Mark E. Kann Middle Class Radicalism in Santa Monica, Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1986, 322 pp., 1986, 1838, 1850-1800
Chapter 2: The Highest Bidder
"Local historians disagree about which entrepreneurs should be considered Santa Monica's official founders. The first candidates are Ysidro Reyes and Francisco Marquez "enterprising harness makers" who won the favor of the king of Spain and were granted title to the 6,400-acre Rancho Boca de Santa Monica in 1838. A great great grandson claims that these founders started a hospitable community that was occasionally forced on the defensive by outsiders, marauding Indians and gringo bandits." p. 29