San Benito-Santa Cruz-Tuolumne County CA Archives Biographies.....Bolado, Joaquin 1822 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 19, 2007, 11:20 pm

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll, Editor (1893)

JOAQUIN BOLADO-Among the representative men of San Benito county, the subject of
this sketch ranks as one of the most prominent. He was born in Santander, Spain,
one of the provinces of Castilla la Vieja, or Old Castile, on March 3, 1822, a
son of Valentin and Antonia Bolado. His father was an officer in the Spanish
army at the time of the invasion of Napoleon, and after the war retired from the
service. He was a large land-holder and operator in lands, etc. One of his sons
is a lawyer in Spain, and has held the office of Judge and other positions of
honor, and is a wealthy man. A daughter (sister of our subject) is the wife of a
large land owner; and the other two are unmarried ladies.

   Mr. Joaquin Bolado, the eldest of the children in the above family, studied
Latin under the instructions of a private tutor, and, as he became a young man,
began business as a clerk in the shipping and forwarding house of his uncle, a
prominent man of San-tander, Spain, being employed there for three years. In
1870, he went to Zacatecas, Mexico, where he had an uncle living, and secured a
position in the dry-goods house of Juan de la Guerra, for whom he was engaged
for about four years. He next entered the employ of Watson, Newell & Co., an
English firm at Zacatecas, and took charge of their bullion shipments to the
seaport towns of Matamoras, Mazatlan and sometimes Tampico. In this capacity he
had under his care immense sums of money, the account of a single shipment
sometimes running up into millions of dollars!

  Being thus engaged between the United States and Mexico, his duty sometimes
took him close to the scene of hostilities; and on one occasion he was escorted
by Captain Lewis, Commander of the Texas Hangers, and while with that officer
met and made the acquaintance of General Wool, at Monterey, While engaged in one
of his periodical trips, in 1848, he learned of the discovery of gold in
California; and, in partnership with Casanos Bros., of Tepic, he employed about
fifty Mexicans, including a physician, the intention being to utilize the force
in digging gold in the new fields. All preparations having been made, he left
San Blas, with his expedition, on the schooner Maria, June 26, 1849, arriving at
Monterey, California, after a voyage of about sixty-two days. They went to what
is now Watsonville, secured six carts (carretas del pais) and went to the
Tuolumne river and commenced to work the gold placers near Major Savage's camp.
Their success here, however, was not great, and they went to the camp at Sonora,
where most of the people they had brought up from Mexico left them.

  Mr. Bolado returned to San Jose and engaged in general merchandising, in
partnership. A year afterward he contracted with Francisco Pacheca to take the
San Luis ranch for eight years, in partnership with Ripa Pagaza and Castanos,
also from Spain. On this land they pursued the live-stock business, being very
successful, as their profits in six years were nearly $200,000! Butchers would
come to their ranch from points as remote as Sonora, Campo Americano, Angel's,
etc., while they also found a market in San Francisco and elsewhere. He was so
engaged for eight years.

  After withdrawing from business a short time he again took a stock ranch, near
Nicolaus, between Sacramento and Marysville, but he sold out there in 1860, went
to San Francisco and engaged in the commission business, on Sansome street, near
Pacific, as a member of the firm of Sanjurje, Bolado & Pujol. Their business
consisted in importing Havana cigars and in a general trade with Mexico and
Central America.

  In 1862 Mr. Bolado went with his wife on a tour to Europe, the trip occupying
fourteen months, and they visited also the exposition at London.

  In 1864 the firm lost 14,000 cattle in San Luis Obispo county, and about 1,000
horses and 3,000 cattle on the Quien Sabe ranch. In 1866, after closing the
business mentioned, Mr, Bolado entered into partnership with Mariano Malarin and
stocked the San Luis ranch. They were associated two or three years, and then
Mr. Bolado, in company with Jose Arques, bought the Santa Ana ranch of 23,000
acres, for stock purposes. They carried on the business together for two years,
after which they sold off 5,000 acres and divided the remainder. To his half,
Mr. Bolado has added by purchase until he now has 9,500 acres in this ranch. He
has also a tract of 1,000 acres six miles east of Hollister, which is fine
farming land. He also has banking interests in San Francisco, is a director of
the Farmers & Merchants' Bank of Hollister, and president of the Farmers'
Warehouse Company, at Tres Pinos.

  He is in no sense a politician, but votes with the Democratic pary. [sic]
Socially, he is a member of the San Francisco Society of California Pioneers,
and of the Odd Fellows lodge at Hollister.

  He was married February 2, 1857, to Miss Julia Abrego, a native of Monterey,
California, and a daughter of Jose and Josepha (Estrada) Abrego. Her mother was
a sister of Governor Alvarado, and the father was a merchant from the city of
Mexico; the latter settled at Monterey, and there held the post of Treasurer for
the Government of Mexico Mrs. Bolado died January 10, 1891, in San Francisco. By
this marriage there were four children, three of whom died at an early age.
Their living child, Julia, is the wife of Gaston Ashe, of San Francisco.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."-Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


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