by ship to New Orleans, and thence up the Mississippi River, returning to his former home in Missouri. He lived and worked there for two or three years. In 1836, he returned to New Mexico. Planning to buy mules to sell in Missouri, he went to Oposura, Sonora. Indians stole all his mules during his journey. He was trying to raise money to join his brother William in Los Angeles, California, from where John had last heard of him. Wolfskill determined to set out from Santa Fe for California. Wolfskill's brother William, who had become a naturalized Mexican citizen, was able to own land under the Mexican government rules. He had received a large land grant in May 1842 in that area that developed as Winters, California in what is now Yolo County. After John joined him, they named the property Rancho Rio de los Putos, after a nearby creek. The name was derived by Spanish colonists from Lake Miwok puṭa wuwwe, meaning "grassy creek." Wolfskill was later joined here by three of their younger brothers; Milton, Mathus, and Sarchal. A 1987 history of Yolo County identifies Wolfskill as the first settler to plant fruit trees and vineyards in this area, in 1842. According to a biographical note by the University of California, Wolfskill began to cultivate a few crops in 1851 along Putah Creek (formerly called Rio de los Putos by Spanish colonists), along with an orchard and vineyard in the Sacramento Valley. He bought fig, pear and English walnut trees, and grape cuttings in Los Angeles. Initially he had devoted the rancho chiefly to stock-raising, selling meat supplies to the many mining camps that were booming in the late 1840s and early 1850s during the early mining period. In the 1860s, he and his brothers switched to wheat-growing, and enclosed their land with fences to keep animals out. Wolfskill and his brother, William, divided their interests in the rancho, each taking one-half. John devoted most of his rancho to fruit-culture. A branch railroad was built to cross the ranch not far from Wolfskill's old home, the nearest station being Winters. William was most influential in agricultural development in Los Angeles, where he was mostly based. Personal life In 1858, at the age of 54, Wolfskill married Susan Cooper, a daughter of Maj. Stephen Cooper. They had four children together: a son Edward and three daughters, Melinda, Jennie, and