Melchior Dias also had a son, Fernão Vaz Pacheco (inheriting his name from his maternal grandfather), who married Leonor Medeiros, niece of Lopo Anes de Araújo, of an old, wealthy and privileged family from Viana do Castelo, arriving on São Miguel in 1506.

The area obtained its name from the ravine that runs alongside the valley and flows to the sea, through a grotto of cliffs and rocky crags.

Those who did settle in the hilltop plain were primarily dedicated to hunting and the woad industry, which is an important economic activity in the Azores until the 15th and 16th century.

[3] The hermitage was constructed for the populace of Ribeira Chã, who were obliged to travel the 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) until the Church of Nossa Senhora dos Anjos, in Água de Pau, through the paths and torturous roads, which were dangerous on rainy, windy or warm days.

[3] By 1811, Ribeira Chã had its first visit from the Bishop of Angra, D. José Pegado de Azevedo, who celebrated mass in the small hermitage.

[3] Still in the 19th century, specifically 1879, the first formal primary instruction started in Ribeira Chã, under the tutelage of Ana Emília dos Santos Sousa, a local teacher.

[3] In 1916, the locality obtained its first cemetery, provided from lands donated by the municipality of Lagoa, through the diligence of João Ribeiro de Lima.

In 1962, a new roadway was inaugurated to Ribeira Chã, while a year later the first bus began to connect the parish with Nossa Senhora do Rosário, three times daily.