John Bidwell (1819–1900) was born in
Chautauqua County, New York, and led the
Bartleson-Bidwell Party to California in 1841.
John Sutter employed Bidwell as his business manager shortly after Bidwell's arrival in California. Bidwell obtained the four square league Rancho Los Ulpinos Mexican land grant in 1844. Bidwell obtained the two square league
Rancho Colus in 1845. Bidwell built an adobe house in the vicinity of present-day Rio Vista, and attempted to cultivate the land. Bidwell's efforts at agriculture, as well as those of subsequent settlers on the ranch, were unsuccessful. 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 Los Ulpinos was filed with the
Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was
patented to John Bidwell in 1866. A separate claim filed by Juan M. Luco was rejected due to fraud. Rancho Los Ulpinos was subdivided into 20 equal parcels and sold on the
Benicia courthouse steps in 1855. Among those who purchased lots was Colonel N.H. Davis, who founded Rio Vista in 1857. Joseph Bruning (1822–), a German, came to the mines on
Yuba River in 1850. He then went to San Francisco and engaged in the hotel business until 1858, when he settled on the Los Ulpinos grant. ==See also==