great diligence in the next century. Meanwhile, the path out to the ranch became a road
and led the city's newspaper to remark, "Good work has been done on the bishop's ranch
road. It forms one of the best rides out of the city. This is the work, we presume, of
Bishop Lamy."
accounts, the bishop walked the
more than three miles over the
divide to his little ranch and
expected his guests to do likewise.
When General Charles Ewing,
whose family had been parishioners
of Lamy's in Ohio, visited in
November 1881, however, his time
was short, and his host took him on
a buggy to see the chapel. "The
archbishop drove me himself, and
he drove like a Jehu," the general
allegedly reported. Another story
stated that some of Lamy's clergy
visitors, not wishing to offend their chief pastor but not relishing the long hike, rode horse-
back to the foot of the ridge, tethered their mounts to a piñon, walked over the hill for their
visits, then returned to Santa Fe in the same fashion.
Archbishop Lamy spent more of his time at Villa Pintoresca, finally staying there almost
entirely. Early in February 1888, he contracted a severe cold, which developed into pneumo-
nia, and he was taken to the episcopal residence in Santa Fe, where he died on February 13.
Archbishop Lamy was buried under the cathedral altar.
Salpointe. Land titles dating from the Spanish and Mexican government had
still not been completely settled. In 1891, Congress created the Court of
Private Land Claims to adjudicate the remaining unresolved claims. The
chain of title derived from the Romeros was clouded, and in 1893, Salpointe
of some 600 acres, adjoining the Río de Tesuque grant claim to the north and the Juan de
Gabaldon on the east. The Gabaldon was finally approved, but the court rejected both the
claim to the "Bishop's Ranch" and the claim to Río de Tesuque, the titles of which were
intertwined. Then, in 1896, Archbishop Placide Louis Chapelle, Salpointe's successor, filed
a smallholdings claim with the General Land Office, submitting affidavits by longtime
Santa Fean Solomon Spiegelberg as to Lamy's occupancy and by Francisco Ortiz de Tafoya
concerning Garcia's ownership. On March 20, 1900, Chapelle was issued a patent for
152.8 acres, which was approved by the Court of Private Land Claims in the final rejection
of the larger grant.