Rancho Mallacomes (also called Moristul and Mallacomes y Plano de Agua Caliente) 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

Napa County Napa County () is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original co ...

and

Sonoma County, California Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...

given in 1843 by Governor

Manuel Micheltorena Joseph Manuel María Joaquin Micheltorena y Llano (8 June 1804 – 7 September 1853) was a brigadier general of the Mexican Army, adjutant-general of the same, governor, commandant-general and inspector of the department of Las Californias, then ...

to José de los Santos Berreyesa. The grant was located in the

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

, just north of present-day Calistoga and consisted of Mallacomes or Moristul and Plano de Agua Caliente. Mallacomes comes from mountain chain Serro de los Mallacomes (

Mount Saint Helena Mount Saint Helena (Wappo: Kanamota, "Human Mountain") is a peak in the Mayacamas Mountains with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties of California. Composed of uplifted 2.4-million-year-old volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Fiel ...

) and included most of

Knights Valley Knights Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Sonoma County, California. One of Sonoma County's original five AVAs, Knights Valley AVA was formally designated an American Viticultural Area on October 21, 1983. Knights Valley AVA i ...

(previously known as Mallacomes Valley). Agua Caliente refers to the warms springs near Calistoga.

History

José Santos Berreyesa (1817 – 1864) was the son of

José de los Reyes Berreyesa José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

(1785 - 1846), the grantee of Rancho San Vicente. José Santos Berreyesa was a soldier at the

Presidio of Sonoma The Sonoma Barracks (Spanish: ''Cuartel de Sonoma'') is a two-story, wide-balconied, adobe building facing the central plaza of the City of Sonoma, California. It was built by order of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo to house the Mexican soldiers that ...

from 1840 - 1842, and alcalde in 1846. He was jailed with two of his brothers by

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 ...

in 1846 during the

Bear Flag Revolt The California Republic ( es, La República de California), or Bear Flag Republic, was an unrecognized breakaway state from Mexico, that for 25 days in 1846 militarily controlled an area north of San Francisco, in and around what is now Son ...

. 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 Mallacomes was filed by José de los Santos Berreyesa 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

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 ...

in 1873. Thomas P. Knight (1820 - 1903), a participant in the

, bought two square leagues of the northern portion of the valley from Berryessa in 1853. Knight expanded the adobe hunting lodge built by Berryessa and called his rancho, Muristood. Knight was born in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, and came across the plains from Missouri in 1845, and settled in California. In 1854 he married Serena Haines in Napa Valley, and retired to San Francisco in 1870. Mallacomes Valley would be renamed "Knights Valley" after Thomas Knight. Lovett P. Rockwell (1790 - 1860) who was born in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, came to

Sumner, Illinois Sumner is a city in Lawrence County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,174 at the 2010 census, with approximately 2,000 of that population being inmates at the Lawrence Correctional Center. History Sumner was established as a stop ...

in 1832. His health started to fail and he decided to go west in 1850, to look for gold. He bought part of the rancho from Knight but returned to Illinois in 1853. He was taken sick on the return home. In 1857, Rockwell returned to California, but came back in 1858 in no better health and died in 1860. A claim was filed by Lovett P. Rockwell and Thomas P. Knight with the Land Commission in 1852, and was patented in 1873. Calvin Holmes and his wife Elvira purchased much of Knights Valley in 1861. Real estate barons F.E. Kellogg and W.A. Stuart began building a small resort town modeled after Calistoga, called Kellogg. The town, which can still be found on present day maps, never developed into the vision held by Kellogg and it eventually was destroyed through a series of fires. Martin E. Cook, who represented the 11th state senatorial district, and Quartmaster General

Rufus Ingalls Rufus Ingalls (August 23, 1818 – January 15, 1893) was an American military general who served as the 16th Quartermaster General of the United States Army. Early life and career Ingalls was born in the village of Denmark in what is now Maine (a ...

, filed a claim with the

in 1853 and was patented in 1873.United States. District Court (California : Northern District) Land Case 375 ND
/ref>

References

{{California history, state=collapsed Mallacomes Mallacomes Mallacomes

History

See also

References