USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 56
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Witness our hands and seals this fourth day of October, 1852. (Signed) TEODOCIO X YORBA.
his [seal.]
mark. her MARIA ANTONIO X LUGO. [seal.] mark.
Filed September 22, 1856, in Recorder's office, Amador County.
Andres Pico to Ramon De Zaldo. April 4, 1855. 2-11 Arroyo Seco. Consideration, $2,000. Filed in Amador County July 21, 1856.
Pico & De Zaldo to Green & Vogan, June 13, 1856. 317.69 acres (Q Ranch) Consideration, $3 176.90.
Same to Fixary & Sompayrac, July 23, 1856. Town lots in Jackson. Consideration, $600. Fix- ary Ranch, 240 acres. Consideration, $1,500.
Same to James Brown, December 2, 1856. 5,700 acres. Consideration, $9,516.
This was the famous sale of the mines, and in- cluded all of the quartz leads that were then known to be valuable, Spring Hill, Keystone, Herbertville, Amador, Union, Eureka, Badger, etc., also the town sites of Amador, Sutter and Jackson.
Pico & De Zaldo to Bruce Husband, December, 1856. Town lot in Jackson. Consideration, $1. Same to Isaac Silver, January 9, 1857.
Same to Thomas Joncs, January 13, 1857. Same to William Pitt, January 12, 1857.
Same to Luther K. Hammer, February 9, 1857. Same to John Williams, February 24, 1857.
Same to Geo. Durham, February 21, 1857. Same to A. Sheakley, February 21, 1857.
The most of these were town lots in Jackson. Contracts for sale were also made in many places in the valley. In most instances the sales were made to influential persons upon favorable terms, the object being to detach them from the party of oppo- sition. This was particularly true of the sales to Green & Vogan, John Edwards, Charles Stone, and James P. Martin.
Soon after the confirmation of the grant by the Distriet Court, Pico employed Sherman Day to sur- vey and seetionize the ranch in accordance with the United States survey, making Mount Diablo a base and meridian point. The lines were run to include all the valuable farms and mines possible. Many thousand dollars were obtained for the mines. After all had been got from them that was possible, the claim to the mines was abandoned, new lines being run to include other farms. For some years it was a floating grant. The lines were run so as to include a greater area on Dry ereek. An improvement in any direction was sure to bring the grant line around it.
LOCATION OF THE TRACT.
This was next in order. During the location of the elaim, high up on the mountains, the United States had sectionized and sold some of the valley lands on Dry creek, Purkey being among the pur- chasers. When the miners had been bled, the elaim was again projected west on the lands recently sold by the Government, again making the United States a party to the affair.
For three or four years the people saw surveyor's lines run around their homes, Surveyor-General Mandeville being among those engaged. As he was
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ARROYO SECO GRANT.
supposed to be acting in his official capacity, a re- monstrance against the crooked lines was forwarded ยท to President Buchanan, but it seems that the article was not sufficiently explicit in describing the claim. Thomas A. Hendricks, Commissioner of the General Land Office, returned the following answer :--
LETTER FROM THOMAS A. HENDRICKS.
GENERAL LAND OFFICE, August 18th, 1857.
SIR: There has been referred to this office a letter from you, dated 27th of June last, addressed to the President of the United States, complaining of a lo- cation of a private claim, under a Mexican grant called the " Arroyo Seco," so as to cover the settle- ments and improvements of yourself and others. The claim referred to is presumed to be that entered as No. 186, on the Docket of the Board of Land Com- missioners, rejected by Board of Land Commissioners November 22d, 1853, but afterwards confirmed by the United States District Court, and the appeal dis- missed in the United States Supreme Court, and therefore, stands finally confirmed.
The survey of this claim has not been returned to this office, and we have, therefore, no means of judg- ing of the manner of its location. Though your let- ter presents a case of hardship, and the policy of the Government favors the protection of the settlers on public lands, we regret that you furnish no such spe- cific information in the matter as would justify action by the Department. When, however, the final sur- vey of the claim shall be returned, it will be carefully examined, particularly in respect to the " zigzag form " of its location, as represented by you.
Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, THOMAS A. HENDRICKS,
H. A. CARTER, EsQ.,
Commissioner.
Ione Valley P. O., California.
The Arroyo Seco was filed November 1, 1852, and was numbered 441; was rejected February 27, 1855, so that the claim referred to by Commissioner Hen- dricks could not have been the Arroyo Seco. Upon farther inquiry it proved that Mandeville had been employed and paid by the grant party while ostensi- bly acting in an official capacity.
October 17, 1858, Mandeville wrote to the set- tlers that he should not make a final survey until after he returned from Washington, to which place he was then going. Hc assured them that all should be heard.
THE FINAL SURVEY
Was made in August, 1859. At the hearing of this, before Judge McAllister, a great many witnesses were examined as to the character of the country. The lagoon west of Ionc, on Buckeye crcek, accord- ing to some, was the valley intended to be covered by the grant. It was urged, with much reason, that the mountains between that lagoon and Ione valley were the " Sierras immuratus;" others ridiculed the idea of calling the hills of the tertiary formation a part of the mountains. Judge McAllister decided, April 26, 1860, that the grant of land was west of the Lyons and Martin Mountains. This, for a time, seemed to have removed the load of misery from the
residents of Ione valley; from this time to December 10th was the golden opportunity, as we shall here- after see. The survey was confirmed by Judge Hoff- man, September, 1862. It is said that Hoffman ex- amined the ground personally. This survey, and the new ownership which had occurred, fairly real- ized the worst fears of the settlers. In order to make a connected history, it will be necessary to retrace our steps and consider the condition of affairs.
DURING HANCOCK'S AGENCY.
For the purpose of acting as a partner and giving more authority to his deeds, Henry Hancock bought of Andres Pico one-fifth of the grant for sixty thou- sand dollars, deed dated April 20, 1859, and re- deeded it for the same consideration the same day. The first deed was filed April 28, 1859, the second, June 9, 1860. Andres Pico also sold to De Zaldo a further interest of two leagues, for five thousand dollars. De Zaldo sold his entire interest in the grant to Pio Pico, commonly called Governor Pico, brother to Andres, December 10, 1861, for four thou- sand dollars. As at this time the principal contest was on the location of the grant; many efforts being made to compromise the matter, and end the con- test. January 7th, Pico had written to the settlers assuring them of his good will, and asked them to consult with each other, so as to come to some amicable understanding. In May, Hancock com- menced acting as agent for Pico and De Zaldo. May 27th, he wrote that a further contest would only waste their mutual substance, which would go to enrich strangers. A report becoming current that, in case the survey was confirmed, those who had been most active in opposing the grant, would have to pay a high price, Pico assured them that all should have their land at the same rate. During the time while the confirmation of the survey was pending in the United States Supreme Court for the Northern Dis- trict of California, a number of the settlers, H. A. Carter, W. H. Harron, W. K. Johnston, assisted by O. P. Sutton, of their counsel, acting for the settlers, entered into an agreement with Pico to the follow- ing effect :-
AGREEMENT.
Pico should sell the land at the following rates :- First class bottom-land in Ione valley, per acre .. $ 10 00
66 Jackson valley, per acre. 9 00
66 red land, per acre. 4 00
Second class red land, per acre. 2 00
For town site of Ione, excepting such as had been here- tofore sold or contracted, 5,000 00
One-fourth at the time of completing the sale, and the balance to be paid within ninety days after a United States patent or its equivalent should be recorded at the county seat, without interest until the ninety days had expired. All indebtedness to be secured by mortgage. Pico to extinguish all liens and taxes outstanding on the land, so as to give the settlers a clear title. The settlers were to withdraw all opposition to the confirmation of the survey now pending in the Supreme Court of the United States
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
for the Northern District of California. In case of disagreement as to the class of the lands in question, each party interested was to namne one person, and these two a third, if necessary to effect a classifica- tion.
This was about one-fourth of the price at which the lands were valued, yet very few secined to be willing to accept the terms. If the land was theirs, they wanted it without paying a greaser for it. Ten dol- lars an acre for a person who had already taxed himself twice that, to oppose the grant, was no easy matter to raise. It was hard to bring the nien to concert of action. The moderate terms which Pico offered were considered as indicating a consciousness of a weak case, and so the matter remained unde- cided.
SALE TO J. MORA MOSS & CO.
Pico, as well as the settlers, had become exhausted with the long effort. Twenty-three hundred head of cattle had been driven into market and sold, to maintain the suit, and a mortgage for thirty-five thousand dollars was resting on the grant, as an evidence of further expenditure. Tired of the profit- less contest, and, perhaps, disgusted with the dilatory action of the people, he sold on the 10th day of December, 1861, to J. Mora Moss, H. W. Carpentier, E. F. Beales, Herman Wohler, and others. This firm was composed of men who had become noto- rious in connection with land grants. They had even then acquired the reputation of hesitating at nothing which would forward their suits.
Bribery and perjury were openly talked of. The suits, or contests, whatever they may be called, still at this date, 1881, overshadow whole communities and paralyze the industries of cities and towns. Look at the cases of the Sobrante ranch, and the water front of Oakland. When the news of the sale came, and afterwards the confirmation of the survey by Judge Hoffman, September, 1862,
"Hope for a season bade the world farewell."
No astonishment was felt when, in 1863, Attorney- General Bates dismissed the appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, and swept away the last ground for hope. If the Central Pacific Rail- road Company can make the Sierras reach within five miles of Sacramento, perhaps Mora Moss & Co. may drive them back as far.
As a last resort, a memorial in a few words was addressed to President Lincoln and Attorney-Gen- eral Bates, asking that the case might be again put on the calendar for a hearing. The paper was signed by several hundred persons, nearly all the residents of the county.
To Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, and Hon. S. M. Bates, Attorney-General :- We, the undersigned citizens of the United States, having failed every where, and under all circumstances, in our efforts to obtain justice in a matter of the deepest moment to ourselves and families, now, as a last resort, appeal to you. Failing in this, we will
endeavor to reconcile ourselves to our hard fate, and . at once quit our humble homes, and make room for those who, by means of their greater wealth, have been able to tire us out and obtain our little farms and poor homes, which have cost us long years of toil and privation.
Here are the facts and circumstances of our caso, as briefly as it is possible to put them upon paper :-
Most of your petitioners emigrated to California at an carly day, bringing with us our families and all we possessed, intending in the far-off land to make homes for ourselves and our children.
We located where we now reside, in Amador county, and upon lands then claimed by none but Indians, and as we honestly believed, owned by the general government.
Here at the foot of the mountains, under the laws of the State of California, we took up for ourselves homes in small parcels, varying from fifty to one hundred and sixty acres each. Being upon mineral land we have enjoyed our possessions uninterruptedly, save when the miners saw fit to prospect and mine within our enclosures.
Upon these lands we have planted trees, built fences, and erected houses. In our midst churches and school-houses have sprung up.
Years after our location, and when the eastern border of the tract was found valuable because of its mineral deposits, and when the whole face of our section had become a community of happy families, the rumor reached us that a Spanish grant covered our homes.
We consulted and employed lawyers; we have cx- hausted ourselves and been beaten. Now we think we are wrongfully defeated, and appeal to you for interposition in our behalf, so far as is consistent and proper.
The private claim which overwhelms us like a pall, and of which we complain, is the " Arroyo Seco Grant."
This claim was defeatcd before the Board of Land Commissioners.
The decree of the Board was reversed by the United States District Court.
The decision of the District Court was appealed from by the Government under the administration of Attorney-General Black.
The appeal was dismissed without a hearing.
Then came the location of the grant. Surveyor- General Mandeville located the grant, extending the eastern boundary into the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, to a point (improperly as we insist) which embraces our homes within the location.
The Government was heard in a review of Man- deville's proecedings before the Hon. - McAllister, who, after deliberating upon the case, modified or changed the location made by Mandeville, and thereby relieved us from the scourge.
About this time the grant changed hands, passing from Andres Pico to the present proprietors, con- sisting of the following gentlemen : J. Mora Moss, H. W. Carpentier, Surveyor-General Beale, and Her- man Wohler.
This party, men of great wealth, procured a re- hearing of the case before the Hon. Ogden Hoffman, District Judge of the United States District Court.
Judge Hoffman upset the decree of Judge McAllis- ter, and confirmed the location made by General Mandeville.
An appeal was taken by the Government to the United States Supreme Court.
We are just now informed that the appcal has been
247
ARROYO SECO GRANT.
dismissed, and we are therefore deprived of a fair hearing before the Tribunal of last resort, whither we supposed we were advancing according to the rules and practices of the Courts of our country, and from which Tribunal we were fondly hoping to re- eeive the relief from litigation and oppression from which we have suffered so long.
Now all we ask from you, gentlemen, is that the ease may be reinstated upon the calendar, treated as a new case, and passed upon by the Court. The de- cision of that high Tribunal, though adverse to us, will be cheerfully acquiesced in.
FIRST ATTEMPTS AT DISPOSSESSION.
Soon after the dismissal of the appeal a United States patent was obtained, and an attempt was made to dispossess the settlers. It was wisely resolved not to bring the people of the county into collision with their own officers, and a man by the name of Benjamin Bellock, said to be a Peruvian citizen, was put forward, so as to throw the case into the hands of a United States Marshal, though Bellock's inter- est must have been very remote, as his name does not appear on record as an owner of any part of the grant. The Marshal put in an appearance one day, and was in the act of evicting Thomas Rickey when quite a number of men (the Marshal estimated them at fifty), armed with rifles and pistols, went along to see how the thing was to be done. It is said that Turner, one of the settlers, used some threatening language, but no violence was used. The appearance of opposition was expected, and, perhaps, desired. The Marshal went back to San Francisco.
SETTLERS' LEAGUE.
This has been referred to before. Its organization was a secret one, and the proceedings were never published. Public notices were printed in an odd kind of type, and were signed with a numeral as Secretary. It was supposed that the members num- bered three hundred or more. It was not known, of course, what measures were contemplated. Resist- ance to dispossession was openly talked of. It was thought that the grant company would have to pay the expense of keeping the soldiers in the field. Others said that we should be compelled to yield; that successful resistance to one company of soldiers would only bring a regiment, to oppose which would be an insurrection, another rebellion; but that we might murder the proprietors, and annoy those who should undertake the cultivation of the land, so as to make it worthless. The feeling was very bitter, and a little indiscretion might have brought on bloodshed.
THE SOLDIERS HAVE COME.
On the eleventh of February the sullen boom of the cannon, heard for miles around, announced the arrival of the soldiers. Why the cannon was fired does not appear, but every one knew the meaning. There was no gathering, no appearance of resistance. What might have happened if a smaller number had commenced the dispossession, can only be imagined.
The seventy-five might-could have been beaten, but these were the " boys in blue," who had been battling so bravely for the Union, who had borne the flag aloft mid shot and shell in many a bloody field, who had saved our country. It is quite likely that grief as well as anger pervaded the league, and no resistance was offered. The people were deter- mined to lose no point by vacating voluntarily, but quietly suffered their goods, household utensils, their wives and children, to be removed into the streets, in the storm, even, for the eviction took place in Feb- ruary, the month of rains. Some formed camps, others went to the houses of friends, and some went back to the houses from which they had been ejected. The fastenings were slight, and perhaps it was expected that they would return, though as tresspassers. A man by the name of Clark, venera- ble, respectable and prudent, was made eustodian and superintendent of the property. So far, the dis- possession of the settlers had gone on without violence. The dispatches sent to the principals were congratulatory.
SHOOTING OF HERMAN WOHLER.
Wohler was perhaps the smallest owner in the grant, and, likely, the smallest capitalist in the eom- pany, and was probably put forward to manage the evietion on account of having no moral weakness or humane feelings which should prevent him turning a multitude of men, women and children out of their homes. If he had feelings to gratify, if he wished to avenge the long and persistent fight the settlers had made for their homes, his opportunity was ample. His pitiless face was seen everywhere directing the soldiers in their work-the only one in the whole crowd who did not show disgust with the business. Every man who had been driven out marked his overbearing and unfceling demeanor. The dispos- session was complete. The Arroyo Seco steal was a fixed faet. Any settler now who wished to have his rights would have to wade through an awful quag- mire of law and techniealities. A big dinner was given, to celebrate the successful termination of the matter, which was attended by some of the county officers, among whom was the District Attorney, Briggs. Hare, stewed in wine, was said to be one of the extraordinary dishes set at this entertainment. The celebration was generally known, and was con- sidered, in view of the distress of the people, heart- less, and even insulting. It passed off, however, without disturbance, the guests leaving about ten o'clock P. M. Wohler was about retiring, and went to raise the window, to let out some of the cigar smoke which filled the room. While he stood for a moment looking into the darkness, the report of a rifle, in the direction of the blacksmith shop, was heard; he felt the sting of a ball in his chest and fell back seriously wounded. It was supposed to be mortal, but he so far recovered, in a few days, as to be removed to San Francisco.
2.48
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
The news that a man had been shot in Jone on account of land matters, soon found its way over the State, and throughout the East. The settlers were now put on the defense. Those who were unac. quainted with the previous facts denounced it as an atrocious act. Those who knew something of the circumstances, which have been related in this his- tory, will find some reasons for a mild sentence. "To forgive is divine," they say. Forgiveness may be an attribute of divinity, but, though the Ione Valley people are, perhaps, as moral and as well-behaved as any community in the State, they have never made any pretensions to a divine nature. Let no one pass judgment on the act until he has first put himself in the place of a settler, ejected, with his wife and chil- dren, from a home which he has wrested from a desert.
Wohler recovered from this wound, and died about two years since in Sonoma county. The agent, Clark, put in possession of the property was prudent and obliging, as far as his position would permit, renting the land to the former owners at a nominal figure. In a few years the ill-feeling seemed to abate, . the new owners were permitted to occupy the lands in security, and peace and industry onee more re- sumed their sway.
THE LAST EFFORT
To get justiee was made at the session of the Legis- lature in 1865-66. Through the instrumentality, prin- cipally, of A. H. Rose, State Senator from Amador county, Congress was memorialized on the subjeet. On hearing it read, many members of Congress denouneed the system of grants as a store-house of fraud, but nothing beneficial to the settlers ever eame of it.
The memorial will conclude this chapter on the "Arroyo Seeo Grant."
MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS.
The Memorial of the Legislature of the State of Cali- fornia to the Congress of the United States respect- fully represents-
That at the time California was acquired by the United States, a traet of arable land, containing some fifty thousand aeres, well watered and exceed- ingly fertile, had remained, from its secluded position and its distance from the sea-coast, if not undiscov- ered, entirely unoccupied by eivilized man. The traet lies near to the Sierras, and is surrounded by low hills, and beyond them sterile plains, and it is quite probable that up to the time when gold was diseov- ered it had never been visited by white man; it is entirely certain that no vestige of eiviliza- tion was ever found on it. In 1848, when General Sutter prospeeted for gold two miles above in the foot-hills, the principal stream which irri- gates and fertilizes this valley had not even a name to designate it. It has been known from that time as Sutter ereek. The same is true of its second principal stream, named for an early miner, Jackson. Another, still, from a miner, Amador; and, euriously enough, the grant, which will be hereafter mentioned, takes its name from a stream christened by the Mexican miners, after eighteen hundred and forty-eight, Arroyo Seco, or Dry ereek, and the vil-
lage in which they lived is still known as Drytown. The valuable belt of mineral lands embracing the villages of Drytown, Amador, Sutter Creek and Jackson, lies ten miles to the above and to the east of this valley, and was prospected by Amador, Sutter, Jackson, and others, in the fall and winter of 1848-49, and at that time the valley was entirely unoccupied.
In 1849 it attracted the attention of enterprising men, who found it as nature had left it, unoccupied and unclaimed. They believed, and were justified by all appearances in this belief, that this was public land, belonging to the United States. . They were principally Western men, who had from their youth been familiar with the beneficent system of land laws in the new and unoccupied Territories of the Union, and they settled at once in the beautiful val- ley, each making out, as near as he could, his hundred and sixty acres, and felt as eertain of his right to do so, and as secure of his possession, as any heir could be to his ancient inheritance. They knew the country had been ceded to the United States; they knew the lands were public lands, for there was neither oeeupant nor claimant-not a vestige of a house, not a hoof of stock, nor a settlement nearer them than Sutters Fort, forty miles distant. These lands were exceedingly fertile, and convenient to the best market for farm produce in the world, the mines of California. As soon as the capacity of these lands to produce both grains and fruits had been tested by these hardy pioneers, they became at once exceedingly valuable. Improvements were com- menced of the most permanent eharaeter; orchards and vineyards were planted; beautiful and expen- sive dwellings were erected ; steam-power was introduced; large mills for converting their grain into flour were built; hotels, stores, and villages sprang up from the plain as if by magie; extensive ditches and costly aqueducts, both for the purpose of irrigation and working the mines upon the borders of the valley, were constructed, while churches and sehool-houses told plainer than words eould convey, who were the settlers of lone valley " and this waste land, where no man eame or had eome sinee the making of the world," blossomed as only California valleys ean under the hand of experieneed eulti- vation.
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