Dodero, Nicolas

From Santa Cruz County history wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Nicolas Dodero (1805-1866) was an Italian-born sailor who left his ship in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1827, was sent to Monterey (as was usual at that time with foreign immigrants), moved to San Jose in 1829, married in 1832, and presumably moved “over the hill” for (or prior to) his 1840 naturalization in Branciforte. He was granted the Tres Ojos de Agua (Three Eyes of Water) rancho on the upper Westside in 1844. Some sources credit Dodero with building a grist mill, but they may be confusing it with the Majors mill. Alternatively, Majors may have taken over the mill built by Dodero, or maybe they were two separate mills. A dead-end, unpaved Westside alley is named Dodero Street, but there’s no street sign. One of the small Tres Ojos creeks is named Dodero Creek, but only on the city’s Creek Management maps.

Dodero also established a limestone quarry, digging into the bluff at the north edge of his land. After being worked off-and-on by subsequent owners, son Louis Dodero sold the quarry to Fred Johnson, who established a successful business there. The quarry, pond and creek are now part of a community-owned public park, created as part of a deal with the city that allowed subdivision and development of the remainder of the former quarry land in 1978. Cul-de-sac streets created there are Limestone, Quarry, and Rockridge Lanes.

Son Louis was a Soc. of Pioneers member.