: The Romance of the Ranchos by Conner E Palmer - Land grants California Los Angeles County; Los Angeles County (Calif.) History

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Ranchos of California

Picture a map of California cut up into Ranchos like a crazy quilt, dotted with twenty-one Missions and a handful of Pueblos. Picture a people browned by the sun, happy, prosperous and carefree. Picture a white-walled hacienda on each of the ranchos, every one open with a never failing hospitality and welcome. That was California when the Americans took it.

It was a period of rare honor. Don Abel Stearns refused to take advantage of a technicality in his favor and lost a 29,000 acre rancho. Juan Matias Sanchez to help his friends, William Workman and F. P. F. Temple, signed their mortgage to "Lucky" Baldwin and lost his own rancho in the San Gabriel Valley, wholly without consideration.

With progress and development the ranchos gave way to the towns and farming communities. Many of these towns, now grown to cities, were named for the ranchos on which they were built. In Los Angeles County, Ranchos Santa Monica, San Fernando, Azusa, La Canada, Puente and Tujunga all gave their names to the towns founded within their borders. Santa Ana and La Habra in Orange County likewise took their names from their ranchos. Santa Barbara was an original Spanish Pueblo but still farther north in San Luis Obispo County, Arroyo Grande, Pismo, Santa Margarita, Atascadero and Paso Robles all correspond with the rancho of the same name.

Many names of roads and highways all over California can be traced directly to the rancho over which they pass. Many others were named for an illustrious owner, who perhaps in bright velvet and astride a silver saddle, rode down the same road when California was a land of great ranchos in the days of the Dons.

Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit

Among the ranchos of Los Angeles County Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit, more commonly known as the Malibu Ranch, is outstanding. Not that it was the first of the grants, although in fact it was one of the first, or because it was the largest, although its acreage of 13,315 was exceeded by few, but the historic rancho has in its almost intact state outlived all others and today it stands as "The Last of the Ranchos."

The Malibu was first granted in 1804 to Jose Bartolome Tapia by Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, Military Governor of the Californias, acting for the King of Spain. It bordered the Pacific for miles and extended back into the mountains,--a princely domain unexcelled for beauty.

The heirs of Tapia held the property until January 24, 1848, when they granted the great rancho to Leon Victor Prudhomme of the Pueblo of Los Angeles for the sum of 0, 0 to be paid in cash and 0 in groceries and wines. As the heirs were uncertain as to the true name of the rancho they gave four names under which it had been known and concluded by reciting that it was bounded on the north by the high mountains, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Rancho Santa Monica and on the west by the mouth of the River of San Buenaventura. The recital that the rancho was bounded on the south by the Pacific Ocean is correct as the rancho faces the ocean more southerly than westerly.

Prudhomme also had a famous vineyard near Cucamonga and in order to devote all of his time to the vineyard he sold the Rancho Topanga Malibu in 1857 to Matthew Keller, known in Spanish days as Don Mateo Keller, for 00. Mateo Street in Los Angeles is named for Mr. Keller.

In 1872 an agreement was entered into between Matthew Keller and Mrs. Carrie S. Lewis for conveyance of the rancho to Mrs. Lewis for ,000, a little less than .00 an acre, but the buyer failed to complete the deal and Matthew Keller remained the sole owner until his death in 1881.

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