San Luis Obispo County Biographies

DOLORES HERRERA

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

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


DOLORES HERRERA is, in very plain English, an ''old timer." He was born in New 
Mexico, in 1831, and came with his family to California in 1840. They went first 
to the San Gabriel mission, Los Angeles, where they lived one year. San Luis 
Obispo was their next home, and for twelve years they resided there. Mr. 
Herrera, Sr., kept a saloon in the place, which, as can well be imagined, was very 
primitive. Dolores assisted his father, and at various times was employed in ranch 
work near the mission. In 1853 he came to the San Jose Valley and settled where 
he is to-day, on a valuable property 400 acres in extent, through which the Salinas 
River winds, and also the Torro Creek. Here Mr. Herrera is engaged in farming and 
fruit-raising. An interesting feature of the place to a visitor is an enormous rock 
that rises out of the ground near the house. Thirty feet is a moderate estimate of 
its height on one side, and it is so conveniently situated that it forms the rear of 
one of the barns. A novel sight, indeed ! 

Mr. Herrera has been married three times, and has four children now living, all of 
whom are prominently identified with the interests of the San Jose Valley. 

The subject of this sketch has an excellent memory, and, coming into this county as 
he did, early in its history, he relates some very interesting observations. When he 
first came to San Luis Obispo there were just two white people in the mission and 
about thirty Indians. The place was very desolate, and for a time there was little, if 
any, progress made in the development of the town. In San Jose Valley wild animals 
were plenty. Bears, wolves and lions were around stealing his pigs every day. Native 
Americans were few. Mr. Herrera relates that the creek which now is of great value 
to his property, was absolutely not to be seen when he first settled on his place, a 
fact to be accounted for only by the discovery and development of the mountain 
spring in 1862.

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.