by J. J. Bowden
Pinito Pino instituted suit[1] against the United States in the Court of Private Land Claims on March 2 1893, in an effort to obtain the recognition of the Hacienda del Alamo Grant under which he claimed an interest by inheritance and purchase. He alleged that the grant had been given to Jose Reano by the Spanish officials sometime before 1714. He described the grant as follows:
Commencing at the point of Pena Blanca; thence in a southerly direction about eight miles and through Bonanza and Cerrito de Piedra to a point called San Marcos; thence easterly along and through the Canada de Chacuaco to and over the Chacuaco Mountains a distance of some ten miles; thence northwesterly some eight miles to about where the roads to Los Cerrillos diverges from the road leading from Santa Fe to La Bajada; thence westerly some four miles along the road to Pena Blanca.
He estimated that the grant contained 50,000 acres of land. Pino stated that the testimonio of the grant had been lost or destroyed and, notwithstanding a diligent search of the archives, he had not been able to locate the expediente. However, he pointed out that it was notorious that the archives were incomplete. To substantiate is claim, he submitted a number of documents containing recitals which tended to indicate that a grant had been made to Reano. The principal ones were the title papers in the Francisco de Anaya Almazan Grant which called for the Rancho de los Alamos[2] as its southern boundary and Archive No. 762 which mentions the grant in connection with the settlement of Reano’s estate. The government filed a general answer and a motion to make a great number of persons, who claimed adverse interests under either conflicting grants or entries under the public land laws, parties’ defendant.
The case came up for trial on May 4, 1897, and was postponed until the 28th, at which time the plaintiff’s attorney withdrew. The court issued an order giving the plaintiff until the last day of the term, June 2, 1897, within which to make an appearance. Since the plaintiff failed to appear and prosecute his claim, the court issued an order on June 2, 1897, rejecting the grant and dismissing the action.[3]
[1] Pino v. United States, No. 155 (Mss., Records of the Ct. Pvt. L. CI.).
[2] This reference appears to have been to the Maes and Gallego Grant, not to the Hacienda del Alamo Grant.
[3] 3 Journal 261 Mss., Records of the Ct. Pvt. L. Cl.).
Hacienda del Alamo Grant; J.J. Bowden's research on land grants;