Editing Pleasanton, California (section)

=== 1800s ===
After Mexico's [[Mexican War of Independence|independence from Spain]] in 1821, the missions were [[Mexican secularization act of 1833|secularized]], the Native people being emancipated and the land given in the form of [[Ranchos of California|ranchos]] to Spanish and Mexican colonists.<ref name=":1" /> Pleasanton is located on the lands of the [[Rancho Valle de San Jose (Bernal)|Rancho Valle de San José]] and [[Rancho Santa Rita]] Mexican land grants.<ref name=":2" />

==== Alisal ====
{{Main|Alisal, Pleasanton, California}}
Before the establishment of Pleasanton in the 1850s, an earlier settlement in the location was called [[Alisal, Pleasanton, California|Alisal]]. It was located on the lands of the [[Rancho Santa Rita (Pacheco)|Rancho Santa Rita]]<ref name="Administration2011">{{cite book |author=Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yYenlclVvzYC&pg=PA429 |title=San Francisco in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City by the Bay |date=April 5, 2011 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-94887-7 |pages=429–}}</ref> near the site of a Native American ranchera, around the [[Francisco Solano Alviso Adobe]] called ''El Alisal'' (The Sycamores),<ref>{{Cite news |title=Francisco Solano Alviso Adobe Historical Marker |url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=3558 |access-date=February 25, 2018}}</ref> one of the earliest houses built in the valley in 1844. It is still standing and serves as the centerpiece of the [[Alviso Adobe Community Park]]. Alisal, nicknamed "The Most Desperate Town in the West", was one of the settlements located along ''[[La Vereda del Monte]]'' that was a haunt and refuge of [[Banditry|bandits]] and [[Outlaw|desperados]] in the era following the beginning of the [[California Gold Rush]]. Main Street shootouts were not uncommon.{{Citation needed|date=February 2018}} Banditos such as Claudio Feliz and [[Joaquin Murrieta]] ambushed prospectors on their way back from the [[gold rush]] fields and then sought refuge in Alisal. In the 1860s [[Procopio]], Narciso Bojorques and others took refuge there.{{Citation needed|date=February 2018}} Alisal Elementary School reflects the city's original name.

==== Founding ====
The Rancho Valle de San José grant had been given to Agustín and Juan Pablo Bernal and their brothers-in-law Antonio Suñol and Antonio Maria Pico.<ref name=":1" />{{When|date=November 2024}} In order to safeguard the grant from squatters during the [[California gold rush|Gold Rush]] in the 1840s-1850s, the Bernal family moved{{When|date=November 2024}} from [[San Jose, California|San José]] to live on their ranch along with John Kottinger, an Austrian immigrant and a lawyer who had married into the family.<ref name=":1" />

Pleasanton is located on the lands of the [[Rancho Valle de San Jose (Bernal)|Rancho Valle de San José]] and [[Rancho Santa Rita]] Mexican land grants. Its name was chosen in the 1860s by John W. Kottinger, an Alameda County [[justice of the peace]], after his friend, [[Union army]] cavalry Major General [[Alfred Pleasonton]]. A typographical error by a recording clerk in Washington, D.C., apparently led to the current spelling.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|title=History of Pleasanton|url=https://www.pleasanton.org/history-of-pleasanton|website=Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce|access-date=September 29, 2022}}</ref>