Allen, Douglas M.

The Rancho San Emidio in present-day Kern County, California, was a 17,710 acre Mexican land grant given to Jose Antonio Dominguez by Governor Juan Alvarado in 1842. Following Dominguez's death in 1844, John C. Frémont acquired half of the San Emidio Rancho. After the cession of California, a claim for the property was filed in 1853 and the grant patented to Francisco Dominguez and Frémont in 1866. Dominguez sold his share to David W. Alexander and Francisco P. Temple, and Frémont's daughter inherited his half in 1860 and sold it to Edward Fitzgerald Beale in 1868. In 1878 James Ben Ali Haggin bought the entire rancho, and it was eventually transferred to the Kern County Land Company in 1890.