The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937 Page: 70

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

it should be noted that their difficulties were not a direct result
of the Mexican grant, but rather were a consequence of the con-
nivance of an unfaithful public servant with unscrupulous land-
grabbers.
The Nolan grant dates from December 1, 1843.32 The report
of the Surveyor-General of New Mexico, made on request of the
heirs of Gervacio Nolan and pursuant to the act of Congress of
July 22, 1854, was rendered on October 8, 1861, and was transmit-
ted to Congress by the Secretary of the Interior on May 12, 1862.33
This report, approving the grant, stated that the tract was not
limited as to quantity; that possession was delivered by a justice
of the peace, who went upon the land and pointed out to Nolan
the boundaries named in the grant; that no boundaries were
actually set up, no survey made, and no segregation from the public
domain "as required in order to constitute juridical possession."3'
This grant was finally confirmed on July 1, 1870, being held
subject to the Mexican colonization law of 1824, as in the case of
the Vigil-St. Vrain grant, and therefore limited to eleven square
leagues. It was stipulated, also, that
the exterior lines of said claim of eleven leagues as confirmed by
this act shall be adjusted according to lines of the public surveys as
near as practicable, but in compact form, and the claims of all
actual settlers falling within the limits of the located claim above
referred to shall be adjusted to the extent which will embrace their
several settlements upon their several claims being established
either as pre-emptions or as homesteads according to law, and
for the aggregate of the arears [areas] of claims so established
under the pre-emption or homestead acts, the heirs of said Nolan,
or their legal representatives, shall be entitled to locate a like
quantity of public lands, not mineral, according to the lines of
the public surveys, and not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres
in one section: Provided, That such location shall be made within
the bounds of the original grant by the order of Cornelio Vigil to
Gervacio Nolan.35
"Decisions of the Department of the Interior Relative to Public Land
Claims, IV, 311.
"United States Statutes at Large, XVI, 646.
"84Decisions of the Department of the Interior Relative to Public Land
Claims, IV, 311-313.
"United States Statutes at barge, XVI, 646. Cornelio Vigil, who as
an official of the Mexican Government certified this grant to Gervacio
Nolan, was himself one of the recipients of the Vigil-St. Vrain grant.