How does the Mexican-American War lead to the development of Sturgis? Well in an exceptionally complicated manner, of course. But where there is this level of complication, there is a story worth telling. And that story starts with Texas.
In October of 1835, a rebellion began in what would become Texas. This rebellion was part of the larger Mexican Federalist War. At the time, Mexico was in turmoil. In 1808, after Napoleon’s invasion of Spain, the Spanish Empire began to disintegrate. In turn, this led to the Mexican War of Independence, and the eventual creation of an independent Mexico.
In the midst of the chaos that would follow, that led to the Mexican Federalist War, the Texas Revolution would occur in 1835-1836. Texas would be established as an independent country, but eventually, a majority of their citizens would wish to be annexed by the United States.
The status of Texas as being a free and independent nation would be crux of the Mexican-American War. Mexico refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of Texas. Once Texas was finally annexed by the United States, disputes about the border between the United States and Mexico continued, and eventually led to an all out war.
Less than two years after the war broke out, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo would end it. And it is here where we get the mess that eventually led to the development of Sturgis.
Miranda Property
The end of the Mexican-American War led to a vast amount of land being ceded to the United States. But there were terms. Mexico would be paid $15 million for the land, and any debt owed by the Mexican government to American citizens would be taken care of by the United States government.
Then there were the land grants. As per the treaty, the United States agreed to honor any land grants that had been awarded by the Mexican government. And there were plenty of those land grants. Over six hundred land grants. Those land grants had been used by the Mexican government in order to promote colonization of that territory, and it would prove to be a massive headache.
Sorting out the land grants would prove to be a nightmare. While there were hundreds of legitimate land grants, there was also rampant fraud. In order to sort through all of the paper work, in 1851, Congress established a Board of Land Commissioners who were tasked with judging the validity of each land grant.
Between January of 1852 and March of 1856, over 800 cases would be presented to the board. To add to the frustration, almost every decision by the board would be appealed, leading to litigation that would drag on for years. On average, it would take landowners 17 years to finally prove legal ownership.
For one individual, it would take over two decades to get ownership figured out, and once it was, it would play a role in the founding of Sturgis. This individual was Thomas Valentine. But the issue starts just a little bit before he entered into the picture.
On October 1844, General Manuel Micheltorna, who had been the Mexican governor of California between 1842 and 1845, granted Juan Miranda a grant for about 9 square miles of land. Miranda would die around a year later, but his family would continue living on the land until 1850, when they would sell the land for $9,550 to Valentine. Valentine would receive the deed to the property on January 24, 1851.
Valentine would have to file his claim with the Board of Land Commissioners, which he did on February 17, 1852. But he wouldn’t be the only one who filed on that grant. In fact, 2 others would file claims that covered that same grant.
Valentine would eventually withdraw his grant on February 6, 1855. Why Valentine decided to withdraw is not fully known, but it may have been that he thought he’d have a better chance with his case in district court. The United States Supreme Court would rule against Valentine, saying he had no right to intervene. By that time, Valentine was out of time to resubmit his case.
But the title to the land would not be settled. A second claim to the land grant would also be withdrawn, leaving Charles White to be the final claimant. In 1855, his claim would be confirmed by the board, and that claim would be upheld in district court in 1857. Yet, that wouldn’t settle the matter.
The decision of the district court would be appealed to the Supreme Court, where it would then be remanded back to the lower court, and finally, on August 20, 1862, it was rejected. Not giving up, the claim was appealed again, sending it once again to the Supreme Court, which would also reject the claim on April 18, 1864. This would move the land into public domain, where it was sold and eventually, the town of Petaluma, California, would be established.
As this was all going through, Valentine began realizing that he had screwed up. Seeing that White’s claim had been rejected, he knew it was a mistake having withdrawn his claim. Having considerable political influence though, he began pestering Congress in order to have special legislation created that would allow him to prove his initial claim to the Miranda land grant.
Valentine Script
Through 1871, three separate bills would pass through either the House of Representatives or through the Senate, but never through both. While one house would pick up the cause, the other would often drop it, largely because they didn’t have time. So one session of Congress after another would adjourn, leaving Valentine without a solution.
Valentine’s luck would change in 1872. House Resolution 1024 for “The Relief of Thomas B. Valentine” would be introduced by Sherman O. Houghton of California. It would receive great support from those Congressmen from California, but it would hit some rough passes before finally being passed.
However, as the land under the grant had already been sold, and a city had been built upon it, a compromise had been arrived at. Instead of the land under the grant being returned to Valentine, Valentine instead received scrip that could be used to acquire lands that were unoccupied and unappropriated public lands.
On March 28, 1874, two decades after Valentine first purchased the Miranda land, he was issued certificates for 13,316 acres of land. These certificates, most being for 40 acre tracts, would be used across the country, including in South Dakota.
Valentine would soon begin selling off these scrips, and on December 11, 1877, Barry G. Caulfield bought two for $640 apiece. Just about a year later, on October 25, 1878, those certificates would be presented to the United States Land Office in Deadwood for two tracts of land. Those tracts would make up a portion of the new townsite of Sturgis City.
Caulfield, along with Jeremiah Wilcox, Colonel Sturgis, and Arthur Buckbee, had formed the town company on August 27, 1878, the day after Wilcox had staked the ground where Strugis City would be. After the site was set, the group would begin filing on the land.
Just 8 days after Caulfield filed on 80.72 acres of land on the town site of Sturgis City, he deeded 35 lots in 10 blocks over to Wilcox as a reward for Wilcox having staked out the site, and forming the company. Wilcox would extend the site by redeeming another Valentine Scrip, worth 40 acres, that was in his possession, that had been sold on August 18, 1875.
How Wilcox came upon this scrip isn’t fully known. Records do not show any other owner of the scrip, but it could be that either Wilcox bought it directly from Valentine, or had used Caulfield as an agent to procure it. Either way, with those three scrips, 120 acres of what became Sturgis City had been paid for.
There would be a brief challenge to the use of the scrips for setting up Sturgis City. By 1880, the census reported that 60 people were living in the new city. Some of those settlers claimed that they had been living there before the town was located on that site, and because of that, the Valentine scrips could not have been used to acquire the land. The challenges would not hold up.
So there you have it. Texas joining the United States, which pushed the country into a war with Mexico, would eventually lead to the founding of the town of Sturgis.