![]() (Mission San Jose today is about a ten-minute drive heading south down Mission Blvd. These two mills were located at the mouth of Niles Canyon from whence Alameda Creek flowed towards the San Francisco Bay, some 11 miles away. ![]() Vallejo built a wooden three-story mill next to the original adobe mill in 1856 perhaps the area then became known as Vallejo’s Mills. Hence the later name of Fremont being applied to the larger city that would incorporate Niles in 1956. Fremont stopped here in 1846 to commandeer food and supplies for the Bear Flag Revolt. Vallejo promptly built an adobe house to shelter his majordomo and vaqueros (he was running 10,000 head of cattle) and a two-story adobe grist mill, to turn wheat into flour. In 1841/42, he was granted 17,705 acres of the former mission lands. He and his family lived in an adobe house across from the mission. Don Jose y Jesus Vallejo (nephew to Mariano Vallejo) was appointed administrator to Mission San Jose in 1835. The Spanish founded Mission San Jose in 1797, Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821 and began secularization of the missions in 1834. I am looking forward to reading all of the articles this coming summer when my time will be freed up by being out of school. the use of schooners from East Bay landings to move goods to the San Francisco market before the railroad was built. ![]() He wrote articles about many different aspects of the area and managed to connect them, e.g. Shinn was interested not just in horticulture but history as well. These 1899 articles are some of the best primary materials I have come across in terms of an eyewitness account of Niles in the latter half of the 19th century. One of the many things Shinn did as an adult was to write a series of newspaper articles about the history of Niles and the surrounding area, all of which he was very familiar with. Charles Howard Shinn claimed squatters also called it “Gopher-town,” but cartographers never recorded this sobriquet! Shinn was the son of Lucy and James Shinn, who came to Niles in 1856 when Charles was just two years old. In my first blog I promised I would find out why Niles was once called Vallejo Mills, Vallejo’s Mills, and Vallejo’s Mill I’ve seen it written each way on various old maps.
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