty, public administrator and coroner.

The county is now divided into five supervisor districts, and the following are the present supervisors: D. Snibley, district No. 1; Luis Raggio, district No. 2; G. S. Nash, district No. 3; A. J. Chaney, district No. 4; M. F. Finch, chairman, district No. 5.

The county courthouse at Hollister, the county seat, was erected in 1887, and cost about $45,000. It is a two-story edifice with basement and tower; the walls are of brick, stuccoed; its site is on a lot 300x200 feet, fronting on Monterey street, between Fourth and Fifth streets. The courthouse has entrances on three sides, by fourteen granite steps, with columned porches. In the northwest rear corner of the grounds stands a substantial one-story brick jail, costing about $10,000, which, though neatly and carefully kept, appears (to the credit of the community be it said) to be poorly patronized.

The grounds of the courthouse are surrounded by an ornamental iron fence; and on three sides, outside the cement walks, are some thirty beautiful bright-green, ever graceful "umbrella trees," which, with the grass plat surrounding the building, give the San Benito courthouse and grounds a unique appearance during a greater portion of the year, which is as rare as it is beautiful. There are also a few palm and other ornamental trees interspersed within and around the yard, but not of such numbers or size as to interrupt the view from within or without the grounds. The county has built three bridges, costing in the aggregate about $25,000.

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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.