by J. J. Bowden
On January 9, 1872 the inhabitants of the Towns of Candelarios, Los Griegos, Los Gallegos, Los Pueblanos, Los Ranchos and El Rancho petitioned[1] Surveyor General T. Rush Spencer, seeking the confirmation of their grants. They alleged that sometime during the latter part of the Sixteenth Century the Spanish government granted and conceded to their ancestors, who were the original founders of such towns, grants covering all of the lands lying between the lands of the Towns of Alameda and Albuquerque and extending from the tops of the mountains on the east to the ceja separating the Rio Grande and Rio Puerco on the west. They stated that the papers evidencing the issuance of the grants had been lost or destroyed, but they would be able to prove that the land had been occupied for more than a hundred years. The claimants obviously hoped to sustain their claim on theory that each town in existence at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was entitled to four square leagues of land surrounding the town by operation of law. For some unexplained reason, no further action was taken to secure the recognition of this claim.
[1] The Town of Candelarios Grant, No. F‑99 (Ms. Records of the S.G.N.M.).
Town of Candelarios Grant; J.J. Bowden's research on land grants in the southwest