SNIPPET: Jaspar O'FARRELL's contribution to early San Francisco is remembered today by O'Farrell Street. This Irish-born gentleman surveyed much of Marin and Sonoma counties. O'FARRELL was born in Dublin in 1817. At 24, he was a member of an English survey party in South America. Even before the Mexican American War left the United States in the possession of CA, this Irish-born engineer and surveyor had made his mark there. He arrived in Yerba Buena in 1843 and in 1847 was hired to correct an earlier street plan devised for what would soon become the city of San Francisco. It was his survey that created Market Street as a major thoroughfare running diagonal to the original grid. His decision to extend streets perpendicular to Market Street running south explains why SF has a somewhat disunited street grid plan. It is said that locals were so displeased with his revised plan that he was obliged to leave the city for a time. Ultimately, good fortune was to smile on O'FARRELL. His street plan was accepted and a short time later he and his father-in-law made a major gold strike on the Yuba River. O'FARRELL used the money to expand his existing ranch to 60,000 acres. In 1858 he won a term to the state senate.