Editing Duarte, California (section)

===Post-Conquest era===
Following the American [[Conquest of California]], the territory was ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848 at the end of the [[Mexican–American War]]. In 1851, Congress passed a bill that established a [[Public Land Commission|Board of Land Commissioners]] whose duty was to determine the validity of all grants of Alta California land by Spanish and Mexican authorities.

Corporal Duarte began incurring legal expenses and other debts, which he defrayed by selling portions of his Rancho. This first sale was a {{convert|225|acre|km2|adj=on}} parcel at the southern end of the Rancho to Michael Whistler and two unidentified colleagues. Whistler later bought out his colleagues and sold the entire parcel to Dr. Nehemiah Beardslee, who started the first school in Duarte (which now bears his surname) and laid out the first section of Duarte's water lines. Corporal Duarte divided much of the Rancho's remainder into {{convert|40|acre|ha|adj=on}} plots and sold them individually.  Corporal Duarte finally won a favorable ruling from the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] for his land grant case in 1878, but by then he had sold the entire Rancho.

Many of Duarte's earliest pioneer families came to Duarte in the mid-19th century for their health, the pleasant climate, and the fertile soil. English settlers, Americans from the [[Midwest]] and [[Deep South]], [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Latino]]s who remained from the Rancho days, and Japanese immigrants enabled Duarte to grow into a thriving agricultural community specializing in citrus production. The first recorded [[avocado]] tree grown in California was planted in Duarte by William Chappelow, Sr. grown from one of four seeds sent to him by the Division of [[Pomology]] of the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] in 1893.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.accessduarte.com/about/history.htm | title=City History | access-date=October 3, 2017 | archive-date=October 4, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004084944/http://www.accessduarte.com/about/history.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eCFNAAAAYAAJ&q=Chappelow+Avocado+tree&pg=PA374 | title=Yearbook Of The United States Department Of Agriculture, 1906 | work=Page 374 | access-date=October 3, 2017| year=1907 }}</ref>

[[File:CItyofHope2021.jpg|thumb|Aerial view of City of Hope campus (2021)]]