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

Second Petition to Formalize the Grant (1881-1890)

The claimants’ new lawyers (one of whom was Amado Chávez)[1] filed a second petition with Surveyor General Henry M. Atkinson on March 19, 1881, restating the facts of the case and providing another sketch map of the tract with rough distances. The claimants’ lawyers filed a brief summarizing the findings of the surveyor general’s investigation and showing that legal precedents set by a similar case in California allowed the confirmation of grants based on secondary evidence even when specific boundaries were not named. Three days later, Tomás Salas (C1a3d) testified as a witness before the surveyor general regarding the grant’s ownership, history and boundaries.

Sketch Map of Rito de los Frijoles Grant, 1872

Again, there is no record of any action taken regarding the petition for almost two years. Then, between January 11th and November 17th of 1883, many of the heirs and claimants of Antonia Rosa Luján (C1a) sold their shares of the Rito de los Frijoles grant to Robert H. Longwill (See Exhibit 1). Longwill was a probate judge in Colfax County and a member of the infamous “Santa Fe Ring.”[2] Around the same time, a third witness, Antonio José Lucero,[3] testified in the case before the Surveyor General. In addition to confirming the claims of the other two witnesses, Lucero stated that Antonia Rosa Luján had on several occasions brought the original papers to the home of his grandfather, Juan Domingo Salas,[4] so that he could read them to her. This fact provided additional evidence regarding the authenticity of the documents.

Exhibit 1: Deeds of Sale to Robert H. Longwill from Heirs of Antonia Rosa Luján

Date	Grantors	Price
11 Jan 1883	Tomás Salas (C1a3d), María Inés García (spouse)	$100
17 Jan 1883	Miguel Antonio Salas (C1a7), Rosaria Salas de Aragon (C1a7b), Cornelia Salas (C1a7a)	$300
18 Jan 1883	María Inés Salas (C1a1b)	$75
19 Jan 1883	Nicolás Salas (?)	$75
10 Feb 1883	Juan de Jesús Salas (C1a4), María Dolores González (spouse)	$275
19 Feb 1883	Francisca Salas (C1a5(2)e), Juana María González (mother)	$1
19 Feb 1883	Juan Nepomuceno Salas (C1a5(2)d), Ruperta Lucero (spouse)	$50
19 Feb 1883	Paula Salas de Lucero (C1a5(2)c)	$1
9 Mar 1883	Vicente Salas (C1a5(2)b)	$50
10 Nov 1883	Juan Tomás Leyba (guardian), Juliana Leyba (C1a5(2)f1), Paula Leyba (C1a5(2)f2)	$57
10 Nov 1883	Faustina Trujillo de Salas (guardian), Gregorio Salas (C1a5(2)a1)	$58
17 Nov 1883	María Inés Salas (C1a1b, guardian), Nicolás Salas (C1a1c), Cruz Salas (C1a1d)	$300
	TOTAL	$1,342

Surveyor General Atkinson issued his opinion on March 14, 1883. He noted that José Antonio Salas’ petition and Friar Antonio Caballero’s certification could not be authenticated. However, he deemed Antonia Rosa Luján’s 1814 petition to be genuine based on a comparison of Governor Manrique’s signature with other documents found in the Spanish Archives. Oral testimony showed that Luján and her descendants had been in continuous occupation of the land and largely agreed on the grant’s boundaries. The only discrepancy was how far west the boundary extended, which Atkinson determined could be addressed by questioning additional witnesses at the time of conducting the survey. Seeing that no other parties claimed the land within the boundaries described, Atkinson approved the claim and ordered the case transmitted to Congress. Deputy Surveyor General John Shaw conducted a survey in June 1883. On May 6, 1884, Atkinson ordered a corrected survey to address a discrepancy regarding the northern boundary. Two days later, Tomás Salas (C1a3d) and José Antonio Lucero provided sworn testimony on the boundaries of the grant, and the total area surveyed was 23,022.83 acres.[5] Six years later, in the package of documents forwarded to Congress, the Commissioner of the General Land Office noted the quantity of land claimed by the petitioners was approximately 4,500 acres. He recommended that Congress consider granting approval for only this amount.[6] The US Department of Interior referred the claim to the Senate Committee on Private Land Claims on August 15, 1890. However, there is no record of any action by Congress in the case file.

Petition to the Court of Private Land Claims (1892-1894)

On October 19, 1892, George N. Fletcher filed a petition with the Court of Private Land Claims (CPLC) for the Rito de los Frijoles grant on behalf of himself and the heirs and legal representatives of Antonia Rosa Luján. It appears he had acquired the property by purchasing the shares previously owned by Robert H. Longwill. US Attorney Matt G. Reynolds refuted all the evidence submitted, calling on the court to reject the claim in his opinion filed on June 21, 1893. Fletcher’s attorneys filed an amended petition with the CPLC on July 25, 1894. The only change appeared to be that Fletcher claimed the entirety of the grant as sole proprietor, although no deeds of sale are part of the case record.

On September 15, 1894, Robert B. Willison, a surveyor, testified regarding the conflicts in boundaries among the Rito de los Frijoles, Cañada de Cochiti, and Borrego Spring grants. Therefore, Mr. Fletcher asked for Joel P. Whitney and Amado Cabeza de Baca to be made defendants in his case before the court. Later that afternoon, the trial began. The plaintiff’s attorneys called William M. Tipton as a witness to authenticate all of the documents they had submitted. They next questioned Mr. Willison, who gave testimony regarding the topography, landmarks and boundaries of the Rito de los Frijoles grant and other grants in the area. The March 1883 testimony of Antonio José Lucero was then read into the record, followed by questioning of Mr. Tipton by the government on the topography and locations of geographic features in the area. Lastly, the defense read into the record the testimony of Tomás Salas (C1a3d) from March 1881 and his affidavit of June 1883.

Justice Wilbur F. Stone delivered the opinion of the court on September 27, 1894. The claim was rejected for the following reasons: there was no documentary evidence of the original grant; the approval of Governor Manrique for Antonia Rosa Luján to occupy the land in 1814 could only be construed as permission to use the land, not a grant or title that could be passed on after her death; and there were no boundaries for the grant defined in any paper or document, only oral testimony. Mr. Fletcher asked the court to allow him to file an appeal with the US Supreme Court, which was granted on March 26, 1895. On December 9, 1895, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal as the appellants had failed to have their cause filed and docketed in accordance with the rules of the court. It does not appear that any further appeals were filed for the grant.

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.

[1] Amado Chávez was a claimant under the Cañon de San Diego land grant.

[2] The Santa Fe Ring was a group of powerful politicians, attorneys, and land speculators in territorial New Mexico.

[3] He was Jose Antonio Salas’ nephew, the son of Domingo Antonio Lucero and María Ignacia de Jesús Salas

[4] Juan Domingo Salas was Antonia Rosa Luján’s father-in-law.

[5] The records of the two surveys are not located in the Surveyor General Report File #33. The amount quoted here is found in the package of papers forwarded to the Senate Committee on Private Land Claims in August 1890.

[6] Senate 51st Congress, 1st Session, Executive Document No. 212, August 15, 1890.