John Baumgartner Jr., Scion of Major Landowner, Dies at 87

Services will be held Saturday for John Jay Baumgartner Jr., grandson of Richard O’Neill who once owned 230,000 acres in southern Orange County.

Baumgartner died Tuesday in San Juan Bautista of natural causes. He was 87.

Born July 7, 1901, in San Francisco to Mary O’Neill and John J. Baumgartner, he was raised on the Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, part of one of the largest Mexican land grants in Southern California.

Developed as Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita, the land was owned by the last Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico, then by Juan Forster and later by a partnership that included the O’Neill family.

At age 9, Baumgartner moved to San Francisco for schooling and later was graduated from UC Davis in 1925. He began ranching for himself in San Benito County in 1927 and was active in civic affairs and livestock organizations. He was the first president of the San Benito County Cattlemen’s Assn.

He is survived by his wife, Elinor; two children; eight grandchildren; his brother, Jerome O’Neill Baumgartner, and cousins Richard J. O’Neill, past state Democratic Party chairman, and Alice O’Neill Avery, whose son Anthony is president and chief executive officer of the Santa Margarita Co.

Services will be held at Mission San Juan Bautista at 2 p.m.