Las Vegas Optic

T.B. CATRON RAISES $400,000 AT LAST MINUTE TO PAY MORTGAGE.

WORTH SEVERAL MILLIONS

WILLIAM E. HUGHES OF DENVER WAS ABOUT TO SECURE IT.

CONTAINS 595,000 ACRES

TIERRA AMARILLA TRACT ACQUIRED YEARS AGO BY SANTA FEAN FOR A SONG.

Denver, June 7.—The Denver Post says:

Just when it seemed that the hundreds of thousands of valuable acres in the Tierra Amarilla land grant, acres which have been owned since the early '70s by Thomas B. Catron, noted Santa Fe attorney, which have given him millions of dollars in return for the few thousands which he paid for it, were about to be wrested from him by the auctioneer's hammer to satisfy the claims of William E. Hughes of Denver, who holds mortgages on the grant, Catron arrived in Denver Saturday and announced he had secured the $400,000 necessary to liquidate the claims and would turn the money over today and thus save the lands—which have the most romantic history of any of the famous grants of the early west.

Catron had been in New York and Chicago for almost two months, working desperately to secure the money necessary to save this grant, and although his battle for funds seemed hopeless—victory came at the last moment, and incidentally proved that in his declining years he has lost none of that shrewdness characteristic of him. And who knows, but that perhaps it is last great fight, for now, as he himself has said, he will pass his remaining years in complete contentment.

The Tierra Amarilla grant is located in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. It was to have been sold under the hammer next Saturday June 12, or the satisfaction of the mortgages held by Col. William E Hughes of Denver. It was only Friday that Catron learned he would be able to liquidate the mortgages Monday.

Contains 595,000 Acres.

This enormous grant contained originally 595,000 acres, an area in which a New England state, or two, might easily be included and lost. The grant was made in 1824, by the republic of Mexico to a distinguished citizen, Manuel Martinez and his eight sons, in recognition of valuable services rendered the republic by the Martinez family.

Because some of the uplands abound in a certain peculiar yellow earth, the grant took the name of Tierra Amarilla, which is Spanish for the term yellow earth. At the death of the elder Martinez, one of the eight sons, Francisco, applied to congress for the confirmation of the grant and it was confirmed to the Martinez family in June, 1860.

Associates Slighted.

It was what was called a colony grant and really belonged, not only to the brothers Martinez, but to a number of associates, who accompanied them when they took possession of the grant, fought Indians and endured all manner of hardships, along with the Martinez brothers, on the understanding that all should hold equal interest. But congress overlooked the rights of the associates, confirming the grant to the Martinez family solely.

Noting this fact, Francisco Martinez made to these associates deeds to small tracts of land along the water courses and accorded them free right to the common pasturage and water and wood on the grant. There grew up a considerable population and the grant, which now amounts to perhaps 3,000 people. There are three or four prosperous towns on the grant, one entirely American. This is Chama, on the line of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad, which traverses the grant for a distance of twenty-four miles.

Early in the '70s Thomas B. Catron, then a partner of Senator Stephen B. Elkins, acquired the interests of the several Martinez brothers for a sum total of about $75,000.

Bought for a Song.

This, of course, was getting the huge tract "for a song," as the saying goes. One of those interested, through his wife, tells today how he gave up his share, the consideration being a new wagon, a sack of sugar and one of coffee.

During the past twenty-four years, Mr. Catron has received in royalties from such extensive lumber firms as McPhee & McGinnity, the Sayre-Newton Lumber company, and the Hallack & Howard company of Denver, for timber cut off the grant, upwards of $1,000,000, and for rentals for sheep pasturage from $10,000 to $15,000 a year, but this magnificent income, through the variations of fortune, has been devoted to various enterprises, not all of which were successful and Col. William E. Hughes of Denver and the Continental Trust Company became possessed of mortgages on the grant amounting to nearly $400,000.

It was these mortgages which threatened to bring about the sale under the hammer.

Is Small Empire.

This great grant is a small empire by itself. It is watered by two splendid rivers, the Chama and the Brazos, and these streams are the favorite fishing grounds for the residents of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. The continental divide crosses the grant north and south. The mountains contain rich minerals. There is a large extent of known coal area and there are thousands of acres of the finest pasturage. There is, besides, a considerable acreage of agricultural land with abundance of water for irrigation.