View source for Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela

{{short description|Pre-statehood California land grant}}
[[File:HUNTINGTON SR Map 0002.02 Plat of the Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela finally confirmed to Bruno Abila in the County of Los Angeles California 1866.jpg|thumb|Survey of Centinela Creek in 1866 (Huntington Library SR_Map_0002.02)]]
[[File:Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela BLM survey map 1872.jpg|thumb|Hand-drawn plat map, 1872]]
'''Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela''' was a {{convert|2219|acre|km2|sing=on}} [[Ranchos of California|Mexican land grant]] in present-day [[Los Angeles County, California]] given in 1837 to [[Rancho La Ballona#Machado family|Ygnacio Machado]].<ref>Ogden Hoffman, 1862, ''Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California'', Numa Hubert, San Francisco</ref> The name means "Sentinel of the Waters" in [[Spanish naming customs|Spanish]], and refers to the [[artesian water]] in the area exemplified by [[Centinela Springs]]. Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela included parts of present-day [[Westchester, Los Angeles, California|Westchester]] and [[Inglewood, California|Inglewood]].<ref>[http://digarc.usc.edu/assetserver/controller/view/search/CHS-13060 Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County]</ref><ref>{{gnis|id = 253994|name = Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela}}</ref>
==History==
Rancho Ajuaje de la Centinela, was once part of the [[Rancho Sausal Redondo]], and Ygnacio Machado had encroached on the land claimed by [[Cornelio Avila#Antonio Ygnacio Avila|Antonio Avila]], and was awarded provisional title to this land at the same time that Antonio Avila received his land grant for the balance of the Rancho Sausal Redondo in 1837. In 1845, Machado traded the rancho to [[Cornelio Avila#Bruno Ygnacio Avila|Bruno Avila]], brother of Antonio Avila, for a small tract in the [[Pueblo of Los Angeles]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hoover |first=Mildred B. |last2=Rensch |first2=Hero |last3=Rensch |first3=Ethel |last4=Abeloe |first4=William N. |title=Historic Spots in California |year=1966 |publisher=Stanford University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/historicspotsinc00rens|url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8047-4482-9}}</ref>
With the [[Mexican Cession|cession]] of California to the United States following the [[Mexican–American War]], the 1848 [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] provided that the land grants would be honored.  As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was filed with the [[Public Land Commission]] in 1852,<ref>[http://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/265865 United States. District Court (California : Southern District) Land Case 125 S ]</ref><ref>[http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/hb109nb422/ Finding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892]</ref> and the grant was [[Land patent|patented]] to Bruno Avila in 1872.<ref>[http://www.slc.ca.gov/Misc_Pages/Historical/Surveyors_General/reports/Willey_1884_1886.pdf  Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320000647/http://www.slc.ca.gov/Misc_Pages/Historical/Surveyors_General/reports/Willey_1884_1886.pdf |date=2013-03-20}}</ref>
Bruno Avila, unable to repay his debts, lost his property through foreclosure in 1857. According to ''[[Historic Spots in California]]'', [[Hilliard P. Dorsey]] bought it at a sheriff's sale for about $1 a acre.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Rensch |first=Hero Eugene |title=Historic Spots in California: The Southern Counties |last2=Rensch |first2=Ethel Grace |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1932 |pages=78–79 |language=en-us}}</ref> Then Dorsey was shot and killed by his father-in-law in what was determined to be a case of self-defense,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Atlanta weekly intelligencer. (Atlanta, Ga.) 185?-18??, October 28, 1858, Image 1 « Georgia Historic Newspapers |url=https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn91074142/1858-10-28/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Historic Record Company |first=Los Angeles |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofpomonav00hist |title=History of Pomona Valley, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the valley who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present .. |last2=Brackett |first2=Frank Parkhurst |date=1920 |publisher=Los Angeles, Cal., Historic Record Company |others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center |pages=84–87 |language=en-us}}</ref> and Dorsey's widow sold it for 35 cents an acre to Francis I. Carpenter in 1859, who in turn sold it to [[Joseph Lancaster Brent]].<ref name=":0" /> [[Burnetts of Leys|Robert Burnett]] acquired the Rancho Ajuaje de la Centinela from Joseph Lancaster Brent in 1860, shortly thereafter Brent went off to become a brigadier general in the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate army]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1868, Burnett added the Rancho Sausal Redondo to his holdings, joining the two ranchos again. Burnett returned to [[Scotland]] in 1873, and leased the {{convert|25000|acre|km2|0}} of the combined ranchos to Catherine Freeman (wife of [[Daniel Freeman (Los Angeles County)|Daniel Freeman]]), with an agreement that she could eventually buy the ranchos outright. After Catherine's death in 1874, Daniel Freeman began the commercial development of the real estate.  He became one of the directors of the Centinela Land Company, which started in 1874, with the purpose of developing commercially the Rancho Centinela. The venture failed, but Freeman was central in another undertaking, that of the Centinela-Inglewood Land Company, in 1887, to develop what would be known as the town of Inglewood.<ref>{{cite web |title=Family History, Freeman Family Papers, CSLA-21 |publisher=[[Loyola Marymount University]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323041427/http://www.lmu.edu/Page8644.aspx |archive-date=March 23, 2010 |url=http://www.lmu.edu/Page8644.aspx |access-date=7 July 2009}}</ref>
[[File:Inglewood_California_promotional_poster_and_map_1887.jpg|thumb|The Centinela-Inglewood Land Co. touted a "University of Southern California Daniel Freeman College of Applied Sciences" but it was never constructed<ref>{{Cite web |title=Centinela-Inglewood Land Company |url=https://csl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990013784120205115&context=L&vid=01CSL_INST:CSL |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=csl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com |language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Txu-pclmaps-topo-ca-inglewood-1923.jpg|thumb|USGS topographical map 1924 edition, including Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela]]
==Marker and correction==
[[File:Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela historical marker.jpg|thumb|Historical marker placed at [[LAX Theme Building]]]]
The local chapter of the [[Native Daughters of the Golden West]] placed a marker mentioning Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela at the Theme Building of the Los Angeles International Airport in 1962.
The following letter appeared in the ''Los Angeles Times'' on Sept. 14, 1963.
:ERROR CITED IN AIRPORTS RANCHO MARKER
:I’m surprised that a bronze marker at Los Angeles International Airport could show wrong information. The marker bears the words: “Original Mexican grant to Ignacio Machado in 1844 known as Rancho Aguaje de Centinela.”
:No part of International Airport is within Rancho Centinela. All of the airport is within Rancho Sausal Redondo.
:The nearest part of Rancho Centinela is 3700 ft from airport property.
:I hope the wrong marker was changed. I like my history to be facts not fiction.
:David I. Worsfold, Palms
==Related locations==
*[[Centinela Springs]]. Bubbling springs once flowed here.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/363 |title=Centinela Springs |publisher= California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation |access-date=17 August 2016}}</ref>
*[[Centinela Adobe]] is an adobe house constructed in 1834 by Ygnacio Machado.<ref>[http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m5765.html Exterior view of an adobe at Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela, near Inglewood, ca.1930]</ref>
* '''Centinela Creek''', a tributary of [[Ballona Creek]]
* [[Centinela Park]] in Inglewood now Edward Vincent Jr. Park
==See also==
* [[List of rancho land grants in Los Angeles County, California]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4363l.ct001439/ Library of Congress Online: Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County]
* [https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz00096dxh 1875 Map of the Ranchos Centinela and Sausal Redondo]
{{coord |33.970|-118.370|region:US-CA_type:landmark|display=title}}
{{Inglewood, California}}
{{Westchester, Los Angeles}}
{{California history}}
[[Category:Ranchos of California|Aguaje de la Centinela]]
[[Category:Ranchos of Los Angeles County, California|Aguaje de la Centinela]]
[[Category:History of Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Inglewood, California]]
[[Category:Westchester, Los Angeles]]
[[Category:1837 establishments in Alta California|Agua]]
[[Category:19th century in Los Angeles]]