Arano, Joseph

Joseph Ernest Arano (1837-1928), born in France, built the Anchor Hotel in Aptos in 1871 (Rowland, p.165-66), and was later the Aptos postmaster. The 1928 obituary article at right estimates that Arano came to Aptos in the late 1850s. In Aptos, he met and married a daughter of Rafael Castro. Arano built and managed the Bayview Hotel in 1878. The Joseph Arano family was not related to the Francisco Arano family of the Pajaro Valley.

Rowland wrote about "José Arano", although the Joseph Arano of the obituary was born in France. Rowland's Arano was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1850 - a number of years prior to the ~1858 arrival date noted in the obituary. Rowland didn't mention the Bayview Hotel, so it seems possible that some of Rowland's facts concerned a different person - who perhaps was related to Francisco Arano. On the other hand, both the obituary and Rowland noted serving as postmaster and marriage to a Rafael Castro daughter. It seems unlikely that two different Aranos married two different Castro daughters.