OCR Text |
Show r 4 vt whe Shctct two Peres De het War tes re tigt re re toete leint eR? eee drei tS OE? e toe ae ie: VAG Tei etd tyRae fat Bee Be TOEae aa late tet Ble Ata ee a A SAS A GPA DFS ATS J S UIIG IE SACRA ME DOSE DAG PTA ES Ie be ra Pee a REG S a re hee Chi ea *_*,# * ded nt ee ee ME a et ee eS ae ee sy E tip C oe ~ xii * ce Pea tea eS PS a5 4 ed Pee eaten tie RO Iae O - Peat u res A "hy - e Ot MOE Re ERS ER aere 3 34 AE Par HaatSys Bi baa : bad eet ry i 2 we i. C3 A war Care ae we THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OF NEW MEXICO Immediately the surveyor-general began the performance of his duties, but, as appears from the report of the commissioner of the general land office, the people of New Mexico were averse to responding to the call of the surveyor-general to produce their title papers to lands in the Territory, ‘‘some for fear of losing the evidence of their titles, inspired, it is supposed, by designing 1ndividuals. ”’ ‘‘Tn many instances,’’ says the commissioner, ‘‘the Pueblo Indians have been deterred from filing their title papers with the surveyor-general, in the apprehension they would never again get possession of them. ‘‘Others, conscious of an indisputable possessory right of landed estates, feel perfectly secure on the subject and do not care to exhibit, much less file, their title papers, for the purpose of enabling the surveyor-general to report upon the claims to Congress for confirmation under the Act of July 22, 1854.”’ Pelham continued as surveyor-general until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he endeavored to make his escape from New Mexico in company with the army of Confederate invaders under the command of General H. H. Sibley, but was captured by General Canby near Alburquerque at the time of the inglorious retreat of the Texans in 1862. Thereafter and for more than a quarter of a century the surveyor-general’s office was engaged in the investigation of these private land claims, during which time, up to and including the year 1880, according to the report of the secretary of the interior, ‘‘after a lapse of nearly thirty years, more than one thousand claims have been filed with the surveyor-general, of which less than PREFATORY NOTE xiil one hundred and fifty have been reported to Congress, and of the number so reported, Congress has finally acted upon seventy-one. The construction of railroads through New Mexico and Arizona, and the consequent influx of population in those Territories, render it imperatively necessary that these claims should be finally settled with the least possible delay. I have, therefore, the honor to recommend that the attention of Congress be called especially to the subject, with a view to securing action upon the claims pending before it, and upon the pending bill providing for the settlement of the remaining claims. ‘‘On June 30, 1880, patents had been issued by the government for 4,456,158.43 acres of private land claims in New Mexico and Colorado; the largest grant for 1,714,764.94 acres, and the smallest for 1,720 acres. ‘“There were on the above mentioned date forty-six claims for private land grants in New Mexico and Colorado, containing an area of 4,675,173.57 acres pending in the general land office for patents, and on that date there were pending sixty private land claims in the same area for confirmation by Congress, embracing an area, So far as the same has been surveyed, of 4,294,627.- 475 acres. ‘This condition of affairs continued until the estab- lishment of the Court of Private Land Claims in 1891, which court began its official functions by a formal organization at Denver, Colorado, July 1, 1891, and ceased, by operation of law, June 30, 1904.” During the thirty-seven years of investigations of these private land claims by the several surveyors-general, lawyers and other interested persons became en- |