In their petition seeking to secure the San Miguel del Bado Land Grant in 1794, the 52 colonists stated as their primary reason that there was not sufficient water in Santa Fe to sustain the growing population and livestock there. (It appears that drought and an adequate water supply were problems even then). The petitioners also stated that many of them owned small parcels of land in Santa Fe, but it was not sufficient to support their large families.

As required by Spanish law at the time, land grants would not be awarded without a showing by the settlers that they had sufficient means and armaments to fortify a central location for the protection of the inhabitants, thus making the settlement viable. This assurance was made by Lorenzo Marquez and the other 51 petitioners, and on Nov. 25, 1794, Antonio José Ortiz, alcalde mayor  of Santa Fe, on behalf of Carlos IV, King of Spain, and with the imprimatur of the Spanish Viceroy in New Spain,  granted  the San Miguel del Bado Land Grant to the following 58 founders, who are listed alphabetically:  
Matías Anaya, José Archibeque, Ramón Archuleta, José de la Cruz Arias, Juan Armijo, Juan Domingo Armijo, Pablo Armijo, Diego Baca, Diego Manuel Baca, Ramón Baca , Juan Benavidez, José Miguel Brito, Ventura Bustamante, José Miguel Cazache, Juan Antonio Cheferi, Antonio Durán, José Esquibel, Xavier Fragoso, Manuel Fuentes, Francisco Garduño, José María Garduño, Cayetano Guerrero, Cristobal Guerrero, Felipe Jaramillo, Gerónimo López, Gerónimo López, José María Lobato, Antonio José Lucero, Juan Luján, Manuel Maese, Pablo Maese, Manuel Maestas, José Antonio Márquez, José Pedro Márquez, Lorenzo Márquez, Antonio Martín, Eusebio Martín, Francisco Martín, José Cornelio Martín, Juan Domingo Martín, Francisco Martínez, Balbaneda Morán, Antonio Ortega, Damiana Ortega, Diego Padilla, José Antonio Rael, Antonio María Ribera, Polonia Rodriguez, Andrés Sandoval, Felipe Sandoval, Juan José Sandoval, Matías Sandoval, Pedro Sandoval, Santiago Sandoval, José María Troncoso, Domingo Trujillo, Josefa Trujillo and Miguel Urioste.

(I thank and acknowledge resident scholar and historian Marcus C. Gottschalk for making available to me the complete list of the original grantees, as long ago I misplaced my copy of this ancient document).

These  grantees were the 52 original petitioners, and six additional grantees. They included 13 genizaros, Native Americans who had converted to Catholicism and otherwise “acculturated” to Spanish ways, some of whom were scouts and soldiers. The grantees agreed to the main condition imposed by the Spanish Crown, that the land was to be held in common, not only as between themselves, but also for all colonists who might join them in the future.   They also agreed that within two years each colonist would be equipped with firearms, under penalty of forfeiting their right to the grant.

The original grant contained approximately 315,000 acres, bounded on the north by El Río de la Vaca from La Ranchería to Agua Caliente, on the east by La Cuesta (Villanueva) and Los Cerritos de Bernal, on the south by Cañon Blanco, and on the west by a place commonly known as El Guzano. Although each grantee was apportioned a tract of land, the San Miguel del Bado grant was a community grant, as mentioned earlier.

The grantees were taken upon the land grant at the  present-day community of San Miguel, where they could ford (vado or bado) the Pecos River, and there ceremonies were held conveying and blessing the land, the grantees promising to fortify the settlement with bulwarks and towers, and promising also to immediately begin the construction of a  church in honor of San Miguel (St. Michael the Archangel), the patron saint of their grant.

The colonists then set upon the tracts of land apportioned to each, and began construction of an acequia for irrigation, a plazuela or central plaza for their mutual protection and, of course, the building  of their church.     

The San Miguel church stands to this day, and is the oldest church in all of northeastern New Mexico, and the oldest structure in San Miguel County, other than the ruins at the Pecos National Monument. The area surrounding the church was the location of the original settlement, and many ruins of the original plaza are extant.

After the community of San Miguel was settled in 1794, the original colonists and others arriving from Santa Fe, next established the community of San José, which is located immediately south of present-day Interstate  25, and San José was settled and thriving as early as 1803, and continues to this day as a vibrant and beautiful settlement along the Pecos River.

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Next: San Miguel and the other communities settled by the colonists along the Pecos River become a thriving hub for commerce and the official port of entry into New Spain.

Jesus L. Lopez is a native of Las Vegas and a local historian. He may be reached at 425-3730.