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