Surnames: PATRON, GINOUX, GAY
A native son of Santa Clara County and a worthy
representative of one of the prominent Spanish families of California,
Pedro A. Bernal first saw the light on the Santa Teresa Rancho on
October 19, 1868. He is a son of Ygnacio and
Jesusita (Patron) Bernal, the former one of the the best known and
highly esteemed men of the county, and whose sketch will be found on
another page of this history.
Pedro A. Bernal attended the Oak Grove public school and
topped off his studies at the University of Santa Clara in 1886-7-8,
from which college his father was a gold medal student, and took a
business course at the Garden City College and graduated from the
normal penmanship department of this college. After leaving
college Pedro came back to the home ranch and worked for a time, then
secured a position in Mexico with the firm of Losoya & Sons,
chemists, mine owners and operators and large landowners, and the three
years he spent there enlarged his vision and experience a great
deal. Returning to California he then went to work for the P. G.
& E. Company as storekeeper in San Jose and remained with the
concern until 1904, which year he started on a trip that occupied his
time for over one year and took him to the important centers of Europe
and throughout South America, where he visited an uncle in the
Argentine. The money he spent on his journey he had saved from
his earnings the previous years, and he there by secured a postgraduate
course by practical experience that has enabled him to hold his place
with the leading men of the state in business and finance and in
developing the resources of the county.
Before going on his extended travels Mr. Bernal had seen a
deposit of some kind of mineral wealth on the home ranch, but did not
know what value it had; when in England he found some of the same
formation and secured samples of it; also of some from South
America. He had them analyzed after he reached home, and also
some of the local product, and found the latter on a par with the
foreign matter. He had investigated the uses to which the
finished product was put and knew there was an unlimited field for his
special kind of fertilizer in the United States, and in consequence he
decided he would develop the field from the Santa Teresa Rancho
supply. He sent to St. Louis for a twenty-ton mill, and this he
set up with his own hands and began grinding out the fertilizer that
now is so widely known as the Bernal-Marl Fertilizer.
For seven years he worked to introduce to the ranchers of this
county and the San Joaquin Valley the great value of the fertilizer to
the soil, and then he had fully convinced himself that the supply was
inexhaustible and concluded to interest capital to expand the
manufacture and distribution of the product. This prehistoric
deposit of lime shell marl is only found in paying quantities worthy of
development in three sections of the globe--in England, in South
America, and on the Santa Teresa Rancho in Santa Clara County,
Cal. From the twenty-ton mill he first erected--and, by the way,
this is still doing duty in refining the marl--threre is now installed
at great expense, an equipment with a 1,000-ton capacity per day of
eight hours. The Bernal-Marl Fertilizer Company is incorporated
under the laws of California with A. J. Ginoux, of Oakland, as
president, and F. Gay, secretary. Mr. Bernal is one of the
salesmen and demonstrators of the company, and for every ton of marl
shipped from the ranch, Mrs. Ygnacio Bernal receives a royalty.
The company own three trucks of seven-ton capacity, and hire others, to
distribute the Bernal marl to their customers within a radius of forty
miles from the plant; also have a station on the Southern Pacific
Railway called Bernal-Marl, and a shipping point at Coyote and one at
Edenvale, where cars are loaded for points in various parts of
California. They also have water-shipping facilities. As
yet they have been unable to supply the demand in this state.
There is an unlimited supply covering over 100 acres and the
development company have a lease of twenty years and a contract for all
minerals that may be found under the surface of the earth where they
are working. Full credit is accorded Pedro A. Bernal for his
persistency of purpose and his stick-to-it-iveness in thus developing
one of the mineral products of this earth that has proven such an aid
in replenishing the soil and thereby bringing greater profits to the
producer.
Mr. Bernal, who is still manager of his mother's
interests, is a very experienced orchardist and rancher and is making
the Bernal Ranch pay splendid dividends. He is independent in his
politics, supporting the best men for public office, and is a member of
the Catholic Church. To all enterprises for the advancement of
the business, educational and social problems in the county, Mr. Bernal
is always found ready to do his duty, and his public spirit is well
known to all with whom he has come in contact.
Transcribed by Joseph Kral, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 376
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