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The Santa Maria Land Grant
By Darrell Beck
 | | The Adolpho Stokes house is now Mountain Valley Ranch.
Photo courtesy of Darrell Beck |
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The first recorded mention of the Santa Maria Valley (then known as Valley de Pamo) was found in Spanish records when, in March of 1778, Sgt. Guillermo Cabrillo and eight soldiers from San Diego mission came through the area to put down an Indian insurrection.
It was later recorded that Fra. Mariner and Capt. Grijalva were in the valley in 1795, seeking an inland route to the Riverside area, when they noticed the silhouette that looked like a sleeping woman in the rugged mountains at the western edge of the valley. They named the profile Santa Maria, hence the name, Santa Maria Valley.
During the 19th century, California was occupied by the native people, Mexicans, Spaniards and Americans, who were in a struggle to control territory and influence people. In 1833, the Mexican government, which was then in charge of California, ratified the Act of Secularization that stripped land control from the Catholic Church, giving power to the Mexican governors. Thus began a colorful but brief period of time in California history known as the Days of the Dons, when the governors began granting large tracts of land to friends, relatives and those owed political favors.
 | | Rancho Santa Maria land divisions, circa 1887.
Illustration courtesy of Darrell Beck |
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In 1833, Narcisco Botello, a soldier from the San Diego Presidio, received a provisional land grant for the 17,700-acre Santa Maria Rancho. Apparently, Botello failed to comply with the Spanish laws of land grant property and had to relinquish that claim. Thus in 1843, the rancho was re-granted by Mexican governor Manuel Micheltorena to Jose Joaquin Ortega and his son-in-law, Capt. Edward Stokes.
Here Stokes and Ortega built several homes and farm buildings where they lived, farmed, raised families and livestock. But times were changing for the land grant owners after California was taken during the Mexican War of 1846, and more so after California became a state in 1850.
Gold discovery at Julian in 1869-70 helped inspire settlement in the valley as the present site of Ramona (then known as Nuevo) soon became a stopping off point on the trail to the mines. Land speculators were interested in the newly opened up land and became aware that the land grant owners could no longer maintain the large grants or pay the new levy, thus the grantees began splitting up their holdings.
In 1872, Juan B. Arrambide purchased all but 1,000 acres of this tract from Adolpho Stokes for $40,000 in gold coins (Stokes had previously purchased title to the land from the family). The remaining 1,000 acres of the original Santa Maria Land Grant retained by Stokes is known as Valle De Los Amigos, also known as Goose Valley. The existing Stokes adobe residence is located north of Highway 78 and east of Magnolia Avenue, and is now called Mountain Valley Ranch.
Juan Arrambide and his partner, Bernard Etcheverry, began raising fine Merino sheep on the former grant lands. Between 1878 and 1880, Arrambide sold the entire rancho to Etcheverry for $12,250, or about 75 cents an acre.
In 1884, Etcheverry sold two acres to Amos J. Verlaque for $100. This is the present site of the Verlaqe House, Ramona Pioneer Society museum and the old Verlaque store. In 1886, Etcheverry sold 3,535 acres to the Santa Maria Land and Water Company, headed by land developer Milton Santee, for $8 an acre and an additional 320 acres for $10 an acre. It was from this transaction that Santee proceeded to lay out the Original Township, then known as Nuevo, but one that Santee wanted to call Ramona.
In August 1887, Etcheverry sold another 3,000 acres to the C.T. Signor group for $20 an acre. In October 1887, he sold 6,000 acres to the Signor group for $32 an acre, and in December 1887 he sold 3,000 acres to the B.H. Davis group for $20 an acre. These transactions later became known as the Montecito Ranch and the Davis Tract, among others.
Soon, the small community began to add all the necessary elements of a thriving town. William Ober opened a blacksmith shop about 1883-84, Verlaque set up a general store in 1883, Santee built the Ramona Hotel in 1887, the first township school was built in 1888, Jerman's drugstore opened in 1889 and The Friends Church organized in 1892. James Jasper brought his newspaper, The Julian Sentinel, to town in 1893 and Augustus Barnett built the Town Hall for the new town in 1894. Along with these and other civic and business developments, families were moving into the region to settle the valley, bringing their cattle, sheep and farming expertise with them. Soon, a solid farming community was well established on the former mission lands.
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