Manuel Dominguez
Manuel Dominguez | |
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Born |
1803 Alta California |
Died | 1882 (aged 77–78) |
Manuel Dominguez (1803–1882) was born at Mission San Juan Capistrano, in the colonial Las Californias province of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain (colonial México). He was the heir to the vast Rancho San Pedro land grant in the Los Angeles Basin.[1]
Juan José DomÃnguez
Juan José DomÃnguez (1736-1809) was a Spanish soldier in New Spain. In 1769, with Fernando Rivera y Moncada, he was in the first group that arrived at the site of and founded the Presidio of San Diego in Alta California. DomÃnguez served with Gaspar de Portolà and JunÃpero Serra on the Portolà expedition, the first European land exploration of present-day California. It traveled north from San Diego to the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles Basin, San Fernando Valley, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco Bay.
In 1784, Juan José DomÃnguez received a land grant grazing concession named Rancho San Pedro, 75,000 acres (300 km2) of land and one of the first in California, by the upper Las Californias military Governor Pedro Fages on behalf of King Charles III of Spain. It included what is today the entire Port of Los Angeles; San Pedro, Los Angeles; Harbor City, Los Angeles; Wilmington, Los Angeles; Carson; Compton; the Dominguez Hills; Lomita; the Palos Verdes Peninsula; Redondo Beach; Hermosa Beach; Manhattan Beach; and Torrance.
Cristóbal DomÃnguez
Juan José DomÃnguez died in 1809, and left the rancho to his nephew Cristóbal DomÃnguez, who died in 1822. His three sons (including his eldest son, Manuel DomÃnguez) settled on the ranch, building adobe homes.[2]
Manuel DomÃnguez
Manuel DomÃnguez (1803–1882), eldest son of Cristobal Dominguez, is credited with the solidification of the Rancho San Pedro with a new Mexican land grant and with the development of the rancho, and erecting the Dominguez Rancho Adobe as rancho headquarters above the Los Angeles River floodplain in the Dominguez Hills, preserved in present-day Carson. In 1828 Manuel DomÃnguez was elected to the Pueblo de Los Angeles Cabildo (City Council) under Mexican rule. Four years later, at the age of 29, he was elected Alcalde (Mayor) of the Pueblo de Los Angeles. From 1833 to 1834, Manuel served as a representative from Los Angeles pueblo to the Mexican Provincial Legislature in Alta California's capitol of Monterey. At this same time, he was appointed by the Governor as the Third Prefect of the Southern District of Alta California, which gave Manuel authority over all of present-day Los Angeles and Orange Counties.[3]
Heirs of Manuel DomÃnguez
Luis Gonzaga Policarpo Manuel Antonio Fernando Dominguez y Reyes was married to MarÃa Engracia de Cota y Nieto, daughter of Rancho Los Cerritos owner Guillermo Cota. Upon Manuel DomÃnguez's death in 1882, and the passing of his wife one year later, the Rancho San Pedro lands were partitioned among his six surviving children, all daughters.
Name | Birth/Death | Married | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Ana Josefa Juliana DomÃnguez | 1829-1907 | William Dryden (1868), Charles E. Guyer (1884) | |
MarÃa Guadalupe Marcelina DomÃnguez | 1830-1913 | never married | |
Manuel Antonio Dominguez | (died 1858) | ||
MarÃa Dolores Simona DomÃnguez | 1838-1924 | James A. Watson | Watson Land Company |
Jose Antonio Dominguez | (circa 1840-1863) | ||
MarÃa Victoria DomÃnguez | 1842-1916 | George Cady Carson | Carson, California |
Maria Susana Delfina DomÃnguez | 1844-1931 | Gregorio del Amo y Gonzalez | Del Amo Boulevard, Del Amo Square |
MarÃa de los Reyes DomÃnguez | 1847-1933 | John Fillmore Francis |
See also
- Battle of Dominguez Rancho
- Rancho Dominguez, California
- California State University, Dominguez Hills
References
- ↑ San Diego mission baptismal records
- ↑ The Rancho San Pedro Collection
- ↑ John Steven McGroarty, 1921, 'Los Angeles from the Mountains to the Sea', pp699