The Mexican Government – as well as the Spanish rulers before it – customarily awarded land grants to prominent citizens, usually as a reward for an act of public service. Large areas of what is now Colorado and New Mexico were given as grants. The fact that various Native American tribes had ancestral claim to the land was not even considered.
Ceran St. Vrain, Taos resident and partner in Bent’s Fort, and Cornelio Vigil, the alcalde (mayor) of Taos, petitioned the governor of the Province of New Mexico for a grant of land in the valleys of the Huerfano, Apishapa and Cuchara rivers. It included the land that would later be inherited by Rumalda Luna Boggs, become Boggsville and subsequently be disputed before the Boggs family could sell it.
The original December 8, 1843, petition expressed St. Vrain and Vigil’s desire to promote agriculture and raise cattle and sheep. It also promised they would start a colony the following spring. Translated from Spanish, their petition reads:
“That, desiring to encourage the agriculture of the country to such a degree as to establish its flourishing condition, and finding ourselves with but little land to accomplish the object, we have examined and registered, with great care, the land embraced within the Huerfano, Pisipa and Cuchara rivers, to their junction with the Arkansas and Animas, and, finding sufficient fertile land for cultivation, and abundance of pasture and water, and all that is required for a flourishing establishment, and for raising cattle and sheep, being satisfied therewith, and certain that it is public land, we have not hesitated to apply to Your Excellency, praying you to be pleased, by an act of justice, to grant to each one of us a tract of land in the above-mentioned locality.”
Reasoning that St. Vrain and Vigil were invaluable in maintaining peace with the Native Americans on the Mexican frontier, Governor Armijo agreed to the grant without hesitation. The following day he made this simple endorsement on the back of the petition. Translated from Spanish, it reads:
“To the Justice of the Peace of the proper jurisdiction, who will give the possession referred to by the petitioners, as this Government desires to encourage agriculture and the arts. Armijo”
The ceremony of formal transfer was January 2, 1844. The Vigil and St. Vrain Land Grant covered over four million acres, almost twice the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. It covered all of the area south of the Arkansas River, from Pueblo to Las Animas, Colorado. The western border roughly followed the current route of Interstate 25 from Pueblo, south through Walsenburg to Trinidad. The eastern border followed the Huerfano River from Trinidad to where it joined the Arkansas River near present-day Las Animas.
All was well until the Mexican-American War broke out in April, 1846. The United States invaded Mexico, seized New Mexico, and appointed Charles Bent the first territorial governor. On the morning of January 19, 1847, the citizens of Taos revolted against the American invaders. The governor was killed along with Cornelio Vigil. The war ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The United States got parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, but had to guarantee the private property rights of the former Mexican citizens.
With the usual bureaucratic delays, it took until 1854 for the U.S. Congress to appoint a surveyor general of New Mexico ”to ascertain the origin, nature, character, and extent of all claims to land under the laws, usages, and customs of Spain and Mexico.” After collecting evidence from witnesses and land records, he was to report his findings to congress for final action.
Ceran St. Vrain and the heirs of Cornelio Vigil, including Rumalda Luna’s maternal grandmother, Maria Apolonia Vigil, presented their claims. Kit Carson signed the documents as witness and William Pelham, the surveyor general, recommended to congress the grant should be confirmed. An act of congress on June 21, 1860, confirmed the grant but it was reduced in size to “eleven square leagues to each of the original grantees,” approximately 97,390 acres, or a quarter of its original size.
The boundaries of the confirmed grant were not immediately identified, which led to confusion as more and more settlers entered the area and homesteaded on lands formerly included in the massive grant. Congress further tangled the situation in 1869 by allowing grantees to exchange lands for other “like lands” rather than displace settlers. Settlers across the territory challenged claims of the original owners.
In 1877, just as Thomas and Rumalda Boggs were ready to sell their ranch near Boggsville, the original Vigil and St. Vrain claim of Rumalda Luna was brought to court. Frustrated, Thomas and Rumalda moved from Boggsville to Springer, New Mexico, and took up the legal battle. The courts finally re-confirmed their claim six years later in 1883. Thomas promptly sold his Boggsville ranch for $1,200.