Reed, John Thomas (1805–1843)

John Thomas Reed was the first Irishman to come to California and the first English-speaking white man to travel north of present-day San Francisco. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1805 and gained an early desire for adventure. At 15 years of age, he went to sea with his uncle, arriving in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1820 and staying for the next six years. He learned to speak the language, eventually becoming a Mexican citizen in 1834.

In 1826, he again went to sea, sailing on a Mexican ship to Los Angeles and on to the city of Yerba Buena (present-day San Francisco). His ship anchored in Richardson Bay, near present-day Sausalito, and he took a boat, rowing to the Presidio (fort) at Yerba Buena. At the Presidio, he met the commandante, Jose Antonio Sanchez and his future wife, Hilaria, the commandante's 13-year-old daughter.

Reed requested a land grant from the Mexican government. The missions controlled much of the land. The land that Reed wanted was just outside the jurisdiction of the Mission San Rafael and along the coast near Sausalito. Mexican citizens could request land grants for land that was not controlled by the missions. At the time, however, Reed had not obtained citizenship and could not acquire land in Mexican California. The fact that the land was in a coastal zone that the government had designated as a military security zone presented a further impediment. Russians had established a fur trading post farther north on the coast.

The commandante took a liking to Reed and, it is believed, advised him to seek and make a claim on land to the north of the Mission San Rafael, in the Santa Rosa Valley. Reed supplied himself at the mission and became the first white pioneer in the area, which the Cotati (Kotati) Indians controlled and showed hostility to any encroachment. Reed was 22 years old. He built a small home on the eastern side of the valley and planted his first crop. The Cotati Indians had not let anyone settle on their land and John Reed was to be no exception. They burned him out in 1827, before the crop was ripe for harvest. He took shelter at the mission, staying there until 1832. Reed worked as a foreman at the mission, built a cabin nearby and started the first ferry service from Sausalito to the Presidio at Yerba Buena. He named his boat Hilaria after his soon-to-be wife.

After becoming a citizen in 1834, he again applied for a land grant and succeeded. He received a large grant, north of the bay, in Tiburon Mill Valley, on the condition that he build a mill to provide wood [Page 565]for the Presidio. He named his land “Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio,” translated as “where wood is cut for the Presidio.” He built the first sawmill in Marin County, and the area was later called Mill Valley, after the mill. He supplied his rancho by trading with the Russians: elk and bear skins and cattle hides from his land in exchange for a saw, a grist mill, guns and ammunition, and flour.

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