The History of Danvilleby

Robert HorewitzVictoria Del BinoNia ThompsonCourtney Clark

  

History of Danvilleby

Victoria Del BinoRobert HorewitzNia ThompsonCourney Clark

How Danville got its Name

• In 1854, two brothers, Daniel and Andrew Inman bought 400 acres of "Old Town Danville" with their earnings they got from the Gold Rush

• The name came from  Andrew's mother-in-law who was born near Danville, Kentucky.

Who was here first?

• The first people in Danville were the Indian tribe the Tatcan• They lived and hunted in the Mt. Diablo teritory as it was the

source for their food • They lived in village communities from 50 to 200 people.• They were a hunter-gatherer community and worshiped

animal gods. • They spoke many languages and traded with several other

small tribes around Mt. Diablo 

When and why did they leave?

• Spanish arived in 1772• Disease killed most of their tribe• Missions were made • The missions became crowded and diseases thrived in the

missions which killed even more Indians• rebelioins were common at the missions

 

Before the gold rush.. • Mexico (who owned california at the time) was fighting the

Spanish for its independence from 1810 to 1821• Mexico decided to shut down the missions in the 1830's

shortly after the war.• second generation Spanish settlers valled Californios began

to buy their own land.  • Most of this land became ranches• The San Ramon Valley was split into two main ranches.• One ranch occupied Danville as well as Alamo and San

Ramon• This ranch was owned by Mariano Castro and Bartolome

Pacheco 

Gold Rush! • Gold was not mined from Danville but the goldrush was the start of

a huge begining• Travelers that struck it rich with luck in the gold rush came to the 

San Ramon Valley looking for good farming land.•  Amoung those travelers was Daniel Inman and his brother Andrew•  Daniel Inman was born in Tenesse in 1827 and grew up in Illinois• He struck it rich several times, Danville only being his second• The first time he struck rich he bought land on the Sacramento

River that got destrtoyed in winter storms and floods• He went back to the mining fields and got enough money to buy a

farm (that is now Danville)• He later went on to earn more a lot more money in hydraulic mining

 

Early Danville

 

Danville in early 1900's

Ironhorse Railroad

• Made in 1890• Caused rapid growth of the valley• Brought more suplies and more workers• Grew the local economy•  Allowed bigger export of goods

Highway 680

• Verry similar to Ironhorse ecept that cars have better individual transportation.

• This led to more "customers" in Danville and is why the Borders of Danville and 680 is dotted with shopping locations

• Since the Borders of Danville and 680 were already filled with stores and homes  it lead to the further expantion east

Now                    Vs             Then

 

Past 20 years

•  all developments west of Blackhawk were made• New smaller developements by post office and Tassajara

Nursery•  massive expantion in 94506 zip code (east side)

What historical sites still remain in Danville  • The  early  developments that created danville the way it is 

remain today such as the houses belonging to the Boone, Osborn, Young, Spilker, Podva, Vecki, Root,Elliott, Wood, and Hartz families. The Danville Hotel and original 1874 Grange Hall exist as well.

 

Summary

The geographical characteristics of Danville determined the type of economy and the transportation. Since Danville had good soil and climate it made good farmland. And the trains made it possible to travel to San Francisco and the gold mines and even to Chicago. The better the transportation got the higher the value of land and the bigger Danville got. Of course now that transportation is really really good and cant get that much better Danville still grows because it has great capital. People continue to move here because it has better schools and jobs. But it also has great location.

Works Cited

1. Lane, Beverly."The First People in the San Ramon Valley." Museumsrv.org"n.d."6 March 2011<http://srvm_vh_FirstPeople.html>.

2.  Lane, Beverly."Dan Inman, Danville's Founder- Part I"museumsrv.org"n.d."3 March 2011<http://museumsrv.org/MSRVHistoryInmanI.html>.

3.  Lane, Beverly, and Ralph Cozine. San Ramon Valley. San Francisco: Arcadia, 2005. Print.