Sanchez Descendants: Flanders and Bou Families

Louis J. Flanders lived in San Francisco. One day he went to visit some friends down the Peninsula who lived on Ludeman Lane in Millbrae. A beautiful young girl, Lucy Hook, was there visiting her cousin, Mildred Cavanaugh. Both the girls were descendants of Jose Antonio Sanchez. Jose had come to California from Mexico by way of the Colorado Desert in the 1770s with the Anza party.

Jose’s son, also named Jose Antonio Sanchez, had become a soldier in 1791 and served the King of Spain faithfully. For his loyalty, first to the Crown and then to Mexico, he had been granted the 15,000 acre Rancho Buri Buri in the 1830s. Rancho Buri Buri was located from San Bruno Mountain in the north and south to present-day Burlingame, and from the Bay area to the hills to the west.

Jose died in 1843 and, after his heirs had received their portion of the estate, many descendants continued to reside on land in Millbrae — particularly the Ludeman Lane area where they made a living off of the land growing vegetables and flowers.

Lucy Hook, the granddaughter of Jose Jesus Valencia (Valencia Street) was born and raised in San Francisco. She became a dancer and musician. She entertained in numerous night clubs and bars with her dancing as well as playing the guitar.

Her exotic Spanish style was the rage of the city and she had many suitors standing in line to marry her. After meeting Louis, however, she left this career and married him, moving to the Millbrae area after their marriage. They settled down in a home on El Camino Real where they owned and operated a motor court in the vicinity of San Juan Avenue and El Camino Real, site of G. Bolcoff’s blacksmith shop in the 1800s.

Less than one mile south was the 16-Mile House that was built in 1872 by another cousin of Lucy’s, Juan Sanchez. The 16-Mile House became the center of this Spanish community in the 1800s and continued to operate until it was razed in 1971.

Lucy and Louis raised three children in the Millbrae/San Bruno area: Raymond (1907-1960); Juanita; and Lucille Ballard (1921-2008). The family sold the motor court and moved to Milton Avenue to raise their family.

Their son, Raymond, became a state equipment operator and married Virginia Caetano whose family lived at San Bruno and Easton avenues. Raymond and Virginia raised their family at 672 Second Avenue. Their family consisted of: Raymond, Jr., Louis, Robert, Virginia and Joanne.

Raymond and Virginia’s son Louis married Gloria Bou from another pioneer family. Her grandfather, Prosper Bou, had met and married a French girl, Marie Devoluy, in 1909. They moved to the fledgling village of San Bruno and bought property at the corner of Angus and El Camino.

When Marie was only 16 years old (1908) she had already lost her father at Verden Packing Plant in South San Francisco when he fell into a vat of lye that was used for making soap and died. She had been a friend of Prosper, a carpenter, and after their marriage, he built a one-story house from which he ran his carpenter/contracting/milling business (site of International House of Pancakes on El Camino Real — 2008). Later the house was lifted up and a second floor was constructed underneath. Prosper was in great demand to build houses due to his skill as a carpenter. In 1909, while Marie was working at the only "hospital” in the area, she gave birth to a son, Edward ("Eddie”).

Eddie followed in his father’s footsteps and became a carpenter, but a carpenter of a different sort. Eddie worked for EiMac during WWII, building additions to their booming electronics industry that was on First and San Bruno avenues. Later Eddie went to work as a carpenter at Hunter’s Point in San Francisco.

There’s an intersection of time and place in every generation where people from the far-corners of the world meet and change their history and ours. The names change, the faces change, but the story-line continues.