THE LAND

The area where Naples now stands is a part of one of the first land grants in California. In 1784 The King of Spain gave a Spanish Soldier, Manuel Nieto, all the land bounded on the South by the ocean, on the North by the Main road to San Diego along the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, on the West by the San Gabriel river and on the east the Santa Ana River, This totaled 300,000 Acres, but it inadvertently included land belonging to the San Gabriel mission. After this was corrected the Nieto Land Grant consisted of 156,000 Acres. The Land passed through the hands of manuel Nieto to His Son juan Jose Nieto, then to Jose Figueroa, Governor of California. After Figueroa's Death, The Rancho was Purchased in 1842 by the richest Man in California, Don Abel Stearns. Stearns had taken a Mortgage on the Ranch and in 1864 After a couple of years of drought, He Lost the property to the Mortgage, Michael Reese. In 1878, John Bixby leased the Rancho and in 1881 He Purchased it. By the time the Rancho was in the possession of Governor Figueroa it had shrunk to 26,000 Acres and was known as Rancho Los Alamitos. After the death of John Bixby in 1887, The Rancho was again reduced in size to 3,800 Acres. When A. M. Parsons purchased the tide lands around Alamitos Bay in 1905, The old land grant was owned by Fred Bixby, Son of John.