The herald., 1897-07-12
TO EXPLOIT THE NEW WORLD
AND FINALLY DIED LEAVING A
SPLENDID DOMAIN
How Pho Pico Added a. Snarl to the
Estates ENHANCEMENT by Un-
ion With Ascencion Avila

families, since the time of the American
occupation, was written, such tale of
romance would be unfolded as would
compare with anything in fiction.
In the older days these patricians Of
the west were rich only in lands Their
open-handed and most generous hospi-
tality has passed into proverb and in
most cases was the primary cause Of
their undoing. In the intermin able law
suits that have resulted, in many in
stances, from the breaking up Of these
old estates, matters have been very
much complicated, from legal stand
point, by the mix-up of relationships
among the Spanish families, and the
laxity of the observance of the bounda-
ries of the several estates. A few acres
more or less didn't make any difference
in the primitive times, and any serious
differences were settled by family con-
ference in such friendly way as would
give the average attorney today such
fit Of disgust as would suffice to make
him kick himself clear around block
AS for the relationships it was altogeth-
er matter of the heart and not of the
head. The most remote kindred, wheth-
er legitimate or illegitimate, were and
indeed are recognized as having a
claim on the head of the family, and in
those days the family acres were broad
enough to bear this burden.
With the coming of the Americana a
new order of things was inaugurated.
The Spanish people had the lands and
II
new neighbors had the acquisitiveness of
the modern and the experience of some
centuries of Anglo-Saxon pugnacity in
attaining the object aimed at. The one
class had the land and the other the ex-
perience, and it was only in compara-
lively few short years that the condi-
tions were reversed. The Americans
had the lands and the people of Spanish
blood had the experience. But even in
the latter quality some of them were not
much enriched and hardly knew or real
lied how from being large landed pro-
prietors they had been transformed into
poor people minus all that had previous
ly aided in making life in Southern Cali
fornia sunny dream.
AN ECHO FROM THE PAST
A faint glimpse at this by-gone life
will probably be gained when suit re-
Gently filed in the superior court come $
to trial. On its face it is of the dry-as-
dust kind, but in law cases it is good
working rule to assume that the more
dry and apparently uninteresting a suit
appears to be in its outward seeming in
like proportion will it be Of actual inter-
est when the inside facts are developed.
The suit alluded to was brought by
Dan Freeman on June 14th, to quiet title
to large portion of the Rancho Sausal
Redondo and also the Rancho Aquaje
de la Centinela, and the following par
ties were made defendants to the suit:
Joaquina Pico de Moreno, Griselda Pico,
Robert w. King, Jose A. Moreno M. V.
Biscailuz, and last, but by no means
least, the Avila Estate company and
others The suit has been brought to
quiet the title to these lands that in the
old days formed part of the patrimony
of the Avila family, and that, like many
other ranches, are rather badly tangled
up. In this instance, too, as in many
others, Pic Pico, the last Mexican gov
ernor Of California, is mixed up, but in
this case he is not, as in many Of the
other land cases, charged with forgery,
albeit the obtaining of the original pat
ents to these ranches were rather in
volved, but with having complicated
matters in most unintentiobal way by
falling in love.
TO EXPLOIT THE NEW WORLD
1t was in the closing period of the
seventeenth century that youth named
Antonio Ygnacio Avila set out from Old
Spain and joined his compatriots in the
New World. Doubtless in his mind, as
in theirs, the dream of the Ell Dorado
was firmly fixed, but if So such
shadowy maginings gave place to more
practical thoughts, and Don Antonio
came west, and in very modified fashion,
anticipating the advice of Horace Greely,
grew up with the country He married
and with the religiosity of the average
Spaniard obeyed the Scriptural injunc-
ton to increase and multiply. Ten chill
dren illumined the Avila household and
when Don Antonio passed over to the
great beyond in 1858 he left seven of
these olive branches to bewail his loss
When Don Antonio made his will he did
not anticipate that any of the members
of his family would die before him
self, and made careful division Of the
large property he had been fortunate
enough to gather; and so precise were
these direction of the will that Don An
tonic evidently thought, at the time of
its execution that no opportunity had
been left for dispute or bubble, and there
fore his will especially provided that
no one of his children should dare to OBJ
ject to its terms or venture to institute
any lawsuit. Doubtless the old man died
all the happier for having made that will,
but if the shades of the departed are dis
turbed by their good intentions, while in
the flesh, being misrepresented, their
wishes distorted and their commands
disobeyed, then that of old Don Antonio
must be having a rather rugged time of
it, AS a matter of fact. the heirs al
most Immediately fell to fighting among
themselves, and lawsuits must have an
peared to them the sole end of their ex-
istence. This lasted just so long as the
estate yielded any money and when the
"sinews of war" gave out then the litiga-
ton ended. AS might naturally be in
ferred the Avila estate was then in a
rather tangled condition. 1t was quite
an open question as to what the old man
had owned and what he hadn't owned,
and, truth to tell, the heirs didn't seem
to regard the matter of exactness'Ns Of
very especial Importance. Indeed, so
far as the executors were concerned.
who the heirs really were seemd to cut