Rancho Honcut
Rancho Honcut was a 31,080-acre (125.8 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Yuba County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Theodore Cordua. The rancho is named after Honcut Creek which bounded the grant on the north. The grant was bounded on the east by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the south by the Yuba River, on the west by the Feather River, and included present day Honcut and Ramirez.
In 1842, John Sutter leased Rancho New Helvetia land to Theodore Cordua, a native of Mecklenburg, Germany, who raised livestock and, in 1843, built a home and trading post he called New Mecklenburg, the site of present-day Marysville. It soon became commonly known as Cordua's ranch. In 1844, Cordua obtained from the Mexican government, a seven square league land grant directly north of his leased land.
In 1848, Cordua decided he needed a partner to help him run the ranch. So he sold a half-interest in Rancho Honcut to a former employee, Charles Julian Covillaud (b. 21 Nov 1816 in Cognac, France; d. 05 Feb 1867 in Marysville). Covillaud had come overland from Missouri in 1846 and worked for Theodor Cordua. He was among the first to mine for gold on the Yuba River in 1848. In 1848 Charles Covillaud, married Mary Murphy (1831–1867), a survivor of the Donner Party. Mary had been briefly married to William Johnson (d.1863) owner of the nearby Rancho Johnson. In 1849, Cordua, sold his remaining half-interest in Rancho Honcut to Michael C. Nye and William M. Foster, brothers-in-law to Covillaud's wife, Mary Murphy. Cordua lost most of the money he made from the sale of the ranch on investments in Suttersville real estate and gold mines, and left California in 1852. Cordua Bar on the Yuba River is named for him.
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