Rancho La Merced was a 2,363-acre (9.56 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Casilda Soto de Lobo.[1] The name means "Mercy of God". The northwest section of Montebello and the southeastern part of Monterey Park now occupy the area of what was Rancho La Merced.[2] [3][4]
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Governor Micheltorena granted Rancho La Merced to Casilda Soto de Lobo in 1844. Casilda Soto de Lobo was the widow of a soldier assigned to the San Gabriel Mission. In 1850, William Workman purchased Rancho La Merced from Casilda Soto. In 1851, Workman gave his son-in-law, Francisco P. Temple and former ranch foreman, Juan Matias Sanchez [5], each an undivided half interest in Rancho La Merced.
With the 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 La Merced was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853,[6] and the grant was patented to Temple and Sanchez in 1872.[7]
In 1876 the Temple and Workman Bank failed, and Temple and Sanchez, who had mortgaged the property to Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin, lost their land when Baldwin foreclosed.[8] Distraught and broke, William Workman shot himself in 1876. Temple suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed, and died penniless in 1880. Juan Matias Sanchez died in poverty in 1885. The rancho was acquired by Alessandro Repetto, an Italian sheep rancher. Businessman Harris Newmark, along with four others, bought the ranch from Repetto in 1886.
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