With the brand new year, I’d like to start a brand new monthly
Q
&
amp;A feature for this column. I’d like readers to ask questions
about the area’s local history and I’ll try my best to provide
answers.
With the brand new year, I’d like to start a brand new monthly Q&A feature for this column. I’d like readers to ask questions about the area’s local history and I’ll try my best to provide answers.
The success of my new once-a-month mission depends on whether or not readers send in any questions send in any questions pertaining to the South Valley’s fascinating past. And I have no doubt some of you will. I know newspaper readers are intelligent folks keenly curious about the who, what, why, where, when and how of our South Valley region’s story.
If you’d like to submit a question about any aspect of South Valley’s history, please e-mail it to the address that appears at the bottom of this column. Or send mail it to Martin Cheek, c/o Andi Joseph, 6400 Monterey Road, Gilroy, CA 95020.
To get us started, Lifestyles Editor Andi Joseph provided me with a few questions to inaugurate our special monthly Q&A column. So, here we go …
Q: Did Nob Hill Foods get started in the South Valley?
A: Nob Hill’s humble birth occurred in San Martin. In 1934, founder John Bonfante realized that the local farmers and ranchers of the area could not spend a whole day traveling to San Jose to do their food shopping. So he started a small grocery store at what’s now Rocca’s Market near the corner of San Martin Avenue and Monterey Highway.
With the Great Depression in full swing, it was a difficult time to start a business. But somehow the quality of service Bonfante gave his customers let him make a successful go of it. He and his brother Mike Bonfante soon opened a second store in the mission village of San Juan Bautista and that also became a success.
Mike decided to start his own store in 1949 in the stage-stop community of Madrone north of Morgan Hill. In 1961, his business had grown so much that he opened up his first modern “supermarket” in Morgan Hill at the corner of Main and Hale streets. The new store looked up on a minor mountain locals called “Nob Hill,” so he decided to christen the store after it.
Later, Mike’s son, Michael, joined him in the supermarket trade and the two men opened a large store in Gilroy. Over time, the Nob Hill Foods chain expanded and was bought out by the Raley’s chain in 1998. Today there are 24 Nob Hill Foods stores operating locally.
Q: Who is South Valley’s most famous author?
A: Most people would say John Steinbeck was our area’s most famous author. Steinbeck did know the South Valley well because he had strong family connections to Hollister. But I would say the Nobel Prize-winning author was more connected with the Salinas Valley and Monterey than our own region.
My choice for “most famous author” would be the writer Niven Busch. He’s not so well known now, but in his day, he was a mega-bestselling author who divided his time between his home in San Francisco and his ranch just outside of Tres Pinos in San Benito County.
Busch was born in New York City in 1903 and started a career as a writer when he was in his early 20s. He worked for Time Magazine and eventually became an editor. He also wrote for the New Yorker magazine writing profiles of famous people.
In 1932, he changed gears in his career and headed to Hollywood where he found work as a screenwriter. His first film was “The Crowd Roars,” directed by Howard Hawk. In 1938, his screenplay for “In Old Chicago” was up for an Oscar, but didn’t win.
In the 1940s, Busch started writing popular novels. His best known works are “Duel in the Sun” (made into the 1946 mega-hit movie starring Gregory Peck) and “California Street.” In the early 1950s, Busch moved to the South Valley area and spent his time cattle ranching and writing novels full time.
From what people who knew him in San Benito County say, apparently he was not a well liked man in our region. He died Aug. 25, 1991, of congestive heart failure.
Q: Why is there a difference in spelling between Gavilan Community College and the Gabilan Mountain Range?
A: The Gabilan Range runs along the Pacific Coast Range on the western border of San Benito County, following a northwest to southeast direction. The early Spanish colonists who settled here in the late 18th century called the range “Gavilan” which means “hawk.”
Perhaps it’s forever lost in history who initially made the mistake, but the word “Gavilan” changed to “Gabilan” when the American settlers came to this region. When Spanish or Mexican people said the word, they pronounced the “v” with a “b” sound. The Americans were unfamiliar with the written version, so they spelled it on documents with the letter “b.” From that misunderstanding, the name of the range became “Gabilan.”
Gavilan Community College didn’t make that mistake and so is spelled correctly. But most people mispronounce the name by giving “Gavilan” a “v” sound.
The Gabilan Mountains inspired writer John Steinbeck in several of his short stories and novels. No doubt, the writer often gazed at this rugged range as a boy and explored it as a young man. In his novel “The Red Pony,” his little boy character “Jody” names a horse “Gabilan” after the great mountains striding east of the Salinas Valley.
Martin Cheek is the author of ‘The Silicon Valley Handbook.’ He can be reached at [email protected]. His column appears every Saturday in the Gilroy Dispatch and Hollister Free Lance, and every Tuesday in the Morgan Hill Times.
