Tulare County
History
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California - History by Eugene L. Menefee and Fred A. Dodge - Historic Record Company - Los Angeles, California, 1913
CHAPTER X
THE MUSSEL SLOUGH WAR
J. J. Doyle, one of the oldest settlers of the Mussel Slough country, in whose charge the settlers later placed all actions undertaken to protect their rights, gives this version of the controversy in which he took a prominent part.
"In 1870 I was living on the west side of the San Joaquin river. In the Rural Press I saw a letter written by W. S. Chatman, a land lawyer of San Francisco who claimed a section of land near me which was also claimed by the railroad company as being included in their ten mile float.
"In this letter Chatman stated that as a lawyer he had investigated the matter and found that the railroad had no right to an acre of this land for he reason that it was a state corporation and was to receive similar lands granted to the Atlantic & Pacific railroad company. Their charter provided that they should build a road from the bay of San Francisco running through the counties of Santa Clara, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Los Angeles and San Diego, to the town of San Diego and thence east to the state line.
"Chatman showed in his letter that according to the Grant act they were to file a map of the proposed route, which they had not done.
"Upon investigation I found that there were three hundred and fifty-four Spanish land grants between San Francisco and San Diego. Of course they would get none of this land. I also found that the west ten miles of lieu lands was nearly all in the Pacific ocean. They knew, however, of the great San Joaquin valley, in which the Laguna de Tache was the only land grant, and therefore had changed their route near Tres Pinos so as to enter the center of the San Joaquin valley and go over the Tehachapi pass, as the road now runs.
"I came into the Mussel Slough country in 1871 and myself and brother located on lands bordering the Mussel Slough. As I believed from Chatman's letter and from my own investigations that the railroad had no right to a title to these lands, I petitioned Congress in the fall of 1874, but getting no immediate relief, I offered a filing in the Visalia land office. This was rejected and I appealed my case with thirty others to the Department of the Interior. All told, I appealed nearly all of three hundred cases from the Visalia land office. We were beaten in these and I then took a case through the state courts, the United States courts and to the supreme court. Twelve separate decisions were rendered, no two of which agreed.
"After this, for the purpose of acting unitedly in our fight with the railroad, we settlers organized the Land League, which at one time attained a membership of six hundred. In 1875 I was sent to Washington, where I remained six months. I got a bill on the calendar, but through manipulation it was defeated. In 1879 I went to Washington again, but accomplished nothing. A decision against us had been handed down by the Federal courts and the railroad was eager to dispossess us, but as we were so strong and well organized, they hesitated to do so.
"I sent a resolution to Sacramento to Governor Stanford, who was then president of the road, and at his request we appointed a committee composed of Major McQuiddy, J. M. Patterson, and myself. We called on the governor and persuaded him to visit our country, which he did in April, 1880. We started then a negotiation for a settlement of the matter with Governor Stanford, and had been engaged for about a month in a discussion of an equitable arrangement when suddenly, without a warning and without our knowledge, the United States marshal appeared, coming for the avowed purpose of dispossessing some of our men. We were that day to have a big meeting at Hanford to listen to Judge Terry give an exposition of our rights in the premises.
The marshal was accompanied by men named Hart, Clark and Crow, who were all loaded down with arms. The marshal, prior to serving any papers, desired to confer with us, which was granted. In the meantime, a number of our men, more through curiosity than anything else, went over to the wagon where Crow and Hart were. Of these only two, viz., Harris and Henderson, were armed.
"All at once during the conference shooting commenced without any special provocation and Harris was killed. According to the evidence it appeared that he and Hart had fired almost at the same time. Harris hit Hart in the groin and he died within four days. Then Crow shot Harris with a number ten shotgun loaded with twelve bullets. He hit him right in the breast. Then he shot Knutson, who was on horseback, shot him with twelve bullets and then turned his gun on Dan Kelly, whose horse, just as Crow fired, had become unruly and whirled around so that the charge entered Kelly's side and practically blew it off. Crow was out of the wagon at this time, the team having previously run away as Hart was attempting to get out. Crow and Hart and Clark each had a couple of British bulldog pistols, a number ten shotgun and a Winchester rifle of the largest size.
"After Crow left the wagon he walked about forty steps for the purpose of killing McGregor, who was holding the marshal's horse. McGregor got behind the horse and Crow reached around in front of the horse and shot him with his pistol twice, the bullets entering the breast and coming out at the back.
"This put Henderson into it, who, seeing McGregor murdered in that way, rushed for Crow. They exchanged four shots and Henderson fell dead. Then Crow left the grant and attempted to get to his home, which was distant about a mile and a half, but was shot dead on the way.
"On account of this, seventeen of us, myself included, were indicted by the United States grand jury for resisting the United States marshal, and tried and convicted. I was not within three miles of it when it happened and yet we were convicted and served eight months in the San Jose jail for resisting the marshal, who as a matter of fact was resisted by no one. The marshal, indeed, had not attempted the exercise of any authority or the enforcement of any order.
"A remarkable thing about the fight was that every man but one who fired a shot or was struck by a bullet was killed.
"This trouble was simply a legal fight on our part for our homes. I think and always shall think that the railroad had no legal right to the land, but that they acquired their title while we were fighting.
"While we were serving our time, a petition of forty-seven thousand names was sent to the President; the states of California and Nevada passed resolutions in our favor and there were numerous other petitions, etc. No one of them was listened to any more than if it had been a piece of blank brown paper.
"After we had served our time, the matter dragged on for about two years before it was finally settled. In my case, after being in the contest over nine years, I had to pay the railroad company $30.60 an acre for my land."
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.