The materials in the Rancho San Pedro Collection document the history and development of the Rancho San Pedro, one of the original Spanish California land grants. Juan Jose Dominguez, a soldier in the King's army, received the Southern California land grant in 1784, largely as a reward for his years of service in California. Unlike many original owners of Spanish grants, Dominguez and his heirs managed to retain ownership of the Rancho San Pedro through the decades as California moved from Spanish to Mexican to United States rule. In 1858, the Rancho San Pedro was the first of over seventy Spanish and Mexican land grants to be granted a clear patent by the United States government. The Rancho flourished especially under the ownership of Manuel Dominguez, Juan Jose's great-nephew, who managed the land until 1882. Following Manuel Dominguez's death, the land of the Rancho San Pedro was divided among his six daughters. This partition, which went into effect in 1885, divided the Rancho according to a complicated scheme giving the daughters not merely equal amounts of land, but equitable types of acreage, meaning that each daughter owned pieces of land throughout the Rancho. A number of companies were formed, some to serve the interests of the entire Rancho, while other companies served the interests of individual daughters (and their spouses). The Rancho San Pedro was initially devoted solely to ranching, but eventually the various companies diversified to include tenant farming, nurseries, real estate, water management, industrial land development, and most significantly, oil. In 1920, oil was discovered first on property belonging to the Del Amo family, and the first producing oil well was drilled there in 1921. This opened the door to oil exploration throughout the Rancho San Pedro, and before long the Rancho became one of the major petroleum centers in the United States, with over twenty oil companies holding oil production leases on Dominguez family lands. At the same time that the oil industry was discovering the Rancho San Pedro, the influence of other Dominguez family businesses was extending beyond the borders of the Rancho. With its connection to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District, the Dominguez Water Corporation helped fuel the explosive growth of both residential and industrial centers in and around Los Angeles. From the late 1920s to the 1950s, other affiliated companies, such as the Dominguez-Wilshire Corporation and the Beverly-Arnaz Company, were important in developing and vitalizing business districts and some of the first major subdivisions in Los Angeles. From its origins in agriculture to its growing involvement in oil, water, industry, and residential development, the history of the Rancho San Pedro parallels that of Southern California itself, and the Dominguez family-related companies helped steer many of the economic forces that shaped the region throughout the twentieth century.
From the description of Rancho San Pedro Collection 1789-1978 1900-1960 (California State University, Dominguez Hills). WorldCat record id: 71127980
