The Rancho del Agua Caliente and The Higuera Adobe

The Rancho del Agua Caliente and The Higuera Adobe. Rancho Higuera Historical Park. After the missions were secularized by Mexico, their lands were divided into ranchos, which were granted to the “Californios” who had served the Spanish and Mexican governments., In 1836 the lands around this park were granted to Fulgencio Francisco Higuera and his wife, Valentine Higuera. Named after the hot springs south of Mission San Jose, Rancho del Agua Caliente (Ranch of the Warm Waters) originally had about 9,000 acres. The ranch supported 12,000 head of cattle, several hundred horses and many sheep., Images: , Map of Rancho del Agua Caliente. (Historical Atlas of Alameda County, 1878), Fulgencio Higuera built several adobes and ran cattle on Rancho del Agua Caliente. (Museum of Local History), The branding iron and the brand believed to have belonged to the Higuera family. (Museum of Local History), Fulgencio’s grandfather, Ygnacio Higuera, came to California with the Juan Bautista de Anza Expedition in 1776. Fulgencio’s father, Jose Higuera, was granted the Rancho Los Tularcitos in 1821. His restored adobe home is located in present-day Milpitas. Some of the olive trees that lined the road from Mission San Jose to Mission Santa Clara still survive near Jose Higuera’s adobe., Fulgencio’s widowed sister, Marie Josefa Higuera Molina, married Robert Livermore. They lived at rancho Las Positas, near present-day Livermore, but once a month she would bring wagonloads of clothes to be washed in the waters of the hot springs while she visited her family., Image: , Typical washday at the warm springs. (Watercolor by Nancy Pratt), Seven adobes were originally on this rancho. This adobe, built about 1840 for use as a family home, is the only one that survived. It was surrounded by structures common to rancho life, such as corrals, a springhouse (to keep food cool), a smokehouse and an outhouse. The Ague Fria (Cold Water) Creek near the adobe and the springs in the hills above provided water., This adobe is sometimes called the Galindo-Higuera Adobe because of its early association with Juan Cristosomo Galindo. He was the son of Nicholas Galindo and Maria Teresa Pinto Galindo who came with the Juan Bautista de Anza Expedition in 1776. He married Ana Maria Jacoba Bernal, and their children married into other prominent Californio families., Image: , Juan Cristosomo Galindo in later life. (Museum of Local History)