Tulare County Biographies

SANTOS BACA

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


A descendant of old Mexican and Spanish families, Santos Baca was born in San 
Bernardino county, Cal., in what is now Riverside county, November, 1865.  His 
father was Jesus Cabeza De Baca, who was the son of Jose Baca, for whom 
Vacaville was named. (The name Baca was formerly spelled Vaca, hence the 
spelling of Vacaville.) Jesus Cabeza De Baca married Inez Baca, a native of 
Spain, and he engaged in the stock business and grazed sheep where the city of 
Riverside now stands. He was directly descended from Spanish discoverers who 
landed on the shores of the United States in the middle of the sixteenth century 
and eventually settled in New Mexico. In 1849 the parents of Santos Baca came to 
California with ox-teams from New Mexico, and both passed away at old 
Spanishtown, near Riverside.
When Santos Baca was seven years old he was taken to Sacramento to attend school 
and in 1880 made his way to Tulare county and thence to Riverside. In 1883 he 
went to Vacaville but the same year found him in the employ of a liveryman in 
Tulare city. In 1902 he located at Porterville and was employed in the same 
business until 1910, at which time he became one of the proprietors in the 
Exchange stables. He has from time to time interested himself in other 
enterprises and has evidenced a helpful solicitude for the advancement and 
prosperity of the community. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the 
World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
In 1892 Mr. Baca married Miss Nancy E. Doty, a native of Missouri, who has borne 
him six children, as follows: Fay and Harold, in the high school; Glenn and 
Rita, in the grammar school; Rene, in the primary school, and Damon.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, pp. 752-753