The earliest record of Glen Oaks ownership is linked to Lazara Pia, an artillery officer who was killed in the Mexican War. Following the officer’s death in 1939, General Marianno Vallejo claimed the property. In 1846, the general and his wife Benicia Carrillo traded the property to Andreas Hoeppner in exchange for piano lessons for their 16 children. During the turbulent times prior to California’s admittance to statehood, the succession of land ownership is unclear. Colonel Joe Hooker, the famous Civil War general, and Thaddeus M. Leavenworth, who came to the valley after being forced to resign in disgrace from his role as “alcalade” of San Francisco, purchased the southern parts of the original Agua Caliente Spanish Land Grant in the late 1840s. The purchase included what is now known as Glen Oaks Ranch.
