Rancho San Luis Gonzaga

Rancho San Luis Gonzaga was a 48,821-acre (197.57 km²) Mexican land grant in the Diablo Range, in present-day Santa Clara County and Merced County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Juan Perez Pacheco and José Maria Mejía.^[1] The grant was bounded by Francisco Pacheco's Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe on the west (at the top of present-day Pacheco Pass), the San Joaquin River and San Joaquin Valley on the east, and Los Baños Creek on the south.^[2]

History

A grant was first made in 1841 to Francisco Jose Rivera of Monterey, but he returned to Mexico soon after and did not occupy the grant. The eleven square league grant was made to Juan Perez Pacheco and José Maria Mejía in 1843.^[3] Three days later, Captain Mejia gave his half of the grant to Pacheco. Juan Perez Pacheco (1823–1855) was the son of Francisco Perez Pacheco (1790–1860), grantee of Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe.^[4] The rancho lay at a great crossroad where the road from Pacheco Pass into the San Joaquin Valley crossed the El Camino Viejo that lay along the west side of the valley. Its lands included the land and adobe ranch house of the old Spanish Rancho de Centinela (Sentinel Ranch) first established by pioneering stockmen from San Juan Bautista and Monterey as place to raise horses in 1810 and subsequently abandoned in the 1820s.

With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho San Luis Gonzaga was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,^[5] and the grant was patented to Juan Perez Pacheco in 1871.^[6]

When Juan Perez Pacheco died in 1855, the property went to his father, Francisco Pacheco. In 1858, the rancho became a stage station for the Butterfield Overland Mail.

Upon Francisco Pacheco's death in 1860, his only surviving child, Ysidora Pacheco (1829–1892) inherited most of the Pacheco holdings. In 1850, Ysidora married Mariano Malarin (1827–1895) of Rancho Chualar.^[7] When María Ysidora Pacheco died in 1892, her estate consisted of Rancho San Luis Gonzaga and half of Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe.^[8]

Paula Fatjo, a great granddaughter of Ysidora and Mariano Malarin, inherited 16,000 acres (64.7 km²) of the ranch land in 1948, and used it to raise horses and cattle. The majority of her property was condemned by the state of California in 1962 to create the San Luis Reservoir, and the original 1846 ranch house, which she had restored, was destroyed in an attempt to move it away from the area flooded by the new lake. Fatjo died on December 30, 1992, leaving the remaining 6,890 acres (27.9 km²) to the California Parks System, where it forms what is now Pacheco State Park.^[9]

References

↑ Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
↑ Early Santa Clara Ranchos, Grants, Patents and Maps
↑ Marjorie Pierce,1981, East of the Gabilans, Western Tanager Press, ISBN 978-0-934136-11-2
↑ Hoover, Mildred B.; Rensch, Hero; Rensch, Ethel; Abeloe, William N. (1966). Historic Spots in California. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-4482-9.
↑ United States. District Court (California : Northern District) Land Case 62 ND
↑ Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886
↑ Portraits of Isidora Pacheco and Mariano Malarín by Leonardo Barbieri
↑ Will of Isadora Pacheco Malarin, Salinas Weekly Index, Thursday, Aug. 25, 1892
↑ Rodebaugh, Dale (May 24, 1996), "Heiress' ancestral landholds become a Northern California state park", San Jose Mercury-News, (subscription required (help)) .

Coordinates: 37°06′36″N 121°10′12″W / 37.110°N 121.170°W / 37.110; -121.170

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Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division Stations

San Francisco – Western terminus and 1st Division headquarters, located in downtown San Francisco.
Clarks's Station – Located 12 miles south of San Francisco in what is now San Bruno.
Sun Water Station – Located 9 miles south of Clarks Station in what is now San Mateo.
Redwood City – Located 9 miles south of Sun Water Station.
Mountain View Station – Located 12 miles south of Redwood City.
San Jose Station – Located 11 miles south of Mountain View Station in the city of San Jose.
Seventeen Mile House – Located 17 miles south of San Jose.
Gilroy Station – Located 13 miles south of Seventeen Mile House in what is now Gilroy, California.
Pacheco Pass Station – Located 18 miles east of Gilroy
St. Louis Ranch – Located 17 miles east of Pacheco Pass.
Lone Willow Station – Located 18 miles east of St. Louis Ranch near Los Banos.
Temple's Ranch – Located 13 miles southeast of Lone Willow Station near Dos Palos.
Firebaugh's Ferry – Located 15 miles southeast of Temples Ranch, on the San Joaquin River.
Fresno City – Located 19 miles southeast of Firebaugh's Ferry.
Elkhorn Spring Station – Located 22 miles east of Fresno City near present-day Riverdale.
Whitmore's Ferry – Located 17 miles southeast of Elkhorn Spring Station on the Kings River.
Head of Cross Creek Station – Located 15 miles southeast of Whitmore's Ferry.
Visalia – Located 12 miles southeast of Cross Creek Station.
Packwood Station – Located 12 miles east of Visalia.
Tule River Station – Located 14 miles south of Packwood Station.
Fountain Spring Station – Located 14 miles southeast of Tule River Station.
Mountain House – Located 12 miles south of Fountain Spring Station.
Posey Creek Station – Located 15 miles southwest of Mountain House, on Posey (Poso) Creek.
Gordon's Ferry (Kern River Station) – Located 10 miles south of Posey Creek Station on the Kern River just above present-day Bakersfield.
Kern River Slough Station – Located 12 miles south of Gordons Ferry.
Sink of Tejon Station – Located 14 miles southwest of Kern River Slough Station.
Fort Tejon – Located 15 miles southwest of Sink of Tejon Station.
Reed's Station – Located 8 miles southeast of Fort Tejon, near the Tejon Pass summit.
French John's Station – Located 14 miles east southeast of Reeds Station, in the vicinity of the mouth of Cow Springs Creek Canyon.
Mud Spring, a later station operating in 1860, 14 miles east from French Johns and 13 miles north from Clayton's Station (formerly Widow Smith's Station).
Widow Smith's Station (Clayton's Station, Major Gordon's Station) – Located 24 miles from French John's Station, in upper San Francisquito Canyon near Green Valley.
King's Station – Located 10 miles south of Widow Smith's Station in lower San Francisquito Canyon.
Hart's Station or Lyons Station – Located 12 miles south of King's Station, near Santa Clara River.
Lopez Station – Located 8 ¹⁄₂ miles southeast of Hart's Station, in the San Fernando Valley north of Mission San Fernando Rey de España.
Cahuenga Station – Located 12 miles southeast of Mission San Fernando, in Cahuenga Pass, the Santa Monica Mountains.

Source: "List of Butterfield Overland Mail Stations "Itinerary of the Route"". New York Times. October 14, 1858.

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