Introductory
During the month of July, 1929, the Hollister, California "Evening Free Lance" published another highly interesting chapter of early central California history--one that has never been told before, the early history of Corralitos and Soquel, these two picturesque places in Santa Cruz county which are familiar to almost every resident of the Central Coast Counties.
The story of the beginning of these communities is told by Mrs. Rebecca Deleissegues and her sister Mrs. Lucretia Mylar, whose father and uncle erected the first flour mills and saw mills in these towns, and thereby gave them their start as California communities.
Benjamin Hames, millwright, surveyor, builder and adventurer, founded Corralitos in 1854 or possibly a little earlier. John Hames, also a millwright and adventurer, founded the town of Soquel several years prior to that date.
How these two typical American pioneers left their boyhood home in New York, lost touch with one another for years, and were finally re-united in Santa Cruz county after lives of adventure in South America and other strange places, and the story of their activities in he Corralitos-Soquel section, makes an interesting story and a valuable contribution to California's historical records.