80 POINT LOBOS RESERVE 



All this time, durinji' the Mexican period, it is certain that cattle raising 

 was carried on in the Point Lobos area. Escobar's grant, in 1839, specifi- 

 cally mentions cattle grazing. 



The annexation of California by the United States, in 1848, resulted 

 in the setting up of a land commission to review all private claims in Cali- 

 fornia. Thus it was that Jose Castro filed his petiton as claimant to the 

 Eancho San Jose y Sur Chiqnito on February 2, 1853. The Board of Land 

 Commissioners rendered a decree rejecting Castro's claim on August 28, 

 1855, thereby rendering invalid, seemingly, the original claim of 1839. 

 Castro's claim was appealed to the United States District Court, where it 

 remained for years in doubt. 



Almost a year before the rejection of the Castro claim by the United 

 States Land Commission, General Castro sold his claim to Joseph S. Emery 

 and Abner Bassett for $750. It was they who were to carry on the fight 

 for the rancho. Before the final decision of the court, Bassett died, in 1874, 

 leaving his estate to his wife and eight children. The undivided one-half 

 of the 8,818.56-acre Kancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito, claimed by Bassett 's 

 heirs, was appraised at $15,000. 



Thus far, the title claim to the Escobar grant is simple and can be 

 followed without much difficulty. Other claims were put forward at an 

 early date, however, which bade fair to entangle the Castro claim in an 

 impossible maze. Conflicting deeds and squatters' rights all came into the 

 picture. 



The earliest conflicting claim was that of the Escobar heirs. Only two 

 of the children, Juan and Augustin, had deeded the rancho to Dona Josefa 

 de Abrego in 1841. There M'ere other sons and daughters, and later grand- 

 children, who claimed a portion of Don Mareelino's grant. Those heirs 

 agreed, on March 25, 1859, to give to one Delos R. Ashley, an attorney, 

 one-half of the rancho if he would get it back for them. Later, in 1860 

 and 1861, these same heirs sold a portion of what they claimed to Mathew 

 G. Ireland, who had on March 12, 1859, bought a quit claim deed from 

 the Abrego family. December 1, 1877, found one-ninth of the rancho "sold" 

 by the Escobar heirs to Adam Joseph Kopsch. In addition to the above 

 claims, a Sidney S. Johnson claimed that Emery and Bassett had agreed 

 earlier to give him one-third of the rancho. The squatters' claims were 

 almost too numerous to mention. 



Thus, by 1880, when a suit was filed in the United States District Court 

 to settle the respective claims, the following claimed the land : Joseph S. 

 Emery, one-half ; the Bassett Estate, one-half ; Sidney S. Johnson, one- 

 third ; W. Van Dyke, the successor of Kopsch, one-ninth ; the heirs of D. R. 

 Ashley, one-fourth ; W. T. Baggett, who had bought one-half of the Ashley 

 interest, one-fourth ; and Joseph W. Gregg, who had bought the Ireland 

 claim of about 1,000 acres north of San Jose Creek. 



The final agreement, recorded on June 5, 1882, which was subject to the 

 confirmation of the Castro claim by the United States, found the claimants 

 receiving the following percentages : Ashley heirs, one-ninth ; W. T. Bag- 

 gett, one-ninth ; J. S. Emery, two-ninths ; Bassett Estate, two-ninths ; 

 Sidney S. Johnson, two-ninths; and W. Van Dyke, one-ninth. Gregg's 

 claim to the land north of San Jose Creek was later recognized, as were 

 the claims of some 27 others, mostly squatters. 



