USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 57
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This picture is not overdrawn, and but feebly con- veys an idea of the prosperity, progress, and refine- ment of the settlers in this valley, for the first ten years of their California life. The value of the im- provements which they had placed upon the lands could not have been less than eight hundred thousand dollars. From that date words will fail to depiet the ealamities of these most unfortunate families. Their lands and improvements have been taken from them without any compensation whatever. A Mexiean grant to the whole of the valley has been confirmed. The land has peen patented to strangers by the United States, and pioneers, the early settlers, the men who bore the heat and burden of the day, have been stripped of their all, and many of them in the deeline of life turned literally out of doors.
All right-thinking men naturally ask, " Is there any redress for this calamity ? Can any compensa- tion be made these families for their great loss ?" In plain words, ought the general government to stretch forth its powerful arms for the relief of this distressed community ? If it can be shown that they settled these lands under encouragement from the United States, all questions will be at an end. That many of them did so is a fact recorded in the archives of the government.
WITH BRITTON & REY. S. F.
Afaminetti.
TOMPSON & WEST PUB, OAKLAND CALE.
ـر
249
ARROYO SECO GRANT.
To establish the right of this community to relicf from the general government, it will be necessary to give a brief history of the Arroyo Seco Grant, upon which a patent to their lands has been issued.
It appears from the records that in the year 1852, on the Ist of November, Andreas Pico filed a peti- tion before the Land Commissoners for eleven leagues of land, known as the Arroyo Seco Grant, and lying in whole or in part, as the petition states, in Sacra- mento county, but giving only certain external boundaries, which embraced a scope of country con- taining at least six times the required amount of land; and at this time it must be borne in mind Ione valley and the lands referred to in the memorial, lay not in Sacramento but in Calaveras county, which barely cornered on Sacramento. The question is now, not whether Pico had any valid grant, but did his claim for eleven leagues of land, lying in whole or in part in Sacramento county, impart any notice whatever to the settlers of Calaveras county ? If they ever heard that such a petition had been filed before the. Land Commissioners in San Francisco, they certainly never once thought it referred to their valley, for the boundaries elaimed by Pico, as well as the county, seemed clearly to exclude them. Pico's eastern boundary came only to the foot-hills, which rise, sharply defined, to the west of Ione. It is confidently asserted that this claim was never at that time heard of in the valley; if it ever was, the next news heard from it was that it had been rejected by the Land Commis- sion on the twenty-seventh day of February, 1855. Six years had now passed in undisturbed possession, with no adverse claims to the lands on which they resided; for Pico stated in his petition to the Land Commissioners, that there were no adverse claimants to the lands which he desired, and as there was at least fifty leagues of land vacant and unoccupied within the external boundaries which his petition set forth, it neither imparted notice nor gave a hint of danger to these bona fide and actual settlers. Pico said: "Somewhere in that space of country bounded on the north by the Cosumnes river, on the east by the foot-hills, on the south by the Mokelumne river, and on the west by the old Sacramento and Stockton trail, I claim cleven leagues of land, and the land I desire is vacant, unoccupied land-there is no other to claim it." And his claim could have been satisfied four times over and never have touched them. Ought they, as the most scrupulously prudent men, to have thought the shaft was aimed at their peace ? They did not think it was, and they continued to build, and improve, and enter into the fruit of their labors. They had the most unbounded confidence that the general government would now, as she always had, protect her hardy pioneers.
On the 12th of May, 1855, notice of appcal from the Land Commission was filed, followed on the 11th of June by a petition for review; and on the 21st of April, 1856, the Court reversed the action of the Land Commission, and confirmed to Andreas Pico eleven leagues of land, somewhere within his said external boundaries. No survey had yet been made; the grant had been confirmed, but not located. And it must be steadily borne in mind that there was abundance of land to satisfy the grant, and leave the settlers alone. Would not the United States undoubtedly see that this was done? Before proceeding, however, to the history of the surveys, we will complete the legal history of this calamitous grant. On the third of October, 1856, an appeal to the United States Supreme Court was perfected, and the transcript sent up, and, without ever com-
ing to a hearing, was, May 4, 1858, on motion of Attorney-General Black, dismissed, and the mandate of dismissal filed in San Francisco on the 3d of Sep- tember, of the same year. This, of course, ended the litigation. It must steadily be borne in mind that the United States, during all this time, was the party in interest, and, by her highest officers, man- aged this important suit, involving, it is true, only the price of the land, some sixty thousand dollars; to her citizens-her children-the increased value of improvements and cultivation, amounting to nearly or quite a million. We have now reached the Autumn of 1858, ten years subsequent to the discovery of gold, and nine since the valley was first settled. Many of the farms were worth a hundred dollars an acre, and, in the character and value of their improvements, would not suffer by comparison with the most highly cultivated sections of the older States.
The United States had surveyed and laid off into townships and sections nearly the whole of the valley, and have actually sold, as the records of the Land Office at Stockton show, four thousand nine hundred and ninety-six and forty-nine one hundredths acres; the balance had been all, or nearly all, pre- empted. We now ask, in all candor and kindness, if the United States could have so located these eleven leagues of land belonging to Pico, so as not to disturb thesc settlers, and did not do it, ought she not to reimburse them for their losses? To determine this question, so vital to their hopes, let us proceed with the history of the surveys.
Sometime during the Summer of 1856, Andreas Pico himself came with surveyors into the district, and proceeded to select and mark out his eleven leagues. It would seem that if any person knew where the land was he, the grantee, was most likely to possess this information. He located his eastern boundary ten miles further east than the line of the present survey, and included within his boundaries all the rich belt of mineral lands heretofore spoken of, and with the invaluable mines, assumed owner- ship of the thriving villages of Amador, Sutter Creek, and Jackson, the county seat of the new county, which, in 1854, had been carved from Cala- veras. He established his boundaries by permanent monuments, and proceeded to sell and deed lands, as the records of Amador county will show, to numer- ous purchasers, across all this range. The wealth- iest and most intelligent quartz miners in this State bought his title.
It will be remembered that this survey of 1856 left out a large number of those persons who are now included in the present survey, and these facts are stated to render the position impregnable that these settlers believed, and were justified by the facts surrounding them in this belief, that they were upon the public lands of the United States.
In the meantime to render this belief a certainty, the United States surveyed all the valley lands to the west of Pico's location, and sold them to these very men who now are memorializing Congress for relief.
But time rolled on; the survey had not yet been confirmed; the mines were growing poorer and the valley richer, and Pico in his great anguish, when he discovered that he had not included within his lines all the valuable property between the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers, and the old Stockton trail and the foot-hills, proceed at once to change the lines of the survey.
32
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
In August, 1859, that grant was surveyed by the United States Surveyor-General for the State of California, J. W. Mandeville, Esq. The eastern line of' Pico's first survey was carried ten miles west, and of necessity, included many of the settlers who had purchased these lands of the United States. It must constantly be borne in mind that this was a floating grant; that there was at least six times as much land contained within its exterior lines as the grant called for; that all the lands outside of this valley were vacant lands, and that this survey was per- sistently and openly made to include the most val- uable farms, and was made by a United States Sur- veyor-General, and confirmed by a United States District Judge.
This survey was confirmed September, 1862. An appeal was taken from the order of confirmation, and this appeal, on motion of Attorney-General Bates, was dismissed February 3, 1863. Not until this date were the settlers left without hope.
Soon after this confirmation, a patent was issued, and a company of United States dragoons ordered into the valley to assist the United States Marshal in ejecting the settlers. Let us quickly draw a veil over this sad picture, and state at once the plan we propose for redress.
We appeal to Congress, and respectfully pray that a commission of disinterested and qualified men be selected and authorized, at the expense of the gen- eral government, to visit the land in question; to inquire into and ascertain all the facts of the case; to take testimony in relation thereto, and to award to cach settler such amount as may be deemed by said commission to be just and right. And Congress is further requested to make such appropriation as will be necessary to carry out the objects of said commission.
Such proceedings on the part of Congress your memorialists believe to be consonant with reason and justice, and to be sanctioned by precedent.
His Excellency, the Governor, is requested to for- ward a copy of the above memorial to cach of our delegation in Congress.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. FARNHAM'S HISTORY OF ALVARADO.
SINCE writing the foregoing chapter, the writer found in an old history of California, a further account of Juan B. Alvarado, which may be interest- ing as throwing some light on the character of those persons who were, as is now believed, instrumental in the manufacture of the fraudulent " Arroyo Seco Grant."
J. T. Farnham, a man who had been an extensive traveler, arrived in the Bay of Monterey on board the bark Don Quixote in 1840, at the time that Alva- rado, acting as Governor of California, had im- prisoned all the foreign population on the charge of conspiring against the government. They were con- fined in narrow quarters and treated with the utmost inhumanity, and our author's statements, in consequence of his sympathy for the unfortunate prisoners, may have been colored more than facts warrant. His history of the affair places Alvarado in no enviable light. It may be found, commencing
page sixty, " Early Days of California," by J. T. Farnhamn.
In 1836, a Mexican general by the name of Echuandria was the commandant general of Upper California. Some years previous, as will be partic- nlarly shown in another place, he had come up from Mexico with a band of fellow myrmidons, and, hav- ing received the submission of the country to the authorities of that Republic, commenced robbing the government for which he acted, and the several interests which he had been sent to protect. Nothing escaped his mercenary clutches. The peo- ple, the missions, and the revenue were robbed indis- criminately as opportunity offered. A few of the white population participated in these acts. But generally the Californians were the sufferers, and, as is always the case with unhonored rogues, raised a perpetual storm of indignation about the dishonest deeds of those they desired to supplant for the pur- pose of enacting the same things. An occurrence of this kind was the cause of the revolution in 1836.
A vessel had cast anchor in the harbor of Monte- rey. General Echuandria, not having that honor- able confidence in the integrity of the Custom House officers which thieves are accustomed to have in one another, placed a guard on board the craft to pre- vent them from receiving bribes for their own exclusive benefit. To this the officers demurred; and, in order to free their territory from the crea- tures of one whose conscience would compel him to receive bribes for his own pockets instead of theirs, they sent their own clerk, a young rascal of the coun- try by the name of Juan Baptiste Alvarado, to inform the general that it was improper to suggest, by put- ting a guard on board, that the officers of the ship which lay under the fort, either attempted or dared to attempt the payment of duties!
The general, however, was too well acquainted with his inalienable rights to be wheedled out of them in this manner, and manifested his indignation towards the clerk for attempting to obtrude his plebeian presence on his golden dream, by ordering him to be put in irons. Alvarado, however, escaped.
On page two hundred and eighty-six he again refers to this transaction in the following terms :-
In the year 1836, a quarrel arose between the Mexican Governor at Monterey, and Custom House officer by the name of Juan Baptiste Alvarado, in regard to the division of certain bribes which had been paid to the officers by the supercargo of a foreign ship, as a remuneration for entering upon the Government books only half the cargo, and admitting the remainder for a certain sum in specie and goods, paid to themselves; and the first result of the difficulty was a revolutionary movement under Alvarado and Graham, as I have heretofore related.
To continue the narrative in Farnham's own words :-
He (Alvarado) fled into the country, rallied the farmers, who still loved the descendants of Philip the II. more than El Presidente, and formed a camp at the Mission of San Juan, thirty miles eastward from Monterey.
Near this mission lived an old Tennesseean by the name of Graham; a stout, sturdy backwoodsman, of a stamp which existed only on the frontiers of the American States- men with the blood of the ancient Normans and Saxons in their veins-with hearts as large as their bodies can hold, beating
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FARNHAM'S HISTORY OF ALVARADO.
nothing but kindness till injustice showed its fangs, and then, lion like, striking for vengeance. This trait of natural character had been fostered in Gra- ham by the life he had led. Early trained to the use of the rifle, he had learned to regard it as his friend and protector; and when the season of man- hood had arrived, he threw it upon his shoulder and sought the wilderness, where he could enjoy its pro- tection, and be fed by its faithful aim. He became a beaver hunter-a cavalier of the wilderness-that noble specimen of brave men, who have muscles for riding wild horses and warring with wild beasts, a steady brain and foot for climbing the icy precipice, a strong breast for the mountain torrent, an unre- lenting trap for the beaver, a keen eye and deadly shot for a foe. A man, was this Graham, who stood boldly up before his kind, conscions of possessing physical and mental powers adequate to any emer- gency. He had a strong aversion to the clegant edifices, the furniture, wardrobe, and food of pol- ished life, coupled with a vivid love of mountain sublimity, the beautiful herbage on uncultivated dis- tricts, the wild animals, and the streams of water roaring down the frozen heights. Even the gray deserts, with the hunger and thirst incident to trav- eling over them, had wild and exciting charms for him. On these his giant frame had obstacles to contend with worthy of its powers. A projecting rock, against which blazed his camp-fire, a crackling pine-knot his light, a roasting sirloin of elk or a buffalo hump for a supper, and a sleep in his blankets on the green sward in the open air after a day's exciting hunt, were the objects sought with the keenest zest, and enjoyed with the greatest pleasure.
He forced his way over the Rocky Mountains and located himself in Upper California. This country was suited to his tastes. Its climate allowed him to sleep in the open air most of the year; an abundance of native animals covered the hills, and nature was spread out luxuriantly in wild, untrodden freshness.
As I have said, this brave man resided near the Mission of San Juan. He had there erected a rude dwelling and a distillery. On the neighboring plains he herded large bands of horses, mules and cattle. To this fine old fellow Alvarado made known his peril and designs ; whereupon the foreigners assembled at Graham's summons, elected him their captain, an Englishman by the name of Coppinger lieutenant, and repaired to San Juan. A council of war was held between the clerk and the foreigners. The former promised that if by the aid of the latter he should successfully defend himself against the acting Governor, and obtain possession of the country, it should be declared independent of Mexico; and that the law which prevented foreigners from holding real estate should be abrogated. The foreigners agreed, on these conditions, to aid Alvarado to the utmost of their power. The next morning the united forces, fifty foreigners and twenty-five Californi- ans, marched against Monterey. They entered the town in the afternoon of the same day, and took up their position in the woods, one hundred rods in the rear of the castello or fort. No event of impor- tance occurred till the night came on, when the awe with which darkness sometimes inspires even the bravest minds, fell with overwhelming power on the valorous garrison, that, notwithstanding they were supported by the open mouths of the guns, the bark- ing of their dog, the roar of the surf, and the hooting of an owl on a neighboring tree-top, they were abso- lutely compelled to forsake the ramparts, for the more certain protection of unmolested flight.
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Graham and his men perceiving the discomfiture of their enemies, availed themselves of their absence by taking possession of the evacuated fort. Alva- rado, meantime, actuated, it is to be presumed, by a desire to save life, and philosophical conviction of the dangers incident to bullets rendered crazy by burning powder, restrained the fiery ardor of his twenty-five Californians, and held his own person beyond the reach of harm, in case some luckless horse or cow straying over hostile ground on that memorable night, should scare the fleeing garrison into an act of defense. The next morning he and his brave men were found peering from their hiding- places in a state of great anxiety and alarm! A battle had almost been begun in Monterey! The blood of their enemies had almost begun to fatten the soil of California! They themselves had nearly stepped in blood knee deep, among the carcasses of the hated Mexicans. The besom of destruction had shaken itself, and had barely missed commencing the havoc of bone and flesh, which would have crushed every mote of Mexican life within their borders! Thus they gloricd among the bushes!
Old Graham stood at sunrise on the earth embank- ments of the castello. A hunting shirt of buckskin, and pants of the same material, covered his giant frame; a slouched broad-brimmed hat hung around his head and half covered his quiet, determined face! In his right hand he held his rifle, the tried com- panion of many fearful strifes among the savages! Four or five of his men sat on a dismounted thirty- two pounder, querying whether they could repair its wood-work so as to bring it to bear on the presidio or Government House. Others stood by a bucket of water swabbing out their rifle barrels and drying the locks. Others of them were cooking beef; others whittling, swearing and chewing tobacco.
About nine o'clock flags of truce began their oner- ous duties. Alvarado came from the woods and took part in the councils. The insurgents demanded the surrender of the government; whereat the cavaliers of the presidio considered themselves immeasurably insulted. Two days were passed in parleying, with- out advancing the interests of either party. They were days big with the fate of the future; and who could weary under the dreadful burthens ? Not such men as Alvarado. He bore himself like the man he was, through all this trying period. He uniformly preferred delay to fighting! He was sus- tained in this preference by his right-hand villain, Captain Jose Castro. Indeed it was the unanimous choice of the whole California division of the insur- gent forces, to wit., the twenty-five before men- tioned, to massacre time instead of men. For not a single one of them manifested impatience or insub- ordination under the delay-a fact which, perhaps, demonstrates the perfection of military discipline in California! The foreigners. seemed different from their illustrious allies. Graham thought " two days and nights awaiting on them bars was enough." Accordingly, taking the responsibility on himself, after the manner of his distinguished fellow states- man, he sent a flag to the presidio, with notice that two hours only would be given the Governor and his officers to surrender themselves prisoners of war. The demand of the old Tennesseean, however, was disregarded. The appointed time passed without a surrender. Forbearance was at an end. The lieu- tenant of Graham's rifle corps was ordered to level a four-pound brass piece at the presidio. A ball was sent through its tiled roof, immediately over the · heads of the Mexican magnates.
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
It is wonderful how small a portion of necessity mingled with human affairs will quicken men's per- ception of duty. No sooner did the broken tiles rattle around the heads of these valiant warriors than they became suddenly convinced that it would be exceedingly hazardous to continue their resist- ance against such an overwhelming force; and that the central government at Mexico would not be so unreasonable as to expect four or five hundred troops to hold out against " Los Rifleros Americanos." This view of the case, taken through the shat- tered roof of the presidio was conclusive. They surrendered at discretion! Alvarado marched into the citadel of government! The Mexicans laid down their arms! The emblems of office were transferred to the Custom House clerk! When these things had transpired, General Echuandra was pleased to say with the most exalted good sense, " had we known we were thrice as many as you, we would not have surrendered so soon;" thereby demonstrating to the future historian of Alta California that he and his friends would either have fought the seventy-five with the five hundred, or protracted the siege of bra- vado much longer, had they been able to count the seventy-five at the distance of seventy-five yards, during the lapse of two days! Difficulties in the use of optics often occur in the Californian warfare which are not treated of in the books.
The end of this revolution came. The schooner Clarion, of New Bedford, was purchased, and the Mexican officers shipped to San Blas. Juan Bap- tiste Alvarado, custom clerk, proclaimed El Alta California an independent republic, and himself its governor. But more of this on a subsequent page. It suffices my present purpose to have shown how far this Alvarado was indebted to the foreigners dying in his prisons for the station and power which he was using for their destruction. He could never have obtained possession of Monterey without them. And had they not slept on their arms for months after that event; a party in the south under his uncle, Don Carlos Carillo, or another in the north under his uncle, Guadalupe Viego (Vallejo), would have torn him from his ill-gotted clevation.
Thus California became an independent State, and Alvarado its governor. The central government at Mexico was, of course, much shocked at such unpol- ished, ungloved impudence; threatened much, and at last, in September, 1837, induced Alvarado to buy a ship, send dispatches to Mexico, and become El Goubernador Constitutional del Alta California, asso- ciated with his uncle Viego, as commandante general. After this adhesion to the Mexican government, Alvarado became suspicious of the foreigners who had aided him in the " revolution," and sought every means of annoying them. They might depose him as they had done Echuandra. And if vengeance were always a certain consequent of injustice, he reasoned well. The vagabond had promised, in his day of need, to bestow lands on those who had saved his neck and raised him to power. This he found convenient to forget. Like Spaniards of all ages and all countries, after having been well served by his friends, he rewarded them with the most heartless ingratitudc.
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