User:Asiaticus/sandbox/Rancho San Juan Capistrano del Camote

Rancho San Juan Capistrano del Camote (Saint John Capistrano Of the sweet potato) was a 44,284 acre Mexican land grant in the San Juan Valley, 13.7 miles southeast of Shandon, California in present-day San Luis Obispo County, California.

Original Grant
The "ten square leagues" of the rancho was granted July 11, 1846, by Governor Pio Pico to Tomás Herrera and Geronimo Quintana (aka José María Quintana) both originally from Nuevo Mexico. Unlike most ranchos in California they raised sheep, commonly raised in Nuevo Mexico. After Alta California was annexed to the United States and became the state of California, the grantees filed a claim with the Land Commissionon on August 14, 1852. That claim was rejected by the Commission December 26th, 1854.

Much of the Rancho Deeded for Litigation
Later that year to continue to press their claim to the grant in the Northern District Court, cash poor José María Quintana and Tomás Herrera deeded away six of the ten leagues of the rancho. These lands were deeded to lawyer William Carey Jones of San Francisco, who in turn deeded half of his interest to Albert Packard “in consideration of his taking charge of the cause during my absence, and assisting in the cause as may be necessary.” Signing as a witness to the transactions were John C. Fremont and José de Jesus Pico.

William Carey Jones appears to have used Albert Packard as an agent to win portions of ranchos for representing cash-poor Californios at the U.S. Land Commission hearings. In 1860, Packhard was accused of having purchased false testimony in support an 1854 San Francisco land claim case with the promise of a choice parcel in the claim. William Carey Jones, had been a special agent to the Secretary of the Interior to examine the subject of land titles in California and wrote a report on it to the Secretary in 1850. As a special agent of the government, gaining title to ranchos through intermediaries appears corrupt. Adding to this, Jones was also a son-in-law of U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, and thus Fremont’s brother-in-law. Fremont’s role in this is suspicious given his brother-in-law being a beneficiary. Perhaps he received kickbacks for persuading rancheros to agree to these arrangements.

As a result of these transactions, José María Quintana was listed as owning no land, only $500 of personal property in the 1854 tax assessment. Albert Packard is listed as claiming the Rancho San Clemente of 13,302 acres (approx. 3 leagues). Tomás Herrera retained claim to the remaining 4 leagues of the original 10 league claim, however this was not recorded in the 1854 tax assessment, presumably because it had been ruled invalid.

Rancho San Juan Capistrano Murders
In May 1858, two French Basques, Bartolomé Baratie and M. Jose Borel, had come from Oakland to raise sheep on the rancho and perhaps purchase it. On May 12th, shortly after they settled in at the rancho it was the subject of a famous attack by eight of the bandit gang of Jack Powers and Pio Linares that resulted in the robbery and murders of the two men and the kidnapping of Andrea Baratie, the English/Chilean wife of Bartolomé. As an eyewitness to the murder of her husband, she was to be kept at a remote hideout until she could be disposed of. However El Mesteno, the gang member detailed to do this decided to rescue her from this fate and took her north through the mountains, stopping at friendly ranchos, to leave her at San Juan Bautista a week later, from which she managed to return to Oakland and notify authorities. She would soon return to give testimony in San Luis Obispo and identify El Mesteno when he was caught returning to town. Jack Gilkey, an additional witness to the presence of the gang on his ranch on Camate Creek, six miles from the site of the crime, on the night before, was also killed as the gang returned from their attack on Rancho San Juan Capistrano. The plan of Linares was to pin the blame for the crime on the two Californio servants of the Frenchmen. They were to have been murdered where their bodies would not be found.

However the two bandits, who were to carry out this plot spared the servants' lives and gave them a little money to buy their silence, without telling their comrades. Nevertheless one of these servants went to the nearest rancho and informed Captain Mallagh, of the murder. Mallagh immediately rode to San Luis Obispo with the servant, bringing word of the crimes. The servant deposed and warrants to arrest eight persons, names unknown were issued. Meanwhile the gang, had returned to town, thinking that no trace had been left behind of their guilt. The servant identified Santos Peralta one of the gang involved for the Sheriff to arrest. The rest of the gang fled.

Peralta did not give up the names of his fellow gang members and was hung. The Sheriff and a posse went after the rest of the fleeing gang the next day, following and seeing four of them but without capturing any for eight days. They did return with Joaquin Valenzuela a member of Joaquin Murrieta's gang. As they returned they stopped at the ranchito of Pio Linares and attempted to arrest one gang member known to live there Linares refused to allow entry to his home and fled through a hail of gunfire when the posse fired his roof.

The news of this attack and the fact that for once the gang had left several witnesses and confessions by gang members caused Walter Murray and others in the town and surrounding ranchos to organize a Vigilance Committee in San Luis Obispo County that hunted down and destroyed this gang that had been conducting numerous robberies and murders for many years.

Claim Dismissed, 1860
Within two years the Northern District court dismissed the Rancho San Juan Capistrano del Camote claim for failure of prosecution of the case by the grantees on August 8, 1860. The reasons for this are unknown, but the dangers illustrated by the fate of the two Frenchmen there in that remote, dangerous region may have been one reason neither Packard nor anyone else was found to lend money or buy land from the grantees to fund their case in the courts.

San Juan Ranch
Following the 1860 decision the rancho became public land and after being surveyed, it was sold at a price of 25 cents to $1.25 an acre. In 1874, Robert Flint, a Canadian, purchased the headquarters of the old Rancho San Juan, as well as acreage extending up San Juan Creek, and moved onto the San Juan Ranch. Flint grazed cattle and cultivated crops on its bottom-lands, and acquiring additional property. By the time of his death in 1892, he had acquired 58,175 acres. Flint's two sons inherited the property and in 1898 they sold it to a German immigrant, Henry Wreden. Wreden died in 1931 but his two sons operated the ranch until 1941, when the San Juan Ranch was divided equally among the six remaining Wreden heirs. Eventually the six tracts of land were sold and drifted into different ownership.

Nevertheless part of the Rancho San Juan still remains as the San Juan Ranch, 13.7 miles southeast of Shandon, California. According to the San Juan Ranch website:


 * "In 1998, John and Brenda Stephenson purchased an 8,300 parcel of land that included the original San Juan Ranch headquarters, the original adobe homestead on San Juan Ranch, as well as a sweet spring used by Herrera to water his sheep in the mid 1800's. With their acquisition of this land, the Stephenson's retained rights to the name San Juan Ranch and its associated brand. Over the past seven years, with determined persistence, the Stephenson's have reassembled a substantial amount of the original San Juan Ranch. Through several more acquisitions, the Stephenson's have expanded their holdings by an additional 25,000 acres, bringing the present-day San Juan Ranch to over 44,000 acres. It is estimated that the Stephenson's have acquired three of the six tracts of land divided amongst the Wreden heirs in 1941. It is the Stephenson's desire to reassemble San Juan Ranch in its entirety and preserve the property's rich and historic livestock production."

Part of the old San Juan Ranch is now the French Camp Vineyards.