Rancho Monserate facts for kids

Rancho Monserate was a very large piece of land, about 13,323 acres (53.91 km2), in what is now San Diego County, California. It was a Mexican land grant, which means the Mexican government gave this land to someone.

The grant was given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to Ysidro María Alvarado. This big ranch stretched south and east from where Fallbrook is today, all the way down to the San Luis Rey River. On its western side, it was next to another large ranch called Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores.

History of Rancho Monserate

Ysidro María Alvarado (1811–1863) was the person who received the Rancho Monserate land grant. He first married Maria Micaela Avila in Los Angeles. After she passed away, he married her sister, Manuela Lorenzo Avila.

After the Mexican-American War, California became part of the United States. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo stated that the land grants given by Mexico would still be honored.

The U.S. government created a new law, the Land Act of 1851, to check all these land claims. Ysidro María Alvarado filed his claim for Rancho Monserate in 1853. His ownership of the land was officially approved on July 17, 1872.

A Difficult Time: Smallpox

In 1862, a smallpox outbreak started in Mission San Juan Capistrano and began spreading. To keep his children safe, Ysidro Alvarado sent them to Los Angeles to stay with their uncle.

Sadly, the disease reached Rancho Monserate. In 1863, Ysidro Alvarado and his wife both died from smallpox. The illness also took the lives of 21 ranch workers and servants.

The Rancho's Heirs

After the smallpox tragedy in 1863, Rancho Monserate was passed down to Alvarado's children. They were Tomas Alvarado, Dolores Alvarado de Serrano, and Lugarda Alvarado de Palomares.

Since the U.S. government had not yet officially approved the land ownership, the main house was rented out. Simon Goldbaum used the building as a general store. Over time, more people moved to the eastern part of the rancho. A school and a post office were also built there.

Once the U.S. government officially approved the land in 1872, the rancho was divided in 1874. Each of the three children received about 4,500 acres (18 km2) of land.

Tomas Alvarado's Section

Tomas Alvarado (born 1841) received the eastern third of Rancho Monserate. In 1864, he married María Ygnacia Morena.

Tomas built an adobe chapel and a large house, called a hacienda, on the south side of the San Luis Rey River. He and his wife raised six daughters and one son there. Today, the adobe chapel is the only building left from that time. It has been restored by several groups, including the Rancho Monserate Country Club.

Dolores Alvarado's Section

Dolores Alvarado de Serrano (born 1838) and her husband received the middle third of Rancho Monserate. They built an adobe home in the southern part of what is now Live Oak Canyon, east of Fallbrook.

In 1880, Henry Harrison Gird bought the Serrano ranch. The Gird family lived in the adobe home until a flood in 1883. After the flood, they built a new wood-frame house on a nearby hill. Henry and Martha Gird lived there until they passed away in 1913.

Lugarda Alvarado's Section

María Lugarda de Jesús Alvarado (born 1842) married Francisco Palomares in 1866. She received the western third of Rancho Monserate, which was closest to Fallbrook.

Lugarda chose not to move to her section of the rancho. Instead, she leased the land to someone named R. Turnbull. In 1885, Lugarda asked her son-in-law, Henry Avila, to manage the rents and profits from her ranch. He used the money to create a trust for her unmarried daughter and younger children. A few years later, Henry Avila built a house on the northern edge of the Palomares Ranch.