Francisco María Alvarado

Francisco María Alvarado (born 1/19/1794 - 11/8/1860) was an early settler of San Diego, California.

Between 1837 and 1845 he was regidor (councilman), treasurer 1840–41, and in 1845, juez de paz (justice of the peace, or mayor).

[1] In 1837, Alvarado bought Rancho Los Peñasquitos (Little Cliffs Ranch) from Captain Francisco María Ruiz, who received it as a Mexican land grant in 1823.

After Ruiz died in 1839, Alvarado moved from Old Town San Diego to his beloved ranch.

Their daughter, also named Tomasa, married Captain George A. Johnson, who inherited the ranch by the time the U.S. government granted a patent to the land in 1876.

The Ruiz-Alvarado adobe, built 1824 at Rancho Los Peñasquitos, is now protected under a wooden shelter