SAN JOSE AND VICINITY. 7 was on the hank of the Guadalupe near the present northern city limits, hut the high stage of water in the creek during the winter caused the location to be changed to a point about a mile and a quarter to the south. This was in 1797. Market Square was the “ Plaza,” and about the center of the new town which bore the name of “ El Pueblo de San Jose de Guada lupe,” in English, “ The Town of St. Joseph of Gua- daloupe,” the first being chosen as its patron saint, and the latter being the titular divinity of Mexico. The settlement appears to have been nothing more than a mere hamlet of adobe huts for many years, for we find that in 1814 it contained but about twenty dwellings, and as late as 1831 the total population is recorded as being but 524. The first foreigner who is known to have come to the valley was John Gilroy, a Scotchman, who made his advent in 1814. In 1834 the foreign population consisted of only about twenty stray adventurers, brought to this coast by the ships of the Hudson Bay Company, and other vessels traffic- ing in hides. There were but few acquisitions to this portion of the population until after 1840, when every year brought a few hardy pioneers, some of whom are now our best citizens. In 1844 the first party of over land emigrants arrived from Missouri, two years in advance of Col. Fremont, the famous explorer.* In 1846 about 120 “ foreigners” were in and about San Jose. [The term “ foreigner ” includes all the white *This was the first party that ever crossed the plains with wagons.
