Rancho del Río Estanislao (also called Ranchería Del Rio Estanislao) was a 48887acres Mexican land grant in present-day Stanislaus County and Calaveras County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Francisco Rico and José Castro.[1] The grant was located on the north side of the Stanislaus River, which was called Rio Estanislao during the Mexican era, and the grant encompassed present-day Knights Ferry.[2]
Francisco Rico and Jose Antonio Castro were granted the eleven square league Rancho Del Rio Estanislao in 1843.[3]
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 Del Rio Estanislao was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853,[4] [5] and the grant was patented to Francisco Rico and José Castro in 1863.[6]
Rico and Castro sold to William Hicks, Abraham Schell, and James C. Stubbins. Abraham Schell, a lawyer, came to Knights Ferry in 1856. He built his home the Abraham Schell House in present-day Knights Ferry, California where it currently stands.[7] He purchased three and a half square leagues of the Rancheria del Rio Estanislao in 1863. Schell and his partner, George H. Krause, started the Red Mountain Winery.[8] [9]