Rito de los Frijoles Land Grant (Part 1 of 2)

Origin of the Rito de los Frijoles Land Grant (1740-1814)

The first known document to reference the Rito de los Frijoles grant, though not named as such at the time, is the will of the original grantee, Captain Andrés Montoya. Montoya, the son of Antonio Montoya and María Hurtado de Salas, was descended from the Montoya family that had joined Oñate’s new colony as soldier reinforcements in 1600. His parents had fled to El Paso del Norte during the Pueblo Revolt and had returned to New Mexico with the Vargas reconquest. Andrés Montoya declared in his will, dated June 17, 1740, that he had two tracts of land, one of which was on the other side of the Rio del Norte. He described the land, somewhat vaguely, as situated between the fields of the Pueblos of San Ildefonso and Cochiti, the boundaries of which were distant from one, but half a league from the other. He had not been able to cultivate that land due to his infirmities and he did not specify how the land was to be divided among his heirs.

His son Andrés Montoya II (C) appears to have inherited the land, which was confirmed by a grant made by Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín.[i] A physical copy of the original grant was never found, but Fray Antonio Caballero certified in a document dated December 28, 1807 that he had witnessed Montoya present it to Governor Juan Bautista de Anza during an inspection tour of the province in 1780. On that occasion, Montoya asked the governor to transfer the grant to his son-in-law, Juan Antonio Luján (married to his daughter María Rosa Montoya (C1)), as Montoya had been unable to work the land or use it because of his advanced age. The governor agreed and the grant passed to Luján, who worked four to five years to prepare the land for planting when he died. Evidence suggests that his children continued to settle and cultivate the land, for on February 28, 1809, a son-in-law named José Antonio Salas (married to his daughter Antonia Rosa Luján (C1a)), petitioned Governor José Manrique for a copy of the original grant, as he had lost his copy.

There is no record of any response from Governor Manrique to Salas’ petition. In 1811, the governor ordered all residents to vacate the area on account of some robberies committed by inhabitants of the vicinity. On April 1, 1814, Salas’ widow, Antonia Rosa Luján (C1a), petitioned the governor to allow her to return to the tract of land in order to maintain herself and her family. She offered to occupy the land with two other settlers, Ysidro and Santiago Hurtado, who would watch and guard the area to ensure it did not once again become a source of criminal activity. She again presented the certification of Fray Caballero as evidence that the land had been granted to her grandfather, although she erred in stating that it had been granted by Governor Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta. The governor commissioned Antonio Ortiz of Santa Fe to investigate her claims. His report indicated that according to witnesses, Governor Mendinueta did not allow Luján to work the land on account of the protests of other settlers, and that it belonged to heirs of Andrés Montoya. Later, with consent from the other residents, Luján and his wife had occupied the land and prepared it for farming. Surprisingly, given the tenuous evidence supporting Antonia Rosa Luján’s claim, Governor Manrique granted her request to occupy the Rito de los Frijoles grant on April 4, 1814. The only condition was that they not allow anyone “not known to be of good habits” to reside in the area.

Initial Efforts to Formalize the Grant (1872)

On October 5, 1872, the heirs and legal representatives of Antonia Rosa Luján (C1a) filed a petition with US Surveyor General James K. Proudfit to confirm the grant under the terms specified by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. They claimed that Luján had lived on the Rito de los Frijoles grant from 1814 until her death, leaving it to her descendants, who were still living on and occupying the tract. The petition named twelve heirs as follows:

Children of José Francisco Salas (C1a1), deceased:

1.     David Salas (aka Dario Salas) (C1a1a)

2.     Inez Salas (C1a1b)

3.     Unknown Salas, with Tomás Salas as agent (most likely referring to José Francisco’s minor children, Nicolás (C1a1c) and José de la Cruz (C1a1d))

Children of Anastacia Salas (C1a2),[ii] deceased:

4.     Miguel Salas (C1a2a)

5.     Anselmo Salas (C1a2b)

6.     Felipe Salas (C1a2c)

7.     Donaciano Salas (C1a2d)

Children of Guadalupe Salas (C1a3), deceased:

8.     Rafael Salas (C1a3a)

9.     Juan Salas (C1a3b)

10.  Domingo Salas (C1a3c)

11.  Tomás Salas (C1a3d)

12.  Simona Salas (C1a3e)

Antonia Rosa Luján’s other children, Juan de Jesús (C1a4), Rafael (C1a5), Dominga (C1a6) and Miguel Antonio (C1a7) do not appear in this petition. The petitioners argued that their occupancy of the land for so great a length of time without any adverse claims was equivalent to possession of a valid title, despite the lack of original title papers. The added complication was that the boundaries of the grant were uncertain because of the absence of documentation. The petitioners stated that they had the ability to prove the grant’s boundaries, which had been well known for more than half a century as follows: on the north, the Pedro Sánchez land grant (already confirmed by the surveyor general as the Ramón Vigil land grant); on the east, the Rio del Norte; on the west, the Rocky Mountains; and on the south, the Cañada de Cochiti grant. The original petition of Pedro Sánchez described the southern boundary of his requested lands as the “lands of Captain Andrés Montoya,” thereby providing evidence that the Rito de los Frijoles grant had been acknowledged as a valid claim as early as 1742. The petitioners were unable to state the size of the grant as it had never been surveyed, but presented a sketch map to give an idea of its shape and location.

Sketch Map of Rito de Los Frijoles Grant, 1872

Surveyor General Proudfit questioned one witness, Manuel Hurtado,[iii] regarding the history of the tract and its boundaries on November 26, 1872. Inexplicably, no further action was taken for nearly a decade.

Continued in Part 2.

Note: the information regarding the history of the grant can be found in the New Mexico State Archives, Land Grant Case Files, Court of Private Land Claims Case No. 41 and Survey General Report No. 133.

[i] Cachupín was governor of New Mexico from 1749-1754 and again from 1762-1767, so the grant could have been made in either of these time periods.

[ii] The petition mistakenly recorded the name as ‘Anastacio’ Salas. Anastacia Salas and Manuel Chávez were the parents of these four children.

[iii] Likely Manuel de los Reyes Hurtado (b. 28 February 1794), an heir to the Cañada de Cochiti land grant.