Looking for a NorCal Californio

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hello,

The portrait of me in the profile is my Californio togs .

But there seemed to be very few Californios in the Sacramento area ... most men who took advantage of the land grants offered this far north were European or Yanquis who became Mexican citizens and then after 1848 American Citizens .... Sutter, Schwartz, Leidesdorf and Sheldon to name a few.

What I am looking for is a Californio who grew up with the Ranchero Life, but was 'legally ' separated from his lands. Just like now, if one loses his work, he must 'sell' what his strengths are ... which I am thinking would be managing some one elses land as a Mayordomo (Spanish for foreman ... kinda)

So after searching (unsuccessfully) for such a person, I am throwing it open to the cascity crowd ... and if you have any suggestions please talk to me here, send me a PM or email (my email ad is on my profile).

I could certainly use the help!

[WaddWatsonEllis]

This is kind of sad ... I am the only reply to my post ... HELP!

[Major 2]

not quite what your looking for ...

but

David Smith Terry

March 8, 1823 - August 14, 1889


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Born in Todd County KY on March 8, 1823.

Studied law under T. J. B Hadley.
Admitted to the Bar at Galveston in 1845.
Served in Col. Hays's 1st Regiment of Texas Mounted Riflemen in the Mexican War.
Lost the election for district attorney of Galveston in 1847.
Went to California for the Gold Rush of 1849.
Developed a successful law practice in Stockton, CA.
Married Cornelia Runnels in 1852.
Elected to the CA state supreme court in 1855.
Involved in an altercation with the leader of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee during which he stabbed Hopkins through the neck with a Bowie knife in 1855.
Became chief justice of the CA State Supreme Court in 1857.
Killed U.S. Senator David Broderick in a duel in 1859.
Resumed private practice in California until the war.


Served with the Rangers as a volunteer while on his way back to TX to raise a regiment of his own and wounded in right arm at Chickamauga in 1863.
Returned to TX with commission to raise his own regiment known as "Terry's Texas Cavalry," which operated briefly in the trans-Mississippi theater..


Lived for a time in Mexico as a rancher following the war.
Returned to Stockton, CA to practice law in 1868.
Served as a prominate delegate to CA state constitutional convention, 1878-79.
Married Sarah Althea Hill in January 1886.
Killed in an altercation by bodyguard of U.S. Supreme Court Justice S. J. Field in CA on August 14, 1889.
Buried in the Stockton Rural Cemetery, Stockton, San Joaquin County, CA.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Major 2 ...

Thanks for the pocket bio ... he made quite a wide swath ... from Stockton to Chicmaugua ...

I will look him up!

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Bump[ for Wahkahchim

[Bugscuffle]

What period are you talking about and what specific area? Is it the Grass Valley area, Sacramento area or the Fan Francisco area or maybe the Sutters Mill area? California is a pretty big place. Neither San Francisco nor Sutters Mill were "sparsely populated", so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a person or personality from that area.

[GunClick Rick]

Alot of the Californios were run off thier land with all types of fees,taxes and whatever,the gold rush was here and they new they could sell to those coming in,sort of what they did lately to me with mandated flood ins.scams...I got as much use for a politician as a dog does for a biting flea!!

[Tascosa Joe]

David Smith Terry was not the commander of Terry's Texas Rangers, also know as the 8th Texas Cavalry Regt.  Benjamin Franklin Terry was the organizer and 1st commander of the Regt.  He was killed early in the war at the battle of Woodville.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Bugscuffle,

True, Sacramento was a nexus of Northern California ...But Vallejo was the northenmost of the hispanic Ranchero owners that I could find ... the nearest seem to be the very sad Berrylleza family ... like a blow by blow of everything that Anglos would rather forget about ...  but I may take up the personna of the father, who, after watching both of his sons be hung, some say at Fremont and Kit Carson orders, fell into a mad wandering and might have been in Sacramento ...

But most if not all of the great Land Grants in Northern Califonia were either European or Yanqui in origin ... Sutter (Swiss) Jan Schwartz in West Sacramento (Dutch) and Bidwell (Yanqui) in the Chico area ... and of course in a smaller area was short-lived Jared Sheldon Ranchero (Jared should have never trusted those miners!).

[Guns Garrett]

Having grown up in Fair Oaks, I've always had an interest in the local history.  From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_San_Juan):

"Rancho San Juan was a 19,983-acre (80.87 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Sacramento County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Joel P. Dedmond. ] The grant extended east of Captain Eliab Grimes Rancho Del Paso along the north bank of the American River, across from William Leidesdorff's Rancho Rio de los Americanos, and encompassed present day Orangevale, Fair Oaks and most of Carmichael.  

Joel P. Dedmond, an American carpenter, returned from Honolulu on the Fama, and claimed he had been in California since 1838. He obtained Mexican citizenship, a lot in San Francisco, and the four and a half square league Rancho San Juan.

In 1847 Dedmond sold out his land to Hiram Grimes. Hiram Grimes was nephew of Captain Eliab Grimes. Hiram Grimes later owned Rancho Del Paso and Rancho Pescadero.

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 San Juan was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to Hiram Grimes in 1860*.

Lawyers James Ben Ali Haggin  and Lloyd Tevis  acquired Rancho San Juan.  In 1868, California Senator and President of California National Bank, Frederick K. Cox bought part of Rancho San Juan."

A crude map: http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb3t1nb16j/?  *It shows Grime's 1860 claim

Other Wikipedia articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Del_Paso
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Pescadero_(Grimes)

[Major 2]

David Smith Terry was not the commander of Terry's Texas Rangers, also know as the 8th Texas Cavalry Regt.  Benjamin Franklin Terry was the organizer and 1st commander of the Regt.  He was killed early in the war at the battle of Woodville.

They were Brothers        Benjamin Franklin Terry was killed at Woodsonville, Kentucky, on December 17, 1861 his first battle.
David Smith Terry was Col. in 64-65


http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fte29

[WaddWatsonEllis]

I put about 15 years or so into Mercy San Juan ... and am kinda familiwar with the late 19th & 20th century history of the area .... but thanks for filling in bits and pieces that I never knew about the Rancho!

[WaddWatsonEllis]

*Update*

After some research, there were more Californios north of the Bay Area than I thought ... if their history was not so sad, the obvious choice would be one of the Berreyesa Fanily ... One even went on a bit of a walkabout in his senior years and could have been in Sacramento ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berreyesa_family

But I still have not picked a personality ...