Nicknamed José, Berreyesa married María de Jesus Antonia Villela (born October 6, 1793) in 1806.
[4] Nasario Antonio "José" Berreyesa served as a corporal at the San Francisco Presidio during 1819–1824, then moved to become the original settler of the Berryessa Valley in the 1830s.
Berreyesa forced 100 natives to help him manage his livestock—a herd which soon grew to 5,000 cattle and 20,000 horses, and extended eastward over Berryessa Peak into Capay Valley.
[5] Sons Sisto Antonio and José de Jesus served in the Mexican army, stationed in San Francisco, from the 1830s to 1842.
[6] The brothers built adobe estate houses about a third of the way up the valley,[2] beginning with a 90-by-20-foot (27 m × 6 m) hacienda for Sisto, then a 60-by-20-foot (18 m × 6 m) one for José de Jesus.
[7] They expanded the livestock operation of their father to include a sizable grain harvest, and they enjoyed gambling and racing horses.
[12] By 1853, José de Jesus and Sisto Berreyesa had sold minor parcels of Rancho Las Putas, referred to as Berryessa Ranch by the Anglo settlers,[7] to pay gambling debts.
[4] In 1866, the developer holding the majority of land in the valley divided Rancho Las Putas into smaller parcels to sell to farmers, and platted a town called Monticello.
[6] A four- and six-horse stagecoach ran from the 300 men[2] working at the remote quicksilver mining town of Knoxville south through to Monticello, where the horses were changed, then west to Napa.
[1] The first adobe belonging to Sisto Berreyesa was left to ruin, but the second was held by a settler named Abraham Clark.
[2] In 1896, a heavy stone bridge with three large arches was built across Putah Ceek about 1.5 miles (2 km) from Monticello, along the road leading to Napa.
[15] Dorothea Lange and Pirkle Jones were commissioned to shoot a photographic documentary of the death of the town, and of the displacement of its residents, for Life, but the magazine did not run the piece.