On this day in 1841, Antonio del Valle, a Mexican soldier and grantee of over 48,000 acres of land that would eventually form the Santa Clarita Valley, died.

Born in 1788 in Compostela, Jalisco, Mexico,  del Valle served as a lieutenant for the Mexican army, fighting for his home country against Spain during the Mexican Revolution of the 1820s and ‘30s.

During his military career, del Valle also battled Argentinian pirates in Monterey, California, as well as leading the troops that helped quell the Chumash Revolt of 1824.

Though hailed as a hero, he was also involved with various political scandals, and was imprisoned for insubordination for much of 1825.

During this time, he wrote to his estranged son Ygnacio, who was also a military lieutenant but later rose to the rank of captain.

The two would actually fight against each other on the battlefield in 1832. Ygnacio won, and they never spoke again.

Around this time, Antonio (a widower) would remarry and petition Governor Juan B. Alvarado for a land grant in return for his service to his country.

Following the secularization of the California missions in 1834, del Valle was appointed administrator of Mission San Fernando.  Five years later, he received his land grant, despite protests from some locals who argued the area covered in the grant should be returned to the American Indians.

Nevertheless,  del Valle would receive the 48,829 acres of land that would eventually incorporate the modern communities of Piru, Saugus, Newhall, Placerita Canyon and the Castaic Junction.

Del Valle and his young wife, along with their three young children,  moved into the Asistencia de San Francisco Xavier on a bluff overlooking Castaic Junction, in two buildings that served as an outpost for the San Fernando Mission; at the time, the area was known as Rancho San Francisco.

He wouldn’t live here long. Two years later, on his deathbed, del Valle sent a letter to reconcile with his son. He died June 21, 1841, before the letter was received.

After the elder del Valle’s death, Ygnacio returned to Rancho San Francisco to manage the property. A legal dispute with his stepmother, Jacoba Feliz, resulted in the land being divided.  Ygnacio ultimately retained control of a large portion to the west, known as Rancho Camulos, which remained in del Valle control until a devastating 1860s drought would cause the family to sell off their remaining stakes in the land.

The lands to the east would later become historically significant as the site of the first documented gold discovery in Southern California, when a relative named Francisco Lopez found gold in Placerita Canyon in 1842.

For yesterday’s Today in SCV History, click here.

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