San Diego County Biographies
 
JOSE MARNIEL SOTO

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


president of the San Nicholas Gold and Mining Company, was born at Lamballaque, 
Peru, December 13, 1832. His father was in good circumstances and gave him 
liberal advantages, so that he received a thorough education in the best 
schools.  After leaving school at Lamballaque he went to Lima, in that country, 
and devoted himself to study, finishing the course in one year. Being naturally 
of an active temperament, he came to California during the first gold mining 
excitement in 1849, forming a company of 105 wealthy young Peruvians. The 
leading spirits of this party were Canevaro, Fluear, Largo & Co., who really 
commanded the expedition, and assumed executive control of their affairs. On 
arriving at San Francisco, then called Yerba Buena, the authorities refused to 
give them permission
to land, as the natural presumption was that they were a band of men from a 
hostile country. After several conferences the young Peruvians consented to sail 
over on the vessel called Lady Adams to San Rafael, Marin County, and there they 
landed without any further annoyances. After a tender and affectionate farewell 
they there disbanded, each one to seek his fortunes in a strange land. Don Soto 
returned to San Francisco, quietly surveyed the chances of engaging in business 
there, opened a commission house, and did an extensive business, making a great 
deal of money buying and selling provisions to Mexicans and Chilians. In 1850 he 
went to the mines of Stanislaus County, where he made considerable money in the 
bakery business among the miners. He paid $200 a barrel for flour and on each 
barrel realized a profit of $100. Returning again to San Francisco he engaged in 
the dairy business, where he sold milk at $3.50 a gallon. He purchased Laguna 
Onda, now known as Lake Merced, and bought property on Market street and sold it 
again, for which he cut and sold wood at an extraordinarily remunerative price. 
He next engaged in the raising of cattle.
        In 1853 he returned to Monterey to buy cattle. It was at this place that 
he formed an acquaintance with and married Miss Maria Perrez. In 1854 he 
obtained a piece of land and engaged in farming. In 1855 he opened a mercantile 
establishment in Santa Rita, Monterey County, investing in and hauling lumber, 
with profitable results. In this he became well-known and a leading financier. 
In 1856 he commenced to farm more extensively on his ranch, and he was the first 
man on Salinas Plains that cut hay in that county and imported into Monterey. 
From 1859 to 1861 he was a wholesale butcher in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, 
and in this business he also prospered; but in 1862 a disastrous flood visited 
the county, destroying a great deal of his property. He then engaged in raising 
cattle, sheep, horses, etc., for the local markets until 1864, when a withering 
drought visited California, and he lost all of his live stock. This terrible 
misfortune compelled him to restrict his attention to farming, and in 1865 he 
was busy with the plow, and he proudly says that he was the first man that ever 
engaged in agriculture in Salinas valley. After following agricultural pursuits 
until 1873 he visited Los Angeles, and bought the San Francisco Rancho, and his 
business character was soon recognized as the leading spirit of Southern 
California.
        Returning again to Monterey, he became one of the prime movers of the 
project to build a narrow-gauge railroad through the Salinas valley, becoming 
one of the incorporators, and remained with them until the road was completed. 
In 1874 he again engaged in the cattle business, with M. Newhall, and they made 
large shipments to local markets and to northern points. In 1876�'77 Don Soto 
lost over $300,000 worth of cattle, sheep, etc. His ranches comprised over 9,000 
acres of land, and the entire grain crop was ruined by the rust in 1877�'78. 
These sudden calamities stunned him so completely that he rested awhile until he 
recovered his pristine energy. In 1879 he started again for Los Angeles to 
retrieve himself, and became interested in colonizing land and placed a large 
number of families on the Santa Marguerita ranch, which he afterward deeded back 
to Juan Foster, of Los Angeles. He next went to Arizona and in 1881 started the 
first mining exchange in the territory, in Tucson. When he sold out his ranch 
property in California he retired from business until 1889, when his nature was 
again aroused by exciting discoveries, and he visited Lower California in order 
to develop its mineral resources. Taking the lead of a gold mining company for 
the working of the mine in Real del Castillo, he became president of the 
company, and he now has great expectations.
        Don Soto is well known in California. Although not a native of North 
America, he cast his first vote for Fremont, in 1856, for President of the 
United States, and was a leader in the establishment of the Republican party in 
California; and all of his sons and sons-in-law are all uncompromising 
Republicans. He has recently been induced to apply for a United States 
Consulship at Mazatlan, Mexico.
        He has three sons and three daughters. His son, R. M. J. Soto, is a 
member of the firm of Herman & Soto; and S. J., a lawyer, has been District 
Attorney of his county�Monterey.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  247-249