Rancho San Benito was a 6,671-acre (27.00 km2) Mexican land grant in the Salinas Valley, in present day Monterey County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Francisco Garcia.[1] The grant extended along the Salinas River south of Rancho San Bernardo. Present day San Lucas is within the boundaries of the grant.[2][3]
History
editFrancisco Garcia received one and half square leagues, and built an adobe house.[4]
James Watson (1800-1863), born in Scotland, arrived by ship from the Sandwich Islands in Santa Barbara in 1824, and went to Monterey. He established a hide and tallow business, and married Mariana Escamilla (1805-1871) in 1830. In 1850, Garcia sold Rancho San Benito to James Watson.[5] With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho San Benito was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853,[6][7] and the grant was patented to James Watson in 1869.[8]
Watson sold Rancho San Benito to Alberto Trescony of the adjacent Rancho San Lucas in 1885.[9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
- ^ Diseño del Rancho San Benito
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Rancho San Benito
- ^ Hoover, Mildred B.; Rensch, Hero; Rensch, Ethel; Abeloe, William N. (1966). Historic Spots in California. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-4482-9.
- ^ A Memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of central California, Lewis Publishing Co. 1893
- ^ United States. District Court (California : Southern District) Land Case 68 SD
- ^ Finding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892
- ^ Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886 Archived 2013-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Andrea Galvin; Jennifer Krintz; Nicole Collum (October 2009). Monterey County Parks Reconnaissance Survey of Agricultural Resources In The South County Planning Area 2008-2009 Certified Local Government Grant. Redondo Beach, California: Galvin Preservation Associates.