Arroyo Grande Township established in 1862

Arroyo Grande Township was established by the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors in 1862, allowing for 300 square miles of territory. The Village came into existence when a schoolhouse and blacksmith shop were built. The main thoroughfare was Branch Street, named for Francis Ziba Branch, who owned Rancho Santa Manuela, an 1837 Mexican land grant that included the townsite. Branch came to the Arroyo Grande area on a bear hunting expedition in 1832. Charmed by the untouched beauty of the land, he later purchased 16,000 acres and became a successful cattle rancher. Among other things, he established the first grain mill in the area using a pair of grinding stones brought by sailing ship from Mexico to Cave Landing, now Pirates Cove, and hauled to the rancho by ox cart. The one surviving stone has been preserved and placed on display by the South County Historical Society near the Santa Manuela Schoolhouse just south of the Swinging Bridge in the Village of Arroyo Grande. After a year-long drought devastated the valley in 1864, Branch and other ranchers began to sell parts of their land to settlers. By 1876, a total of 35 families had settled in the valley and established two stores, two saloons, a wheelwright, a butcher shop, a laundry and a livery and feed yard...more