Rancho Rincon 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 José Peña. The name means "corner or bend of the San Francisquito" referring to

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 ...

. The grant extended along

Matadero Creek Matadero Creek is a stream originating in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The creek flows in a northeasterly direction for until it enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, where it joins Ado ...

to the hills and included the southern part of present-day

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 ...

and the southern part of the

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

campus.

History

José Peña (1777–1852), an artilleryman at the

Presidio of San Francisco The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part o ...

, received permission from the

Mission Santa Clara 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 ...

in 1822 to occupy a square league of its pasture land. At some point, Peña went to Mexico, but returned in the 1830s to reoccupy his property. In 1841, he applied for the land he had been using and was granted two square leagues by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. At the time, Peña was teaching school in the small community at Santa Clara. In 1847, Peña sold the entire the rancho, except for a small plot for himself, to Secundino Robles and his brother Teodoro. When Peña died in 1852, his widow Gertrudis Lorenzana (d.1865) remained owner of the adobe and its property, which an 1862 map shows near

Lake Lagunita Lake Lagunita, informally referred to as Lake Lag, is an artificial dry lake in Stanford University, California, located on the western side of the Stanford campus near the Lagunita residences. It was created in to provide irrigation for Palo A ...

br>

Secundino and his brother Teodoro Robles, bought Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito from José Peña in 1847. In 1824, Secundino Robles had discovered

cinnabar Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and ...

deposits south of San Jose, when Ohlone Indians showed him where they retrieved their red-pigmented rock. By 1845, when these deposits proved to be rich in quicksilver, Secundino and Teodoro received cash and a one sixth share in Andres Castillero 's

New Almaden , settlement_type = Neighborhood of San Jose , nickname = , motto = , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_seal = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = , mapsize1 = , map_caption1 = , pushpin_map = United States Sa ...

Quicksilver Mine. Secundino Robles (1813–1890), born at

Branciforte Branciforte, originally named Villa de Branciforte, was the last of only three secular ''pueblos'' founded by the Spanish colonial government of Alta California. The pueblo was established in 1797 on the eastern bluff of the San Lorenzo River, fac ...

, was not as wild as his brothers Nicolas, Avelino, Flugencio and Teodoro. He married Maria Antonia Garcia (d.1897) in 1835, and raised a large family (Maria Antonia bore 29 children). In 1843, Secundino was employed as the Majordomo (foreman) of Mission Santa Clara, where he was joined by his brother, Teodoro. 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 Rincon 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, 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 Secundino and his brother Teodoro Robles in 1868. In 1853,

Elisha Oscar Crosby Elisha Oscar Crosby (July 18, 1818 - June 25, 1895) was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat. He served as a member of the California State Senate from 1849 to 1852. As a state senator, he served as chair of the Judiciary Committee, and in ...

bought from the Robles. Teodoro divorced his wife, Maria Rosalia Robles, in 1855, and lost half of his share of Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito in the divorce. Jeremiah Clarke of San Francisco purchased a portion of it from Maria Rosalia Robles in 1859. Frenchman Peter Coutts ( Jean Baptiste Paulin Caperon) bought from Jeremiah Clarke. Coutts suddenly returned to France in 1880, and

Leland Stanford Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American industrialist and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 8th governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented California in the United States Se ...

bought the property in 1882. Secundino traded of his rancho to Jeremiah Clarke for a span of horses and a buggy. By 1859 much of the Robles' land had been sold to meet the combined expenses of legal fees, Teodoro's gambling debts and Secundino's overly generous hospitality, as well as, the expense in raising so many children. Secundino died penniless in 1890.Pamela Gullard and Nancy Lund, 1989, ''History of Palo Alto: The Early Years'', Scottwall Associates,

References

{{Santa Clara County, California Rincon de San Francisquito Rincon de San Francisquito Palo Alto, California Stanford University Rincon de San Francisquito

History

See also

References