Historical Marker · No. 731
The Old Homestead
Crockett, Contra Costa County · California
Erected by California State Park Commission; Carquinez Women's Club, 1960
The bronze has Edwards buying this land from Crockett in 1866; local histories tell it as a partnership. Joseph B. Crockett, a lawyer and later a state supreme court justice, took the 1,800 acres on the strait as his fee for a land-grant case won for Teodora Soto, and brought in his friend Edwards to farm them against squatters. Edwards bought out Crockett's share only in 1880, for $30,000, and the town was laid out in 1881. The house stands on a village site of the Karkin, the Ohlone people of the strait's south shore.
What the plaque says
The Old Homestead This was the first American home in Crockett, constructed in 1867 by Thomas Edwards, Sr., on land purchased in 1866 from Judge J. B. Crockett. Located on an earlier Indian village near the Carquinez Straits, its timbers, some of which were brought around the Horn, have been well preserved. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 731 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Carquinez Women's Club, October 15, 1960.
Where it stands
38.05497, -122.22115 · Directions
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