Rancho San José (Palomares)

Rancho San Jose was a 15,000-acre (61 km2) Mexican land grant in northeastern Los Angeles County given in 1837 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to Ygnacio Palomares and Ricardo Véjar.

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.

[10] A claim for the Rancho San Jose Addition was filed with the Land Commission in 1852,[11] and the grant was patented at 4,431 acres (17.9 km2) to Dalton, Palomares and Véjar in 1875.

Véjar lost his share by foreclosure to two Los Angeles merchants, Isaac Schlesinger and Hyman Tischler, in 1864.

The merchants took advantage of Véjar's inability to read English and his belief that what they told him the documents he was asked to sign actually meant.

[15] He was the son of José Cristobal Palomares and Maria Benedicta Saez, one of Los Angeles' most prominent families and considered Spanish aristocracy.

He served as Juez de Paz (Justice of the Peace) in 1841 and during this time made some unpopular decisions, including a controversial verdict in the murder of Nicolas Fink.

In the lead up to the trial, he issued a ban on public meetings, declared a nightly curfew and posted soldiers to guard the jail.

He was elected the last Mexican California mayor of Los Angeles in 1848, but held the position briefly due to Colonel Jonathan Stevenson considering him intolerable and anti-American.

On November 8, 1841, Luis Arenas received the Rancho El Susa land grant from Governor (pro-tem) Manuel Jimeno.

His son, Cayetano Arenas, was secretary to Governor Pio Pico and was the grantee of Rancho San Mateo.