[2] Ygnacio Cantua, came to Alta California as a soldier on the De Anza Expedition in 1774, and was one of the original settlers in San Juan Bautista, arriving in 1788.
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.
[5] In 1859, Cantua sold part (1860 Census shows Cantua, his wife and three Indian servants living on 1,000 acres of the Rancho) of Rancho San Luisito to captain John (Juan) Wilson (1797 – 1861), a Scottish-born sea captain and trader, came to California in 1830.
[6] He is referenced as the captain of the Ayacucho in Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, as is his ownership of this rancho and his marriage to Doña Ramona.
In 1845, Wilson moved his family from San Luis Obispo to Rancho Cañada de los Osos & Pacheco y Islay, built an adobe home and lived there until his death in 1860.