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The
James Johnston house sits on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, east
of Route One, just south of the city of Half Moon Bay. Isolated, its
silhouette is a remarkable sight against the rolling hillsides golden
brown until the winter rains turns them green. The classic New England
salt-box (two stories in front, one in back) was built by '49er pioneer
James Johnston between 1853-1855, for his Californiano bride, Petra
Maria de Jara. One of the first white men to visit the Coastside,
Johnston (1813-1879) saw Candelario Miramontes's magnificent Rancho de
San Benito and in 1853 purchased 1,162 acres from Guadalupe Briones,
Miramontes's widow for $14,000. His grand scheme and dream of a proper
Yankee house, the center of an eastern-style dairy ranch, became real
as he sent his brothers, Thomas and John, back to Ohio to round up a
herd of eastern dairy cows and with brother William drive them across
the country to "Spanish Town."
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| Petra and the children |
The
elegantly appointed house was home for the Johnston's growing family.
James, Jr., born in 1853 was followed by Alice Maria Theresa de Jesus
in 1854, John Francis in 1856 and Francis Thomas in 1859. One of James'
sisters, Isabel, moved west in January 1860 and his mother-in-law
Ursula "Melita" Valenzuela de Jara came from Mexico came to help raise
the children.
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