Archibald A. Ritchie
Rancho Suisun was a 18,237-acre (73.80 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Solano County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Francisco Solano Indian chief and Captain in the Mexican Army. The rancho lands include the present-day city of Fairfield, California.
Chief Solano receive a four square leagues land grant due to his friendship and support of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. However Solano was not able to retain it, and sold it to General Vallejo in May 1850. There was a dispute between Vallejo and José Francisco Armijo of Rancho Tolenas about the boundary between the two ranchos.
In August 1850, General Vallejo sold Rancho Suisun to Capt. Archibald A. Ritchie. Three days later, Ritchie sold a one-third interest in the land to Capt. Robert Henry Waterman, who like Ritchie had been involved in the China trade. Waterman, who came from Fairfield, Connecticut, established Fairfield, California in 1856. Rancho Suisun would become an ongoing legal battle for Ritchie until his death in 1856.
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 Suisun was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852 and the grant was confirmed by the Commission. The United States unsuccessfully appealed the legality of Chief Solano's title to the US Supreme Court and 17,755 acres (71.9 km2) of the grant was patented to Archibald A. Ritchie in 1857.
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