Table of Contents
THE SANCHEZ FILE, Chapter Seven
The Squatters
In asking for the sale of cattle, Head cited the problem
with squatters. Because of the immense size of the Sanchez ranchos it was
impossible for the vaqueros to stop the squatters from killing the cattle.
In the early days the owner of a rancho did not mind if a hungry traveler
killed a steer for his dinner without paying for it. The traveler was only
required to leave the hide where the owner could find it. The hide was
valuable, the meat was not. As the demand for meat increased this practice
ended.
American squatters had no hesitancy of moving on to land
owned by others,
building a cabin, damming up the streams, and stealing
the owner's cattle. From the profit of their illegal activities they hired
lawyers to challenge the owner of the Mexican land grant before the U.S.
Land Commissioners, established by Congress to decide ownership of the
Mexican land grants.
The squatters knew that if they held on to the land for
fourteen months, they had a good chance of claiming ownership to at least
a part of it. The Preemption Act of 1841 allowed settlers to buy 160 acres
of public land at the bargain price of $1.25 an acre.
Mexican land grants that were rejected became public land.
To secure title a squatter had to build a cabin and work the fields for
the fourteen months.
For the Mexican owner, the process of getting a patent
to his land took years. Even those who won their cases had to sell land
to pay their expensive American attorneys.
Because the three Sanchez land grants were in probate
and the original claimant was dead, squatters felt they had a better chance
of keeping what they had appropriated.
The Blacksmith, William Clark
June 27, 1953
The inventory that Head filed a month earlier showing
the estate was worth over $300 thousand bothered Henry Sanford. Head's
bond was still only $100 thousand. If Head continued to dismember the estate
through property sales and absconded with the funds the family could collect
only $100 thousand; assuming Head's bondsmen were solvent, which Sanford
doubted. Furthermore, Head had never accounted for the money in his hands
and Judge Merritt didn't seem in any hurry to order one.
Sanford saw his wife's estate and that of her children
slipping away.
He filed a petition on June 27, 1853 asking that Head's
bond be increased to the revised value of the estate. He stated that Head's
present bond of $100 thousand was insufficient to preserve the estate from
waste, mismanagement and destruction. Merritt ordered Head to increase
his bond to $300 thousand. It would be one of the few times he ever ruled
in favor of the estate, but Merritt couldn't ignore the law.
It was a small victory but Sanford knew he would have
to come up with solid
evidence of fraud against the estate . Two months later
he thought he had found it. He asked that Head be summoned to a hearing
on charges of fraud. Merritt granted it.
At the hearing on July 2, 1853 attorneys for the estate
presented evidence against William Clark, a friend of Roach and an ex-member
of the New York Volunteers.
Clark had submitted a claim to Head for $3,300 for work
as the blacksmith on the rancho for three years. Sanford did not believe
any man would have gone that long without getting paid and decided the
claim should be investigated.
He knew the blacksmith had once worked for John Gilroy
on his rancho and
Sanford went to him for information on Clark's background.
Gilroy gave Sanford a deposition to present to the probate court.
Gilroy's Deposition
In 1845 or 46, William Clark was working with
me on my ranch in the blacksmith shop on an equal share basis. He had been
at work about 18 months when Jose Maria Sanchez came to the shop and induced
Clark to leave the shop and go to his rancho and live with him. Sanchez
said he would do better by him than he was doing with me.
Clark went to live with Sanchez and remained with him
for about a year and a half and then went away and remained gone about
a year and returned to Sanchez. Then about a year ago he left again and
was gone about three or four months and returned a second time and remained
with Sanchez until Sanchez died.
During the last absence Sanchez came to my farm to look
for him and said that Clark was indebted to him for $3000. When Clark returned
he acknowledged that he was in debt to Sanchez and that he would go to
Sanchez and work the debt out, for Sanchez had always been a kind, good
man to him and treated him more like a father than otherwise.
signed: John Gilroy
Clark's frequent absence from the Sanchez rancho was the
result of
his drinking. Sanford wondered how Clark could have a
claim against
the estate for $3,300, when Clark had acknowledged to
Gilroy he owed
the estate money. Sanford asked Clark to meet him at
the office of
James McMahon, the 30 year old justice of the peace at
San Juan.
McMahon later testified what happened that day in August
of 1853:
McMahon’s Testimony
Clark and Sanford came into my office. It was
obvious that Clark had been drinking as the effects had not yet worn off.*
He admitted to us that his $3300 claim was false and that he knew it was
wrong. He had only done it at the instigation of others.
Sanford told Clark he would have to sign an affidavit
before me admitting the claim was false.
Clark said, "they will shoot me if I do."
Sanford and Clark then went into another room, leaving
me alone. After awhile the two men came back and Sanford told me to administer
the oath to Clark, that he was ready to sign the affidavit that his claim
was false.
Clark said he needed a drink, but Sanford told him he
had to keep sober until he made the affidavit. After the document had been
signed Sanford gave Clark some money to pay his passage on the stage and
Sanford left with the signed affidavit.
James McMahon,
Justice of the Peace
*Note that McMahon did not use the word "hangover" to
describe the effects of Clark's drinking. Hangover was not used until 1894.
The fear Clark had of being shot was real and illustrates
the lawlessness that prevailed in California at that time.
Bancroft wrote, "Ancient belligerents, each having sworn
to kill his enemy on sight, would stroll about the street with eyes and
ears on the alert, with hand on pistol-hilt, and on coming together both
would draw and fire as rapidly as possible, neither of them speaking a
word."
Clark’s Fears
After Clark sobered up he felt terrible, not so much from
the drinking, but from the realization he had signed his own death warrant
by telling Sanford the estate was being defrauded. His life now wasn't
worth a cent. Men had been killed for a lot less than he had done. And
he had done it to the most powerful figures in Monterey County.
Two weeks went by and nothing happened. Even the silence
worried Clark. Finally he heard that Sanford had given Judge Merritt the
affidavit he had signed and that Merritt had issued an order to Head not
to pay the claim. Clark realized he had to do something in a hurry. He
came up with an idea. It was risky, but he could think of nothing else.
He would make up a story that Merritt and Head might believe. Both men
knew he did stupid things when he was drunk. Clark went to the judge and
gave him this version of the meeting with Sanford.
Yes, he had signed the affidavit that his claim was false,
but Sanford had got him so drunk he did not know what he was signing and
was in no condition to know anything.
It was Clark's lucky day and his tale was believed by
Judge Merritt, who said he would reinstate Clark's claim. A new petition
was drawn up for Clark to sign:
The Petition
On or about 18th of August 1853, Henry L. Sanford did
by undue and unlawful influence, by threatening and intoxicating him, made
him sign an affidavit that deponent had no legal claims against the estate
of Jose Maria Sanchez.
On the presentation of that affidavit your honor ordered
the administrator, Samuel C. Head, not to pay your petitioner the amount
your honor had previously ordered to be paid.
Petitioner did not sign the affidavit of his own free
will, and if he did, he was in an improper condition to know what he was
doing. Petitioner requests court to place his claim once again to the administrator
as a lawful claim and to issue an order that may protect him, your petitioner,
from the intrigues and fraud
which have been practiced upon him.
Signed: William Clark
Petitioner
Sanford, not knowing the claim had been reinstated, went
to Head and gave him a copy of the judge's order stopping payment to Clark,
This is what transpired according to testimony given later by one Frances
Ripley.
Q. Did you or not hear a conversation between
Sanford and Captain Clark in reference to a claim against the estate of
Jose Maria Sanchez, and if so state the purpose of that conversation.
A. I was present with Sanford when he notified Captain
Head that Clark had made an affidavit that the estate of Jose Maria Sanchez
owed him nothing and that Captain Head replied, "Very good, sir. I shall
not pay him. You are just in time."
Head was lying. He had already asked Judge Merritt to authorize
two payments to Clark totaling $2000.
Even a deposition from a man by the name of Andrew Colthen,
who knew Clark, had no effect in the probate court.
Some days after Sanchez died I was with Clark
at his blacksmith shop. Clark told me that he did not know what he would
do, that he had no means of making a living. I asked him if the estate
owed him anything and Clark said no. He was perfectly sober when he said
this.
At the hearing Head denied all the charges against him. Judge
Merritt ruled in favor of Head and ordered the estate to pay Head's court
costs of $233.
Sanford now knew it was impossible for his wife and her
children to get any justice in Monterey County.
Head continued as administrator showing no inclination
to wind up the affairs of the estate. Reasons were always found to file
new motions of one sort or the other. Another thing that helped Head and
Roach was that the probate court did not meet for months at a time.
Chapter Eight