Editing San Mateo County, California (section)

==History==
San Mateo County was formed in 1856 upon the division of San Francisco County, one of the state's 18 original counties established at California statehood in 1850. Until 1856, [[San Francisco]]'s city limits extended west to [[Divisadero Street]] and Castro Street, and south to 20th Street. In 1856, the California state government divided the county. A straight line was then drawn across the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula just north of [[San Bruno Mountain]]. Everything south of the line became the new San Mateo County while everything north of the line became the new consolidated [[San Francisco|City and County of San Francisco]].<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--no by-line.--> 
|title= Statutes of California and Digests of Measures
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4a83AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA145
|publisher= J. Winchester
|page=145 
|date=1856
}}</ref>
San Mateo County was officially organized on April 18, 1857, under a bill introduced by Senator [[Timothy Guy Phelps|T.G. Phelps]]. The 1857 bill defined the southern boundary of San Mateo County as following the south branch of [[San Francisquito Creek]] to its source in the [[Santa Cruz Mountains]] and thence due west to the Pacific Ocean, and named Redwood City as the county seat.<ref name=Alexander-Hamm>{{cite book |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011725171 |title=History of San Mateo County: from the earliest times with a description of its resources and advantages; and the biographies of its representative men |author1=Alexander, Philip W. |author2=Hamm, Charles P. |publisher=Burlingame Publishing Company |location=Burlingame, California |date=1916 |page=22 |access-date=August 5, 2016}}</ref> San Mateo County then annexed part of northern [[Santa Cruz County, California|Santa Cruz County]] in March 1868, including [[Pescadero, California|Pescadero]] and [[Pigeon Point Lighthouse|Pigeon Point]].<ref name="cagenealogy101.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.mapofus.org/california/ |title=California Maps |date=1856 |publisher=CA Genealogy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607090109/http://www.cagenealogy101.com/maps |archive-date=June 7, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Alexander-Hamm />

Although the formation bill named Redwood City the county seat, a May 1856 election marked by "unblushing frauds perpetuated on an unorganized and wholly unprotected community by thugs and ballot stuffers from San Francisco" named Belmont the county seat.<ref name=AH-24>Alexander & Hamm (1916), p. 24.</ref> The election results were declared illegal and the county government was moved to Redwood City, with land being donated from the original Pulgas Grant for the county government on February 27, 1858.<ref name=AH-24 /> Redwood City's status as county seat was upheld in two successive elections in May 1861 and December 9, 1873, defeating San Mateo and Belmont.<ref name=AH-24 /> Another election in May 1874 named San Mateo the county seat, but the state supreme court overturned that election on February 24, 1875, and the county seat has remained at Redwood City ever since.<ref name=AH-24 />

San Mateo County bears the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] name for [[Matthew the Evangelist|Saint Matthew]]. As a place name, San Mateo appears as early as 1776 in the diaries of Anza and Font.<ref>{{Cite book|title=California Place Names|last=Gudde|first=Erwin G.|publisher=University Of California Press|year=2004|isbn=0-520-24217-3|edition=Fourth|pages=341}}</ref> Several local geographic features were also designated San Mateo on early maps including variously: a settlement, an [[Arroyo (watercourse)|arroyo]], a headland jutting into the Pacific ([[Montara, California|Point Montara]]), and a large land holding ([[Rancho San Mateo]]). Until about 1850, the name appeared as ''San Matheo''.

=== Japanese Americans in San Mateo ===
The Japanese first arrived in San Mateo County and were part of a group guided by Ambassador Tomomi Iwakura in 1872.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Building A Community: The story of Japanese Americans in San Mateo County|last1=Yamada|first1=Gayle K.|last2=Fukami|first2=Dianne|publisher=AACP, Inc|year=2003|isbn=0-934609-10-1|pages=1}}</ref> A number of male Japanese students came to San Mateo to learn English and many other helpful skills to bring back to Japan.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Building A Community: The story of Japanese Americans in San Mateo County|last1=Yamada|first1=Gayle K.|last2=Fukami|first2=Dianne|publisher=AACP, Inc|year=2003|isbn=0-934609-10-1|pages=2–3}}</ref> These students were also some of the first Japanese to join American students in the Belmont School for Boys. These students had to work for their housing and food before classes and in the evenings.<ref name=":0" /> Many of the first Japanese immigrants were able to find jobs as gardeners and landscapers in San Mateo. Most of them had a good educational background from their homelands, but their lack of knowledge of the English language made it difficult for them to find other jobs in the beginning.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Building a Community: The Story of Japanese Americans in San Mateo County|last1=Yamada|first1=Gayle K.|last2=Fukami|first2=Dianne|publisher=AACP, Inc|year=2003|isbn=0-934609-10-1|pages=14}}</ref>