Horse traders -- The Silva family

He dropped the ending of his name and went by Silva. Custodio was a hard-working, hard-driving individualist who broke horses on the Miller/Lux ranch. With his personality and drive, he soon became a foreman on the ranch. He saved his money and, before long, had enough accumulated to buy 30 acres of land on the El Camino Real, close to the Sneath Lane entrance, from Antonio Valencia, son of Paula Sanchez Valencia, who inherited the land from her father Jose Antonio Sanchez. Jose had been awarded 15,000 acres from the Mexican government in 1836 as a reward for his loyal years as a soldier in California. Paula Sanchez Valencia had also given land to her daughter Maria, who had married Toribio Tanfaran (later spelled Tanforan) and lived to the west of Antonio’s inheritance. To the north of the Tanfarans was the Sneath Jersey Dairy No. 1. Most of the other property to the south and west of the Tanfaran and Silva families was owned by the D.O. Mills estate.

Custodio became a well-known and respected horse dealer on the Peninsula as well as outside the United States. He purchased horses from as far away as Nevada, shipped them to his ranch and, with the aid of cowboys that worked for him, broke them. Custodio’s business thrived due to the need for horses and his determination to supply horses for riding and working. The wild horses from Nevada would be delivered a few blocks from his ranch where they were unloaded from the train and driven to his corrals and property nearby that he rented from the Mills estate. At times he would have close to a thousand horses on his ranch. The breaking of the horses attracted spectators from the Peninsula on the weekends. It became a festive atmosphere when his neighbors would picnic on his ranch while watching the cowboys "breaking” the horses in the corrals. It was almost like a rodeo every day. When tamed, the horses were sold to other horse dealers (much the same analogy as a used-car dealer, etc.) and, according to his grandson, Gordon Silva, sold even to foreign governments. The demand for horses was big.

As the business prospered, Custodio purchased other properties on which to keep horses. He contributed land for the building of the San Bruno Catholic Church at San Bruno Avenue, between Green and Hensley avenues. He acquired land north of the Sneath Dairy from E.W. Burr and Northam (131.08 acres). It later was developed in the 1940s as the South San Francisco Brentwood division of homes. In Millbrae he purchased 168 acres between Taylor Boulevard and Anita Avenue (called the Silva Tract), a strip of land 865 feet wide and 7,000 feet long from El Camino Real to Skyline Boulevard. The property was later sold to the Spring Valley Water Company (San Francisco Water Department). In the 1950s, this land was sold and the Millbrae City Hall complex and a shopping center have been developed on it. The city named a street after the Silva family in recognition of their contribution to the city.

Custodio and his wife Emelia ("E.M.”) raised a family that consisted of Trinidad, Amelia ("A.M.”), Matilda, Manuel, Mercedes and Robert. Matilda married a Mr. Haubrich, son of a local rancher, and settled in Colma where they owned a liquor and cigar store. Their daughter Sylvia married Stephen Fisher and became a well-known horseperson in the Woodside/King’s Mountain area.

Son Manuel married Inez Diaz and had four children born on the Silva ranch (across from the Tanforan Race Track): Robert, Hortense, Richard and Gordon. Manuel and family lived on the ranch until 1927 when the property was sold and they moved to 125 San Luis Ave. (Lomita Park). This beautiful home was well-built in 1906. It became a showcase house of the Peninsula when the Silvas lived in it. It had four bedrooms, a large orchard and a well-kept flower and vegetable garden that required a number of laborers to take care of it. Large palm trees lined the front of the house on the property that measured approximately 150 feet by 150 feet. Robert began a horse-boarding and riding stable on the abandoned Mills Dairy on El Camino Real in Millbrae (across from the Peninsula Hospital). A tunnel under El Camino Real was used to cross into the D.O. Mills estate west of the stable and miles of horse riding trails there were utilized by hundreds of horse lovers. Gordon and father Manuel worked at the stable with Robert. In 1948, father Manuel was kicked in the head by a horse and died. The stable and grounds was sold in the 1950s and the business ceased to operate.

In 1975, Gordon sold the well-known house on San Luis Avenue and moved to another house in San Bruno.