Rancho San Francisquito facts for kids
Rancho San Francisquito was a large piece of land, about 1,471 acres (or 6 square kilometers), in what is now Santa Clara County, California. It was a Mexican land grant, meaning the Mexican government gave this land away. Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado gave it to Antonio Buelna in 1839. Today, this land covers parts of western Menlo Park and the northern area of the Stanford University campus.
History
Antonio Jose Buelna was born in 1790 and passed away in 1842. He married Maria Concepción Valencia in 1816. In 1836, Antonio Buelna and some other important people, like José Castro and Juan Alvarado, asked the governor to step down. Governor Alvarado later gave Antonio Buelna two land grants: Rancho San Francisquito and Rancho San Gregorio. After Antonio Buelna died in 1842, his wife Maria Concepción Valencia married Francisco Rodriguez.
After the Mexican–American War, California became part of the United States in 1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, said that the U.S. would respect the land grants given by Mexico. To prove ownership, people had to file a claim with the Public Land Commission. Maria Concepción Valencia de Rodriquez filed a claim for Rancho San Francisquito in 1853. She officially received the land title, called a "patent," in 1868.
In the early 1850s, some people, called "squatters," settled on the land without permission. These squatters included Mr. Julian, William J. Little, and others. A rich man from San Francisco, George Gordon, bought the land from both the squatters and the Buelna family heirs in 1863. George Gordon died in 1869, and his wife, Elizabeth, died in 1874. She left the estate to her brother, John J. Clark.
John J. Clark died in 1876. That same year, Leland Stanford bought 650 acres (about 2.6 square kilometers) of the land from Clark's widow, Margret T. Clark. This part was known as the Mayfield Grange Farm. Stanford also bought another 619 acres (about 2.5 square kilometers) from D. Hoag. By 1891, Leland Stanford had expanded his land to 8,248 acres (about 33.4 square kilometers). This included land from the nearby Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito.
Historic sites of the Rancho
- Antonio Buelna Adobe.
- Savannah Memorial Park
