Rancho Potrero Grande is 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

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

given in 1845 by Governor

Pío Pico Don Pío de Jesús Pico (May 5, 1801 – September 11, 1894) was a Californio politician, ranchero, and entrepreneur, famous for serving as the last governor of California (present-day U.S. state of California) under Mexican rule. A member of ...

to Manuel Antonio. The name means "Large Pasture". The grant encompassed present-day

Rosemead Rosemead is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 50,245, currently dropping. Rosemead is part of a cluster of cities, along with Alhambra, Arcadia, Temple City, Monterey Park ...

and

South El Monte South El Monte is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,116, down from 21,144 at the 2000 census. Geography According to the United States Cen ...

History

Manuel Antonio, an Indian, who was a mayordomo at the

Mission San Gabriel Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

was granted the one square league Rancho Potrero Grande - former Mission San Gabriel grazing land. Juan Matias Sanchez bought Rancho Potrero Grande adjacent to his

Rancho La Merced Rancho La Merced was a Mexican land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Casilda Soto de Lobo. The name means "Mercy of God". The northwest section of Montebello and the southea ...

property from Antonio. 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 Potrero Grande 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 ...

in 1852, and the grant 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 M. Sanchez in 1859. In 1876 the Temple and Workman Bank failed, and Sanchez, who to help his friend William Workman, had mortgaged Rancho Potrero Grande to Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin, lost it when Baldwin

foreclosed Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

.''Baldwin v Temple'', 1894, Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California, Vol. 101, pp. 396-404, Bancroft-Whitney Company Distraught and broke, William Workman shot himself in 1876.

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed, and died penniless in 1880. Juan Matias Sanchez died in poverty in 1885.

References

{{California history

Potrero Grande Potrero Grande is a town in the Panamá province of Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America ...

Rosemead, California San Gabriel Valley 1845 establishments in Alta California