Backdrop of transformation

Expanses of willow trees and yellow-laced wilderness of wild mustard blanketed much of the San Jose area in the 1850’s. Yet pioneering transformation had already begun across this hinterland in the 1850s. San Jose was incorporated while California became a state - both in 1850, and determined building efforts were well on the way with hotels, stores, factories, elementary schools and colleges, including then Santa Clara College (1851). An agricultural bonanza began to emerge as farmers saw the area’s rich soil yield a cornucopia of fruits and crops, including apples, pears, potatoes, tomatoes, wheat and barley. Fruit orchards and vineyards also started to line the landscape. Along with the physical changes came social shifts. The rowdiness and transitory spirit of pre- incorporation years were giving way to order, stability and a sense of permanency: San Jose was becoming a true city: being viewed as a mercantile center, churches were growing in numbers, and farmers and their families were fanning out all across the Valley. Among these families establishing roots here were the Nicholsons.