Rancho Tzabaco

Rancho Tzabaco was a 15,439-acre (62.48 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Sonoma County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to José German Piña (often misspelled as "Pena" in historical documents).[1] The grant extended along Dry Creek, a tributary of the Russian River, north west of present-day Healdsburg and encompassed present-day Geyserville and the Dry Creek Valley AVA.[2] The grant was immediately north of Henry D. Fitch's Rancho Sotoyome.[3]

Map of Rancho Tzabaco in 1858

History

José German Piña (1829–1847), son Lázaro Piña (d.1847), a soldier who had come to California in 1819 and grantee of Rancho Agua Caliente, received the four square league Rancho Tzabaco grant in 1843.[4] By 1846 German Pina and his brothers were running the rancho. José German Pina died in 1847 leaving an undivided one fifth share to each of his four surviving brothers (José de Jesús (b. 1826), Francisco(b. 1831), Antonio(1831–1853), and Luis(b. 1834)) and a sister Clara (b. 1836).[5]

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. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Tzabaco was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[6] and the grant was patented to José de Jesús Piña et al., heirs of José German Pina, in 1859.[7]

From 1850 onward the Piña family fell into increasing debt. Led by Elisha Ely in 1851, American squatters began to settle on the grant.[8] In 1853, Antonio Piña was murdered by squatters. General Vallejo was named executor of the estate.

Several months after the murder of their brother, two of the Piña brothers signed over their entire interest in Rancho Tzabaco to John B. Frisbie, an American lawyer and real estate speculator who was also acting as their attorney. Frisbie was also the son-in-law of General Vallejo. The deal was that the Piñas were to maintain possession for five years. There were squatter uprisings when Frisbie took possession in 1858.

For many years afterwards the surviving Pina family members made court appeals to regain their land. Antonio Piña's daughter, Maria Antonia Piña, filed a claim to her murdered father's estate in 1862. The courts denied the claim because she was illegitimate.[9] German's sister, Clara Piña married Guillermo (William) Fitch, whose relatives owned the adjacent Rancho Sotoyome.[10][11]

Duvall Drake Phillips with a partner, Sam Heaton, purchased 160-acre (0.65 km2) of Rancho Tzabaco in 1856.[12][13]

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References
  1. Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
  2. Diseño del Rancho Tzabaco
  3. Mexican Land Grants in Sonoma County Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Hoover, Mildred B.; Rensch, Hero; Rensch, Ethel; Abeloe, William N. (1966). Historic Spots in California. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-4482-9.
  5. The Pinas of Dry Creek and Rancho Tzabaco
  6. United States. District Court (California : Northern District) Land Case 374 ND
  7. Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886 Archived 2009-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
  8. The Squatter Wars:Colonel L. A. Norton, Life and Adventures Archived 2008-05-18 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Pina vs Peck, Reports of cases determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California, Volume 31, pp.359 -365, 1866, Bancroft-Whitney Company
  10. An Old Claim: William Fitch Still Fighting for an Interest in a Sonoma Ranch, Los Angeles Times, Nov 18, 1894
  11. Fitch Mountain Archived 2012-07-31 at Archive.today
  12. Duvall Drake Phillips (1822 - 1904)
  13. Tzbasco Rancho Vineyards

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