In 1820 San Jose reported a population of 1754, with 6859 large stock, 859 horses, etc., and 12,000 sheep.

For twenty-seven years Padre Duran, who from 1825 to 1827 was also the padre presidente, served Mission San Jose.  In 1824 it reached its maximum of population in 1806 souls.  In everything it was prosperous, standing fourth on the list both as to crops and herds.

Owing to its situation, being the first Mission reached by trappers, etc., from the east, and also being the nearest to the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, which afforded good retreats for fugitives, San Jose had an exciting history.  In 1826 there was an expedition against the Cosumnes, in which forty Indians were killed, a rancheria destroyed, and forty captives taken.  In 1829 the famous campaign against Estanislas, who has given his name to both a river and county, took place.  This Indian was a neophyte of San Jose, and being of more than usual ability and smartness, was made alcalde.  In 1827 or early in 1828 he ran away, and with a companion, Cipriano, and a large following, soon made himself the terror of the rancheros of the neighborhood.  One expedition sent against him resulted disastrously, owing to insufficient equipment, so a determined effort under M.G.  Vallejo, who was now the commander-in-chief of the whole California army, was made.  May 29 he and his forces crossed the San Joaquin River on rafts, and arrived the next day at the scene of the former battle.  With taunts, yells of defiance, and a shower of arrows, Estanislas met the coming army, he and his forces hidden in the fancied security of an impenetrable forest.  Vallejo at once set men to work in different directions to fire the wood, which brought some of the Indians to the edge, where they were slain.  As evening came on, twenty-five men and an officer entered the wood and fought until dusk, retiring with three men wounded.  Next morning Vallejo, with thirty-seven soldiers, entered the wood, where he found pits, ditches, and barricades arranged with considerable skill.  Nothing but fire could have dislodged the enemy.  They had fled under cover of night.  Vallejo set off in pursuit, and when, two days later, he surrounded them, they declared they would die rather than surrender.  A road was cut through chaparral with axes, along which the field-piece and muskets were pressed forward and discharged.  The Indians retreated slowly, wounding eight soldiers.  When the cannon was close to the enemies’ intrenchments the ammunition gave out, and this fact and the heat of the burning thicket compelled retreat.  During the night the Indians endeavored to escape, one by one, but most of them were killed by the watchful guards.  The next day nothing but the dead and three living women were found.  There were some accusations, later, that Vallejo summarily executed some captives; but he denied it, and claimed that the only justification for any such charge arose from the fact that one man and one woman had been killed, the latter wrongfully by a soldier, whom he advised be punished.