Rancho Santa Manuela was a 16,955-acre (68.61 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day San Luis Obispo County, California given in 1837 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Francis Ziba Branch.[1] The grant encompassed present-day Arroyo Grande.[2][3]

History edit

Francis Ziba Branch (1802–1874) came over land to California with Wolfskill party in 1831. In 1835 he married María Manuela Carlón, and in 1837, Governor Alvarado granted Branch, Rancho Santa Manuela.[4]

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 Santa Manuela was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[5][6] and the grant was patented to Francis Ziba Branch in 1868.[7]

The Branch family lived on the land until 1879, when much of Rancho Santa Manuela was sold to Philip Biddle and his son John Biddle (1840–1891).[8]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
  2. ^ Diseño del Rancho Santa Manuela
  3. ^ San Luis Obispo Mexican Land Grants
  4. ^ Hoover, Mildred B.; Rensch, Hero; Rensch, Ethel; Abeloe, William N. (1966). Historic Spots in California. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-4482-9.
  5. ^ United States. District Court (California : Southern District) Land Case 24 SD
  6. ^ Finding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892
  7. ^ Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886 Archived 2009-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Annie L Morrison and John H Haydon, 1917,Pioneers of San Luis Obispo County & Environs, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles

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