April 18, 1864: Patent: Combined Ranch: Manuel Larios et. al received final signature
v.1 p.23
1854-11-07: Bolado/Arques suit: Board of Land Commissioners: Anzar heirs substituted as claimants
Tuesday, November 7, 1854: Per the Joaquin Bolado/JG Arques suit:
BEFORE THIS DATE Juan Miguel Anzar's will entered probate
Abstract: v.2 p.237, 252 (it was documented as actually happening 2/3/1853 or 2/23 – Abstract v.2 p. 171)
ON THIS DATE, devisees were substituted as claimants by the Board of Land Commissioners with Manuel Larios – 11/7/1854:
The Board of Land Commissioners:
The joint Larios/Anzar claim (Rancho Santa Ana y Quien Sabe) was bounded: commencing at the northwest corner of a place called El Lomito del Corral Viejo (lomito means little hill) and running thence easterly towards the Cañada (gorge) des Pecachos in the line of the place called San Joaquin (Later entries say Rancho San Felipe; Abstact v.2 p.240) to the base of the range of the mountain called Quien Sabe, thence along the base of said mountains southerly to the Arroyo de Joaquin Soto, thence down said arroyo to its junction with the stream called Arroyo del Puerto del Rosario. Thence down said stream to a crossing of wagon Road to San Juan and thence by a place called Loma de en Media (?) to the place of beginning.
And said land was confirmed as one undivided half to Larios and the other undivided half to the Anzar heirs. (The 1848 Partition was disregarded). Abstract v.2 p. 238
Appeal was made to the District Court of the US in the Southern District, it was pending and undecided until 12/12/1856.
Abstract v.2 p. 238-9
1851-03-03: Congress sets up Board of Land Commissioners to judge private claims
"Following the discovery of gold in California in 1848, thousands of prospectors trespassed on Californio land and demanded the land for themselves. To determine the validity of Spanish and Mexican land grants in California, Congress set up a Board of Land Commissioners. Unless grantees presented in two years evidence supporting their title, the property would automatically pass into the public domain. Although the Land Commission eventually confirmed 604 of 813 claims, the cost of litigation forced most Californios to lose their lands. Government attorneys appealed 417 claims (out of 813). It appealed some claims as many as six times. Appeals dragged out land cases for an average of seventeen years."
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/mexican_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=69
In California, Congress, by the acts of March 3, 1851, June 14, 1860, July 1, 1864, and July 23, 1866, provided machinery for the ascertainment and settlement of these claims, which has resulted in their final confirmation or rejection and in their subsequent segregation from the adjacent public lands. Questions of title were settled by the Federal courts, and authority to segregate claims judicially confirmed was vested in the proper executive officers of the United States.
