Rancho Sausal Redondo (Round Willow-grove Ranch) 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

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

given in 1837 to Antonio Ygnacio Ávila by Juan Alvarado Governor of

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

. ''Rancho Sausal Redondo'' covered the area that now includes

Playa Del Rey Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...

, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Lawndale,

Hermosa Beach Hermosa Beach (''Hermosa'', Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of th ...

, Inglewood,

Hawthorne Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne may also refer to: Places Australia *Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Canada * Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario United States * Hawt ...

, and Redondo Beach.

History

Antonio Ygnacio Ávila (1781–1858), a member of the Ávila family of California, married Rosa Maria Ruiz (1789–1866) in 1804. In 1822, Antonio Ygnacio Ávila was granted a permit from the new Mexican government to utilize grazing land totaling approximately 25,000 acres on what was to become Rancho Sausal Redondo. Ávila received a land grant of Rancho Sausal Redondo for most of this land from Governor Juan Alverado on May 20, 1837. 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 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 ...

, 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 Sausal Redondo 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 Antonio Ygnacio Ávila in 1855. Antonio Ygnacio Ávila died in 1858, and in 1868 Ávila's heirs were forced to sell the rancho to pay the probate costs. The Rancho was sold to Sir Robert Burnett ( 11th. Baronet, 1876–1894) who used the land for sheep and cattle raising. Having previously acquired

Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was a Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1837 to Ygnacio Machado. The name means "Sentinel of the Waters" in Spanish, and refers to the artesian water in the area exemplif ...

, Burnett combined the total area into the Centinela Ranch, thus reuniting the major area of the original land grant. Clear title to the land did not occur until 1873, when a U.S. District Court upheld Burnett's purchase against a suit filed by Ávila heir

Tomas Avila Sanchez Tomas Avila Sanchez (1826–1882), soldier, sheriff and public official, was on the Los Angeles County, California, Board of Supervisors and was a member of the Los Angeles Common Council, the legislative branch of the city. Personal Sanchez ...

. In 1873, Robert Burnett leased the land to Daniel Freeman and returned to his native

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Freeman moved to the ranch with his family, increased the stock, and planted citrus trees. When the 1875 drought ruined the livestock industry, Freeman turned to dry farming. In 1885, Freeman purchased the remainder of Rancho Sausal Redondo. Daniel Freeman was the last person to own all of Rancho Sausal Redondo.

Historic sites of the Rancho

Centinela Adobe The Centinela Adobe, also known as La Casa de la Centinela, is a Spanish Colonial style adobe house built in 1834. It is operated as a house museum by the Historical Society of Centinela Valley, and it is one of the 43 surviving adobes within ...

– Burnett's adobe ranch house in Inglewood.History of Lawndale
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References

External links

Diseño del Rancho Sausal Redondo : Calif.
fromcontent.cdlib.org California Digital Library, Contributing Institution: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
Plat of the Rancho Sausal Redondo, 1868
from hdl.huntington.org, Huntington Digital Library
Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County
{{California history Sausal Redondo Sausal Redondo History of Los Angeles El Segundo, California Hermosa Beach, California Inglewood, California Hawthorne, California Lawndale, California Manhattan Beach, California Redondo Beach, California South Bay, Los Angeles 19th century in Los Angeles

History

Historic sites of the Rancho

See also

References

External links