Rancho Sotoyome 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 ...

given to Henry D. Fitch. Sotoyome or "Satiyomes" was the name of a

Wappo The Wappo (endonym: ''Micewal'') are an indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River valley. They are distantly related to the Yuki ...

tribe. The grant, in present-day

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 ...

, extended along the Russian River encompassing the

Alexander Valley The Alexander Valley (Wappo: Unutsawaholmanoma, "Toyon Bush Berry Place") is a Californian American Viticultural Area (AVA) just north of Healdsburg in Sonoma County. It is home to many wineries and vineyards, as well as the city of Cloverdale. ...

and present-day

Healdsburg Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 11,254. Owing to its three most important wine-producing regions (the Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valle ...

History

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

sea captain Henry Delano Fitch had married Josefa Carrillo, which made him the brother-in-law of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (who was married to Josefa's sister

Francisca Benicia Carrillo Doña Francisca Benicia Carrillo de Vallejo (1815-1891) was a Californio pioneer. A member of the Carrillo family of California, Carrillo was the wife of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Carrillo was an early settler of Sonoma, California, the town f ...

). General Vallejo was a critical factor in obtaining the Rancho Sotoyome grant. Fitch hired Cyrus Alexander as ranch manager under a four-year agreement, after which Alexander was to receive two square leagues of land and part of the ranch stock. Fitch petitioned for his grant in 1840, and was officially granted the eight square leagues (approximately ) by Governor Juan Alvarado in 1841. In 1844, Fitch received a three square league addition from Governor Manuel Micheltorena. After Alexander's contract ended in 1845, Mose Carson, brother of

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and n ...

, took over as manager of Rancho Sotoyome. Alexander settled on his tract in what is now Alexander Valley. Captain Fitch continued trading up and down the coast, with Rancho Sotoyome as one of the many business enterprises directed from his San Diego base. After the discovery of gold, Fitch planned to move his family north to Rancho Sotoyome, but had not done so before he died in 1849. Following his death, his widow Josefa and their children moved to Rancho Sotoyome. Their third son, Guillermo (William) married Clara Piña, whose relatives owned the adjacent

Rancho Tzabaco Rancho Tzabaco was a Mexican land grant in present-day Sonoma County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to José German Piña (often misspelled as "Pena" in historical documents). The grant extended along Dry Creek, a tri ...

. 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 Sotoyome 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 Josefa Carrillo de Fitch in 1858. Alexander filed a claim in 1853 for his two square leagues (part of the 1841 grant by Governor Alvarado to Fitch), but it was rejected by the Land Commission. In 1856, Josefa Carrillo de Fitch auctioned part of the Rancho to pay taxes. Harmon Heald, an Ohio businessman who had been squatting on Rancho Sotoyome since 1850, purchased . Heald's small town of Healdsburg was incorporated in 1867.

References

{{California history Sotoyome Healdsburg, California Sotoyome