The Evening News. September 26, 1916.

Under monarchies there is always hidden hostility between church and state. This distrust existed between the Mission and the Pueblo. The Mission held the Pueblo to be an ungodly force in the community, and the rough soldiers of the Pueblo scoffed at the self-denial of the Franciscan fathers. The fathers complained to the Governor that the soldiers and the settlers delighted in making the neophytes drunk. Besides, young Indian women had to be kept under lock and key.

The Mission, however, was troubled because the unregenerate Pueblo cared very little for attending services at the distance of a league. A Mexican stabbed an officer sent by the Alcalde to compel him to go to mass. The devout among the inhabitants of the Pueblo in turn were troubled because it was so difficult to worship at Santa Clara, in the winter the great stretch of level country between the two places was flooded. In the summer the heat was often stifling. Pedestrians were always in fear of their lives because wild cattle were likely to charge foot passengers. In the very early days the trees in the Alameda were not yet grown. Later travelers used to take refuge in the trees to escape the long horns of the cattle. Besides always in the darkness there was danger of highwaymen.

The Pueblo decided to have a church of its own. And so, in 1803 the Pueblo petitioned the commandant at Monterey for this privilege, which was granted. Each farmer was compelled to contribute for the chapel half a fanega of grain (3-4 of a bushel) - "A gift to the church impoverishes no man," wrote the Governor.

The corner stone of the first church was laid at the corner of El Dorado (now San Fernando) and Market streets, opposite the postoffice, where St. Joseph's now stands. The people of the Pueblo had hoped that this occasion would be great and imposing, and so they addressed Don Jose de la Guerra, commandant at Monterey, asking him to come to San Jose to act as god-father at the consecration of the corner stone of the chapel to be erected. The commandant with mock modesty replied that his "daily acts of impiety would not permit him to accept the honor," and so he sent a substitute, Don Jose Estudullo [Estudillo], Cadet, who acted as god-father of the little church.

The ceremony took place on the twelfth of July, 1803, on the ground where St. Joseph's church now stands. Several pieces of coined money made in the reign of the different Spanish monarchs were placed under the corner stone. A brief statement of the proceedings was placed in a sealed bottle.

A copy of these proceedings is as follows:

"In the Pueblo of San Jose de Guadalupe, the twelfth day of July, 1803, Senor don Carlos IV, being king of Spain, Don Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, Governor ad interim, and lieutenant of the royal army; the retired sergeant Macario de Castro, commissioner of the Pueblo, Ignacio Archuletta [Archuleta], ordinary Alcalde; and Bernardo Heridia and Francisco Gonzales; regidores; at six o'clock of the evening on said day, was made the consecration of the first stone and mortar of the church which was commenced in the said Pueblo, dedicated to the patriarch, Senor St. Joseph, and the Virgin Guadalupe, which ceremony was celebrated with much solemnity by the Reverend Father Friar Jose Viader, minister of the Santa Clara mission; Don Jose Maria Estudillo, Cadet, acting as god-father by proxy, from Alferez de Jose Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega, commandant at the Presidio of Monterey, and who placed under the first stone moneys of every sovereign, and a duplicate of this document in a bottle sealed with wax for its preservation in the future; and for the present we sign it in the same pueblo the day, month, and year aforesaid:

[signed] Fr. Jose Viader.
Jose Maria Estudillo, as proxy for Alferez de la Guerra y Noriega.
Macario De Castro, Commissioner."