|
The following is a true account of the struggle of the Colma
pioneers for the possession of the land they occupied and to which
they had rightful title. The legal battle, which finally left them
in undisputed title to their soil, was important, not only to them
but to a large proportion of the land holders in the county.
This narrative is based upon a short historical account of Colma and
the Colma Valley from the pen of Mr. Robert Sheldon Thornton, still
residing at Colma, and fast verging upon his ninety-seventh year.
Mr. Thornton mentions the names of the earliest
settlers who from 1853 to 1860 entered the government lands as
homesteaders. Few of these men are still living, although the names
of most of them are familiar to the older as well as the younger
generations. Charles Clark, James S. Clark, John \V. Locker, A. D.
Willard, J. E. King, J. E. Clebey, A. J. Vanwinkle, Mary Dingman, I.
G. Knowles. M. Hollingsworth, Franklin White, S. S. White, B. S.
Green, Michael Comerford, Robert Patten, William Burley, Sr., Edward
Robson, Hippolito Poleto, A. S. Easton, Jeremiah Smith, Herman
Duncks. James Wood, John S. Colgrove, William T. Prince, John
Cooper. Henry L. White, F. E. Pierce, Edward Burley, Jr., and R. S.
Thornton. Those who settled upon private lands were Patriek Brooks,
James Casey, Sr., Owen McMahorn, Patrick McMahorn and John Gardener.
From 1853 until 1859 the settlers upon these lands
busied themselves in improving their homes, cultivating, fencing and
building houses and barns, when suddenly one morning they were
startled by the sight of surveyors upon their premises trampling
their crops. The surveyors pretended that these lands belonged to
the Laguna Merced Rancho, at that time an almost worthless waste.
The Government had given them patents to all these
lands and they felt secure in their rights, yet there followed one
of the most unjust litigations that has ever been known in the
history of the State. The settlers of course, filed protests in
writing to the General Land Office at Washington, D. C. against the
encroachment on their lands, whereupon their opponents began suits
of ejectment in the State Courts. This necessitated the organization
of the Settlers' into a club called the "North San Mateo Settlers'
Union," for the purpose of defending their rights in the State
Courts in the protection of their homes. The Club selected Mr. R. S.
Thornton as their legal fighting man to prosecute the cases in the
Federal and State Courts and endowed him with power of attorney to
fight the cases, to the best of his ability and judgment, for the
interest of all concerned. Mr. Thornton then entered into the hard
task of fighting against rich capitalists, who had ejected him and
his clients from their homes and merely wanted to steal their lands.
He spent the principal part of his time for six years scouring the
country for testimony, and attended strictly to the courts and land
departments, going back and forth to Washington to look closely into
all matters, so that the record should not be tampered with in the
Supreme Court. The Attorney General warned him that it was war time
in Washington and sometimes it has been known that slick thief
writers have tampered with the record papers.
The decision of the State Supreme Court, which was
rendered against the settlers, was a hard blow. The different
members of the club then pledged themselves to fight it out legally
first, but if not able to do so legally, to defend their rights
regardless of the means employed and the consequences. They asked
the court for an injunction to- stay State Supreme Court judgment
until the Federal Court had determined the question of the
encroachment of the surveys of the Laguna Merced Rancho on their
lands.
When this injunction was denied, the settlers prepared
for war, and at once secured through a friend, seventy-five Kentucky
rifles, a four-pounder brass cannon, with grape and canister-shot
and plenty of ball cartridges for the rifles. On Mr. Thornton's
160-acre place they fortified a barn by piling the walls high with
sacks of potatoes, and cut port-holes in the walls. A consultation
with judge Crocket, their main attorney, decided them to surrender
possession until the Federal Court had decided the cases.
As soon as their opponents discovered they had given up
the fight, they sent the sheriff on June 6, 1863, supported by a
band of hired roughs from San Francisco, with guns and bayonets, to
take action against the settlers. They appeared early in the morning
at Mr. Knowles' house and ejected him and his family, leaving two
men in possession with their guns for defense. The next day the
Sheriff went to every settler's house and left a gunman in
possession.. The settlers were ordered to move out and leave their
cultivated crops, which were about ready to be harvested. The value
of these crops averaged $1,500 to each 160 acres of land.
There was Mr. Pierce and Mr. Van Winkle who had
acknowledged some lease of the Deharros, who owned some interest in
the ranch, whom the Sheriff concluded not to eject. Therefore, Mr.
Pierce's and Mr. Van Winkle's places were opened to the ejected
settlers for protection. Mr. Charles Clark who was not ejected, also
furnished similar quarters on his place. Most of the settlers
stopped near the outskirts of the land until the Federal Court had
determined the cases. Mr. Knowles purchased the two acres of land
which is now called Hillcrest, and built a cow barn and dwelling
house which still stand on that high point.
All this time Mr. Thornton was pushing these cases in
the United States District Court, and finally secured a decision by
that Court in the settlers' favor, that the survey encroaching on
them was wrong, and ordered them to take the old survey of the ranch
made in 1853. This decision left the settlers' land outside of that
survey. Soon after, David Mahoney, the man put forward by the
capitalists, filed. affidavits of fraud, and it took about six
months to rebut these charges. The court held there was no fraud
proven, although reversing its first decision by altering the
survey, so it took in most of their lands again. The judge
announced, however, in the last words of his decision that it
afforded him much satisfaction to feel that the decision was subject
to a review by a higher tribunal, where any errors into which lie
had fallen would be corrected. This decision was made on July 25,
1863.
Mr. Thornton immediately entered an appeal to the
Supreme Court of the United States, and sailed. on the steamer
Sonora for Washington on the 23rd of October, 1863, arriving in
Washington November 19, 1863. He then fought the case' through the
Supreme Court and on the 15th day of December, 1865 had the
satisfaction of obtaining a unanimous verdict rendered in favor of
his clients and himself, thereby establishing their titles as good
titles from the United States. He arrived back in California with
the titles and the final decree of the Supreme Court on May 24,
1866. The owners then commenced taking possession of their homes
which their opponents had occupied for three years without ever
paying damages or rents for their lands.
Home |
|
