Documentary History of American Water-works

San Antonio de Padua

San Antonio de Padua, California

The first permanent European residents at the Mission San Antonio de Padus were Spanish missionaries who arrived in 1771.

The Mission San Antonio de Padua was founded in 1771, the third of the 21 missions founded in upper California by the Franciscan order. The first water supply was brought a distance of three miles in 1774.

The mission fell into disrepair in the late 19th Century, but was partially restored and is now open as a Catholic chapel and museum. The site is surrounded by the Fort Hunter Liggett Army Reservation. It is not known if water is supplied by well or an outside supply.

References
1861 Vocabulario de la lengua de los naturales de la mision de San Antonio, Alta California, by Buenaventura Sitjar, Miguel Pieras and John Gilmary Shea
Page viii: Father Buenaventura Sitjar, son of Antonio Sitjar and Juana Pastor, was born at Perreras near Palmas, in Majorca, Dec. 9, 1739, founded the Mission of San Antonio in 1771, and of San Miguel, July 25, 1797. He died at San Antonio, Sept, 3, 1808, and is buried near the altar of the church.

1929 Mission San Antonio de Padua: the mission in the Sierras, Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, Ballena Press, Ramona, California [Reprinted 1972]
Page 11: [1773] The Mission has succeeded at the new location in securing an abundance of water from the arroyo mentioned, which they have conducted by means of a ditch to irrigate a level piece of ground adjoining the Mission proper.
Page 17: [1774] There was dug also a ditch from the arroyo called San Miguel to the Mission, a distance of a league, to conduct the water to the Mission for irrigating the aforesaid land set apart for corn.
Page 27: A most important work was done in 1806, when a water-power mill was constructed.
Page 48: [1827] Also an aqueduct was built from the well of the water wheel to the new garden with clay pipes with run underground.

1932 The Mission of San Antonio de Padua (California) by Frances Norris Rand Smith
Page 74: [Picture caption] Storage reservoir of Mission days which doubtless was constructed by Father Buenaventura Sitjar.

1972 Mission San Antonio de Padua: the mission in the Sierras, Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, Ballena Press, Ramona, California [Reprint of 1929 edition]
Page 48: 1827... Also an aqueduct was built from the well of the water wheel to the new garden with clay pipes with run underground.

1979 "Mission San Antonio de Padua in California," Robert Hoover, Archaeology 32(6):56-58 (November/December 1979)

1985 "Excavations at Mission San Antonio: The First Three Seasons, 1976-1978," Robert L. Hoover and Julia G. Costello Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 26. University of California, Los Angeles.