The San Jose Mission
History
The San Jose mission was founded on June 11, 1797. The San Jose mission was founded by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen and was the fourteenth mission built.
In the 1800's it ruled a ton of land around it, north almost to Oakland, east to the Livermore Valley and west to the San Francisco bay. The small herd of 500 cattle grew to 350,000 it was the largest herd of any of the missions.
Where The Ohlone Indians lived was the place where the San Jose mission was built. Their village was known as Orisom. Three years after the San Jose mission was founded several hundred Ohlones had come to live at the Mission. They were introduced to a new way of life by the San Jose mission.
Thousands of cattle roamed the mission ranges and acres of wheat and other crops were planted and harvested under the direction of the padres.
Mission Life
The day began with tons of morning prayers. After that the catholic teachings our taught. After a generous breakfast of atole (porridge), the able bodied men and women of the mission were assigned their tasks for the day. The women were assigned to knitting, embroidering weaving, cooking,dressmaking, and laundering. Some of the stronger girls would grind flour or carry adobe bricks (which weighed 55 lbs. each) to the men.
The men did a variety of jobs, having learned from the missionaries how to plow, sow, irrigate, cultivate, reap, thresh, and glean. In addition, they were taught to build adobe houses, tan leather hides, shear sheep, weave rungs and clothing from wool, make ropes, soap, paint, and other useful articles.
The work day was six hours and ended with supper and social activities. About 90 days of the year were religious or civil holidays, free from manual labor.
The San Jose Mission was the center of industry and agriculture. The site was chosen for the abundance of natural resources of the area including fertilized ground, stones, water, and Adobe soil suitable for building. In 1810, it produced 4,070 bushels of wheat and much produce, including olives, grapes, and figs. In 1832, 13,000 horses, the mission's l2,000 cattle, and 12,000 sheep roamed mission lands from present day Oakland to San Jose.
In 1805 the mission started to construct a permanent adobe church. It was a solid building with walls 8 feet thick in some places. On April 22, 1809 the church was dedicated to the mission.
Buenaventura Fortuni and Narcisa Duran, came to the mission around 1805.They worked together to attract the Indians and trained them as blacksmiths, leather tanners, tile and adobe brick makers, weavers, rope makers, shoemakers, and carpenters. The women learned to sew, do laundry, cook, and do needlework.
In 1825 new homes were needed because there were 1800 indian living there and in 1830 there were 2000 indians which made The San Jose Mission the most indian populated mission in California.
Reconstruction
On October 21,1868, there was a huge earthquake that seriously damaged the mission's walls and roof. The walls shattered and the roof split open.
The original mission had over 100 adobe buildings. So all the indians were working really hard to restore the mission.
In 1973 there were plans to reconstruct the church. The wooden church was moved to San Mateo where it has been restored as a house of worship by a church group.
San Jose Mission Report done by Travis Kulhanek