Re: Land grants

Quote
John West
Some quick investigation suggests the reason may be that that grantees in California were individuals who tended to pattern themselves after the landholding "patrones" of Spain, and remained "well connected" even after the Anglos took over here. Moreover it is interesting how many Anglo names show up as the original grantees.

All of Anglo grantees had to take Mexican citizenship to receive the land grant. This put some of them "between a rock and a hard place" when the US troops invaded California during the War with Mexico.

More specifically, where I live was once Rancho La Puente which was granted to Rowland and Workman. Both of these came through New Mexico where they took wives and Mexican citizenship. Workman was an Englishman and eventually he remodeled his adobe house to look like an English stone cottage. Mount Wilson where many TV and radio transmitters are located is named for Don Benito (Benjamin) Wilson.

What caused a number of Grantees to loose their grants were the loans they took out during the 1870s and then were unable to replay and were foreclosed upon. Also in my area E. J. "Lucky" Baldwin ended up owning several ranchos for this reason.

Brian Norden