doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

lished in the country, at every important rancho was maintained a general store and depot
of supply for the surrounding country.
With the growth of the hide and tallow trade, land began to assume more value
and private holdings increased. Under the Spanish administration, only the king could
make grants of land, and it was many years before the right was exercised toward any
except the missionaries. The general laws of Spain provided for the granting of four
square leagues of land to newly-formed settlements, or pueblos as they were called,
upon certain conditions. As early as 1784, application was made to the Governor by private
individuals for grants of land, and he issued a few written permits for temporary occupation.
Two years later he received authority to make grants of tracts not exceeding
three leagues, not to conflict with the boundaries of existing pueblos, and on certain
conditions which included the building of a stone house and the keeping of not less than
two thousand head of livestock on each rancho.
It was considered that vacant lands outside the pueblos and missions belonged
to the Indians, to be utilized by them whenever they should become sufficiently civilized.
In 1793 it was reported that no private grants had been made, but a few years later a
number were made near the presidios, subject to confirmation later on. Several governors
in succession preferred to make these conditional grants, and at the close of the
18th century the situation was this: The Presidio was without settlers, but expected ultimately
to become a pueblo, and was entitled to four square leagues of land whenever
proper organization should appear; and there were in the whole department twenty or
thirty men engaged in raising cattle on lands to which they had only such possessory
permits, but none of these appear to have been at San Diego. In 1813 the Spanish
Cortés passed a decree relative to the reduction of public lands to private ownership,
destined to improve agricultural conditions and reward
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the country's defenders. Lands might be granted to veterans and invalid soldiers.
This decree was unknown in California before 1820. One of the earliest of the
grants made under this law was that of the Peñasquitos Rancho, of nearly nine thousand
acres, to the veteran Captain Ruiz and Francisco M. Alvarado, on June 15, 1823.
This grant was made against the earnest protests of the missionaries, as conflicting with
their boundaries. In a report made in 1828 are named the Rancho del Rey, now known
as the National Ranch, where the Presidio had 250 cattle and 25 horses; the San Antonio
Abad, which had 300 cattle, 80 horses and 25 mules, besides producing some grain;
the Peñasquitos Rancho, with 50 cattle, 20 horses, and 8 mules; El Rosario, or Barracas,
which had 25 head of live-stock and some grain; and the San Ysidro stock range. It
also appears from a statement of the missionaries in this year that the Temescal Rancho
had been occupied by Leandro Serrano, majordomo at San Juan. In January or
March, 1829, Governor Echeandía granted one league at Otay to José Antonio
Estudillo, and another to María Magdalena Estudillo.
From about 1832 grants were rapidly made of the public or unoccupied lands of
California; and subsequent to the acts of secularization of 1833-4, it was the practice of
the government to grant to individuals tracts of land belonging to the missions, but
which were no longer used or occupied by them. In spite of the opposition of the priests,
grants were constantly made by the government within the limits of the so-called mission
domain, and this continued up to 1846, when the dominion of Upper California