Pimentel Circle, one of Milpitas’s newer streets, was named for the family of Manuel and Mary Pimentel, who came to the United States from San Miguel, the largest island in the Azores, in 1906 aboard the SS Cretic (pictured at right).
Milpitas People and Places
Street Name Stories
Pimentel Circle
They landed in Fall River, MA, took a train across the country to San Francisco, where they were met by relatives, Mary and Manuel Alameda, who brought them to Milpitas, and settled down sharecropping peas and potatoes on the Downing ranch.
Street Name Stories: Mary and Manual Pimentel at Downing RanchLater, in the 1930s, Manuel bought 12-1/2 acres of land on Calaveras Road,across from Air Point School. The family had 11 children: Mary, Angie, Minnie, Joseph, Jess, Rose, Isabel, Margaret, Irene (with Isabel, worked as “Rosie the Riveters” at Hendy Iron Works during WWII), Manuel Jr. (WWII vet and first Milpitas fireman) and Theresa. They lived there until Manuel died in 1947.
All these family members grew up to be productive members of the Milpitas community. At right, Joanne Souza, daughter of Joseph Pimentel, points to the sign that honors her family.
September 2017 by mhs
Serpa Drive
Serpa Drive, a small residential street a bit west of Evans Road, was named for the family of Frank Serpa, a pioneer Milpitas rancher, who was born in the US in January 1909, to Francisco Antonio Serpa and Maria Jesus Fereira; he was the seventh of eight children. Constantine Serpa was one of his brothers.
He came to Milpitas with his family in 1928, but later lived in Fallon, Nevada and elsewhere in Santa Clara County before returning the next year. Then Frank
went back to the Azores in 1929 to work and there he met and married his wife Emilia in April 1929.
Frank and Emilia Serpa returned to the US in 1931, and lived in San Jose for four years. They bought a dairy in 1935 on Jacklin Road and sold it on November 1948. The dairy had 300 cows and employed six milkers, who worked first by hand and then with milking machines. Eventually they employed up to 11 workers. The dairy had two cabins for the working men. Most of the workers came from the Azores.
Their son Frank Jr. was born in 1937. He went to Milpitas school until 5th grade. Then the family moved to Warm Springs, right on the border of Alameda County in 1947 and Frank Jr. went to school in Warm Springs. They moved to a house closer to downtown Milpitas in 1968.