Title: Mexican secularization act of 1833 - Wikipedia
Headings: Mexican secularization act of 1833
Mexican secularization act of 1833
Contents
Background
Proclamation of Emancipation
Secularization Act
Failed distribution to indigenous people
Mission lands confiscated
Sub-missions also lost
Rancho period
Statehood
Abraham Lincoln and the return of ownership
Current status
See also
References
External links

Content: In 1838, Mission San Juan Capistrano property was auctioned off under questionable circumstances for $710 worth of tallow and hides, (equivalent to $15,000 in 2004 U.S dollars) to Englishman John (Don Juan) Forster (Governor Pío Pico 's brother-in-law, whose family would take up residence in the friars' quarters for the next 20 years) and his partner James McKinley. More families would subsequently take up residence in other portions of the Mission buildings. Father José María Zalvidea left San Juan Capistrano around November 25, 1842, when Mission San Luis Rey de Francia 's Father Ibarra died, leaving the Mission without a resident priest for the first time (Zalvidea had been the Mission's sole priest ever since the death of Father Josef Barona in 1831). The first secular priest to take charge of the Mission, Reverend José Maria Rosáles, arrived on October 8, 1843; Father Vicente Pascual Oliva, the last resident missionary, died on January 2, 1848. The Mission's ruins and 44.40 acres were returned to the Church in 1865. Mission San Diego de Alcalá and some other missions were offered for sale to citizens, and some Mission land was given to ex-military officers who had fought in the War of Independence. On June 8, 1846, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was given to Santiago Argüello by Governor Pío Pico " ...f or services rendered to the government." After the United States annexed California, the Mission was used by the military from 1846 to 1862. Most of the grants were made to rich " Californios " of Spanish background who had long been casting envious eyes on the vast holdings of the Roman Catholic missions.