History

A Muwekma Ohlone Indian village
covered 14 square miles of today's
city. It's buried under several feet
of soil on which Calvary Assembly of
God church is built near the corner of
Calaveras Road & Old Piedmont Road.

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.

The first Europeans arrived in Milpitas
over land with the De Anza expedition.
A soldier with the expedition, José
Higuera, was awarded a land grant by

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 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.

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.

The central and southern portions of Milpitas were part of Rancho
Milpitas. It comprised 4,457.66 acres roughly between Los Cochés
Creek and Berryessa Creek, being granted to José Maria de Jésus
Alviso in 1835. Alviso built an adobe 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.

Many locals had taken to calling the collection of buildings at
the crossroads along Penitencia Creek, "Penitencia".

The word Milpitas is the diminutive of Milpa, which is derived
from a Mexican Indian word for cornfield. No doubt it was
considered 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 "dear little cornfield."

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
is names, 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.

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 Ford Motor Assembly Plant came to the southern edge of town, San José indicated
interest in making it part of that city. 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. Today, it
is the Great Mall of the Bay Area.

Information from Milpitas Historical Society