Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores

History

In 1841, during the secularization of California missions, Pio Pico and Andres Pico were granted 89742 acre Rancho San Onofre y Santa Margarita next to the Mission San Juan Capistrano by Alvarado. Three years later, the grant of Rancho Las Flores was added, and the grant renamed Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores. Pio Pico and Andres Pico built the first two rooms of the Ranch House. Pio Pico later lost the land in a horse bet with Jose Andres Sepulveda.

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 Santa Margarita y Las Flores was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to Pio Pico in 1879.

In 1863, Juan Forster, an Englishman who became a Mexican citizen and married Pio Pico's sister, paid off Pico's debts and received the deed to the Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores. In 1864, Forster began expanding the Santa Margarita Ranch House to 18 rooms and turned the land into a cattle ranch. Forster lived at Rancho Santa Margarita some 18 years and greatly expanded the house. When Forster died in 1882, his heirs sold the ranch to Irish immigrant James Flood who selected his friend Richard O'Neill to manage it. James Flood died in 1888. In 1940, James Flood, Jr. gave O'Neill an undivided half ownership. In 1923, Jerome O'Neill and James Flood, Jr. formed a corporation to control the ranch now known as Rancho Santa Margarita.

Historic sites of the Rancho

• Las Flores Estancia

References

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. [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb0199n5n8/ Plat of the Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores]
3. [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb2p30048r/ Rancho de San Onofrio]
4. {{gnis
5. "California Historical Landmark: San Diego County". California State Parks.
6. [https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/102014 United States. District Court (California : Southern District) 317 SD]
7. [http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/hb109nb422/ Finding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892]
8. [http://www.slc.ca.gov/Misc_Pages/Historical/Surveyors_General/reports/Willey_1884_1886.pdf Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886] {{webarchive. link. (2009-05-04)
9. [http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/21299/files/663_1.pdf San Onofre State Beach, Development Plan, 1984, pp.13-14]