Rancho Tinaquaic 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
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria.
Santa Barba ...
given in 1837 by Governor
Juan B. Alvarado
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo (February 14, 1809 – July 13, 1882) was a Californio politician that served as Governor of Alta California from 1837-42. Prior to his term as governor, Alvarado briefly led a movement for independen ...
to
Víctor Pantaleón Linares.
[Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of California Vol. 3 (1825-1840), A. L. Bancroft & Company, San Francisco, 1885]
/ref> Benjamin Foxen who had later purchased the Rancho was the claimant in the 1852 land case. The grant comprised most of what is now known as Foxen Canyon, northeast of Los Alamos.[
]
History
The original grant of the two leagues of Rancho Tinaquaic was made in 1837, the grantee was Víctor Pantaleón Linares a Mexican soldier who had come to California in the 1820s. It subsequently came into the hands of William B. Foxen, the claimant before the Land Commission in 1852.[
William Benjamin (Guillermo Domingo) Foxen (1798–1874), a native of ]Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
was a seaman who came to Santa Barbara in 1828, in the ship ''Courier''. Foxen left the ship and later after converting to the Catholic religion, was baptized as Guillermo Domingo Foxen. He married Eduarda Osuña, the stepdaughter of Tomás Olivera of Rancho Tepusquet in 1831. He had three children with his wife, and was engaged in trade in Santa Barbara. In 1837, at the age of 38 he became a naturalized Mexican citizen. Foxen acquired the two square league grant of Rancho Tinaquaic, just upstream from his father-in-law's rancho, probably in 1842. The map of the Tinaquaic rancho, ''Diseño del Rancho Tinaquaic'' for the grant dates from 1842.[Image / [Diseño del Rancho Tinaquaic : Calif.] ]
from calisphere.org accessed July 11, 2017 1842 is the same year that Víctor Pantaleón Linares, the original grantee of Rancho Tinaquaic, was granted Rancho Cañada de los Osos nearby San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...
where Linares had moved in 1839 and settled in the town as the Mission majordomo and alférez
In medieval Iberia, an ''alférez'' (, ) or ''alferes'' (, ) was a high-ranking official in the household of a king or magnate. The term is derived from the Arabic ('' al-fāris''), meaning "horseman" or "cavalier", and it was commonly Latinised ...
in the local militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
.[Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of California, Vol. 4 (1840-1845), A. L. Bancroft & Company, San Francisco, 1886]
/ref>
In 1846 during the Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
, Foxen guided John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...
over the Santa Ynez Mountains
The Santa Ynez Mountains are a portion of the Transverse Ranges, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of the west coast of North America. It is the westernmost range in the Transverse Ranges.
The range is a large fault block of Cenozoic age created ...
at San Marcos Pass
San Marcos Pass (Chumash: ''Mistaxiwax'') is a mountain pass in the Santa Ynez Mountains in southern California.
It is traversed by State Route 154. The pass crosses the Santa Ynez through a southwestern portion of Los Padres National Forest, a ...
. The Californios felt he was a traitor to his adopted country Mexico, and his property was raided several times. In a confrontation in 1848, Foxen killed Agustín Dávila of Rancho Corral de Cuati
Rancho Corral de Cuati (also known as Rancho Corral de Quati) was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Barbara County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to Agustín Dávila. The grant was located along Alamo Pintado Creek, no ...
. Foxen was sentenced to four years in jail.
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, 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 Tinaquaic 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 Benjamin Foxen in 1872.
Historic sites of the Rancho
*Benjamin Foxen Memorial Chapel. The San Ramon Chapel was built in 1875 by son-in-law and his daughter, Frederick and Ramona (Foxen) Wickenden.
See also
*Ranchos of California
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 ...
*List of Ranchos of California
These California land grants were made by Spanish (1784–1821) and Mexican (1822–1846) authorities of Las Californias and Alta California to private individuals before California became part of the United States of America.Shumway, Burgess M ...
References
External links
Ranchos of Santa Barbara County Map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tinaquaic
California ranchos
Ranchos of Santa Barbara County, California
1837 establishments in Alta California