Juana Briones de Miranda
| Juana Briones de Miranda | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1802 Villa de Branciforte, now Santa Cruz, California |
| Died | 3 December 1889 Mayfield, in modern Palo Alto, California |
| Occupation | Businesswoman, Curandera, Landowner |
| Spouse(s) | Apolinario Miranda (1820–) |
| Children | Presentación, Tomás, Narcisa, Refugio, José de Jesús, Manuela and José Dolores Miranda |
| Parent(s) | Marcos Briones María Ysiadora Tapia |
Juana Briones y Tapia de Miranda (1802-12/3/1889) was a pioneering resident of San Francisco, California who made a name for herself in multiple arenas of activity. Early maps of Yerba Buena, the first settlement outside the Presidio and Mission of San Francisco, include an area labeled Playa de Juana Briones (Juana Briones Beach). She is commemorated by an historical plaque in San Francisco's Washington Square.
Briones was born at Villa Branciforte near the Santa Cruz Mission. She was considered a mulato, i.e. of mixed Spanish and African descent. Some of her family members had arrived in Alta California with the Gaspar de Portolà and the Juan Bautista de Anza expeditions. Her father was Marcos Briones, a soldier posted near Monterey, who later moved to the San Francisco Presidio.
In 1820 Juana married a soldier, Apolinario Miranda, and she bore seven or eight children between 1821 and 1841. They also adopted an orphaned Indian girl. After establishing a farm near the Presidio of San Francisco, she bought land and built a house at Yerba Buena, the area of San Francisco today known as North Beach. A natural entrepreneur, she marketed her milk and produce to the sailors from whaling ships or those who arrived in port for the hide and tallow trade. Briones excelled not only in business and farming: her reputation for hospitality and skills in herbal medicine and midwifery were widely recognized. She trained her nephew, Pablo Briones—who was later known as the Doctor of Bolinas (California)—in medicinal arts, although she never received a formal education and could not read or write.
In 1844 Juana, who already had more than one home, gained a clerical separation from her physically abusive alcoholic husband and dropped his surname. That same year, she bought from two Native Californians the 4,400-acre (18 km2) Rancho La Purísima Concepción in Santa Clara County, an area overlapping present-day Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills. From the late 1850s through the 1860s she had to fight to retain the title to her land in both San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, but succeeded with the help of attorney Henry Wager Halleck. She sold part of the rancho to members of the Murphy family, who came to California with the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party. Other sections she gave to some of her children.
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