Background
Jasper O'Farrell was born in Ireland in 1817 and came to California in 1843 via Chile. Trained as a civil engineer, he was
appointed Surveyor-General of Alta California in 1844. In 1846, under American occupation, O’Farrell was asked by Alcalde
Washington A. Bartlett to survey the town of Yerba Buena, and O'Farrell based his map of San Francisco after Benjamin Buckelew’s,
but added Market Street on a diagonal; he established many of the street names in the area bounded by Post, Leavenworth, and
Francisco streets. O'Farrell had property in Sonoma County, died in 1875, and is buried in Bodega, California.