Founding Peralta estate’s home site remembered by historians

Is the gold still there? That’s the question historians posed on Wednesday at the event marking Sebastian Peralta’s birthplace in Campbell.

Fourth-grade classes from Rosemary and Capri elementary schools joined Campbell officials for a historic unveiling. Invoking the memory of thousands of kids who traveled with their families north from what was once called Nueva Espana, San Jose historian Paul Bernal declared a site in Campbell’s John D. Morgan Park as home to Rancho Rinconada de los Gatos and Pueblo San Jose, birthplace and homestead of Sebastian Peralta, 1794-1859, an early West Valley settler.

“Can you imagine being some of the first to see these lands,” Bernald said. “To see sheep and cows wandering as far as the eye can see?”

Peralta grew up to be a cattle and sheep rancher on the 6,631 acres where he was born. He built his own family’s adobe on the spot where the plaque was placed in Campbell. The property stretched from Campbell, through Saratoga and into Los Gatos and Monte Sereno. Peralta lost the land to the California Land Act of 1851 and to the deluge of squatters who took advantage of early settlement laws. He spent the better part of his last years fighting for his acreage and eventually won, a year after he died in 1859.

Four years later, Peralta’s estate was sold at public auction to Jonathan Parr. Parr paid $1,620 for what was left of the property, about 292 acres.

Historic performer Dennis Mena, portraying Peralta, teased the crowd with folklore that gold hidden by his character on his land has never been found.

“Somewhere here, I buried my treasure,” Mena told the crowd.

California Pioneers of Santa Clara County, the city and local historians celebrated the achievement of recognizing those earlier settlers who established this part of California.

“This is a joint project of the Pioneers and the City of Campbell,” Bernal said. “It has been a tremendous partnership.”