Manuel Dominguez

Don Manuel Domínguez e Ybáñez (1803–1882) was a Californio ranchero, politician, and a signer of the California Constitution in 1849. He served as two terms as Alcalde of Los Angeles (mayor). He was one of the largest landowners in Southern California, having inherited Rancho San Pedro in 1825, one of the largest ranchos in California. He was one of the founders of the cities of Carson and Compton and of the fishing village of San Pedro (today a neighborhood of Los Angeles). Today, California State University, Dominguez Hills and the communities of Rancho Dominguez, East Rancho Dominguez, and West Rancho Dominguez bear his family's name.

Early life Manuel Dominguez, addressed as Don Manuel, was born January 26, 1803, in the colonial Las Californias province of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain (colonial México). He was born into a prominent Alta California family. In the colonial Spanish racial classification system sistema de castas he was an Español Criollo. The gente de razón family traced itself through pure blood generations in Mexico to ancestors in Catalonia Spain. Eldest son of Cristobal Dominguez, he is credited with the solidification of the Rancho San Pedro with a new Mexican land grant and an American patent and with the development of the rancho, and erecting the Dominguez Rancho Adobe as rancho headquarters above the Los Angeles River floodplain in the Dominguez Hills, located on the border between Compton, California and Carson, California.

At the age of 20, he fathered a child (Tomasa) with the 10- or 11-year-old daughter of Santiago Arguello. Manuel Dominguez met the beautiful and talented Maria Engracia de Cota. They fell in love. On December 7, 1827 they were wed at Mission San Gabriel. Maria skillfully managed the business of household and social gatherings. Maria was the daughter of Don Guillermo Cota, Prefect (Commissioner) for the Mexican government. Through this contact Manuel gained an introduction to the political workings of the Pueblo and surrounding area. Maria was also the granddaughter of Manuel Nieto, powerful holder of the large land grant Rancho Los Nietos, to the east of Rancho San Pedro. Together Manuel and Maria had ten children, four of whom died in childhood. in 1825 from his father, Cristóbal Domínguez. Manuel and his two brothers settled on the ranch, building adobe homes. The land was originally granted to his great-uncle, Juan José Domínguez (1736-1809) a Spanish soldier in New Spain. In 1769, with Fernando Rivera y Moncada, he was in the first group that arrived at the site of and founded the Presidio of San Diego in Alta California. Domínguez served with Gaspar de Portolà and Junípero Serra on the Portolà expedition, the first European land exploration of present-day California. It traveled north from San Diego to the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles Basin, San Fernando Valley, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco Bay. In 1784, Juan José Domínguez received a land grant grazing concession named Rancho San Pedro, of land and one of the first in California, by the upper Las Californias military Governor Pedro Fages on behalf of King Charles III of Spain. It included what is today the entire Port of Los Angeles; San Pedro, Los Angeles; Harbor City, Los Angeles; Wilmington, Los Angeles; Carson; Compton; the Dominguez Hills; Lomita; the Palos Verdes Peninsula; Redondo Beach; Hermosa Beach; Manhattan Beach; and Torrance.

The Rancho was regranted by the Mexican government in 1822 after Mexico became independent from Spain. On December 18, 1858 the United States government patented the 43,119 acre claim by Manuel Dominguez.

On May 25, 1869 Manuel Domínguez made a grant to the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad of a 100-foot right of way through the Rancho San Pedro. Operation of the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad through the Rancho San Pedro began in 1869. Additional right of way from Wilmington to Rattlesnake (Terminal) Island to the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad was granted in 1871.

The executor of the estate, Manuel Gutiérrez, paid off the debts of Juan José and moved in, assuming rights of ownership. Gutiérrez built up the Rancho. He gave Jose Dolores Sepúlveda permission to run cattle on part of the land known as los Palos Verdes. Sepúlveda made improvements and built up his herd.

From 1833 to 1834, Manuel served as a representative from Los Angeles pueblo to the Mexican Provincial Legislature in Alta California's capital of Monterey. He was a signer of the first constitution of California.

In 1852, Dominguez was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Legacy Manuel Dominguez is best remembered for keeping the Rancho San Pedro intact, while most of the other large ranchos were quickly broken up following the end of the Mexican era and the violation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. While diminished in size, the Rancho lands remained in the hands of the Dominguez family via the Dominguez Estate Company, the Dominguez Water Company, and the Watson Land Company. The adobe Manuel built is now both a state and national landmark and is operated as a museum, the Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum. Manuel Dominguez High School in Compton California was named for him. In 2005, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.