No rural district of California was more highly improved than this,
and but a very small portion equal to it.
The title to "Soscol," before its rejection by the United States
Supreme Court, was considered the very best in all California. All the
really valuable agricultural land in California was held under Mexican
grants, and, as a consequence, all had to pass the ordeal of the Land
Commission.
From 1853 to about 1860 very few had been finally passed upon by
the courts, so that during that time the question for the farmer to
decide was not what title is perfect, but what title is most likely to
prove so by the final judgment of the Supreme Court.
Amongst the very best, in the opinion of the public, stood "Soscol."
One conclusive, unanswerable proof of that fact is this, that there
was not a single settler on the grant at the time it was rejected. Not
one person on it, except in subordination to the Vallejo title. Every
resident on the whole tract held his land by purchase from Vallejo,
or his assigns, and held just precisely the land so purchased, and
not one acre more or less. This fact was not even disputed during the
whole eight months of investigation through which we have just passed.
It is a notorious fact that of the grants in California which have
stood the test of the Supreme Court, very many have been entirely
in the possession of squatters, and all with more or less of such
possessions, and the final patent has alone succeeded in recovering
the long-lost possession to the grantholder.
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