User:Pete zivkov/sandbox

George Carlton Johnson (January 11 1811 - May 19 1872 ) was a sea captain, merchant, businessman, government consul and real-estate owner on the San Francisco Peninsula. Born in Bergen, Norway, Johnson married Rebecca B. Allen (1820-18XX) and departed New York City before arriving in San Francisco with his wife and children in 1850.

Johnson became wealthy by trading iron and steel in San Francisco's booming Gold Rush Economy. He invested some of his new wealth into San Francisco real estate and a large ranch purchased from the Arguello family's enormous Rancho de las Pulgas on the southern  border of San Francisco County. The 670 acre ranch was adjacent to San Francisquito Creek and El Camino Real, the main stage coach road connecting the cities of San Francisco and San Jose. The ranch land he purchased was strategically located near several transportation routes, including the shipping port of Ravenswood on San Francisco Bay, and a new San Francisco-San Jose railroad line which was being planned to link the two rapidly growing cities. Johnson was one of several wealthy San Franciscans to purchase real estate from the Arguello family in this area. Johnson's estate eventually became the core of Menlo Park, California.

In 1852, Johnson leased a portion of his ranch lands to two San Francisco businessmen (Denis J. Oliver and Daniel C. McGlynn) who named their new property "Menlo Park Ranch" after Menlough, a small village near Galway Ireland. The new owners were short-lived, giving up their lease in1855 and reverting land ownership back to Johnson. However, the Menlo Park name stuck and throughout the 1860s was used for the railroad's construction camp, the new train station (built in 1867) and the new village of buildings that grew up near it, as well as the surrounding region of the new County of San Mateo.

Starting in 1869, Johnson partnered with his neighbors Faxon D. Atherton, and others, to subdivide and jointly market parcels of their lands nearest the new train station which were sold through "The Menlo Park Villa Association". Johnson primarily resided in San Francisco, but used the Menlo Park Ranch for his family estate and summer home until his death in 1872.

The Menlo Park Ranch was inherited by George Johnson's son, Robert (born in Richmond Virginia on December 27, 1836) and his wife, Kate Birdsall Johnson (born in 1833 in New York State and lived in Flint, Michigan). George Johnson also provided his niece, Laura Hands Blake (born 1842 in Wales) and her husband Charles Edward Blake (born 1823 in Mass), with 22 acres of ranch property along El Camino Real which is now in central Menlo Park.

Robert and Kate Johnson sold their stake of the Menlo Park Ranch to purchase lands in Napa as well a portion of Iseah Woods Ravenswood Estate in Menlo Park. Kate Johnson became a major benefactor for the Seton Medical Center and San Francisco Dioceses of the Catholic Church by donating land that became Sacred Heart Schools and St Patrick's Seminary and University.