How bad have they Santa Cruz County fires been according to the lieutenant governor?
Isaac Graham, a frontiersman, had come from Hardin County, Kentucky, in 1833. Shortly after Alvarado came to power, Graham and his associates were arrested as dangerous foreigners and placed in confinement on a boat in Monterey Harbor. Don Jose Castro then sailed with the prisoners for Mexico. When they arrived, Mexican authorities released them all. It was reported Isaac Graham received $36,000 as indemnity for the outrage done to him. With this money Graham cast his eyes on the Zayante Tract. Graham, along with his friend Henry Neale, induced Joseph Majors who was a Mexican citizen to apply for the grant. Majors was named as grantee of Zayante and the adjoining San Augustine Rancho of 4,326 acres. Majors procured the land for this syndicate of “foreigners” who declined to become Mexican citizens.
