Rancho El Sobrante was a

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

in present-day

Contra Costa County, California ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

given in 1841 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Juan Jose Castro and Victor Castro. The name refers to a "surplus" in Spanish—the grant's boundaries were determined by the boundaries of the surrounding grants:

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

, San Pablo, El Pinole, La Boca de la Cañada del Pinole, Acalanes, and La Laguna de los Palos Colorados. This grant included the area between present day El Sobrante and Orinda.

History

Brothers Juan Jose Castro (1803–1869) and Victor Ramon Castro (1817–1897) were among the eleven children of Francisco María Castro (1775–1831) and María Gabriela Berreyesa (1780–1851). Francisco Castro had been a soldier at San Francisco, who after serving as alcalde and in other public offices, was granted

Rancho San Pablo Rancho San Pablo was a land grant in present-day Contra Costa County, California given in 1823 by Governor Luís Antonio Argüello to Francisco María Castro (1775–1831), a former soldier at the San Francisco Presidio and one-time ''alcalde'' ...

in 1823. Juan Castro and Victor Castro served in the San Francisco militia. Juan Alvarado, married María Martina Castro (1814–1875) in 1839, and was thus brother-in-law to Juan Jose Castro and Victor Castro. Juan Castro was grantee of

Yerba Buena Island Yerba Buena Island (Spanish: ''Isla Yerba Buena'') sits in San Francisco Bay within the borders of the City and County of San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Francis ...

in 1838, and Victor Castro was grantee of

Mare Island Mare Island (Spanish: ''Isla de la Yegua'') is a peninsula in the United States in the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the eas ...

in 1841. But neither brother settled permanently, and both grants were rejected by the Public Land Commission. Juan Castro and Victor Castro then identified an area of land which was not described in any land grants of the time, and applied for a grant for Rancho El Sobrante. Victor Castro built a two-story adobe dwelling in what is now El Cerrito, and became one of the first members of the

Board of Supervisors A board of supervisors is a governmental body that oversees the operation of county government in the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as 16 counties in New York. There are equivalent agenc ...

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

in 1852. With the

cession The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdictio ...

of California to the United States following the

Mexican-American War Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexicans, Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% ...

, the 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho El Sobrante was filed with the

Public Land Commission The California Land Act of 1851 (), enacted following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the admission of California as a state in 1850, established a three-member Public Land Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican la ...

by Juan José Castro and Victor Castro in 1852. The sobrante grant presented a complicated case of land ownership when it came into the U.S. courts. The area was entirely surrounded by other grants and its boundaries determined by the boundaries of the surrounding grants. After legal conflicts lasting more than three decades, a grant of over was

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

to Juan José Castro and Victor Castro in 1883. A square league of was sold in 1847 to Ward and Smith, a San Francisco merchant business. A square league of was sold in 1860 by Victor Castro to Eugene Kelly and G.H. Woodruff, San Francisco bankers. By 1893, a survey map shows Victor Castro (Juan Jose had died) as the owner of just . Thousands of acres had gone to pay attorneys' fees in long struggles in the courts, against both more or less legitimate claimants and plagues of squatters who tried to profit from the Castros' troubles. More lawsuits were filed until 1909, when the final partition decree settled legal ownership of the land within Rancho El Sobrante.''Adams v Hopkins'', 1904, Reports of cases determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California, Volume 144, pp.19-46,Bancroft Whitney Co., San Francisco

References

{{Contra Costa County, California Sobrante, El El Sobrante El Sobrante, Contra Costa County, California Orinda, California El Sobrante

History

See also

References