Rancho Santa Rita was a 13316acres Mexican land grant in present-day northern Santa Barbara County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pio Pico to José Ramón Malo.[1] The grant was located in the Santa Rita Valley east of present-day Lompoc.[2] [3]
José Ramón Malo (1812-1859) was granted the three square league Rancho Santa Rita in 1845. In 1850, Malo bought the adjacent Rancho Ex-Mission la Purisima from Jonathan Temple. Malo (along with Fernando Tico and Pablo de la Guerra) was a member of the first Santa Barbara County Court of Sessions in 1854.
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 Santa Rita was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[4] [5] and the grant was patented to José Ramón Malo in 1875.[6]
In 1870 Jesse Hill and D.W and A.P Jones, purchased an interest in Rancho Ex-Mission la Purisima and Rancho Santa Rita. Christy & Wise, wool merchants of San Francisco, also owned an interest.[7]