Land of Their Own

A partial view of the former Rancho Refugio's 12,147 acres

For practical reasons, the newly-minted United States of America adopted British common law, a legal system based on precedent and judicial decisions. One characteristic of common law was the tradition of primogeniture—the right of succession of the eldest son. Another was that married women were not recognized as “persons” in their own right, qualified to own property or anything else. Upon marriage, a woman became her husband’s chattel: he alone controlled her property, and her earnings, if any, as he saw fit.

But a continent away—a world away, out on the Pacific Coast—Spanish, and later Mexican law, allowed married women to own property separate from their husbands. In fact, during the twenty-six years Mexico owned California, many women held title to real estate in their own names, whether received as a grant from the governor of the province, or purchased.

A case in point is Maria Rita Valdez de Villa, a married woman, the first landowner in present-day Beverly Hills. Of mixed Spanish and African blood, she was the granddaughter of two of the Pueblo de Los Angeles’s original settlers. In 1808, aged seventeen, Maria married Vicente Fernando Villa, a Spanish soldier. By the time her husband died in the 1830s, Mexico had replaced Spain as California’s owner. Maria applied for, and in 1838 was granted, the 4,500-acre El Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, where she operated a cattle ranch, farm, and garden.

Ten years later, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Mexico ceded California to the United States in February, 1848. Composed by the Mexican government, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo included Article X, which guaranteed the recognition, and protection, of existing Mexican land grants. But the U.S. Senate—reluctant to fully commit to this provision—removed Article X entirely, before it ratified the treaty. Instead, the Senate passed the Land Act of 1851, creating a procedure to ascertain the legitimacy of every land grant, by requiring that all grants be submitted for confirmation.

Accordingly, Maria Valdez de Villa filed a claim with the Public Land Commission in 1852. But the process of validation was a long one, and legal assistance was expensive. Shortly before her death in 1854, Maria did what many other grantees did, essentially making title confirmation someone else’s problem: she sold her ranch to American investors. In 1871, her land, or 4,419 acres thereof, was patented in her name, although it had passed through several owners by then. Since 1912, the Beverly Hills Hotel has stood near the former site of her home. 

In the Santa Cruz area, four sisters acquired property in their own names, despite being married to foreigners.

In 1833, Martina Castro, a widow with four children, was granted the 1,668-acre Rancho Soquel. Her second husband Michael Lodge, an Irishman, encouraged her to apply for a much larger grant. She did; in 1844, Martina became the grantee of an additional 32,000 acres, known as the Soquel Augmentation. As required by the Land Act of 1851, Martina filed claims on both grants, and both were patented to her in 1860. Today, parts of her properties are owned by California State Parks. 

Six years later, in 1839, Martina’s sisters Candida Castro, Jacinta Castro, and Maria de los Angeles Castro, together, received title to Rancho Refugio. It was a property that gave the sisters significant social influence—12,147 acres of coastal pastureland extending from the western city limit of present-day Santa Cruz, to Laguna Creek. Candida was married to José Antonio Bolcoff, a Russian born in Siberia with a different name; a ship deserter who quickly assimilated into the Hispanic culture. Maria de los Angeles was married to Joseph Ladd Majors, an American. Jacinta Castro, unmarried, later joined a convent in Monterey.

All well and good. But not long after the three Castro sisters acquired Rancho Refugio, Candida’s husband José Bolcoff secretly, and fraudulently, transferred title to Juan and Francisco Bolcoff, his sons with Candida. As required by law after the American takeover, the sisters filed claims; and the one filed by Joseph Majors and his wife Maria de los Angeles Castro, for one-third of Rancho Refugio, was rejected. The grant was finally patented to the Bolcoff sons in 1860—then aged 31 and 29, respectively—who sold their rights to someone else. After decades of litigation between subsequent owners, due largely to José Bolcoff’s chicanery, the state purchased the property in 1974. Portions of the former Rancho Refugio are now Wilder Ranch, Coast Dairies State Park, and part of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

The three Castro sisters were hoodwinked by a member of their own family, but other Mexican women successfully defended their holdings against forbidding odds. In theory, under the Land Act of 1851, title to property was simple to affirm. In practice, property rights were difficult, and costly, to prove.

Juana Briones, known for her kindness and medical skills, was one who prevailed. Born c. 1802 near the Mission Santa Cruz, her family of mixed Indian, African, and western European descent were among the first Hispanic settlers in the province. In 1820 she married Apolinario Miranda, a soldier, and they had 11 children together; but he was an alcoholic, abusive husband. Divorce was not permissible in Mexican California, but in 1844 she obtained a church-sanctioned separation, and stopped using his name.

In 1836 Juana had purchased, separate from her husband, a lot in Yerba Buena (as San Francisco was known then) in the area called North Beach today, and built an adobe house on it. There, she sold her milk and garden produce to whaling ships, and the merchant ships that anchored in the Bay to trade for hides and tallow. In 1844, Juana purchased the 4,439-acre Rancho La Purisima Concepción from Ohlone Indians José Gorgonio and his son, both formerly of the Mission Santa Clara, who had been granted the land by Governor Alvarado in 1840. As required, Juana filed a claim for both her properties with the Public Land Commission, in 1852.

For nearly two decades, she fought to retain title to her lands in San Francisco and Santa Clara County. Meanwhile, in 1861, she sold about three-quarters of her Rancho La Purisima to Martin Murphy Jr., the founder of Sunnyvale. With an attorney's help, Juana succeeded in keeping both properties. The La Purisima grant was patented to her in 1871.