Table of Contents
THE SANCHEZ FILE, Chapter Seventeen
The Breakup of the Estate and the death of Encarnación
Ortega
In 1850 a young German by the name of Henry Miller came
to San Francisco becoming a wholesale butcher. In 1857 he formed a partnership
with fellow countryman Charles Lux and they began buying land in the San
Joaquin valley to raise cattle. Driving their herds over Pacheco Pass,
en route to San Francisco, they saw an opportunity to raise cattle in the
Santa Clara valley spreading out below them. It would be closer to the
market at San Francisco. The Sanchez family was the biggest land owners.
The five heirs were not interested in continuing as stock
raisers and one by one they sold their interest in the three ranchos to
Miller and Lux.
| March 1864 |
24 year old Refugia Sanchez McKnight |
$2,750
|
| September 1864 |
21 year old Guadalupe Sanchez Roche |
$3,100
|
| November, 1867 |
21 year old Gregorio Sanchez* |
$12,000
|
*Greg was more interested in horse racing as
revealed in this newspaper article from the San Benito Advance, Oct 7, 1876.
San Juan News --
"Quien Sabe" owned by Gregg SANCHEZ, of San Juan, has won the $500
purse at the San Jose Fair, beating 4 other competitors for the prize.
San Benito County historian Dee Sardoch found it during her
extensive research of San Benito County newspapers.
The disposition of the interest of Vicenta Sanchez Willson
is not known.
The only one of the Sanchez children who did not sell
to Miller and Lux was Candelaria Sanchez Castro. She had sold her interest
in the estate to her step-father, George W. Crane in January, 1861, receiving
$3000. (Crane was my great-grandfather)
In September of 1865, Crane sold her interest and that
of his own to Miller and Lux for $10,000 in gold coin. His interest
came from buying his wife's share for $5.00, ten years earlier.
San Juan pioneer, Isaac Mylar, published his memoirs some
years ago in the San Juan Mission News, on the history of the Sanchez grants.
In it he referred to Daniel Willson as one of the owners. This drew a letter
to the editor from Virginia Crane, daughter of Encarnacion and George W. Crane.|
The writer of this article, born herself at the
Rancho Lomas Muertas, wishes to correct a statement made by Mr. Mylar,
the author of the interesting memoirs recently published in the San Juan
Mission News.
That statement concerned Mr. Daniel Wilson's ownership
of the Rancho Lomas Muertas. It was an erroneous one, since Mr. Wilson's
sole interest in the rancho came to him indirectly through his wife, Vicenta
Sanchez, oldest child of Jose Maria Sanchez to whose wife, Maria Encarnacion
Ortega, and her children, as the Sanchez heirs, the grant was confirmed
by the United States Courts.
Mr. Wilson had never any personal claim on the Rancho
Lomas
Muertas.
The letter is not signed or dated, however it was found in
a file with some poetry signed "Jennie", the nickname of Virginia Crane.
By 1867, Miller and Lux own the 44,000 acres comprising
the three Sanchez ranchos. Their headquarters were built at Bloomfield,
three miles south of Gilroy on Las Animas land. They also had an interest
in the Malpaso Bridge, over which their cattle crossed en route to markets
in San Jose and San Francisco.
By 1888 the land holdings of Miller and Lux had increased
to 750,000 acres in eleven California counties. On them were 100,000 cattle
and 80,000 sheep. The company had meat sales that year of one and a half
million dollars.
After selling out to Miller and Lux, Crane and Encarnacion
left the magnificent rancho by the Pajaro River that had been their home
and moved to San Juan on July 4, 1866. From the heirs of Mariano
Castro they rented a large adobe on The Alameda for $15 a month.
The Scourge at San Juan
In late October of 1868 a traveler from Los Angeles stopped
in San Juan and became ill. A doctor was called who said the man
had the measles. San Juan citizens, always ready to help the afflicted,
went to the stricken man and offered what help they could. At about the
same time a dance was held in town and many people who came that night
had also visited the sick man.
A few days later a resident who once had small pox went
to see the man and remarked, "If that man hasn't got the smallpox then
I never had it."
On November 11, 1868 The Santa Cruz Sentinel printed
a letter from Mr.
Whitney, postmaster at San Juan, to Captain Brown at
Santa Cruz.
San Juan
November 11, 1868
As you are aware we have the small pox here. I have kept
a correct account of all the cases and deaths up to this date. We have
had 122 cases and 23 deaths, from small pox. The cases now are generally
lighter, but it is so difficult to get anyone to take care of the sick.
Whole families are down with it; in one Spanish family there are eleven,
one seven, one six and so on. It is perfectly fearful. Those who are well
are worn out. Many who have the means to pay expenses have fled the pestilence.
I have applications every day from the poor for assistance;
it is hard when you have it not to give, and I may say to their eternal
disgrace,
some who are rich, contribute little or nothing to alleviate
the suffering. (Italics added)
I learn this morning that the citizens of Salinas are
or have raised a subscription to be forwarded here to assist the suffering.
Will not Santa Cruz do something? I speak what I know and stand by what
I say.
Everything is at a stand still and gloomy in the extreme
and God knows when it will stop. New cases occur every day.
John W. Whitney
Postmaster
San Juan was quarantined and nearby communities would allow
no one from San Juan to enter, if they could stop them.
On November 2, 1868 George W. Crane became one of the
victims and Encarnacion was a widow for the fourth time.
On May 3, 1870 Judge Rumsey awarded her and her two children
seventy
dollars a month from the estate for their maintenance,
but for only two years and to be paid as circumstances may require.
Ironically if Crane had not sold their rancho and moved
to town he would not have contracted the disease as people who lived by
themselves and did not go to town remained healthy. Dan Willson, Vicenta's
ex-husband, would allow no one from San Juan on his land.
Encarnacion, her last days.
Monterey Court records show that Encarnación Ortega
married one more time in 1871. Her husband was Anastacio Alviso. Little
is known of him, although he is believed to have been a vaquero on her
ranch. Shortly after their marriage he was accidentally shot and killed
while on a deer hunt on Pacheco Pass. She was now a widow for the fifth
time.
In 1877 Encarnación bought a small house in San
Juan from her son Gregorio Sanchez for $600. It was at the corner of Second
and Polk Streets, a block from the mission. The house became known as the
Crane House. It is not named for her husband, George W. Crane, who never
lived there, but for Encarnación Crane.
With her were daughters, Lily and Virginia. Lily went
to the Catholic school across the street. Virginia was back with her mother
after leaving the man she had married six years earlier when she was thirteen.
By 1885 the girls were gone for good and Encarnación was alone in
the small house. She passed her days in the garden and going to mass at
the mission. Tax records show Gregorio acted as her agent, paying the property
taxes.
On March 4, 1894, Encarnación sold the house to
daughter Virginia for a five dollars gold piece. The same value of coin
she had sold her entire interest in the Sánchez estate to George
W. Crane thirty-nine years before.
On May 29, 1894, Encarnación Ortega died of asthma
at the Crane House. She was seventy-one.
There was a final entry for Encarnación Ortega,
the widow of Sánchez and Godden and Sanford and Crane and Alivso.
It was made in Spanish by Father Valentín Closa for the annals of
Mission San Juan Bautista:
Año 1894 día 31 de Mayo di sepultura
Eclesiática al cadaver de la adulta Encarnación Ortega, viuda
de Crane, hija de José Quentín Ortega y de Vicente Butrón.
Murio anteayer, a la edad de 71 anõs, despues
de haber recibido los Santos Sacramentos.
Encarnación was buried in the San Juan Bautista
Cemetery by daughter Virginia in an unmarked grave, but it is probably
next to that of husband George W. Crane.
The Crane House still stands. It remained in her family
for 102 years. I inherited it a few years ago and lived there until I feel and
broke my hip. (The last Mal Paso?) Bill
Epilogue