Rancho Cañada de Herrera was a 6658acres Mexican land grant in present day Marin County, California given in 1839 by Governor pro tem Manuel Jimeno to Domingo Sais (also spelled Saens or Saez).[1] The grant encompassed present day Fairfax, Sleepy Hollow and a part of San Anselmo.[2] [3] [4]
Domingo Sais (1806 - 1853), eldest of sixteen children of Juan Maria Sais and Maria Dominga Valenzuela, was a soldier at the Presidio of San Francisco (1826 - 1833) and a soldier in the San Francisco militia in 1837. Domingo Sais married Maria Manuela Miranda in 1830. In 1839, Sais was granted the one and a half square league Rancho Cañada de Herrera in return for his military service.[5]
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 Cañada de Herrera was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[6] [7] and the grant was patented to Domingo Sais in 1876.[8]
When Domingo Sais died in 1853, the rancho was divided amongst his heirs. James Black, grantee of Rancho Cañada de Jonive, and married to Maria Agustina Sais (1828 - 1864), sister of Domingo Sais, bought part of the rancho. Black's daughter, Mary, married Dr. Galen Burdell. Black's wife, Maria Agustina Sais, died in Dr. Burdell's dental chair in 1864.[9] In 1866 Black married Maria Loreto Duarte, Ygnacio Pacheco’s widow. James Black died in 1870.[10]