Rancho Cañada de la Segunda

Rancho Cañada de la Segunda was a 4,367-acre (17.67 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Monterey County, California given in 1839 by Governor José Castro to Lazaro Soto.[1] The grant extended along the north bank of the Carmel River, from the Pacific coast and present day Carmel-by-the-Sea up into the Carmel Valley.[2][3]

History

Lazaro Soto's grandfather, Ygnacio Soto, came to California with the De Anza Expedition. His father, Ysidoro Soto, was an officer in the Mexican army at Monterey. Lazaro Soto was also a soldier in the Mexican army of California. Lazaro Soto received the one square league grant in Carmel Valley in 1839.[4] Lazaro Soto married Felicita Cantua and he and his family resided in Monterey. Lazaro Soto was the officer in charge of horses and munitions at the Battle of Natividad.

Lazaro Soto sold Rancho Canada de la Segunda to Andrew Randall. Andrew Randall (1819–1856), a native of Rhode Island, came to California in 1849 as the newly appointed customs inspector for Monterey. Randall was an entrepreneur with training as a geologist. He founded, and was elected chairman of the California Academy of Sciences.[5] In addition to Rancho Cañada de la Segunda, he was the claimant for Rancho San Lorenzo in Monterey County; Rancho Punta de los Reyes and Rancho Punta de los Reyes Sobrante in Marin County; and Rancho Aguas Frias in Butte County - a little over 110,000 acres (445 km2). However Randall had stretched his credit to the limit, and he could not, or would not pay immediately. Joseph Hetherington, a creditor, undertook to force payment by hounding him on every occasion with insults and threats. Hetherington fatally shot Randall in a San Francisco hotel on July 24, 1856. Hetherington was allowed to have an interview with his attorney Fletcher Mathews Haight, and the Committee of Vigilance hanged Hetherington July 29, 1856.

Fletcher M. Haight (1799–1866), a prominent San Francisco lawyer, acquired the property from the Randall estate.

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 Cañada de la Segunda was filed by Andrew Randall with the Public Land Commission in 1853,[6] and the grant was patented to Fletcher M. Haight in 1859.[7]

Faxon Dean Atherton (1815–1877) acquired the rancho in 1869. Will Hatton (1849–1894), born in Ireland and married to Kate Harney, came to California in 1870. Hatton managed Rancho Los Laureles for the Pacific Improvement Company. In 1888, Hatton became the manager of the widowed Dominga de Atherton's Rancho Cañada de la Segunda, and by 1892, Hatton had purchased the Rancho.

See also

References
  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 Cañada de la Segunda
  3. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Rancho Cañada de la Segunda
  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. Science Amid the Saloons: The Academy Begins
  6. United States. District Court (California : Southern District) Land Case 356 SD
  7. Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886 Archived 2013-03-20 at the Wayback Machine

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