This date marks the birthday of one of South Valley’s fastest
growing communities. Incorporated on Aug. 6, 1872, Hollister
– my hometown – today reaches the age of 132 years.
This date marks the birthday of one of South Valley’s fastest growing communities. Incorporated on Aug. 6, 1872, Hollister – my hometown – today reaches the age of 132 years.
I wish I had a “Way-Back Machine” that could let me voyage into the past and witness the community during the turbulent days of its birth.
Real time machines haven’t been invented yet, but there is a way to catch a glimpse of that Victorian era. Let’s step through the doorway of the imagination.
Watch in your mind’s eye as the 21st century ebbs away. It’s the year 1855, and we’re standing in the middle of a 34,000-acre ranch plain surrounded by mountains. You’ll easily recognize Fremont Peak to the west and Mt. Santa Ana in the east.
This is the San Justo Ranch, once owned by Don Francisco Pacheco. It has just been bought by a partnership of Americans who recently arrived in California: Dr. Thomas Flint, Benjamin Flint, Llewelyn Bixby and Col. William Wells Hollister.
Seven years speed by in our imagination, and now it’s the hot summer of 1862. We stand at the base of Park Hill (in an area of what will one day be the Fremont School site). Sheep graze nearby as we spy on Colonel Hollister giving sweaty carpenters their orders. They’re building a mansion, the first house built within the present city limit. Watch the time-lapse construction of the Victorian home mushrooming three stories high and covering an area of 90 by 100 feet. A picket fence borders its front.
Time rushes ahead. It’s Oct. 10, 1868. Col. Hollister wants to sell his part of San Justo Ranch and move to the Santa Barbara region of California. He rides horseback to Gilroy where he meets with other Victorian gentlemen. Led by Thomas Hawkins – known as “Uncle Tom” – the men form the Justo Homestead Association, and pay Col. Hollister the sum of $370,000 for his ranch.
As we eavesdrop, we learn the association wants to create a town on their newly bought land. But what to call it?
Someone proposes naming it “San Justo” after the association. But Henry Hagen stands up and angrily says he’s sick of seeing so many towns in California named after Spanish saints. He proposes the town be named “Hollister,” after the man who had just sold it to them. The other gentlemen confirm the suggestion.
Jump about a month to Nov. 19, 1868. We’re now witness to the official surveying of 100 acres where the planned town will take root. On the map, the borders are conveniently named North, South, East and West streets. Later that day, an auction sells parcels to the highest bidders.
December, 1868. In our time travel view, we watch hundreds of horse-drawn wagons driven by teamsters hauling redwood lumber into the site from Gilroy. Listen to the pounding of hammers and scrape of saws as the carpenters labor. Surveyors nearby continue laying out blocks and plan streets 80 feet wide.
June, 1869. Witness a passenger stage pull up in front of Col. Hollister’s former mansion. Men and women in Victorian attire step out of the coach and enter it. The home is a first-class hotel called the Montgomery House. Nearby along Fourth Street are the first businesses – stores and saloons, mainly – of the quiet hamlet.
The year 1870. After the construction of a dirt road from Gilroy to Hollister, we watch as stage companies begin to make regular runs to the village. One stage line runs to the prosperous New Idria Quicksilver Mines farther south.
The year 1871. The residents of Hollister celebrate wonderful news. Charles Crocker, chairman of the board for the Southern Pacific Railroad, just decided tracks will lead to Hollister instead of the mission village of San Juan Bautista. An economic boon for Hollister!
On April 29, we witness 350 Chinese and 175 whites start laying down the tracks leading from Gilroy to Hollister.
Early 1872. Strolling through the village, we know its future is ensured by the railroad. We see more construction as the population surges. Despite many vacant lots and few real streets, townspeople feel optimistic about Hollister’s future.
Most residents are involved in sheep and cattle ranching. Some run supply businesses downtown. Let’s step in for a moment at Cox’s Cash Grocery and Crockery House. Notice the prices of a by-gone era: A five-pound box of tea goes for $1. A 10-pound box of crackers sells for 75 cents. Observe the sign reading: “50 good cigars for $1.”
It’s late April now, and we’re downtown standing next to a young newspaper reporter from the Salinas City Index. Glance over his shoulder and you’ll read what he just scribbled in his notebook: “Hollister is the liveliest town in Monterey County judging from the number of wagons, horses, etc., your correspondent saw standing on the streets at that place on Saturday last.”
July, 1872. Town leaders have just organized a Hook & Ladder Company. We attend an elegant Victorian ball. Gaze at couples dancing lively to fiddle music as they raise funds to buy a truck for Hollister’s fledgling volunteer fire department.
On Aug. 6, 1872, a notary in Salinas affixes the Monterey County seal on a document. He finishes recording the records of incorporation of the town of Hollister. The city has just been born.
And today, exactly 132 years later, most of Hollister’s population of about 33,000 have little idea of those early days. A sleepy hamlet is now hazy history.
Happy birthday, Hollister!
Martin Cheek
