NARA: Private Common Law Case Files 1855-1863

Plat of Rancho de las Pulgas - on Calisphere

Martha Wallace & Cath Trindle

This blog presents the first of the indexes to US Northern District Court files held at NARA in San Bruno.

Index to Private Common Law Case Files 1855-1863.  

While most of the US Northern District Court Records have the US government as the complaining party the Private Common Case Law files are an exception.  They provide a glimpse of actions between individuals in the area covered by the court.

The following is an overview of just one case (#56 - Dec 1860)  between residents in San Mateo County.

The defendants, Greer et al.,  were living on land that belonged to Maria de la Soledad Ortega Argüello and Jose Ramon Argüello.  They, Greer et al., claimed that the land was part of Rancho Cañada de Raymundo that had belonged to John Coppinger and now to his heirs.  John Greer, who married Coppinger's wife, Maria Luisa Soto, was his executor.

The decision went to the Argüellos because they had a survey that described the exact metes and bounds of their property, while the map for Rancho Cañada de Raymundo was vague and had not been surveyed.  Ejectment of Greer et al was ordered with some costs awarded to those being ejected.

Some of the documents found in the file include:

• A copy of original Mexican Land Grant 1835.  This document notes that the land was originally occupied by Jose Dario Argüello by 1800 and that his Spanish grant had been affirmed by the Mexican government to his son Don Luis Argüello in 1835. 

• A copy of US confirmation of Patent 1853 to Maria Soledad Ortega de Argüello and Jose Ramon Argüello                             
• A copy of the Official Survey Map

1835 Land Grant

• Newsclipping of case circa Dec 1860 paper unknown.  A full article about the Supreme Court decision can be found in the  Sacramento Bee 19 Dec 1864 vol 28 #4288

• Papers that state John Coppinger became a Mexican citizen and married Maria.  As noted above, Maria was Maria Soto the daughter of Ignacio Soto.  John and Maria had only one child Manuella who married Antonio Miramontes. 

• A list of  jurors and a list of those that didn't show up 

Also included was a two inch thick pile of documents debating WHO WAS A CITIZEN OF WHERE as the defendants disputed the jurisdiction of the court in the case.  Simon Mezes, agent for the Argüellos, claimed Spanish citizenship and the Arguellos claimed Mexican citizenship. They claimed the defendants were US citizens. The defendants in turn claimed that Mezes and the Arguellos were citizens of California and that they WERE NOT.  It wasn't a fight they were likely to win as California by this time was a US State.

Cañada de Raymundo

Once the Supreme Court made its decision most of the defendants left their lands, but not all. Lawrence O'Neill was not eager to go. Marshall William Rabe tried to serve the eviction notice but O'Neill was not there.  He left a message that O'Neill should show up in Redwood City and yield possession of the land.  That didn't happen and Rabe went back again.  There was one mention of the fact that O'Neill might have been trying to lease the land from the Argüellos.  As the file ends, that had not been resolved. On 29 Jun 1860 Lawrence Oneil (sic), farmer,  was living in Woodside, twp 3.  He is 30 years old, born in Ireland and has personal property worth $2000 but no real estate.(1)  In 1870, having aged only 5 years, he is living with the Michael Byrnes family in Belmont.(2)

This case did not start in 1860, in fact the US Northern Court decision was the result of an appeal of an 1858 decision of the US Circuit Court.(3)  But that was also not the beginning.  We need to look back nearly twenty years for the first decision in the dispute. In 1841  Francisco Guerrero of Rancho Corral de Tierra, and Alcade of Yerba Buena, was brought in to settle a dispute over the boundaries of the two Ranchos. He found for the Argüellos, but that did not stop Coppinger from selling pieces of the disputed land over the next few years.

Neither did the case stop in 1860.  Greer et al. appealed the US Northern District Court decision to the Supreme court.  The decision of the Supreme court for the Argüellos was reported in the Sacramento Bee article in 1864.

• Index to Private Case Law Files - by Martha Wallace
• Overview of NARA Databases
• Federal Court Records Pt 1   Federal Court Records Pt 2
• NARA Contact Page
• San Mateo HRS pt 5 - The Phleger Estate  Early decision by Guerrero on pg 242, also biographical material on Coppinger and Greer
• Blacks Law Dictionary This link is to the 1st Edition which should contain the terms for legal decisions of the second half of the 19th century

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(1) 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration,  Roll 65 p 79 Township 3, San Mateo, California 

(2) 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593 Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, Roll 87 p. 372B, Township 3, San Mateo California
(3)  Daily Alta California, Volume 10, Number 302, 3 November 1858 

San Mateo County Places - Hillsborough

"Hillsborough is located on the Rancho San Mateo Mexican land grant which was purchased by William Davis Merry Howard, son of a wealthy Hillsborough (sic), New Hampshire, shipping magnate, in 1846. Howard settled his family in this area, which attracted wealthy San Franciscans." - wikipedia  


In 1910 the members of the Burlingame Country Club felt that the City of Burlingame was threatening their privacy.  On the 25th of April 1910 they held an election and voted to incorporate as their own city.  The actual incorporation took place on the 10th of May.

All was not smooth in that first year of incorporation.  In July the San Francisco Examiner reported that insurgent forces had gone down to defeat in their effort to stop the annexation of a particular strip of land.  That defeat was by a vote of 35 to 31, so quite close.

Hillsborough has no commercial presence.  Lot sizes and zoning regulations were established large estates intended for the wealthy.






Noting that the zoning laws have varied over the years, with minimum lots of 1/2 acre established in 1953 the Hillsborough official city website goes on to say......

"One of the main attractions Hillsborough has for home buyers is its charm. Hillsborough still offers its escape from the pressures of the city. In addition to its generally quiet atmosphere, Hillsborough has excellent, award-winning public schools, police and fire protection and public works service. These are the qualities that have formed the character of the Town and have remained stable for over 100 years."   

• City of Hillsborough
• Hillsborough Municipal Code
• Burlingame - Hillsborough History Museum
• Peninsula Royalty: The Founding Families of Burlingame-Hillsborough 

Book List

• Michael Middleton Dwyer; Ernest Sanson; Achille Duchêne; Willis Polk; Mario Buatta; Michael Hales; Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America. Carolands : Ernest Sanson, Achille Duchêne, Willis Polk, SMCHA 2006
• Bogart, Sewall, Carolands, Hillsboro: Imperious Survivor, SMCHA 1991
• Nelson, Janet, Ranchos Victorian, 1966 
• Svanevik, Michael & Shirley Burgett, No Sidewalks Here: A Pictorial History of Hillsborough 1992  
• Weinfield, Kenneth M., Hillsborough, California, USA, 1980

Newspapers 

• Hillsborough Boutique and Villager 
• Home Front News 6/1/1944-6/15/1946 A home newspaper for servicemen from SM, Burlingame and Hillsborough during WWII 1

SMC Cemeteries: Greenlawn Memorial Park

Woodlawn was originally purchased by some Odd Fellows members in 1903 as cemeteries were being closed in San Francisco.


Non-sectarian burials started in 1904 independent of IOOF.  In the 1930s some 26000 burials were moved from the Odd Fellows Cemetery in San Francisco (located near Masonic and Golden Gate Aves).  Those bodies are located in a section of the cemetery that is not open to the public.  A memorial marks the interments. Tombstones from the IOOF cemetery were used to construct the Aquatic Park seawall.


Today there are over 50000 burials in Woodlawn.  The cemetery maintains a strict privacy policy, requiring a permit to take pictures of any tombstones.  Records are held in the cemetery office for burials starting in 1865.

Some of the special burial plots located in Greenlawn include: the National Association of Master Mates and Pilots of America (Union Plot), the Theatrical Mechanical Association plot, and a monument to Americans who served in the armed forces of the British Empire and the Commonwealth of Canada.  There is also a section of Chinese burials.

 Website    650-755-7622

• Woodlawn on Find A Grave - just under 3000 burials listed
• A Second Final Rest