Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-11-13
A GRACEFUL ACT.

The Central Pacific Railroad Company
has done very graceful thing in the mat
ter Of the town site of the town of Forest
Hill, Placer county. The section upon
which the town stands was returned as
non-mineral, and thus the company came
into lis title of the tract as railroad land.
In the town proper there are $50 subdivis-
ions, varying from lot 25 feet in width to
plats of half, whole acre, and up to six
and seven acres Of land. Upon many of
these there are houses, some of them pre-
tentious structures and of no inconsider-
able value to the possessors. The lands in
the town site were held under possessorv
title by transfer from original possessors.
The company might have preferred its
claim to all these properties, and there
could have been no successful dispute of it.
Indeed, the time for contesting it has gone
by. 1t might have said to the people of
Forest Hill that, for a small consid Grafton
in each case, it would pass its title to
them. There had been no town site laid
under the Federal laws, and there would
have been nothing else for the possessors
to do but to buy of the railroad company
at Its own figures. Even nominal con-
sideration with transfers from the com
pany to each individual would have en-
tailed no inconsiderable expense-the
mere item of notarial fees, where the
three Trustees of the company would have
to acknowledge the instruments, would
have amounted to a large sum in the
aggregate, and have compelled the people
to take much trouble to prove up at San
Francisco their individual rights of pos
session. But the company did not desire
to press its rights or to occasion the people
any annoyance. 1t did not desire to put
them to any expense in the matter, much
less to dispossess them from their holdings
1t resolved to give the $50 subdivisions
absolutely to the holders, or those entitled
to hold. 1t has, therefore, created a trust
In +. u. Adams, well-known citizen of
Placer county, in whom the people have
confidence, and is about to make the
transfer of all the lots of land to him in
trust for the people that he may deed to
them, and thus secure to each an undis-
puted title without any moneyed or valu-
able consideration passing to it. The trust
in Mr.. Adams is so limited and hedged
about by careful provisions, that he cannot
do anything but make the economic trans
fers by grant, according to the plain in
tent and meaning of the gift. Where
there is any dispute whatever, u - he
right of possession of any tract, the r4rties
will have to go into Court and litigat1 he
issue. When the Courts have determ led
to whom the right of possession belongs,
according to the basis of the original hold
ing, the Trustee will deed to whomsoever
the Court DEGREES entitled to the fee in the
land, under the gift of the company. In
this way all matters of possible issue can
be adjusted at home and among the people
themselves. This whole proceeding is IN
derstood to be in accord with the expressed
desires of Governor Stanford, made when
the matter first came up for consideration
by the company, and is an act of broad
equity that the bneficiaries fully appre-
ciate and receive in the same spirit in
which il is extended