What is the history of Fremont, California?
The recorded history of the Fremont area began on June 9, 1797 when Mission San José was founded by the Spaniard Father Fermin de Lasuen. The Mission was established at the site of the Ohlone native village of Oroysom. On their second day in the area, the Mission party killed a grizzly bear in Niles Canyon. The first English-speaking visitor to Fremont was the renowned trapper and explorer Jedediah Smith in 1827. The Mission prospered, eventually reaching a population of 1,886 inhabitants in 1831. The influence of the missionaries declined after 1834, when the Mexican government enacted secularization. The family of Don José de Jesus Vallejo, brother of Mariano Vallejo, was the most influential in Fremont in the late colonial era. His family owned a large rancho and built a Vallejo Flour Millflour mill at the mouth of Niles Canyon. In 1846 they were visited and robbed by the town’s namesake John C. Frémont. Fremont grew rapidly at the time of the Gold Rush. Agriculture dominated the ec
