Research by Judith Marvin

Jesus Palafos Ranch.  It appears likely that the lands later owned by Jesus Palafos and G.B. Rivara were first occupied by Mexican miners during the late 1840s and early 1850s, but as the census data for that period is either non-existent or of little help due to the lack of geographic boundaries, it is impossible to ascertain their names.  Likewise, the county assessor didn’t spend much time determining the ownership of land unless it was agricultural and able to be assessed.  

What is known, however, is that by at least 1860, Jesus Palafos had established a ranch on his 160-acre parcel of land on the west side of San Andreas Gulch (Calaveras County Assessment List 1860).  There is little information on the ranch during the Palafos ownership, but he was identified (erroneously) in the 1860 census as Jesus Culiforce (sp?), aged 25, native of Mexico, a miner, and residing with Margareta, aged 18.  His real estate was valued at $200 and personal property at $150.  Three dwellings of Mexican miners were noted in adjacent households, but were not assessed for ownership.  One, however, was assessed for personal property valued at $50 (U.S. Federal Census 1860).  It appears likely that they were among the many who flocked to San Andreas in the earliest years of the Gold Rush, mined in San Andreas Gulch, resided on the Palafos ranch, and moved on when the placers played out.  

Palafos, however, turned to farming and in 1864 his assessment noted that 50 of his 160 acres were enclosed (fenced), and that his property was valued at $200, with personal property at $145.  In 1870 the census enumerator listed Palafos as born in Mexico in 1838, residing on the property with his wife Margarita, born in Mexico in 1833, and his son Francis, born in California in 1858.  Palafos noted his occupation as farmer, having evolved from mining the gulch to farming the land (U.S. Federal Census 1870).  

It appears likely that the upper rock wall, rock lined cellar feature, shrine and rock foundation, and the newly identified excavated cellar are related to this early occupation.  Palafos and his countrymen were apparently mining in San Andreas Gulch, and he then decided to stay and farm.  His assessment for the land went from $150 in 1860, to $300 in 1870, suggesting the construction of improvements on the property (U.S. Federal Census 1860, 1870).  

Palafos evidently either sold or mortgaged his property (no recorded documents were located) to Tomasso Tassaro & Co. in the late 1860s, as Tassaro is assessed for it those years, stating that it was the former Palafos Ranch.  The assessment for Joseph Kerns, to the north, however, notes the property as the Palafos Ranch during that period..  

Tassaro’s use of the property is unknown, but Tassaro, a native of Italy, operated a grocery store in an adobe building on Main Street in San Andreas, and owned several commercial gardens and ranches in the area, as well as a butcher shop and slaughterhouse in Copperopolis (Assessment Rolls, various).  

Palafos evidently regained ownership, however, as on October 4, 1870, he and his wife Margaretta Frigosa Palafos of San Andreas sold their 160-acre ranch to G.B. Rivara, also of San Andreas, for $250.  The deed noted that it was formerly known as Garrett’s Ranch, and located on the south side of San Andreas Gulch, about one-half mile from San Andreas, and partially enclosed (Deed Book S:311).  

The Palafos family then moved to Telegraph City, where Jesus was noted as a teamster in 1873, the year that he was naturalized (Great Register of Voters 1866-1877, Acts of Naturalization), and as a farmer in Copperopolis in 1888 (Great Register of Voters 1888).  His ranch, with lands patented in 1880 and 1882, was located on present Hunt Road, at its junction with present State Route 4 (Calaveras County Land Patent Maps).  

G.B. Rivara Ranch.  After the mining boom ended, many of the lands that were suitable for agriculture were regenerated as farms and ranches, and lands were reclaimed, first by Palafos, and then by a family from Italy.  Giovanni (John) Batista Rivara (Rivera), and his wife Louisa Botto, both natives of Italy, arrived in California in 1855.  Giovanni was born in 1822 and Louisa in 1832, presumably in Genoa.  By the 1860s, Rivara was residing at Kentucky House, south of town.  

Eight children were born to the couple, all of whom survived to adulthood:  Caroline, born in Italy in 1852, Pauline in California in 1856; John, 1861; Rosa, 1862; Katie, 1863; Theresa, 1866; Charles, 1868;, and Joseph, 1873 (U.S. Federal Census 1880, 1900).  When he registered to vote in 1867, Rivera, then aged 44, noted his occupation as a miner.  He was naturalized in 1859 in Calaveras County (Great Register of Voters 1866-1877).  

Shortly after purchasing the ranch, Rivara was assessed for 80 acres of land near Gold Hill, with a house, barn, fences, and growing crops.  The following year he was assessed for a house, barn, sheds, and fence on Lot 49, Block 6 of the San Andreas Townsite, with a wagon, horses, cows, hogs, poultry, and firearms (Assessment Rolls 1872-3, 1873-4; Terry 1872).  By 1877 he was noted as owning 100 acres, with the same improvements, but with personal property consisting of a wagon, harness, crops, horses, cows, calves, cattle, hog, watch, furniture, wine, poultry, gun, sewing machine, and dog.  The property was assessed at $200 and the improvements at $100 (Assessment Roll 1877).  It appears likely that Rivara built the rock walls, stacked rock animal enclosures, rock foundations, and livestock pen and chute, as well as the excavated cellar beneath the recently burned house, and he and his family certainly utilized them.  As the Rivara assessment increased incrementally over the ensuing years, it probably reflected the improvements erected upon the property.  

The 1880 assessment was essentially unchanged, except that the acreage was more accurately described as 102.25 acres and a plow was noted.  Residing in the household that year were Louisa, daughters Pauline, Rosa, Kate, and Theresa, and sons Charles and Joseph.  Giovanni was listed as a farmer, as he was in the 1888 Great Register.  Charles was noted as a farmer, while John was mining (U.S. Federal Census 1880, Great Register of Voters 1888).  

In 1882 Rivara acquired a 40-acre parcel to the north of his home place, located south and southeast of Murray Creek, near the mouth of San Andreas Creek, from Matthew Cavanaugh for $550 (Deed Book 6:554).  In 1860 this land was owned and farmed by Jeremiah Gard and his family, who sold to farmer and nurseryman Joseph Kerns shortly thereafter.  It was patented, with the entire SE ¼ of Section 7, T4N. R12E, by Matthew Cavanaugh in 1881.  The parcel was thereafter assessed to the Rivara family and evidently farmed along with their original 102+ acres (Assessment Rolls, various).  Rivara’s assessment for 1886 was more specific, noting the land valued at $245, and house at $240, with furniture, a gun, sewing machine, farming utensils, horse, colt, 5 cows, 5 calves, 4 stock cattle, 3 hogs, poultry, and a dog (Assessment Roll 1886).  

Giovanni died in San Andreas on November 7, 1889, aged 66.  A widower, he left his estate to his eight children in a will signed the previous month.  The estate included Lot 49, Block 6, as well as the 40-acre parcel (142.77 acres), with dwelling house, barns, fences, vineyard, and orchard, valued at $2000, and used as a family residence.  Personal property included 15 cattle (large and small), 2 horses, farming utensils, wagon, poultry, 2 hogs, 7 tons of hay, furniture, and 50 gallons of wine, all valued at $100.  Son John sold his interest in the estate to his brother Charles, granting him a ¼ interest, while the other siblings retained 1/8 interest each (G.B. Rivara Probate (Record Storage Box 43).  

The 1893 assessment for the property noted that it was owned by Theresa, Charles, Rosa, and Katie Rivara, and contained 160 acres in the SE ¼ of Section 7, T4N.R12E, valued at $600 and mortgaged to Joseph Oneto in December of 1889 for the same amount.  Improvements on Lot 49, Block 6, included a house, barn, and fence.  Personal property included furniture, sewing machine, farming utensils, wagon, harness, 2 colts, 4 cows, 3 calves, 3 stock cattle, and poultry.  

In March of 1895 Charles Rivara filed a homestead claim to the property, noting that he was unmarried, and residing on the land with buildings and improvements.  Theresa was to use the land and dwelling house as a homestead, valued at $800 (Homestead Book C:304).  The following year Caroline, Kate, and Rosa deeded their interests in the home place to Theresa, Charles, and Joseph (Deed Book30:116), and in 1905 Joseph De Martini (husband of Pauline) deeded his interest to Theresa (Deed book 49:116).  

In 1900 Theresa Rivara was listed as the head of the household, a schoolteacher, and owning the home free and clear.  Also in the household were brother John, noted as a miner, with his wife Caroline (a native of Calaveritas), and their daughter Theresa and sons John (Jack) and Frank.  By that time Caroline Rivara had married Joseph Oneto and Katie was married to James Valente and both couples were residing in Murphys; Pauline married Andrew De Martini and was residing in Stockton; while Rosa married David Cassaretti and lived in Angels Camp.  Charles was married to Rosa Volpoma of Sonora in 1897; in 1900 he was working as a miner in San Andreas (U.S. Federal Census 1900; Great Register of Voters, 1900; Newspaper Files, Calaveras County Archives).   Joseph, a school teacher, died of pneumonia in Stockton in 1903, two years after marrying Ella Yokum.  

In June of 1909, Theresa acquired the adjoining Lot 49, Block 6 (the old county hospital lot to the west), as well as property on the south side of State Route 49, from the San Andreas Blue Gravel Mining Company.  The deed was for surface rights only; the mining company retained the mineral rights, as well as buildings, tools, easements, etc., required for mining purposes.  Included in the deed was a water right with pipeline (Deed Book 55:84).  The purchase of this property suggests that the Rivara family were still actively farming the land, even though both Charles and John were noted as miners in the Great Register (Great Register of Voters 1908-9).  It appears likely that the brothers were working for the Blue Gravel company, as all the old gravel channel on the west side of town had been worked since the Gold Rush and the company was still working the ground.  

In 1910, only John, Caroline, and their son Frank were residing in the area and John was still working as a gold miner; son John was a butcher shop driver.  Theresa was not always noted at home in San Andreas, as she was teaching in other communities at various times.  

In 1920, Theresa, then superintendent of schools, and her brother Charles, now divorced, were residing on the family farm.  Charles noted his occupation as a farmer on his sister’s farm.  John and his family were residing in an adjoining household, and he was gold mining, while son John, aged 30, was working as a clerk in a general merchandise store.  Also residing in the household were Edward Rigney, an engineer in a gold mine, his wife Nellie, and Paul Gaisler, a hired man and butcher from Germany. It is unknown, however, if they were residing on the ranch or in the Whitlock cottage on the their newly acquired property on the south side of State Route 49, as Carrie Rivara was assessed for a cottage on that property (Lots 3 and 5, Block 15), during the 1920s.  Both John and Theresa were noted as owning their own homes (U.S. Federal Census 1920).   

John died in 1921, and by 1930 only Carrie and young John (a general laborer) were noted (U.S. Federal Census 1910, 1920, 1930).  In the 1950s, Jack (young John), was residing in an old house back of the stucco houses built by his mother Carrie in the late 1920s, so this appears likely (Howard Little 2007).  After the Cement Plant opened in 1927, numerous stucco homes were built in the west end of town, many of them on former mining property, to house the influx of workers.  

Theresa continued to be assessed for the ranch, as well as the adjoining old hospital lot (Lot 48, Block 6), and several other properties in San Andreas until her death.  In 1926 the assessment included a house, barn, and fence, and in 1931 just a house and barn (Assessment Rolls, various) on the ranch.  Charles died in 1928, and by the time of Theresa’s death in 1943, she was survived only by her sister Rose Cassaretti of Angels Camp and sister-in-law Carrie Rivara in San Andreas.  

Theresa’s obituary noted that she was born in Kentucky House, and spent 41 years as a school teacher, beginning in 1885 at Caledonia School.  She also taught at Angels Camp, San Andreas, Douglas Flat, Calaveritas, Spring Valley, Cave City, and Brushville.  Theresa served as County Superintendent of Schools from 1915-1923, then returned to teaching before retiring in 1935.  She died at her home in San Andreas on November 7, 1943, and was buried in St. Andrews Catholic Cemetery with the rest of her family (Calaveras Prospect, November 13, 1943).  

Garbarini Ranch.  In the mid-1940s property was acquired by Russell and Ethelyn Garbarini, who added a large brick fireplace and concrete terrace to the old house (Assessment Rolls 1948, 1953, 1958).  Garbarini, a native of Jackson in Amador County, moved to San Andreas sometime prior to 1930, when he was renting a home with his wife Ethelyn and young son and daughter.  At that time he was working as a machinist foreman, and may have been employed by the Calaveras Cement Company, which opened three years earlier (U.S. Federal Census 1910, 1920, 1930).  When the present State Route 49 was realigned in 1954, the survey or depicted a water tank and fences in the “Garbarini Pasture,” evidently the concrete pad identified during a recent survey (California Department of Transportation 1954).  Russell died in 1965 and Ethelyn in 1975, both in San Andreas (California Death Records).  The house and whatever outbuildings remained were burned in a recent fire.  

 

REFERENCES

Calaveras, County of (as noted in text)
Land Claim Books
Homestead Books
Deed Books 
Water Right Books
Assessment Lists and Rolls
Probate Records
Great Registers of Voters
Acts of Naturalization

Calaveras County Archives
Frances Bishop Files
Family History Files
Newspaper Files
 

United States Federal Census (Ancestry.com)

1850

1860

1870

1880

1900

1910

1920

1930