John Thomas Reed (1805 - 1843), a native of
Dublin, Ireland, came to San Francisco in 1826 and the one square league grant was made to him in 1834. In 1836, John Reed married Hilaria Sánchez (1817 -1872) who was the sister of alcaldes
Francisco Sanchez and
José de la Cruz Sánchez. Reed was the founder of the sawmill that gave Mill Valley its name. Reed served as administrator of the
Mission San Rafael Arcángel from 1836 to 1837. He then set out to build a larger house, in what is now Mill Valley, but died in 1843, at the age of 38, before his house was finished. After Reed's death, Hilaria Sanchez married Bernardino Garcia in 1843. 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
California Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio was filed with the
Public Land Commission in 1852. The Land Commission confirmed only in 1856, and squatters occupied some of the land. After several lawsuits, the grant was
patented for to the heirs of John Reed in four equal undivided parts in 1885. ==Historic sites of the Rancho==