Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito 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 Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

given in 1841 by Governor Juan Alvarado to María Antonia Mesa. The name means "ranch at the bend in San Francisquito Creek". The grant was located south of

San Francisquito Creek San Francisquito Creek (Spanish for "Little San Francisco" - the "little" referring to size of the settlement compared to Mission San Francisco de Asís) is a creek that flows into southwest San Francisco Bay in California, United States. Histo ...

, and encompassed present day Menlo Park and downtown

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

History

Rafael Soto (1789–1839), the son of

De Anza Expedition Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding fa ...

settlers Ygnacio Soto and María Bárbara Espinosa de Lugo, was born in the

Pueblo of San José San Jose, California, is the third largest city in the state, and the largest of all cities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, with a population of 1,021,795. Site chosen by Anza For thousands of years before the arrival of E ...

. Rafael Soto married María Antonia Mesa (b. 1802) in 1819. In 1827, Rafael Soto came to stay on

Rancho Cañada del Corte de Madera Rancho Cañada del Corte de Madera was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to José Domingo Peralta and Máximo Martínez. The name translates as "the valley where lumber ...

of Máximo Martínez. In 1835, Rafael Soto and family settled near San Francisquito Creek, selling goods to travelers. Rafael Soto died in 1839. His widow, Antonia Mesa Soto, was granted a one half square league by Governor Juan Bautista Alavardo in 1841. Soto's daughter, María Luisa Soto (1817–1883) married John Coppinger, grantee of

Rancho Cañada de Raymundo Rancho Cañada de Raymundo was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Mateo County, California given August 4, 1840 to Raimundo (also known as Raymundo), a native of Baja California, who was sent out by the padres of Mission Santa Clara to capture ...

. 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 Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito 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. The claim was rejected by the Commission on the grounds that there was no description of the granted land either in the grant itself, or the map which accompanied it. On appeal, based on the testimony of Aaron Van Dorn, Deputy United States Surveyor, the District Court confirmed the grant in 1855, 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 María Antonia Mesa in 1872. When Land Commission rejected their claim, the Soto family agreed to give Thomas Seale half the land if he could secure the grant's confirmation. Thomas Seale (1826–1907), was born in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and came to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

via

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

in 1850, where he and his brother, Henry W. Seale (d.1888), operated a contracting business. The brothers received about for their efforts. In 1858, Paul Shore was killed by Samuel J. Crosby on Henry W. Seale's property, and in 1859, Thomas Shore, the brother of Paul, shot and killed Crosby.Eugene T.Sawyers, 1922, ''History of Santa Clara County'', Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, Calif. In 1887, Seale sold to

Timothy Hopkins Timothy Hopkins (1859 – 1 January 1936) was the adopted son of Central Pacific Railroad co-owner Mark Hopkins Jr., Mark Hopkins' widow, Mary Hopkins Searles, Mary Hopkins, and friend of another co-owner Leland Stanford and his wife, Jane Sta ...

(1859–1936) who developed the town which would become

. In 1864, Dr. William Newell bought from Henry W. Seale. The remainder of Seale's property was farmed until his death in 1888.

References

External links

Diseño del Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito : Santa Clara Co., Calif.
at

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

{{Santa Clara County, California Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito Rinconada del Arroyo Menlo Park, California Palo Alto, California Rinconada del Arroyo

History

See also

References

External links