Bernardo Fernandez

Bernardo Fernandez (November 15, 1828 – May 12, 1912) was an early pioneer of western Contra Costa County, California in the United States of America.

Biography

Born in Portugal, Fernandez joined a ship to Brazil when he was 13 years old, rose to be a ship's captain, and first settled in the United States in 1850, operating coastal shipping from New York.[1][2] In 1853 he arrived in Pinole, California,[1] as a gold prospector, but decided to settle,[3] operating a freight business between Contra Costa County and San Francisco[4] and starting in 1857 acquiring land.[2] He eventually became the area's wealthiest resident,[5] owning more than 20,000 acres in Pinole, Oakland, and San Francisco.[6] Among his holdings was a 9,000-acre ranch in western Contra Costa County on which he grew wheat and raised cattle; the remaining 700 acres of the Fernandez Ranch were acquired as an open space preserve in 2004[7] and expanded in 2010 with the addition of the adjacent Franklin Canyon property, also originally part of the ranch.[3][4]

In 1859 he married Carlotta Cuadra, a member of a Marin County pioneer family from Chile; they had six children.[1][2] Their third home, a 22-room mansion built in about 1894, is preserved as the Bernardo Fernandez House.[6] He died at home in Pinole in 1912.[1]

References
  1. "Bernardo Fernandez Who Joins Pioneers Beyond the Divide: Reaper Calls Another Maker of Early History in California". San Francisco Call. May 14, 1912. Retrieved December 18, 2018 – via Pinole Patch.
  2. J. P. Munro-Fraser (1882). History of Contra Costa County, California. San Francisco: W. A. Slocum. pp. 556–57. OCLC 1685078.
  3. Carolyn Jones (July 28, 2010). "Hercules gift helps preserve Franklin Canyon". San Francisco Chronicle.
  4. Maggie Avants (June 2, 2017). "East Bay Trails: Newly Expanded Fernandez Ranch Opens To Public". Martinez Patch. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  5. Chris Treadway (May 10, 2017). "Early Contra Costa Pioneer to be Focus of History Talk". East Bay Times.
  6. "25. Fernandez Mansion" (PDF). Walking Tour. Pinole Historical Society. p. 6. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  7. Erin Hallissy (May 1, 2004). "Family hopes to preserve pristine Fernandez Ranch: Fund raising begins to save last vestige of historic site". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
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