The specific reasons for their move to California in 1868 are lost to time, but the conditions in Mexico for a farmer or rancher were strained in the early 1860s by a drought that also caused tremendous change in San Luis Obispo County. The great ranchos originally associated with Mission San Luis Obispo had been broken up and given as land grants to individuals. The hard times of the 1860s produced further divisions of those lands into smaller parcels, making them available for the first time to those whose means were more limited.

The opportunity to obtain land in such a fertile and productive area may have been what caused 26-year-old Guadalupe and his 27-year-old wife, Maria Jesus, to come to California, which had become a state only 18 years earlier. With them, they brought the seeds of greatness in their three and a half-year-old son, Guadalupe Santiago Garcia, who traveled the long miles with his baby brother, Jesus. His parents had a vision for a better future. That is what gave them the courage to leave what they knew as home for a new land and unknown risks.

The family of four first settled in San Luis Obispo, a community on the ocean side of the Santa Lucia Mountains surrounded by rolling hills and coastal valleys. In October of 1873, just five years following their arrival, Guadalupe and his wife began to purchase property in the San Luis Obispo township. Records show that by the time his four other children (Francisca, Maria Ygnacia, Lazaro, and Alfredo) had been born, the family owned several pieces of property. Later, land purchases in 1887 and again in 1889 indicate that he and his wife continued to find the success that they had hoped for in their new California homeland. Young Guadalupe and his brothers and sisters acquired from their parents a sense of the value of owning productive land.

Although it was somewhat isolated geographically, San Luis Obispo had the cosmopolitan advantages of a small city that had begun with the building of Father Junipero Serra’s Mission in 1777. By the time Guadalupe and his wife began raising their family there, San Luis Obispo was the largest town between San Diego and San Francisco. There were doctors, dentists, mercantiles, schools, blacksmith and harness shops, and tradespeople necessary for a thriving community. Some of these people would become important to young Guadalupe when he was old enough to begin his apprenticeship and training.

The Garcia family thrived. In keeping with Guadalupe and Maria’s belief in the importance of education, young Guadalupe and his brother Jesus began school and excelled.

Prime ranching land continued to be available for purchase just over the Santa Lucia Mountains northeast of San Luis Obispo. Separated by only a distance of 15 miles, the great Santa Margarita Rancho and the Rancho Atascadero were in a different watershed than San Luis Obispo. In 1877, when young Guadalupe was 12 or 13 years old, his parents acquired 160 acres just north of Santa Margarita on the southern edge of the Rancho Atascadero. The land was located along Rocky Creek near the little town of Dove.

In addition to being favorable ranch land with seasonal creeks, their new homestead was near the Dove store, the post office, and the stage stop at Cashin’s Station farther south toward Santa Margarita. More importantly for the children, there was a school. It was the Salinas School, named for its location near the headwaters of the Salinas River. The school was small— only 15 students—but it had both a well-kept and well-equipped building and an excellent teacher, Miss Annie Murphy.

The family moved to their new homestead and began ranching. During these growing years, Guadalupe and Jesus became outstanding horsemen, sitting a saddle as easily and naturally as walking itself. Young Guadalupe came to know the value of good equipment and the difference it could make for both horse and rider. In those days, cattle were unfenced. To work them properly took horsemanship and well-made bits, spurs, and saddles.

Guadalupe Begins His Career

In 1880, 15-year-old Guadalupe took the first steps in becoming a master craftsman. He was still in high school, but during school vacations he began an apprenticeship as a saddle maker with the Arana Saddle Shop in San Luis Obispo. Homobono Arana was the perfect match for Guadalupe’s training. His shop was well-known for making saddles, stamping leather, engraving silver, making quirts, riatas, whips, horsehair ropes, cinches, and halters—all with careful patience. The master craftsmen took their time with their work and with Guadalupe.