On Feb. 14, 1876, Gen. Andrés Pico, the last Mexican military commander in Alta California and a key figure in early Santa Clarita Valley history, died at his home at 203 Main St. in Los Angeles.

Pico is best remembered for his role in ending hostilities in California during the Mexican-American War. On Jan. 13, 1847, he signed the Treaty of Cahuenga, surrendering to U.S. forces under Lt. Col. John C. Frémont.

The agreement effectively ended fighting in Alta California nearly a year before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally transferred California to the United States.

Following the war, Pico remained an influential political and civic leader in Southern California. In 1860, he was elected by the state legislature as a California state senator representing Los Angeles.

On May 7, 1861, Pico partnered with former Assemblyman James R. Vineyard and another associate to secure permission from the state to carve a deep slot-like roadway through the pass between the San Gabriel and Santa Susana mountains.

The project, later expanded and known as Beale’s Cut Stagecoach Pass, created a critical transportation link between the San Fernando Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley. The group received a 20-year contract to maintain the turnpike and collect tolls.

However, Pico’s fortunes declined in the years following the war. In 1864, his Rancho ex-Mission San Fernando was confiscated by federal decree, which declared he “did not own and never did own” the property.

Reduced to poverty, Pico retired to Los Angeles.

His legacy is closely tied to early SCV pioneer families. His daughter, Ana Maria Reyes, known as Anita, married Henry Clay Wiley in 1853.

Wiley later became mayordomo of Pico’s Rancho San Fernando and, in 1864, leased property on Rancho San Francisco from José Ygnacio Del Valle.

That property, once a Butterfield Overland Stage Line stop, became the Wiley family home and later became known as Lyon’s Station.

To read yesterday’s Today in SCV History, click here.

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