Rancho Santa Margarita was a

Mexican land grant In Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California, ranchos were concessions and land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an indu ...

in the

Santa Lucia Mountains The Santa Lucia Range (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Mountains is a rugged mountain range in coastal Central California, running from Carmel southeast for to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than fro ...

, in present day

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra fou ...

, central California. The

rancho Rancho or Ranchos may refer to: Settlements and communities *Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad *Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California ** List of California Ranchos * Ranchos, Buenos ...

was granted by Governor pro tem Manuel Jimeno Casarin in 1841 to Joaquín Estrada. The grant encompassed present day Santa Margarita. It remains an active ranch.

History

Joaquín Tomas Estrada (1815–1893), the son of José Raimundo Estrada and Josefa Vallejo de Alvarado, was born in Spanish colonial

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

Alta California Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva 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 was made a separat ...

. Originally part of the northern lands of

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa () is a Spanish mission founded September 1, 1772 by Father Junípero Serra in San Luis Obispo, California. The mission was named after San Luis, obispo de Talosa (Saint Louis, bishop of Toulouse, France). Th ...

, the four square league Rancho Santa Margarita was granted to Estrada in 1841. At the time, his older half brother

Juan Bautista Alvarado Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo (February 14, 1809 – July 13, 1882) usually known as Juan Bautista Alvarado, was a Californio politician that served as governor of Alta California from 1837 to 1842. Prior to his term as governor, Al ...

was Governor of Alta California for independent México. Joaquín Estrada and his wife Maria de Jesus made their home at the

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

ranch headquarters. His brother Pedro Estrada was granted the adjacent

Rancho Asuncion Rancho Asuncion was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in present-day San Luis Obispo County, California. It was given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to Pedro Estrada. The grant extended along the Salinas River (California), Salinas River ...

in 1845 after the Mexican secularization act of 1833. Joaquín Estrada was elected to the post-statehood first San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors in 1852, and served as County Treasurer in 1853–1854. With the

Mexican Cession The Mexican Cession () is the region in the modern-day Western United States that Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United S ...

of California to the United States following the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, the 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...

provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Santa Margarita 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 the California State Lands Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican l ...

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 ...

to Joaquín Estrada in 1861. In 1861, Estrada sold the rancho to Martin Murphy Jr. (1807–1884) and his wife Mary Bulger Murphy (d.1892) of

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...

, who had come to California with the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party in 1844. The Murphys turned over running of the rancho to their son Patrick Murphy, who was a General in the

California National Guard The California National Guard (Cal Guard) is part of the National Guard (United States), National Guard of the United States, a dual federal–state military reserve force in the state of California. It has three components: the California Army ...

. Patrick Washington Murphy
Patrick Washington Murphy (September 11, 1840 in Missouri – November 1, 1901 in San Francisco) operated Rancho Santa Margarita, and the adjacent

Rancho Atascadero Rancho Atascadero was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Luis Obispo County, California. It was granted in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Trifon Garcia. The grant extended along the Salinas River and encompassed present-day Atascadero. ...

, and

, altogether comprising about from his Rancho Santa Margarita headquarters. Patrick Murphy married Mary Kate O'Brien in 1870. In 1876, Murphy bought the Rancho Cojo. In 1889, Patrick Murphy enticed the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

to Rancho Santa Margarita by selling them land near the ranch house. By 1890 Patrick Murphy's efforts to entice further land buyers had largely failed, and Murphy died in 1901. In 1904, the Murphy family sold Rancho Santa Margarita to the three Reis brothers – Ferdinand, Christian and Gustav, German emigrants who made their fortune in the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

Historic sites of the Rancho

* Santa Margarita de Cortona Asistencia – sub-mission established in 1782, on land that later was within the rancho

References

External links

* {{California history, state=collapsed Santa Margarita Santa Lucia Range 1841 establishments in Alta California

History

Historic sites of the Rancho

See also

References

External links