History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 55

Author: [Mason, Jesse D] [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Oakland, Cal., Thompson & West
Number of Pages: 498


USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 55


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240


HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.


the clouds with crimson and purple, giving one an idea of possible landscapes in the better land.


Again the thunder clouds gather in dark masses around the base of the mountains and over the wide valley, leaving all sereno above; bill and cloud answering each other in lightning flashes and peal on peal of rolling thunder that dies away in deep mut- terings a hundred miles distant. until we could almost believe that all the artillery of the world was parked in the great valley, engaged as an accompaniment in a grand anthem sung by the millions of all ages.


.


Bayard Taylor, the poet and traveler, expressed the opinion that the view from a point a few miles above the Mountain Spring House, was the most mag- nificent landscape to be seen in the world. How much the world has lost, that a man, with his soul to appreciate, his eyes to see, and his pen to de- scribe, has not seen the landscape mentioned in one of its magnificent moods. If he had passed over it as many times as the writer of this article has, he could not have failed to see that which would have tasked his pen, facile as it was, to the utmost, to have described. Every season has its moods. The Win- ter with its storms sweeping the horizon with clouds, drenching everything in falling rain, alternating with clear days when every arm of the bay and rivers, every trec, every dwelling for fifty miles around is so distinct as to appear like a view through a telescope reversed; the Spring with its lights and shadows chasing each other with railroad speed, or resting for hours in lazy dalliance over wide por- tions of the plains; the Summer, with the haze blend- ing with the brown hills and plains ripening into autumnal tints; the Autumn in dreamy obscurity, its decp golden veil occasionally lifted aside or piled in majestic folds on the Coast Range by the contend- ing sea and land breezes, may well cause the painter to throw down bis brushes in despair, or the writer to wish for a pen tipped with fire, so utterly above all human ability is the task of giving a representa- tion of the constantly varying, beautiful, grand, or awful landscapes.


Let us stand on one of the foot-hills at the close of a day in October. If the gods of the air are favor- able to our wishes, and grant us an exhibition of their powers, the deep haze, which all the day has hung around the mountains and over the plains, wrapping everything in a dreamy uncertainty, will gradually settle away towards the Coast Range of mountains, bringing trees, orchards, vineyards, and grain-fields into high relief. The oaks and pines in the mountains and plains will blend in the retreating haze until the one is lost in the other. The retreat- ing veil will now form long wavy lines along the Coast Range, the tops of which are visible, and, by their presence, serve to aid in the illusion. The sinking sun, striking through the horizontal cloud- rifts, tinges all the openings with crimson and purple, like bills and mountains of a far-off land. The hills of gold and precious stones, the gates of pearl seem


just in sight. These wide and glorious valleys must be peopled by millions on millions of happy spirits. We see the rivers and lakes, for they are but the continuation of that which we know to be water. We can almost hear the songs of the beautiful beings who float in fairy boats on those crystal lakes. The air seems filled with the soft murmur of music that comes in gentle echoes from the thousand harps played by angel hands. Lo! towards the south a breeze through the Golden Gate makes a riffle in the crimson clouds, rolling them into domes and amphi- theaters. The horizontal lines of the cloud-strata are crossed by perpendicular divisions. A great city, vast in its proportions, with its streets and squares, lofty towers, temples, and palaces, comes into view. Yes, it is Rome. That huge circle of towering height is the Coliseum. That dome is the Pantheon. We hear the fierce debates in the forum. We hear Cicero denouncing Cataline. We see the triumphal processions with kings chained to the chariot-wheels of the conquerors. We hear the eighty thousand spectators in the Coliseum shout as the victims of the popular thirst for blood go down under the fierce blows of the successful gladiators. We see Cæsar, the Imperator, throw bis robe over his head, and die like a god. We see the hordes of Attila rushing through the streets, slaughtering the miserable inhabitants, until the very swords are weary of blood. Rome of Augustus Cæsar! where art thou ? As the shades of night deepen over the mimicry of thy palaces and amphitheaters, so did the barbarism bury the beautiful, the glorious, the good, and the infamous, in one common ruin.


The gorgeous pageant does not end here. Pericles summons the Atbenians, and Mount Diablo becomes Mount Olympus, towering above the Acropolis. I see the Parthenon, with its unapproachable archi- tecture. I see the hill crowned with palaces and works of art, and its six thousand statues, every fragment of which is now worth its weight of gold. I hear the finished periods of the Athenian orators. I hear the shouts of the people at the Olympic games. I see the approaching clouds, like the barbarism by which Athens was surrounded, gradu- ally obliterate every line of the sunset scene.


Lo! another age appears. On the treeless plains of the San Joaquin the mimicry of eloudy fabric goes on. The pyramids, dark and sombre, now fast sinking into obscurity, rise to view, dim as if the vital energy that had first raised them had exhausted itself, and the very spirits had become faded spectres in a spectral world. The obscurity of four thousand years rests on these cloudy shapes of the toil of millions. Is there death and change in the spiritual world also? Have the millions, who cultivated the valley of the Nile, who built the cities of Memphis, with its temples that almost defy the tooth of time, ceased to re-enact, even in the spectral world, the actions of real life? Is a future existence dependent on the permanency of works?


RESIDENCE AND RANCH OF NASON C. WILLIAMS, NEAR VOLCANO, AMADOR CO CAL.


LITH. BRITTON & REY. B.F.


RESIDENCE, RANCH AND LUMBER YARD OF H.C. FARNHAM, OLETA, AMADOR C9 CAL.


241


EASTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.


Gradually the crimson and purple deepened into night, and Cæsar, and Pharaoh, and Demosthenes, and the millions of spirits that had gathered to build the spectral towers, temples, and pyramids, vanished as the sun set behind the hills, and the dusty road, the cooling breeze from the mountains, and darkness, brought back real life, with its duties and vieissitudes. Is it all imagination? Is there no mind in the gorgeous landscapes that occasionally gild all the western horizon? Why should not the spirits of the departed, wandering in ether, pile together the half material substance of the air, and lead the world to a sense of beauty, and glory, and power?


CLIMATE.


So much has been written about the climate of California that it would seem useless to attempt any further description, especially for California readers. The temperature falls a little lower in Winter than in . Sacramento, and rises a little higher in Summer. But once or twice during thirty years' observation did the temperature at Ione valley fall to 16° above zero. The coldest spell perhaps ever experienced was on 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th of March, 1859, when the ground, in shady places, remained frozen all day. A dry north wind helped to reduce the temperature. The ground in some places was frozen two inches thick. The season was early, fruit trees being in full bloom, which was mostly destroyed. Grass and grain in many places was killed, so that as the sun came up it wilted and turned black. The temperature occasionally falls to the freezing point during a storm; an inch or two of snow may then fall, to remain on until the sun comes out, and then vanish in a few minutes. Occa- sionally there is a flurry of hail, which has been known to seriously injure young vines and fruit trees. The most dreaded, because most destructive, feature is the dry, north wind, that occasionally sweeps over the country. "Whence it cometh, or whither it goeth, no man can tell," but the moist ground becomes dry and hard; the promising erop droops after three or four days, and, if the season has been dry, the farmer hastens to eut his fields of grain for hay. So drying is this wind that the fur- niture in the house will warp and crack, wagons will fall down, and general shrinkage takes place. The atmosphere is charged with electricity, and combing one's head will produce a multitude of sparks. This wind is the bane of farming in Cali- fornia, but it does not prevail in the mountains as in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. In Amador it sometimes injures, but scarcely ever ruins a crop.


DROUTHS.


Once only during the history of Amador county has there been an utter failure from drouth. In the winter of 1863-64, so little rain fell that scarce a fourth of a crop was raised, though, in the opinion of the best farmers, early sewing and deep, thorough 31


ploughing would have doubled the yield. So short was the straw, both of hay and grain, that aprons were attached to the reapers and mowers to save a little handful which otherwise would be lost among the elods and stubble. Barns and granaries were empty, and cattle starved by the thousand. A few clouds would oceasionally pass over, but they refused to part with their treasures, and the dry Summer completed the failure of the crops.


FRESHETS.


As might be expected the heavy rain-fall some- times damages the farmer and miner. The snow will fall perhaps ten or twenty feet deep in the upper parts of the Sierras, and a warm rain will send it down in a three days run. Such a snow-fall, followed by a warm rain, occurred in December, 1861, inun- dating all the valleys, carrying off fences, and, in some instances, buildings. The overflow was much increased by the moving sand and gravel which obstrueted the channels. But when the water went down the farmer went to ploughing, and bounteous crops rewarded his labor, and one year's work re- paired all the losses. A few farms were injured with " sliekens," and, in some places, as at the Q Ranch, the streams cut new channels, but the losses were trifling compared with the drouth two years after. Sometimes a " cloud burst," more particularly de- scribed in the history of Jaekson, will create an over- flow over a limited space, as did the one which swept Jackson and Sutter Creeks in February, 1878. But these are necessarily limited in territory, and though destructive enough when they prevail, do not bank- rupt whole counties like the ice floods on the Mis- souri or Susquehanna rivers.


RAIN TABLE FOR AMADOR COUNTY. COMPILED BY FRANK HOWARD, OF SUTTER CREEK, FOR THE YEARS 1874-75-76-77-78-79-80.


MONTHS.


1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880.


September


*


.11


October


4.12


.66


3.61


.71


1.09


2.59


.36


November


7.50 14.04


.18


1.93


1.16


2.88


.35


Deeember


.36


5.04


1.40


.35


6.84 11.42


MONTHIS.


1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880.


1881.


January


17.18


7.43


6.94


9.35


5.34


3.25 10.89


February


1.40


4.40


94 12.96


5.74


3.93


5.22


March


2.14


6.46


2.68


6.20


8.07


3.81


2.49


April


.22


1.62


.46


1.94


5.08 15.85


3.00


May


.59


.75


1.74


.20


2.45


3.02


June


1.26


.75


.18


.60


.29


July


.36


August


.29


Total


3.77 39.80 16.73 35.29 29.68 42.17 33.73


Sacramento totals for same years : 23.64, 25.67, 9.32, 21.24, 16.77, 18.51.


*Sprinkle.


242


RAIN TABLE FOR SACRAMENTO.


Prepared by the late Dr. T. M. Logan and Dr. F. W. Hatch, Arranged according to the Seasons, Showing the Amount in Inches of Each Month. during Thirty-one Years, and for each Rainy Season, to November 22, 1880: also the Quantity for Every Month, and the Annual Amount of Rain.


[CORRECTED FOR SUTTER CREEK, ACCORDING TO F. HOWARD'S MEASUREMENTS. ]


MONTHS.


1849


1850


1851


1852


1853


1854


1$55


1856


1857


1858


1859


1860


1861


1862


1863


1864


1865


1866


1867


1869


1869


1870 1871


1872


1873


1874


1975


1876


1877


1578


1979


1SS0


September ..


0.250


1.000


0 003


sp'kla


sp'kle, sp'kle


sp'xle


0.025


0.063


0.003 0.004


0.080


0.006


sp'kle


0.001


0.002


0.050


sp'kle


0.290


:::


October ..


1.500


0.180


0.005


1.010


0.195


0.655


3.010


2.406


0.147


6.495


0.181


0.005


6.718


2.427


2.427 3.806


0.774


0.850


0.584


1.220


1.930


1.210


3.801 6.204


0.320


1.120


0.415


1.700


December ..


12.500 sp'kle


7.070 13.410


1.540


1.150 2.000


2.396


6.632


4.329


1.834


4.282


2.327


7.867


0.364


9.511 12.850


2.612 1.962


0.071 10.990


5.335 10.009: 0.440 5.525


1.227


0 4.6


1.585


MONTHS.


1850


1851


1852


1853


1854


1855 1856


1857


1858


1860


1861


1862


1863


1865


1866


1867


1868


1869


1870


1871


1872


1873


1874


1875


1876


1877


1878


18,9


1550


1881


January ..


4.500


0.650


3.000


3.250


2.670


4.919


1.375


2.444 0.964


2.310


2.668 15.036


1.733


1.077


4.776


3.449


6.036


1.371


2.075


4.040|


1.230


5.200


8.705


4.790


2.770


7.445


3.767


1.519


February


0.500


0.120


2.000


3.460


0.692|


2.461


3.9061


0.931


2.920


2.751


0.186


0.712


2.010


7.104|


3.147


3.630; 3 236


1.919


4.740


4.360


1.856


6.550


3.05


1.400


0.229


3.240


1.763


March


10.(00| 1.880 6.400}


7.000


3.250


4.200


1 4 3


0.675


2.878


1.637


5.110


3.32


2.800


2.360 1.303 0.481


2.018


1.010


2.942 1.642


0.690


1.936;


0.551


3.050


0.800


4.160


3.223


4.3 7


2 125


April


4.250


1.140


0.190 3.500


1.500


4.320


2.132 sp'klc


1.214 0.981


2.874


0.4.5


0.821|


1.693| 1 080


1.370


0.476


2.306


1.240 2. 20


1.454


0.610


0.512


0.890


0.002, 1.090


0.185


1.125


2.372 12.2-9


May


0.250


0.690


1.450


0.210


1.150 1.841


0.203


2.491


0.590


1.808


0.742


0.460


2.252 0.008


0.270


0.648 0.270


0.756 0.280


0.370


0.040


0.190


0.640


0.160


1.319 0.805


0.130


July.


0.001


sp'kle!


sp'kle


sp'kle


0.006


0.085


0.004


0.018


sp'kle 0.001


sp kle


0.020


sp'kle


August.


Total


36.000


4.710 17.980 36.365 20.065 18.620 13.770 10.443 18.991 16.041 22.626 15.548 35.549 11.579 7.868 22.512 17.924 25.305 32.769 16.644 13.572 8.470 24.052 14.208 22.898 23.647 25.671


Total SutterCk |61.920| 8.101 30.902.62.549.34.519 32.026 23.684 17.520 32.655 28.220 38.917 26.745 61 .144 19.926 13.533 38.828 30.830 43.525 56.363.28.628:23.344 14. 563 41.369 24. 488 39.385 34 .770 39 .800!16.730 35.290 29.630 42.017 33.073


The first glimpse of the impending calamity came in 1853. Dr. E. B. Harris and H. A. Carter of Ione were visiting the Legislature then in session at Benieia, to further the project of the organization of the new county of Amador. There they casually


THE policy of making homes for the people of easy attainment has been so long established in the United States that few living have any recollections to the contrary. In New York the Patroon estates, and in Louisiana the Spanish grants, had hung like a pall over the inhabitants, but the majority of the people knew nothing of the relics of feudalism, which made one man the owner of the rents at least, of thousands of aeres. When the great immigration poured into California in 1849-50, they found the valleys and plains around the bay and larger rivers in the pos- session of a few men. General Sutter at New Helvetia, Charles Weber at Stoekton, were near the mines first discovered, and first gave an idea of the scope of the prineely estates, which afterwards, in the hands of professional land-grabbers, whose infernal resources seemed unfathomable, became such a source of oppression and robbery. The eonfusion in the early records of the California government; the loose manner in which the records were kept in the national archives in the city of Mexico; the difficulty of gain- ing access to them on aceount of the distance, all conspired to render the grant system a fruitful field for the operations of rascals. Grants were manufac- tured by the hundred after the treaty of peace with Mexico. In some instances the paper itself on which the grants were written, bore water-marks of a date subsequent to the treaty; these were of course re- jected. Others as fraudulent, but more eautiously manipulated, were made to fit the lands made valua- ble by settlement. The uncertainty of titles to the agricultural lands around the bay were, to the earlier settler of Amador county, far away matters.


ARROYO SECO GRANT.


CHAPTER


XXXVII.


Vogan's (Mountain Spring House) when no rain fell at Buena Vista, six miles below. During the Spring of 1864, when rain was so anxiously looked for, showers were frequent on the Mokclumne river when no rain fell a half mile away. The cooler tempera- ture at the above places is supposed to have caused the clouds to part with their moisture.


From these comparisons the average rain-fall appears to be nearly seventy-two per cent. greater at Sutter Creek than at Sacramento. Other places in Amador would show a still greater difference. It has been known to rain continuously for hours at


June. .


0.001 0.310 0.010 1.033


0.350


0.098


0.017


0.135


0.011


0.087


0.100


sp'kle


0.008 sp'k'e


0.001


0.025


0.002


0.002


0.015


0.001


0.210


sp'kle


0.030


0.549


..


0.480


0.001


2.120


0.020


0.210


0.220


0.310


2.259 0.4.0


3.320


0.690


0.380


0.755


November.


2.250 sp'kle


2.140


6.000


1.500


0.650


0.750


0.651


0.914 | sp'kle


0.355


0.120


1.490


2.170 8.637


1.815


0.355


....


1.100


0.200


9.325.21.249 16 772 1S.511


Congress.


Grant-Matters of Record-Letter from T. A. Hendricks, Attorney General -- Final Survey-During Hancock Agency -- Proposed Settlement-Sale to J. Mora Moss & Co .- Memo- rial to President Lincoln-Dispossession-Settlers' League- Shooting of Herman Wohler-Last Effort-Memorial to


Claim Rejected-Claim Confirmed on Appeal-Character of


0.580


0.350


8.500


4.801


4.260


7.699


4.790


4.34S


1.805


0.300


sp'kle


1.0371


0.560


....


HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.


1859


1864


243


ARROYO SECO GRANT.


learned of a claim recently filed in the General Land Office with " IONE" marked in the center of a plot of the claim. The reader will remember that "Ione " was a name given to the valley almost by inspira- tion. Who had any business with that name? A visit to the Land Office was next in order. There was the title


EL ARROYO SECO,


Situado asi a los Cordilleras la Sierra Nevada tene endo for limites at Norte el vio de los Cosumnes al sur el do Moquelemes at aiccenle, el camino del Sac- ramento Y. al Este Las Sierras.


[Filed with Secretary of Land Comission, Novem- ber 1, 1852.]


This purported to be a tract of land granted to Teodocio Yerba May 8, 1840, containing eleven leagues of land. Sierra Nevada mountains! Cosumnes river! Moqueleme river! Sacramento road! Which were the Sierras ? Where was the Sacramento road? It may well be supposed that our friends had no heart for lobbying a bill through the Legislature for the di- vision of the county of Calaveras. They returned home and ealled a public meeting, to announce the coming disaster. Charles Walker was made chairman. Judge Carter explained the situation. Some were for treat- ing the claim with contempt. The uncertainty of the boundaries, the enormous area included in the description, were conclusive evidence of fraud. Others reasoned differently. If the grant had been fraudulent it would have been more carefully worded. Its uncertainty, the awkwardness of description, such as one might make who never had seen the country, or such as he might get from the Indians, was in favor of its realty. There was the Shaddon & Daylor ranch, the Pico ranch, and the Weber, only a little ways off.


A society or league was formed to contest the grant. It does not appear that any forcible or illegal means were thought of. Money was raised and legal talent engaged. A. C. Brown and H. A. Carter were employed to engage a eompetent man to watch the affair. O. P. Sutton, a clerk in the Land Office was first employed, Thorntorn & Williams, two eminent land lawyers, being afterwards associated with him.


CLAIM REJECTED.


February 27, 1855, the claim was rejected. by the Commissioners appointed by the United States Gov- ernment to try the validity of the Mexican claims.


.


On the 12th of May, notice of appeal from the decision of the Commissioners was filed in the United States Distriet Court, followed by a petition for review on the 11th of June. On the 21st of April, 1856, the decision of the Commissioners was reversed by Judge Hoffman.


CLAIM CONFIRMED.


By this decision, Andres Pico was entitled to eleven square leagues of land, somewhere in the boundaries set forth in his grant. On the 3d of October, 1856, an appeal to the United States Supreme Court was


perfected, and the transcript sent up. It does not appear that the Court ever took the case into con- sideration. So far, in this matter, the people had a right to think the Government would wateh their interests. The claims for land were against the Gov- ernment, not against the people; but we can hardly consider the Courts and their officers as acting for the people, but for the speculators. It is now, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, difficult to ascer- tain the true facts in the case. Whether Williams & Thornton did their duty during this stage of the affair; whether any attorney for the people made an appearance when the case was called in the United States Court, is not known; but, at any rate, on the 4th of May, 1858, the case was, on motion of Attor- ney-General Black, dismissed, and the order for dis- missal of suit filed in San Francisco.


CHARACTER OF THE GRANT.


As the claim to the land is now confirmed, a little knowledge as to the character of the men concerned may not be out of place. Yorba, or Yerba, for it seems that he could not write his name, and proba- bly did not know how to spell it, was connected by marriage with some of the higher families. Juan B. Alvarado was an intriguer, first a Secretary in the department of Customs; then a revolutionist, who by means of an arrangement with Isaac Graham, a Tennesseean, wriggled himself into the position of Governor. It is said of him that he gave to all his followers whatever land they asked for. The date of the grant is May 8, 1840. Sutter did not settle at New Helvetia until the latter part of 1839. His grant was not completed until 1841; Weber's not until 1843.


In the Autumn of 1841, the Mokelkos, a tribe of Indians living on the Mokelumne, below Lockeford, stole some cattle from Sutter. He organized an expc- dition and attacked them, marching thirty miles in the night. This march would carry him across the Cosumnes, and in sight of the Jim Martin and Lyon range of hills, which are probably described in the grant as the " neighboring Sierras." But he did not obtain his grant from Alvarado until June, 1841. Pio Pico's grant covered the lower portion of the Mokelumne river. Charles Weber did not get his grant until some years after he had resided with Sutter, and not until after the termination of Sut- ter's war with the Mokelkos, and a treaty of peace with them. He obtained permission to settle on the slough at Stockton from the chief, by agreeing to defend them against the Mexicans, the mortal enemies of the Mokelkos. In the subsequent revolutions, while Alvarado was striving to mantain his position as Governor, it is said that Sutter assisted him mate- rially with men, in return for which he not only gave Sutter a large tract of land, but granted to other persons, such as Sutter should recommend, in his capacity as Justice, other tracts. If the date of this had been but a year and a month later, it might have been genuine, but reason is against such a con-


2++


HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.


clusion. It is absurd to suppose that the outside grant should have preceded the larger ones by a period of one to three years.


Yerba's grant was mado May 8, 1840, by Juan B. Alvarado; Sutter's grant, June, 1841, by same per- son; Guillermo Gulnac's for Weber, July 13, 1843, by Manuel Micheltorena.


The Hudson's Bay Fur Company had a trading- post at French Camp (hence the name), south of Stockton, for many years, and left about the time that Weber obtained his grant, which induced him to locate temporarily on the Cosumnes, until he got on better terms with the Mokelkos.


Andres Pico, who bought of Yerba, was brother of the last Governor, Pio Pico, and is said to have been addicted to drink and gambling. De Zaldo was in 1850-51 a clerk in the Land Office. It seems more probable that the whole matter was cooked up in the Land Office after the discovery of gold, than that the grant should have preceded such settlements as Sut- ter's and Weber's. The fact that at the time of making the grant no Mexican dared show his head east of the San Joaquin or Sacramento rivers, serves to confirm the former hypothesis. Governor Downey, who is believed to have a good knowledge of the nature of Spanish claims, denounced the Arroyo Seco as a rank fraud.


For the purpose of keeping our history clear, it may be best to have a list of titles passed :-


Grant to Teodosio Yerba, May 8, 1840.


Sale to Andres Pico, October 4, 1852. Consider- ation five hundred head of cattle.


[COPY OF DEED. ]


Know all men by these presents, That we, Teodocio Yerba and Maria Antonio Lugo his wife, for and in consideration of the sum of five hundred head of cattle, paid and delivered to us by Andres Pieo, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, have sold, bargained and transferred and by these presents sell, bargain and transfer to the said Andres Pico and his heirs and assigns, all that tract of land situate and lying in the county of Sacramento, bounded and described as follows : "Situado asi a las Cordil- leras la Sierra Nevada tene endo for limetes at Norte el vio de los Cosumnes al sur el do Moquelemes at aiccenle el camino del Sacramento Yal este Las Sierras immuratus," and known by the name of " El Arroyo Seco," and being the same tract of land granted to the said Teodocio Yerba, by Governor Juan B. Alvarado, 8th May, 1840, and containing, more or less, eleven leagues, together with all the improvements thereon, the rights, easements, and privileges appertaining thereto, to have and to hold for the use and benefit of the said Andres Pieo, his heirs and assigns forever. And we for ourselves our heirs and administrators, hereby covenant with the said Pieo, his heirs and assigns, that we will warrant and defend the said premises hereby conveyed, against the elaims and demands of any person or persons claiming by, through or from us.




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