August 27, 2004

Paths to Evergreen

Introducing Evergreen’s new history series

By Colleen Cortese
Special to the Times

First generation Pierre and Henriette Pellier married in 1854 and sailed from France with their precious grape cuttings searching for the best California could offer in Evergreen Valley.

Today I open the closet to memories. Words shared with me by those now passed on, opportunities I once had to present preservation and identification of this small valley, and hopes of some sense of the need for preservation for the next generation.

I am overwhelmed with the breadth of information I have in safekeeping.

Now is the time for us to open these files. Over these next years, I will attempt to present the history of Evergreen—our Native American people, the eras of government, the nature of agriculture development, vineyards, dairies, cattle, orchards, grain and alfalfa, housing, water, schools and proposed land marking of buildings and sites.

I will tell you stories of the first people, our own Native American Indians of California and introduce you to those Ohlone people living here in Evergreen today. I will tell you the stories of our Evergreen Village, Evergreen schools, village blacksmith, general store, village opera house, community orchestra, Silver Creek Mines and more.

Today, with respect to our friends and neighbors, in light of the great loss of our friend Jim Mirassou, I would like to depart from my chronological outline to share with you the history of the Mirassou family.

The future articles, photos and maps will be published in this new Evergreen Times column under the title Paths to Evergreen. I promise to do my best to continue on a time line to bring you the history of Evergreen in “time-line” format beginning with documentation from Costanoan/Ohlone descendants called the Muwekma Costanoan/Ohlone Tribe.

The Mirassou Family  
America’s oldest winemaking family celebrates 150 years

Louis Pellier, one of the “Forty Niners,” first heard news of gold in Valparaiso, Chile. At 32 years of age, he had left home in 1848 for St. Hippolyte, France, to see something of the world.

Selling dry goods to support himself, he arrived in San Francisco with one French sou in his pocket. Louis found work in the city even then famous for its restaurants. After making enough money to equip himself with the proper supplies, he headed for Weaverville, Trinity County, in pursuit of gold.

He returned to San Francisco in 1850, apparently having earned enough money in the gold fields. By October 1850, he came to San Jose with a partner, Joaquin Yocco, and began, for the next five years, to purchase property in downtown San Jose.

By 1855 Pellier bought out his partner and became the sole owner of more than 12 acres in the heart of Santa Clara Valley, which would soon become downtown San Jose.

He began a nursery at the corner of San Pedro and Chaboya Alley. There, starting with seeds from the local apples, peaches and pears, his nursery was already in demand.

His brother Pierre Pellier, six years younger, arrived in 1853 to assist him with his busy nursery.

Needing additional nursery stock, Pierre gladly returned to France in 1854 where he had left a beautiful young lady, Henriette Renaud, who had promised to wait for Pierre’s return. Pierre’s trip home would be financed by the nursery if, in addition to wedding Henriette, he would search all over France for fruits and plants suitable to grow in the Santa Clara valley.

With the assistance of his brother, Jean, they collected pears, apples, plums and table and wine grapes. Finally, and most important, in the orchards of Agen Pierre obtained cuttings of a prune that would make its history here in the valley.

Five hundred pounds of this precious collection were carefully packed for shipping, each variety wrapped and labeled for identification. The fruit scions, especially those of the prune, were stuck into potatoes and packed in sawdust or moss. Pierre and Henriette were married, and all business completed while they departed for the return trip home to San Francisco.

Louis Pellier grafted the French prune onto the rootstock of the wild plum and produced the famous Santa Clara Valley prune. At the peak of the prune planting in 1929, California had 171,330 acres or 267.7 square miles of prune orchards.

Santa Clara Valley’s wine industry
Here begins the history of America’s oldest winemaking family when, in 1854, Pierre Pellier brought the grapes known as “Black Burgundy, French Colombar, Chasselas, Fontainebleau, Pinot Noir, Madeline and others.

With these new varieties, Pierre Pellier founded the valley’s wine industry.

Louie bought 148.8 acres off Quimby Road in Evergreen, which was a part of the Chaboya land Grant. Louie sold the ranch to his brother Pierre for $1,000. Pierre added to the property in Evergreen, and by 1869, the Pellier ranch became one of the largest in Evergreen.

It is said from Pierre’s home, he could see both west and north with a view of Oakland and the hills of San Francisco.
As was typical of the European grape growers, Pierre located his vineyard on the side hills, leaving the valley floor for such crops as wheat and barley. The house stood on a level lot.

On the south side, the ground dropped down into a dry creek bed, the “Arroyo Onore.” The hill behind the house swung sharply upward to the east. Running parallel to the creek, a steep one-mile road joined Quimby Road. Unnamed in 1861, today we know it as Chaboya Road.

Pierre built a two-story winery nestled into the side of the hill. For almost 20 years, isolated and alone in the new land, speaking only their native language, Pierre had only himself, wife and family for labor.

The family was struck by the sudden tragic death of Pierre’s only son. The boy, Louis O. Pellier, died at age 16 of typhoid fever in 1874. Just seven years later in April 1881, Pierre lost his wife, which forced his oldest daughter, Henrietta, to assume the duties of homemaker.

Second generation: Mirassou marries Pellier
Later that year, Henrietta married Pierre Huste Mirassou, a handsome man who had recently arrived from France. Mirassou was well-educated, experienced in viticulture, and a willing, hard worker. Joining the family ranch business, he and Henrietta had five small children in nine years of their marriage. Pierre Mirassou died on May 26, 1889 of Brights disease.

The vineyards thrived under the care of second generation Pierre and Henrietta (Pellier) Mirassou.

During this period, Santa Clara County began to take the lead in California winemaking, and the Pellier family began to lay the foundation for later achievements. A large two-story winery was built where grapes were crushed; juice processed and allowed to ferment, then drained down to storage tanks on the lower level for aging. The finished product was sold locally or put into whatever odd-sized bottles that were available.

In the late 1880’s Pierre Pellier was now a frail man. He had been seriously injured in a fall when his horse ran away. He broke both his legs, leaving him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life and in the care of his daughter, Henrietta. Enfeebled by a stroke, he died shortly thereafter leaving the land to his daughter.

Third generation: Mirassou sons learn winemaking skills
Henrietta Mirassou, a spirited woman of determination despite sorrow and loneliness, continued to hold the family together. She saw to it that her sons learned the winemaking skills of their grandfather, Pierre Pellier. She became the link between the generations.

Her two oldest sons, Peter and Herman, attended business school in San Jose. Their knowledge grew, along with the vineyard. As Herman became the winemaker and Peter a sharp and decisive manager, John, the youngest brother, kept everything operating in good order as the mechanical genius of the family.

In the fall of 1905, nature forced a change to all those years plowing the soil on a side hill. The “1905 Cloudburst” dumped several inches of rain in just over an hour, causing mud avalanches and landslides, and filling the Arroyo Onore. A wall of water damaged their home, broke bottles and barrels and new wine washed down into the valley, along with the mud.

The next year, nature once again knocked at the Mirassou door, only this time, it was the famous 1906 Earthquake.
Herman Mirassou thought he was having a nightmare when the ground under him began to shake violently. He was in the blacksmith shop with a worker, standing on the other side. As the building went up and down, they could see each other over the smithy.

Everyone now agreed that the hill was not the place to continue. The old Pellier Ranch was sold in 1911, and to replace the hillside vineyard, they bought the 100-acre Alfred Chew farm on Aborn Road.

Fourth generation faces urbanization
The Mirassou family grew when Peter’s sons, Edmund and Norbert, carried on the tradition of their Pellier ancestors. Increasing urbanization became a threat to the Mirassou vineyards.

Edmund Mirassou identified Monterey County as an ideal climate for grape culture, and in 1961, he brought the first vines to the area, pioneering grape growing on California’s sunny Central Coast.

Fifth generation
The Mirassou’s innovative spirit sparked the fifth generation—Daniel, Peter and Jim—to introduce several winemaking advances, including field-crushing grapes in the vineyard to prevent spoilage. Their revolutionary work with mechanical grape harvesting made this “vineyard in the fields” concept possible.

When James “Jim” Mirassou died this summer on July 30, he left his spirit of the past in the sixth generation with his children, Jim, Heather, David and Autumn. (More details of the fifth generation Mirassous are included in the front-page story on Jim Mirassou.)

Sixth generation
The sixth generation includes 12 Mirassous. Three of them—Heather, David and Mark—are currently working in the wine industry with the new Mirassou wines within the Gallo/ Mirassou partnership. Heather works closely with the Marketing department, David with Sales and Winemaking, and Mark with Sales and Winegrape Growing.

The Mirassou Winery at Aborn Road and Ruby Avenue became La Rochelle Winery in 2004 when Gallo acquired the Mirassou brand. The Mirassou family still owns the historic winery and tasting room.

A visit to the Evergreen winery, now called “La Rochelle Winery” at Aborn Road and Ruby Avenue, will unveil vivid images from the family’s history.

As you leave the winery, take a moment to look across the valley and recall the history of Louis and Pierre Pellier who first settled here, struggling with land and nature, for the next 150 years. Evergreen is most grateful for their contributions to our heritage. 

Colleen Cortese, Evergreen historian, accessed the Evergreen Heritage Collection and the Mirassou family archives to compile this story.