Ygnacio del Valle
Encyclopedia
Ygnacio Ramón de Jesus del Valle (July 1, 1808 – 1880) was a rancher and landowner in the eastern Santa Clara River Valley
, California
, United States, as well as an alcalde
of Los Angeles
. His estate, Rancho Camulos
, is registered as a National Historic Landmark
.
, Mexico
. His father, Antonio del Valle, was a soldier in the Spanish army who came to California in 1819 and was administrator of Mission San Fernando Rey de España
. Del Valle himself joined the army as a cadet in 1825 at the Presidio of Santa Barbara
. In 1828 he was promoted to second lieutenant and transferred to the Presidio of San Diego
. In 1832, his commander became involved in a power struggle with the commandant of the Presidio of Monterey
, where Antonio served. Ygnacio's side won the conflict on the battlefield, causing a rift between father and son, and they never spoke again.
Ygnacio then moved to the Monterey Presidio and was in charge of the secularization of Mission Santa Cruz
and Mission San Francisco de Asís
. He became a trusted officer, enough to be left in charge of the Presidio in José Figueroa
's absence. For his service to the Mexican Army, del Valle received the Rancho El Tejon
land grant in 1843. During this time, he married Maria de Los Angeles in 1842, who died in childbirth five years later.
land grant
he had received. Unfortunately, he died before the letter was delivered to Ygnacio, but the son returned to the family homestead to administer the ranch anyway. Without a will
specifying how the estate was to be divided, Jacoba Feliz, Antonio's second wife who remarried after his death, filed a lawsuit to claim part of the land, which was the site the first recorded discovery of gold
in California, sparking a minor gold rush
in 1842, six years before the more famous California Gold Rush
. Eventually, the lawsuit was decided and the land was split, with Ygnacio receiving the 13599 acres (55 km²) Rancho Camulos.
However, del Valle did not live on this land initially, instead residing in the Olvera Street
area of Los Angeles, where he was active in local politics. In the 1840s, he served on the junta (the equivalent of a city council) as a member and its secretary, as well as treasurer
of civil government under Governor Pío Pico
. In 1850, he was elected alcalde of Los Angeles and served only a short time before the city was incorporated as an American city, but during his tenure he established the Los Angeles Rangers, an early law enforcement group. After California achieved statehood later that year, del Valle served in the California State Assembly
for a short period. He was elected to the Los Angeles City Council
in 1852. That same year at the age of 44, he married 15-year-old Ysabel Varela. Del Valle remained on the City Council for five years, after which he devoted his time to improving Camulos. The del Valle family, including five children, finally moved to the rancho in 1861.
in Ventura County
.
Through 1870, the del Valles had seven more children, although only five of the twelve would live to adulthood. One, Reginaldo, became the youngest-ever president of the California State Senate
at age 28 and was instrumental in the preservation of Mission San Fernando, as well as the movement to have the El Camino Real
marked with bells.
Ygnacio del Valle died in 1880 and was buried on his rancho. Ysabel took over the running of rancho until 1900, then moved back to Los Angeles. In 1905, the ailing woman "refused to die" until she could be reunited with her long-dead husband. His remains were exhumed and moved to Los Angeles. Soon after their arrival, Ysabel died, and she was buried in the same coffin as Ygnacio.
Santa Clara River Valley
The Santa Clara River Valley is a valley that runs from east to west through Ventura County and northwest Los Angeles County, California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States, as well as an alcalde
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...
of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. His estate, Rancho Camulos
Rancho Camulos
Rancho Camulos, now known as Rancho Camulos Museum, is a ranch located in the Santa Clara River Valley east of Piru, California and just north of the Santa Clara River, in present day Ventura County, California. It was the home of Ygnacio del Valle, an alcalde of the Pueblo de Los Angeles and...
, is registered as a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
.
Early life
Del Valle was born in JaliscoJalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. His father, Antonio del Valle, was a soldier in the Spanish army who came to California in 1819 and was administrator of Mission San Fernando Rey de España
Mission San Fernando Rey de España
Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary" , 1797. The settlement is located on the former Encino Rancho in the Mission Hills community of northern Los Angeles, near the site of the first gold discovery in Alta California.-History:Mission San Fernando Rey de...
. Del Valle himself joined the army as a cadet in 1825 at the Presidio of Santa Barbara
Presidio of Santa Barbara
The El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara, also known as the Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara, was a military installation in Santa Barbara, California. It was built by Spain in 1782, with the mission of defending the Second Military District in California...
. In 1828 he was promoted to second lieutenant and transferred to the Presidio of San Diego
Presidio of San Diego
El Presidio Reál de San Diego is an historical fort established on May 14, 1769, by Commandant Pedro Fages for Spain. It was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Coast of the United States. As the first of the presidios and Spanish missions in California, it was the base of...
. In 1832, his commander became involved in a power struggle with the commandant of the Presidio of Monterey
Presidio of Monterey, California
The Presidio of Monterey, located in Monterey, California, is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. Currently it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center .-Spanish fort:...
, where Antonio served. Ygnacio's side won the conflict on the battlefield, causing a rift between father and son, and they never spoke again.
Ygnacio then moved to the Monterey Presidio and was in charge of the secularization of Mission Santa Cruz
Mission Santa Cruz
Mission Santa Cruz was established in 1791 and named for the feast of the Exultation of the Cross, the name that the explorer Gaspar de Portolà gave to the area when he camped on the banks of the San Lorenzo River on October 17, 1769, and erected a wooden cross...
and Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
. He became a trusted officer, enough to be left in charge of the Presidio in José Figueroa
José Figueroa
General José Figueroa , was a General and the Mexican territorial Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835.Figueroa oversaw the initial secularization of the missions of upper California, which included the expulsion of the Spanish Franciscan mission officials.This also involved the issuing of...
's absence. For his service to the Mexican Army, del Valle received the Rancho El Tejon
Rancho El Tejon
Rancho El Tejon was a Mexican land grant in the Tehachapi Mountains, in present day Kern County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to José Antonio Aguirre and Ygnacio del Valle...
land grant in 1843. During this time, he married Maria de Los Angeles in 1842, who died in childbirth five years later.
Ranchos
Antonio died in 1841 without leaving a will. On his deathbed, he decided he wanted to reconcile with his son and, in a letter, offered Ygnacio several properties, including the 48612 acres (197 km²) Rancho San FranciscoRancho San Francisco
Rancho San Francisco was a land grant in present day northwestern Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County, California. It was of by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Antonio del Valle, a Spanish army officer, in recognition for his service to the state of Alta California...
land grant
Land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate – land or its privileges – made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service...
he had received. Unfortunately, he died before the letter was delivered to Ygnacio, but the son returned to the family homestead to administer the ranch anyway. Without a will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
specifying how the estate was to be divided, Jacoba Feliz, Antonio's second wife who remarried after his death, filed a lawsuit to claim part of the land, which was the site the first recorded discovery of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
in California, sparking a minor gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
in 1842, six years before the more famous California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. Eventually, the lawsuit was decided and the land was split, with Ygnacio receiving the 13599 acres (55 km²) Rancho Camulos.
However, del Valle did not live on this land initially, instead residing in the Olvera Street
Olvera Street
Olvera Street is in the oldest part of Downtown Los Angeles, California, and is part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. Many Latinos refer to it as "La Placita Olvera." Circa 1911 it was described as Sonora Town....
area of Los Angeles, where he was active in local politics. In the 1840s, he served on the junta (the equivalent of a city council) as a member and its secretary, as well as treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
of civil government under Governor Pío Pico
Pío Pico
Pío de Jesús Pico was the last Governor of Alta California under Mexican rule.-Origins:...
. In 1850, he was elected alcalde of Los Angeles and served only a short time before the city was incorporated as an American city, but during his tenure he established the Los Angeles Rangers, an early law enforcement group. After California achieved statehood later that year, del Valle served in the California State Assembly
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
for a short period. He was elected to the Los Angeles City Council
Los Angeles City Council
The Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles.The Council is composed of fifteen members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The president of the council and the president pro tempore are chosen by the Council at the first regular meeting after...
in 1852. That same year at the age of 44, he married 15-year-old Ysabel Varela. Del Valle remained on the City Council for five years, after which he devoted his time to improving Camulos. The del Valle family, including five children, finally moved to the rancho in 1861.
Later life
However, the late 1850s and early 1860s were difficult for ranchers in Southern California. Severe flooding had caused great damage to many ranchos. Despite this, the Del Valle family, like many Californios, continued to live the luxuriant lives of landed aristocracy. Del Valle had to pay off the debts of his stepmother, Jacoba Feliz, in return for which received part of her land inheritance. He had already sold off his Rancho Tejon to pay his own debts as well. The floods were followed by droughts which lasted for three years, which forced del Valle to sell off his remaining land. He was left with just 1,500 acres (6 km²) of his Rancho Camulos, but the ranch survived these hard times and became a thriving operation, the source of the first commercially grown orangesOrange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
in Ventura County
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
.
Through 1870, the del Valles had seven more children, although only five of the twelve would live to adulthood. One, Reginaldo, became the youngest-ever president of the California State Senate
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
at age 28 and was instrumental in the preservation of Mission San Fernando, as well as the movement to have the El Camino Real
El Camino Real (California)
El Camino Real and sometimes associated with Calle Real usually refers to the 600-mile California Mission Trail, connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions , 4 presidios, and several pueblos, stretching from Mission San Diego de Alcalá in San Diego...
marked with bells.
Ygnacio del Valle died in 1880 and was buried on his rancho. Ysabel took over the running of rancho until 1900, then moved back to Los Angeles. In 1905, the ailing woman "refused to die" until she could be reunited with her long-dead husband. His remains were exhumed and moved to Los Angeles. Soon after their arrival, Ysabel died, and she was buried in the same coffin as Ygnacio.