LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 31 



Headsputh kept hid watching him, and of course the Dallas horse ran right 

 away from the colt, but Headsputh said nothing and continued to brag 

 about his colt. So the race was made for twenty thousand dollars to be 

 run at Oakland. 



Dallas got all his friends in on this sure thing, and when the race was 

 won and the genuine colt ran away with the race "Old Dallas" cried like a 

 baby. This about broke him, but the people didn't seem to feel sorry for 

 him and I thought this might be payment for all his meanness. 



CHAPTER V. 



Late in the fall I left Stockton for Santa Clara Valley to try farming. 

 I bought the other half interest in the mule team and joined a party of 

 seven men that had leased five hundred acres. I wasn't in partnership with 

 them but had all the work I could do with my team. One of the party went 

 back East and shipped out two thrashing machines, and two McCormick 

 reapers, which were about the first in the valley. I was the only one in the 

 number who understood the machines, as I had had two years experience in 

 the East with them. I put all the machines together, and ran them. One 

 of thfe threshers they sold to Old Jimmie Murphy and they also sold one of 

 the reapers. Threshing was three bits a bushel for barley. We kept busy 

 the entire season, until the rains forced us to stop. 



Speaking about the forty thieves — by the name one would think they 

 really were a band of thieves, but from my acquaintance with most of them 

 I took them to be honorable and upright men, at least those I knew were, 

 such as Isaac Branham, Hon. Houghton Quivey, Capt. Aram, Chas. White, 

 John Kearney and others who stood v/ell in the community. Under the Mex- 

 ican Government certain lands were granted to Pueblo de San Jose in the 

 year 1847, The capital at that time was at Monterey but in 1849, when Cal- 

 ifornia became a state they began to seek a more suitable place as at that 

 time most of the population was in the northern and central part of the 

 state, as the mining interests predominated largely, San Jose was one of 

 the most important places at that time, and it was selected as the proper 

 place. Consequently, there had to be a capitol building erected and certain 

 ones advanced the money for the erection of the building and many other 

 purposes also, and the Legisalture of 1849 and 1850, convened in said Pueblo 

 at that time. Owing to the indebtedness for the erection of the building, 

 the commissioners or the Legislature, I am not sure which, set aside the 

 Pueblo lands to satisfy the claimants and each one was granted five hun- 

 dred acres. It will have to be considered also that land at that time was not 

 very valuable around San Jose. 



The company I was interested with leased from White and Kearney 500 

 acres of this Pueblo land for farming purposes. There were five of us inter- 

 ested in the venture. I speak of it as a venture as it was not well known 

 then, in 1851, that anything could be raised without irrigation. That year 

 demonstrated the fact thoroughly that farming could be done successfully 

 here without irrigation. While living there and seeing so much land lying 

 about loose, the thought struck me that I might have some of it as well as 

 not. Believing myself to be an American citizen, I proceeded to take up and 

 claim a hundred and sixty acres where Milpitas is now situated and built a 



