Who Are the Jensens? The Jensen Collection The Jensen Ranch Life on the Ranch Leaving the Old Country The Jensen Family Album The University Library Library Special Collections
 
 

The Jensen Ranch:
The First Partnership
(1872-1920)

The Early Years: Getting Established

From the time the ambitious Jensen brothers, Erich and Jens, first formed a partnership in 1867 to buy, organize, and run their own ranch, the business stayed very much on track.

The first goal of the brothers was to pay off their $3,000 mortgage, held by neighboring landowner F.D. Atherton,  that they had obtained to buy the 450 acres east of Castro Valley, in the Palomares Hills. It took them 4-5 years of hard work, but they managed to pay off the note by 1871, thereby setting the Jensen Brothers Partnership on firm footing in the years of struggle ahead. In 1881, the Jensen Brothers made addtional purchases from the F.D. Atherton estate of several hundred acres.



More of The Jensen Ranch Partnerships:
The Early Years: Getting Established
The Late 19th Century: Diversification and Hard Work
The Early 20th Century: Modernization
Urbanization of  Southern Alameda County: 
The Ranch in Slow Decline

 

  

A southeast view looking at the Jensen barn, original bunkhouse and other outbuildings. The ranch house is just out of the picture, to the left

The Jensens worked the hills east of Castro Valley for over 100 years - in the early days without benefit of any motive power but horses