It's one of the Valley's biggest, but it has a most unusual name and origin story. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, how Modesto got its name.
Like most Valley towns on Highway 99, Modesto was founded by the Central Pacific Railroad. The year was 1870 and the company had just finished the first transcontinental railroad the year before when they began a line down the middle of the San Joaquin Valley from Lathrop. Leland Stanford's railroad had some big-time financial backers from San Francisco like William Ralston, President of the Bank of California. He was on the railroad's board of directors.
The story goes that the railroad wanted to name the town on the banks of the Tuolumne River Ralston in his honor. Ralston reportedly protested and didn't like the idea. He asked them to find another name. And so they did, giving us Modesto, which means modest in Spanish.
Ralston would go on to amass considerable wealth, back in his hometown of San Francisco. He made a fortune on silver mines in Nevada, and owned San Francisco’s main water company. He poured much of that wealth into the construction of the lavish Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
But behind the scenes, Ralston was overextended. Amid allegations of fraud, there was a run on the bank, and just days later, Ralston’s body was found dead in San Francisco Bay. The official story is that he suffered from a stroke during his morning swim.
While Ralston never lived in Modesto, his name lives on there both in a small downtown plaza and the nearby Ralston Tower senior housing development.
