[1] They moved in 1834 to cultivate and hold land in the Almaden Valley, located in present-day Santa Clara County, California.
In 1842, José de los Reyes Berreyesa received from Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado a grant giving him one square league, or 4,438 acres (18 km2), of the land he had been cultivating, called Rancho San Vicente.
The neighboring grant, Rancho Los Capitancillos, was held by Justo Laros who claimed the mercury mine was part of his land.
Robert Walkinshaw and some other men squatted on the rancho land in February 1845, and began to take lumber and limestone away to sell in August.
[5] When asked by prisoner José de los Santos Berreyesa whether their father had been killed, Frémont said it might have been a man named Castro.