Welcome to The Milpitas History Homepage All text and photos on this site are copyright by Steve Munzel, 2000. For permission to copy or reproduce any portion of this web site contact the webmaster by sending email to tmhs at milpitashistory.org.

We know of one Muwekma Ohlone Indian village in the over fourteen square miles covered by the city today. It is buried several feet under soil hauled in on which to build the Calvary Assembly of God Church complex near the corner of Calaveras Road and Old Piedmont Road. A description of the life of the early Indians may be found in Madge Craig's The History of Milpitas.

For thousands of years, these natives built several large cemeteries which Europeans later called "shell mounds." A number of these cemeteries are located under the businesses lining Main Street and early builders occasionally unearthed the remains and artifacts left by these First Americans according to Tom Evatt, Milpitas' first mayor.

These hills of dirt were the result of ceremonies marking the anniversary of the death of a loved one. At the appointed time, relatives of the deceased were host to a "crying ceremony" which was attended by people from near and far. Sometimes the bereaved numbered in the thousands. For three to five days there was feasting and ritual mourning for the departed at the cemetery. The leavings from the mourners' meals of bay shellfish stayed at the cemetery (there were no garabage collectors to haul it away). Layers of dirt, animal bones, shells next to the Indian burials resulted in the large mounds.

In 1993, a portion of such a mound cemetery was excavated at the Elmwood Correctional Facility. The Ohlone Families Corp. was contracted to disinter the human remains. It marked one of the first times in California history where local Native Americans were hired to remove the bones of their own ancestors. Over 150 remains of individuals were carefully removed and boxed for reinternment. Found with the remains were artifacts which indicate that as early as the fifteenth century local tribes were trading with others from Monterey Bay (abalone and other shell necklaces) to the Sacramento area (scrimshaw bird bone ear ornaments). Jasper from the Morgan Hill area 25 miles to the south was also found.

The first Europeans arrived in Milpitas overland with the De Anza expedition. A soldier with the expedition, José Higuera, was awarded a land grant by the last Spanish governor of Alta California, Pablo Vincinté de Sola, in 1821. Named Rancho Tularcitos, it covered 4,394.35 acres of what is today central and northern Milpitas. Soon after being given the land, Higuera built a one story adobe. The ruins of the adobe are within the walls of another structure built in the 1960s by Mrs. Marion Weller. This may be seen and visited at Higuera Adobe Park on North Park Victoria Drive.

The border of Milpitas and Fremont was the location of Rancho Agua Calienté. Its 9,563.87 acres were granted to Fulgencio Higuera in 1839, in part with land taken from the San José Mission following the secularization of Church property by the Mexican government.

To the west of Penitencia Creek (which originally ran just behind the buildings on the west side of Main Street) was Rancho Rincon de los Esteros. The 6,352.9 acres of brackish marshes and prime bottom land was granted to another of De Anza's soldiers, Juan Ignacio Alviso. He was the man for whom the Alviso district of San José was named. Alviso district has over 20 structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, however it is not known to us where Alviso's hacienda was located, perhaps he made his home in Pueblo San Jos*, which was nearby.

The central and southern portions of Milpitas were part of Rancho Milpitas. It comprised 4,457.66 acres roughly bordered by Los Cochés Creek in the north Berryessa Creek to the south and Penitencia Creek to the west. It was granted to José Maria de Jésus Alviso in 1835. Alviso built a three-room adobe house on the low foothills near the corner of Piedmont Road and Calaveras Road. This adobe walled hacienda, for which our city was named, had a second story made of wood added in the 1850s probably shortly before Alviso's death. Until it was acquired by the city in 1996, this was one of the oldest continually inhabited adobe structures in the state. Our city was named after Alviso's rancho by Joseph Weller when the first U.S. Post Office was opened on Main Street, but according to Madge Craig's book The History of Milpitas, many locals had taken to calling the collection of buildings at the crossroads along Penitencia Creek, "Penitencia" after the small Catholic building next to the creek that was used by the Spanish Padres to hear confession by the nearby natives. The word Milpitas is the diminutive of Milpa, which is derived from a Mexican Indian word for "place were corn grows". No doubt it was considered a somewhat humorous understatement for Alviso, the Alcaldé of Pueblo San José, to refer to his property, covering several square miles, all of which could be viewed from the main house, as his "corn patch." However, one must remember that Leland Stanford later in the same century referred to his vast estate as "the farm". Today we often pronounce the name of our city as "mill-pea-duss" rather than the more correct "meal-pea-tahs".

Michael Hughes was the first non-hispanic European to settle in Milpitas. He probably built his redwood frame house near what is now the intersection of Main and Carlo Streets, although the exact spot is unknown.

The settlers who followed Hughes included Joseph Weller (for whom Weller School is named), Dudley Wells, Joseph Murphy (for whom Murphy School site is named), Joseph Scott (for whom Scott Creek is named), and Englishman, Frederick Creighton.

It was Creighton who started the first store in Milpitas at the corner of what is now Main and Serra Streets. At that time, Main Street was known as Mission Road because it connected the Mission of San José with the Pueblo of San José. Where Creighton built his store Mission Road was intersected from the west by Alviso Road. Across the Alviso Road, to the north, James Kinney built a hotel in 1857 that was soon taken over by Alfred French, who hailed from Ohio.

French's Hotel burned, was rebuilt, and in the 1890s, was renamed the Milpitas Hotel. This building burned in the town's great fire of 1910. By the mid 1920s one of the Fat Boy Barbeque Restaurants was erected on the site. The Fat Boy Restaurants were one of the first "fast food" chains in America. During this time Milpitas was a thriving highway service center on the road which now connected Oakland with San José. That highway is known today as Main Street.

When the Western Pacific Railroad came to Milpitas in 1867, the town got an economic boost. A depot was built southeast of St. John's Catholic Church next to the railroad tracks. Tons of locally grown produce were loaded onto freight cars there. Some was processed into cans at the C. P. Cannery, located on the east side of Main Steet northeast of the church. Milpitas became famous for peas, spinach, asparagus, beans, and later, strawberries.

In the early twentieth century, hay to feed the thousands of horses in San Francisco, became the primary cash crop grown in Milpitas. Hay continued to be grown well into the 1980s when the remaining farmland east of Penitencia Creek was developed. Some views of this open land in the heart of modern Milpitas can be seen in Bob Burrill's famous cult movie, "The Milpitas Monster" (available at the Milpitas Library). The last farmland in the valley portion of Milpitas was the McCarthy Ranch. For many years, the McCarthy family operated a fruit and vegetable stand at the present site of McCarthy Blvd. overpass.

When the Ford Motor Assembly Plant came to the southern edge of town, San José indicated interest in making it part of that city. The local inhabitants fought back. The City of Milpitas was the result of a defensive incorporation on January 26, 1954. Later, in 1960, San José attempted to incorporate our young city but was met with a very lopsided defeat in the election. The Minute Man was added to the city's seal and flag following this campaign. Ironically, Ford Corporation called the facility the San Jose Ford Motor Assembly Plant. The automobile manufacturing era in Milpitas lasted little more than a quarter century. After the plant closed it remained largely unused for nearly fifteen years. Today, it is the Great Mall of the Bay Area.

In 1980 the Milpitas Historical Society was formed. Through the efforts of its members the Milpitas City Council passed an ordinance to protect and preserve the city's cultural resources. The enforcement of that ordinance is assigned to the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Commission.

As the twenty-first century begins, few cities in America are as well balanced as the Milpitas community. There is a large and thiving retail business in the city as well as many computer technology manufacturing industries.