Rancho Sanel 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

Mendocino County, California Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish language, Spanish for "of Antonio de Mendoza, Mendoza) is a County (United States), county located on the North Coast (California), North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United Sta ...

, given in 1844 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 Fernando Feliz (or Felix). The grant extended along the Russian River and encompassed present-day Hopland. It is named after a village of the

Pomo people The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small grou ...

near Hopland; the name means sweat-house in the Pomo language. Neither Spanish nor Mexican influence extended into Mendocino County beyond establishing two ranchos in southern Mendocino County: Rancho Sanel in the Sanel Valley in 1844 and

Rancho Yokaya Rancho Yokaya privately owned by Sophia Charity Piceno of the Little Lake and Kon kow tribes to current date 2022, (also called "Llokaya") was a Mexican land grant in present day Mendocino County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico t ...

in the Ukiah Valley in 1845.

History

Fernando De La Trinidad Feliz (May 30, 1795 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

– November 12, 1859 in

Hopland, California Hopland (formerly Sanel) is a census-designated place in Mendocino County, California, United States. It is located on the west bank of the Russian River south-southeast of Ukiah, in the Sanel Valley, at an elevation of . The population was ...

), who was a regidor (town councilman) at 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 ...

in 1831, was the grantee of

Rancho Novato Rancho Novato was a Mexican land grant in present day Marin County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Fernando Feliz (or Felix). The grant extended along San Pablo Bay, from Black Point to Rancho San Jose, and included the ...

in 1839. When Feliz received the Rancho Sanel grant, he sold Rancho Novato, and brought his cattle to Rancho Sanel and erected an adobe house just south of the present town of Hopland. His family was located there before 1853, and in 1854 Luis Peña and others joined him. 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 Sanel 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 Fernando Feliz in 1860. Feliz' legal adviser, John Knight, received the northernmost one square league of the grant for his services. This latter tract took the name of Knight's Valley. Elijah Dooley (b. 1833) was among the first to purchase land from the Sanel grant, and bought in 1858. Henry Harper Willard (1828–1888) born in New York, came to California in 1847 with Jonathan D. Stevenson's

1st Regiment of New York Volunteers 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers, for service in California and during the war with Mexico, was raised in 1846 during the Mexican–American War by Jonathan D. Stevenson. Accepted by the United States Army on August 1846, the 1st Regiment of New ...

. Willard and his wife, Mary Maxima, and Joseph Knox and his wife, Maria, settled in the Sanel Valley in 1856. Maxima and Maria were daughters of the Indian chief

Camilo Ynitia Camilo Ynitia (alternative spelling "Camillo"; original native name transliterated as "Hueñux") was born in 1803, in Marin County, southern Marin, of the Huiman tribe near Sausalito. They likely traveled up to Olompali, where his father had buil ...

. In 1859, Willard, Knox and Conner found Hopland. By 1884, Willard owned . Willard died in 1888, and Mary Maxima married Armstrong McCabe in 1891. Elijah Hall Duncan (b. 1824) purchased acreage from the rancho in 1858, and in 1879 purchased another .Aurelius O. Carpenter and Percy H. Millberry, 1914,''History of Mendocino and Lake counties California'', Historic Record Co. Feliz died in 1859. Feliz sold land at low prices and advantageous terms to settlers, and his descendants had nothing left of the rancho but a town lot in East Hopland.

References

{{California history Sanel Ranchos of Mendocino County, California