Rancho Pescadero (Grimes)

Valentin Higuera and Rafael Feliz were granted the eight square league Rancho Pescadero in 1843.^[4] Valentin Higuera (1809–?) was the son of José Loreto Higuera, grantee of Rancho Los Tularcitos.^[5] In 1829, Valentin Higuera married Maria Margarita Sais (also spelled Saens, or Saez) (1811–1850). Valentin's brother, Fulgencio Higuera, was the grantee of Rancho Agua Caliente. In 1845, Fulgencio Higuera married Maria Celia Feliz. Antonio Rafael Feliz (1789–1850) was born in Los Angeles and died in San Jose.

Higuera sold the rancho to Hiram Grimes, Francis W. Grimes and William H. McKee in 1849.^[6] Hiram Grimes was nephew of Captain Eliab Grimes, grantee of Rancho Del Paso. Hiram Grimes also owned Rancho San Juan.

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 Pescadero was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,^[7][8] and the grant was patented to Hiram Grimes, Francis W. Grimes and William H. McKee in 1858.^[9]

• Site of San Joaquin City. A river-streamer stopping town was established in 1849, which was replaced by Vernalis in 1888 with the coming of the Southern Pacific Railroad.^[10]
• Site of the Mossdale Bridge, which was completed September 6, 1869, by Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870). It was the first bridge across the San Joaquin River and the last link in the first transcontinental railroad from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean as authorized in the 1862 Pacific Railroad Acts.^[3]

37°39′00″N 121°14′24″W / 37.650°N 121.240°W / 37.650; -121.240