By Lisa Robinson
September 15 – October 15 is Hispanic Heritage month. Here we will look at two local pioneer families with pre-California Hispanic roots.
For almost fifty years Santos Omnes and his family lived in Boulder Creek. Son of Maria Conception Espinosa, whose family came to California in 1776 with the second De Anza party, and Julian Omnes Guy, a French sailor, Santos was described in the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1941 as “the last remaining link between the present Boulder Creek generation and the Mexican war of 1846-48.” His father, a veteran of the Mexican war, served under Commodore John Sloat, who took Monterey in July 1846, raised the US flag at the Custom House, and claimed California for the United States.
Julian Omnes Guy passed away in 1899, and his wife Maria in 1902 at the home of her son Ed, Santos’ brother, in Boulder Creek. Maria is buried at the Boulder Creek IOOF Cemetery.
Santos was a teamster for the Grover Mill and Lumber Company and he presided as the grand marshal for several Boulder Creek Days parades until his death in 1947. He was born in 1861, near Watsonville and in 1889, he married Elsie Lorenzana whose family were early residents of the Villa de Branciforte township. In later years, he and his wife operated a tamale parlor in Boulder Creek.
Two of their three children attended Sequoia School. In this image, Sequoia School students are on a large tree stump at the entrance to the Koster’s Ranch, circa 1902. Ida Omnes is in the front row, second from the left and Ernest Omnes is on the stump second row from the top on the right.
Another Boulder Creek pioneer with Hispanic heritage was Soila Grazia Denison, wife of George Denison, who together ran the Boulder Creek House on the corner of West Park Avenue. Soila was the daughter of Frenchman Bertrand Grazia and Melania Gonzales. When they married in Branciforte, there was a two-day fiesta in celebration. Melania was born in Santa Cruz in 1829. Her parents Juan José Gonzáles and Maria Ana Rodriquez were also native Californians. Juan José Gonzáles was a former majordomo of Mission Santa Cruz from 1834 to 1839 during the secularization of the mission and was granted La Playa del Rancho Pescadero for his services.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel commented: “Mrs. [Soila] Denison … is one of the best housekeepers in the State, as all know who have dined at her table of purest linen and most deliciously cooked viands.”
Image courtesy the San Lorenzo Valley Museum, George Alfano Collection.
