assessments, Garcia had the most valued improvements of all rancheros along 

 the coast to his south and west, from Point Reyes to the Golden Gate. The 

 value of his personal estate, however, was comparatively low, being $11,700, 

 indicating that Garcia's wealth lay in his land, its structures and his livestock. 

 The total valuation came to $44,700, a considerable sum for the times. By 

 1854, Garcia's total property valuation had dropped to $38,315, more than half 

 of it directly based on the assessment of 8,800 acres. The rancho still remained 

 intact, however, and supported a variety of livestock, including 200 wild cattle, 

 150 tame California cattle, 20 tame California horses and mares, 12 wild horses, 

 three mules and various pigs, sheep and goats. These numbers reflected only a 

 fraction of Garcia's vast property during his years under Mexican rule. 41 



Garcia's land, then, contained the key to his future, and on March 23, 

 1852, only months after the Land Commissioners began their sessions, he filed 

 his claim for Rancho Tomales y Baulines. Between litigation before the Land 

 Commission and the District Court, the claim was not confirmed until October 

 19, 1858. The following year Garcia entered a law suit against Oscar Shafter, et 

 al., San Francisco attorneys who, by 1858, had acquired all of the Point Reyes 

 peninsula and who had their eyes on Garcia's land. The legal battle dragged on 

 for six years, draining Garcia of what capital he had at his disposal. Garcia had 

 evidently gained experience in the American legal system earlier in the 1850s, 

 for his name appears frequently on a list of plaintiffs who sued in District 

 Court. Garcia, in fact, filed a suit each year from 1852 to 1856. 



Garcia's biggest day in court occurred on March 9, 1864, as he defended 

 his ownership of Tomales y Baulines. U. S. Deputy Surveyor R. C. Matthewson 

 had redrawn the boundaries of the west Marin ranches, cutting more than 

 13,000 acres off of the original Berry grant which he considered to be 

 improperly defined at the time it had been claimed. The Shatters, who owned 

 the Berry grant, wanted Garcia's land as their due, citing the loss of the 13,000 

 acres, and claimed that Berry's acquiescence was a forgery. By this time, 

 Garcia had already sold much of his land, and his lawyer A. T. Willson pleaded 

 for the threatened Garcia and his landholders. Judge Ogden Hoffman, after 

 hearing from the parties involved, ruled in Garcia's favor. The next year Garcia 

 received a survey plat to his rancho which contained 9,467.77 acres, 605 acres 

 more than that confirmed to him by the 1858 validation of his title. Never ones 



41 Marin County Assessments, Vol.1, 1851, and Vol. 2, 1854, Bancroft Library; Munro-Fraser, 

 Marin County, pp. 177-178. 



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