Rancho Jamacha
Rancho Jamacha was a 8,881-acre (35.94 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day San Diego County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Apolinaria Lorenzana. Jamacha is an Indian name. The grant extended eastward from Rancho de la Nación along the Sweetwater River Valley. The southwestern section of the rancho is now covered by the waters of the Sweetwater Reservoir created in 1888.
Apolinaria Lorenzana (1790–1884) came to California with her mother in 1800. When her mother returned to Mexico, Apolinaria moved to San Diego, under the care of Raymundo Carrillo. Apolinaria Lorenzana remained a single woman devoted to the church. As a result of her religious devotion, she was called "La Beata", meaning "the pious one".
In 1840, Lorenzana received a two square league grant of some of the San Diego Mission's grazing land. She was also grantee of the small Rancho Cañada de los Coches. Lorenzana continued to live at the mission. Following a further decline in the San Diego Mission, Lorenzana moved to San Juan Capistrano in 1846, hiring John (Don Juan) Forster as her agent for Rancho Jamacha.
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 was filed for Rancho Jamacha with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to Apolinaria Lorenzana in 1871.
Unlike northern California, where gold seekers constituted the majority of new emigrants, military men made up most of the Americans in the San Diego area following the Mexican–American War. Among the newly arrived military personnel were Colonel John Bankhead Magruder, First Lieutenant Asher R. Eddy, Eugene B. Pendleton, Frank Ames, and Robert Kelly. John Bankhead Magruder (1807-1871), a native of Virginia, graduated from West Point in 1831 and came to California with the US Army forces occupying California following the Mexican–American War. Asher R. Eddy(1823-1879), of Colonel Magruder's staff, graduated from West Point in 1844. Robert Kelly (1825–1890) was a native of the Isle of Man who came to the United States with his family in 1841, and arrived in San Diego in 1851.
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