Rancho Thompson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rancho Thompson
Eight Leagues on Stanislaus River
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Location of Riverbank in the state of California
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 Rancho Thompson
Location in the United States
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| Elevation | 43 m (86 ft) |
Rancho Thompson, also known as "Eight Leagues on Stanislaus River," was a very large piece of land in what is now San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties, California. It was a special type of land grant given by the Mexican government in 1846. This grant covered about 35,533 acres (which is about 144 square kilometers). It was given by Governor Pío Pico to a man named Alpheus Basil Thompson. The land was shaped like a rectangle, stretching about 2 leagues (around 5 miles or 8 kilometers) along both sides of the Stanislaus River and about 4 leagues (around 10 miles or 16 kilometers) wide. Most of this land was north of the river. Today, the cities of Riverbank and Oakdale are located on what used to be Rancho Thompson.
History of Rancho Thompson
A Captain's Story
Captain Alpheus Basil Thompson (1795–1869) was a sailor and merchant. He came from Brunswick, Maine, and settled in Santa Barbara in 1834. Captain Thompson owned ships like the Loriot and the Bolívar Liberator. He used these ships to trade goods between China and California.
Thompson married Francisca Carrillo, whose father, Carlos Antonio Carrillo, was a governor of Alta California (which is now California) from 1837 to 1838. Thompson also worked with his shipping partner and brother-in-law, John Coffin Jones, Jr. They managed a land grant together on Santa Rosa Island.
Land Changes Hands
After the Mexican-American War, California became part of the United States. This change was agreed upon in 1848 by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty said that the land grants given by Mexico would still be honored.
Because of a new law called the Land Act of 1851, Captain Thompson had to file a claim for Rancho Thompson in 1852. This claim was made with the Public Land Commission, which was a group set up to check who owned land. The government officially recognized Thompson's ownership of the land in 1858.
Later, Thompson sold most of his land (seven-tenths of it) to Gabriel B. Post of a company in San Francisco. He sold the rest (three-tenths) to a law firm called Halleck, Peachy & Billings. When Post & Co. went out of business, Halleck, Peachy & Billings ended up owning the entire Rancho Thompson. The law firm then sold off the large land grant in smaller pieces between 1858 and 1862.
