in that area that developed as Winters, California in what is now Yolo County. His younger brother John joined him, and 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." The property was later known as the Wolfskill Ranch. John Wolfskill established orchards and vineyards. Three younger Wolfskill brothers, Milton, Mathus, and Satchal, also migrated to that region, settling and working with John. He and William Wolfskill later divided this land, near what is now Winters, California in the Sacramento Valley. By his death in 1866 in Los Angeles, William Wolfskill was producing 50,000 gallons of wine a year. He was, by far, the greatest producer of table grapes in California during the Mexican era. He has been ranked by historians as one of the three most important men in the history of California viticulture. Wolfskill's neighbor, friend, and business rival in the tiny pueblo of Los Angeles, was French immigrant Jean-Louis Vignes. For his time, Wolfskill was one of the wealthiest men in Southern California. He owned large tracts of land throughout the region, which he used for everything from running sheep to cultivating orange groves. He developed the Valencia orange, which became the most popular juice orange in the United States and was widely cultivated in southern California. It was the origin of the name of Valencia, California. Wolfskill is credited with developing and building the first schooner in California. John Bidwell, another early American pioneer in California, notes Wolfskill in his memoir as among European Americans he knew in early Mexican Los Angeles: Los Angeles I first saw in March, 1845. It then had probably two hundred and fifty people [referring to non-Native Americans only], of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple, Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pio Pico (governor), Don Juan Bandini, and others. References Further reading External links Mojave Desert.net: William Wolfskill biography website California pioneers American agriculturalists American agronomists American winemakers American viticulturists Land owners from California 1798 births 1866 deaths Businesspeople from Los Angeles Businesspeople from Kentucky American emigrants to Mexico Naturalized citizens of Mexican California History of Los Angeles History of Los Angeles County, California History of Orange County, California Orange production Wine merchants People from Madison County, Kentucky People from Winters, California