Faxon Dean Atherton

From Palo Alto Wiki

Faxon Dean Atherton is the namesake of Atherton. A native of Massachusetts, Atherton was born into an established New England family. He went to school in his native state and then went into the shipping and merchant business at the age of 18. He was charged with the operation of vessels plying between Boston - Valparaiso, Chile, and Monterey, CA, giving him wide and varied experience.

In 1834 Atherton traveled to Valparaiso, where he would later establish a ship chandler's store, trading in tallow, hides and merchandise. During the California gold rush, he amassed a great fortune with his shipping business and the import and export of goods. In Valparaiso he married Dominiga Goñi, a member of one Chile's patrician families.

[edit] The Move to California

Atherton first visited San Francisco in 1836, when the city was in its infancy. His friend and business associate, Thomas Larkin urged Atherton to move to California. Larkin wrote, "...there is education available for your children and a dignity of living on landed estates down the San Francisco peninsula (that is) convenient and accessible. ...You and I were of that country. Our eyes were turned towards it in admiration and in my part in gratitude. My children were from there. They and yours will soon be."

In 1860, Atherton bought 640 acres at ten dollars an acre of land on the San Francisco peninsula in what was then known as Fair Oaks, becoming one of the first residents of the area. He built his home, Valapariso Park, approximately where the Circus Club, a private country club, is now located.

He raised his seven children there (Alexandra, Elena, Francisco, George H. Bowen, Isabel, Faxon Dean Jr., Florence), and today, their names appear on West Atherton street signs: Isabella, Alejandra and Elena.

Atherton was a land speculator purchasing tracts in Hayward, Watsonville and other places. Atherton purchased the Milpitas Rancho in the area of Fort Hunter Liggett from Ygnacio Pastor immediately upon its title clearance in the San Francisco court. (The U.S. Land Claims commission, set up as a result of the Mexican-American War to mediate land claims, had been examining the land granted under the Mexican land grant system.) Somehow during the conversion of land, records under the Land Commission were changed and Ygnacio’s small ranch grew from several thousand acres to 42,000. Owners of plots dating back to the Hispanic period, including Indians, Mexicans and Spaniards, on land not originally owned by Pastor became squatters overnight.

Atherton then sent notice to evict them. Many were settlers on improved lands awaiting preemption, including George Dutton and others who had believed they owned property in the town of Jolon. Appeals and lobbying in Washington by the settlers failed.

[edit] After Death

In 1881, after her husband's death, Dominga built a house on Noe Hill in San Francisco and moved in with her son George and his wife Gertrude. Both Dominga and Gertrude were strong women who so dominated George that in 1887 he ran away from home to seek his fortune in Chile as his father had. Halfway to Chile, George's kidneys failed. The sailors put his body into a barrel of rum to preserve it and shipped the barrel to the Atherton Mansion. George was dried out and received a proper Christian burial. Local legend says his ghost soon began knocking on the bedroom doors of his mother and widow. He became so troublesome that Dominga sold the house and moved out.

In 1923, the town of Fair Oaks was given the name Atherton upon its incorporation by his family because "Fair Oaks" was already in use (Bush & Merrill, 7). However, as early as 1912 it was already being referred to by that name (Hynding, 115).

[edit] References