Punta de Quentin (or Quintin) Rancho
Size: 2 square leagues
Original Grantee: John Cooper (Juan B. R. Cooper)
Governor: Juan B. Alvarado
Date of the grant: September 24, 1840
Reference: Hoffman 740
JOHN COOPER
b. September ?, 1791 in England
d. June 2, 1872 in San Francisco, San Francisco County, California
John Cooper injured the nerves in his left arm in a knife fight. From then on, he was known as One-Armed John or, in the towns that he frequented in California, Don Juan El Manco. After moving to Boston with his mother, he traveled extensively, first attending school in Charleston and then serving as second mate on a missionary trip to the Sandwich Islands. He was captain of the Rover, an 84-ton ship that set sail from Boston, when he arrived in San Francisco on May 28, 1823. Upon his arrival, he made arrangements with Governor Luis Arguello to sail to China on a trade mission. After coming back with Chinese silk, though, he and Arguello quarreled over what he should receive for his work. He eventually won the money that he asked for, but not without first losing his ship, the Rover.
In 1826, he opened a general merchandise store in Monterey, the beginning of his long association with that town which culminated in his appointment in 1851 to the post of Monterey Harbormaster. In 1839, he agreed to work for the California government a second time as the captain of the Californian, which carried mail, prisoners, and government officials from Monterey to San Blas, Mexico. While serving as captain of the Californian, a U.S. commodore entered Monterey Bay, seized the ship, and unsuccessfully tried to annex California. Having established his loyalty to Mexico—he married Encarnacion Vallejo in 1827 and became a naturalized Mexican in 1830—he applied to the Mexican government for a tract of land.
In 1840, Governor Alvarado granted him Rancho Punta de Quentin, named after an Indian chief in the area. This ranch comprised not only the San Quentin peninsula, but also modern day Kentfield, Ross, and a part of San Anselmo. Cooper built a mansion out at the point but didn’t spend much time there. He also established a business selling timber, which he contracted others to run, and, in 1847, leased a section of the point to the U.S. government for a sawmill. His vast land holdings in Marin also included Rancho Nicasio, which he and Pablo de la Guerra were granted in 1844. He sold his interests in both Marin County ranchos to Benjamin Buckelew in 1850. He died in San Francisco on June 2, 1872 at the age of 80.
Postscript
In 1850, Benjamin Buckelew paid $55,000 for several thousand acres of Rancho Punta de Quentin. In 1852, the California Legislature paid $10,000 for twenty acres at the tip of the ranch, where the Board of Prison Commissioners planned to build a state prison. In 1854, the U.S. Land Commission confirmed Buckelew’s ownership of the ranch, but within a few years it had passed into new hands. After falling into debt, Buckelew accepted $30,000 from John Cowell and John Ross, on the condition that he would turn over his holdings at Ranchos Punta de Quentin and Nicasio to them. The transaction, however, satisfied none of the parties, and Buckelew fought with Cowell and Ross over his rights to the ranches until his death in 1859.
References:
1.) Mason, Jack. Early Marin. Petaluma: House of Printing, 1971.
2.) Woolfenden, John, and Amelie Elkinton. Cooper: Juan Bautista Rogers Cooper, Sea Captain, Adventurer, Ranchero, and Early California Pioneer, 1791-1872. Pacific Grove: The Boxwood Press, 1983.
3.) California Room Map Collection: Survey of Punta de Quentin: Map #452. (Anne T. Kent California Room Collection)
4.) California Room Clipping Files: “Land Grants—Pamphlets I”. (Anne T. Kent California Room Collection).
COPYRIGHT 2003, Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library
