José Joaquín Bernal (1762–1837), a member of the 1776
De Anza Expedition, was a soldier at the
Presidio of San Francisco and by 1805 at the
Pueblo of San José. In 1819 he retired from the army, and in 1826 he settled his family of eleven children near Santa Teresa spring, ten miles south of San Jose. In 1837, Jose Joaquin Bernal died, leaving an estate to be divided equally among his widow and his ten children. Four of his children were granted
Rancho Valle de San Jose in 1839. In 1844, the Treaty of Santa Teresa was signed at the rancho by
Governor Micheltorena and former
Governor Alvarado. With the
cession of California to the United States following the
Mexican-American War, the 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim was filed by Agustín Bernal, son of José Joaquín Bernal, with the
Public Land Commission in 1853. The grant was one square league, and was confirmed by the U.S. District Court. But the 1867 official survey and
patent to Agustín Bernal in 1867 was for . In 1855, another of José Joaquín Bernal's sons, Bruno Bernal (1799–1863) moved to his
Rancho El Alisal, leaving the ranch to his sons Ygnacio (1841–1906), Francisco and Antonio. The ranch was passed down through descendants of Jose Joaquin Bernal. In 1858, Carlos Maria Gulnac, son of William Gulnac, married Joaquin's granddaughter (Ygnacio's sister) Rufina Bernal. Their daughter, Susan Gulnac, married Patrick Joice. The Joice family ran the ranch until it was sold to IBM for
IBM Research – Almaden in 1980. Santa Clara County acquired most of the Joice land, including the historic buildings, from IBM for
Santa Teresa County Park. ==Historic sites of the Rancho==