On September 26, 1836, Teodoro Gonzalez received a grant to the 15,218.62 acre Rancho Rincon de la Puente de Monte ("nook of the point of the woods"). Teodoro's sons, Alfredo and Mariano, laid out a town on the Rancho and assured its prosperity by deeding a 100-foot right-of-way to the approaching Southern Pacific Railroad, which arrived in late 1872. The Gonzales Post Office was established on December 1, 1873. (No one knows how the city got its spelling - the family, who was listed as "Gonzallas" in the 1850 census, spelled their name with a "Z"). The city incorporated 73 years later, on January 17, 1947.
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