The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-05-27
A SKETCH OF EARLY CALIFORNIA
DAVE.

extensive and almost helpless litigation
still hold the rescued property; others,
who at one time lost all their earthly
possessions through the fraudulent
grants, are still living in our midst;
Many years ago, two brothers born and
reared in New Hampshire, one named
Mat F. Graythorn and the other Nat L.
Graythorn, babe each other goodbye, as
il proved for the last time. The first re-
turned to his rocky farm in the White
Mountains, while the second sought
fame, fortune and happiness on the sea
and in foreign lands.
Mat, the elder of the two, devoid OF
energy or worldly ambition, plodded on
in poverty, as his father before him had
done, grumbling at his lot, but never
irving to better it; while Nat, the young
er, after many wanderings, by a strange
freak in the wheel of fortune, found him
self. at last, standed in that land on the
Pacific coast which afterward became
the Golden State. There, being tired OF
wandering, he took a young squaw for a
companion and settled down. Having,
in the easy, indolent life of hunting,
fishing and smoking his greasewood
pipe, found at length his proper level,
he spent the remainder of his days in
what he chose to call comfort After
his death, which occurred in December,
1858, he left worthless little ranch on
the borders of worthless little trading
post, in one of the "cow counties" of
Southern California, to his ignorant
wife and three half-breed children.
In the year 1868, the coming of the
Union Pacific railroad infused new life
into many dead towns, and where lazy
natives had basked in the sunshine, or
had slept in the quiet shade of rough,
dirty, tile-roofed adobe houses, built
generations ago, change, sudden,
startling and marvellous, took place. Old
houses were reno 7ed, streets widened,
Strengthened and extended, and, as if by
magic, large brick blocks and elegant
mansions took the places of the old sun
dried brick abode, while an enterprising,
ambitious American population thronged
the busy thoroughfares. So 1T came to
pass that the small clay ranch where
Mats swarthy wife had so long MIXED
the goats, and raised tobacco, red pep
per and bijou beans, became the bust
ness center of rich seaport city.
In the meantime, away in the ''old
Granite State" among the mountains,
Mat F. Graythorn, grown more com.
planning as the years went by, heard OF
these things, and with envious hatred,
cursed the memory of his brother who
did not will that land to him, instead OF
allowing it, in due course of law, to fall
into the hands of the cOpper-colored
woman, to whom he was never married.
and her dusky children. But, in the
wear of our Lord, 1899, Mat himself paid
the debt of nature, and was buried in
the family graveyard with his ancestors.
Mats children, in the old homestead
after their fathers death, began in ear
nest to try by hook or crook to get claim
upon the coveted California estate.
A lawyer, j. r. Brown, noted for his
shrewdness and lack of principle, was
called upon, and the case in detail lad
before him. Their fathers name, MAI
F. Graythorn, and their uncle's, Nat l.
Graythorn, were in writing very similar;
mark added in the proper manner to
N would transform it to an NJ; another
would then be their fathers.
The crafty attorney quickly saw that
these changes made on the old deed, and
in the county records, would give the
Graythorn's chance to show a clear
title to the land; in the meantime,
memorandum, he said, purportiug to
have been made by their father, CORE.
spending with the old deed in date,
amount of money paid, and number OF
acres bought, could after seeing the Cal
ifornia papers, be easily prepared. The
time-worn look, necessary to make the
deception complete, could easily be man.
aged. A blank leaf from an old book,
written upon with pale ink, would give
a dingy indistinctness very hard to dis
prove. A bargain between the dishonest
legal luminary and the pretending heirs
was soon made, he agreeing to two
thirds of the proceeds to take all the
risks and pay all the expenses.
A journey to the Pacific slope imme-
diately followed. There Brown secured
an assistant, who was not only as crafty
as himself, but more experienced in cor
rupt practices. After all plans were de-
liberately formed, the new accomplice
promptly proceeded to execute their un-
righteous schemes. First, Mats widow,
at her comfortable but unpretentious
home in the suburbs of the beautiful
city, was found, and the information
gained that the deed was long before
destroyed. Next the county court
house was visited, and, after some diff
Guilty, the musty old record book of 80
years before was brought out and the
document in question found. Then,
with pencil and blank card in hand, the
page, color of the ink, date, sum paid,
and number of acres were rapidly jotted
down, the volume was again closed,
and the cunning scoundrel. with a salts
fled CLEAN on his vile face, went his
way.
Some months later, when the former
would probably be forgotten, the same
man again presented himself at the
county seat. In his pocket was a foun-
tain pen filled with ink just the shade of
that in the book; two strokes of that
pen were made, one on the N and the
other across the T, but a moment of
time was consumed, but the name of the
grantee then read Mat f. Graythorn,
party of the second part, instead of Nat
T. Graythorn as before. With a fiend-
ish smile he surveyed his work, and
whispered to himself, How perfect;
that change can never be detected.
Those two marks are worth to me a
thousand dollars EACH" Then, closing
and replacing the book, he remarked
carelessly that he did not find the point
he was searching for, but would call
again. and, thanking the gentlemanly
recorder, hurried away. He had no ner-
vousness or cOmpunctions of conscience
over the act, for he, with his confeder-
ates, had Travelled through the State,
hunting flaws in old records, and as the
writing in early days was carelessly
done, errors were many; but where none
appeared these Williams were ready, for
a sufficient money consideration, to make
trifling changes, such as would throw