USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 30
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vacant, both of which conditions, it is claimed, were disregarded. The claim was located by John S. Watt, who in 1861-62 was delegate to Congress from the Territory of New Mexico. At that session he took occasion to praise highly the riches of Arizona. Possibly a speech of his is worth interpolation :
An Italian sunset never threw its gentle rays over more lovely valleys or heaven-kissing hills; valleys harmonious with the music of a thousand sparkling rills; mountains shining with untold millions of mineral wealth, wooing the hand of capital and labor to possess and use it. The virgin rays of the morning sun first kiss the brow of its lofty mountains, and the parting beams of the setting sun linger fondly around their sublime summits, unwilling to leave to darkness and to night such beauty and such grandeur. If there be a single thought which lights up the ofttimes gloomy pathway of the faithful legislator, it is the sweet reflection that he has been instrumental in protecting the rights of a distant, feeble and oppressed peoples against the merciless barbarities of a powerful and treacherous savage foe. Let it not be said of us that while we were ready to spend untold millions of money and thousands of lives to protect our own lives and property, the appeal of this distant people falls upon our bosoms, "Cold as moonbeams on the barren heath."
And all this language was merely incident to grabbing some land.
The Baca case was decided adversely to the Baca heirs through the various grades of the land office, and by the Secretary of the Interior. It then went into the courts and though its area was materially shrunk, decision was finally given for the plaintiff's in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1914. The situation on the grant was a serious one. Seventy families were resident, one of them for forty-five years, and many for twenty-five years. George W. Atkin- son, whose residence on the land had been for thirty-seven years, spent $40,000 in fighting the case and offered the heirs $250,000 for their interest, but failed. Patents had been issued by the United States for some of the land as far back as twenty-two years ago. The Arizona Legislature has memorialized Congress asking that relief be given to these victims of land litigation, and that they be permitted at least lieu rights on other Government lands.
MAGNITUDE OF THE REAVIS CLAIM
The first of the land grant claims noted, the Peralta, was one of the monu- mental frauds of the Western Hemisphere, a spurious claim to a tract of land 236 miles long and seventy-eight miles wide, the center of its western end at the junction of the Gila and Salt rivers and its eastern line beyond Silver City, New Mexico. It was pushed by a master crook, James Addison Reavis, who appeared first in Arizona in 1880, then a subscription solicitor for the San Francisco Examiner. He was successful in extending the circulation of his journal, in which he published a number of articles describing the country in florid language, particularly commending some Cave Creek mining properties of very dubious value. It is probable that his trip was merely to spy out the land, for his documents later showed that his claim had been in incubation for years.
Reavis' first attack upon Arizona's domain was on' the basis of the Willing grant, which may have had some shadow of right on a small tract on the lower Gila. January 3, 1885, Reavis filed with the surveyor-general of Arizona an application for the survey and confirmation of the grant, in which it was alleged : "That the grant had been made December 20, 1748, by Fernando VI,
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King of Spain, who in accordance with a memorial of the Inquisition and the recommendation of the Council of Commerce and of the Judge of Appeals, and in conformity with an order of the Military Tribunal, in consideration of and as compensation for great and valuable services, as well also for the energetic conduct of important battles in the service of the Crown, had conferred upon the Señor Don Miguel de Peralta de Cordoba the honorable title of Baron of the Colorados, and commanding the Viceroy of New Spain, now Mexico, in the name of the Crown, to grant and concede to Señor Don Miguel de Peralta de Cordoba, according to the common measurement, 300 square leagues, or 19,200,- 000,000 square varas of land, to be situated in the northern portion of the Vieroyalty of New Spain."
In 1757, according to Reavis' documents, the grant was made north of San Xavier del Bac, to measure ten leagues by thirty, this with the approbation of Father Pauver (Paner) and Father Garcia (Garcés) as not conflicting with the claims for mission lands. Reavis had a formidable lot of documents of quaint phraseology and ancient appearance, and wherever his chain of title was lacking, he had well-attested copies. All of these brought the title down to Miguel Peralta, who had deeded it to Willing in 1864.
Willing is said to have interested Reavis in the matter in St. Joseph, Missouri. The first documents presented by Reavis showing his entry into the claim was a deed dated in 1867 from Willing's attorney-in-fact.
The claim started a veritable panic in the thickly settled Gila and Salt River valleys, where Reavis, in person and by paid agents, spread the story of his alleged rights upon the land, water and mines. The matter was made the prin- cipal issue of the congressional campaign of 1887, and Marcus A. Smith was re-elected delegate to Congress largely on the basis of his opposition to a plan that had been broached for the creation of a board of private land claims to adjudicate the rights of Reavis as well as the title to other land grant claims within the Southwest. There was a general impression that Reavis had a legal claim. At that time such matters could only be settled in Congress, and Representative Smith, declaring against the land-court plan, assured the people of his ability to block any action adverse to their interests. Thomas Wilson, the republican nominee, admitting his belief in the beginning of the campaign that he saw no better place to adjust such matters than in the courts, was condemned at once and he was snowed under at the polls. But the bill estab- lishing the Court of Private Land Claims passed Congress soon thereafter.
After all of this, Reavis took another tack. In Northern California he found him a wife, whom he claimed to be the only blood descendant of Don Miguel de Peralta de Cordova. He said that he had accidentally discovered her in a Mexican hamlet where he was investigating the Willing title and where she contributed some documents showing her birth, christening and parentage, and that she was the survivor of twin children, the last of the Peralta line. After that he prosecuted the claim entirely on the basis of his wife's interest.
Here it might be told that the bride was a halfbreed Indian woman, who had lived for much of her life on an Indian reservation in Northern California, and who had no connection whatever with any Mexican history. She was taken to Mexico to establish "local color" and was drilled daily for years in the story she was to tell. All of this she later confessed after evidence was pre-
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sented of her true origin and her life in the upper Sacramento Valley. Even the date of Reavis' marriage to her seems to have been falsified.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PERALTA BARONY
In an advertisement in the San Francisco Examiner of date March 15, 1894, Reavis himself described the tract in these words:
One of the largest and best portions of the territory is the immense tract known as the Barony of Arizona, the property of J. A. Peraltareavis, which is now to be colonized on a large scale. The tract contains 12,500,000 acres and is known as the Peralta Grant, and is an old feudal property dating back to the time of Philip V of Spain, who granted it to Don Miguel Nemecio Silva de Peralta de la Cordoba in 1742. The grantee was a lineal ancestor of Mrs. Peraltareavis, a resident of California, into whose possession it has fallen by the Spanish law of primogeniture succession. The property has been in litigation for some years, but in November last the United States Court of Private Land Claims finally determined the exact boundaries of the estate, and thereby practically sealed Mrs. Peraltareavis' claims. A clear title to any or all of the property is thereby assured. There are few individual properties in New Mexico and Arizona so vast in extent and so admirably located for colonization purposes as the Peralta Grant. Beginning at the west end of the "monumental stone" situated at the most eastern base of the Maricopa Mountain, at the eastern extremity of the Sierra Estrellas, on the south bank of the Gila River, opposite the mouth of the Salt River, the line goes north 39.41535 miles, crossing the Gila and Salt rivers to a point; thence east 236.4921 miles to a point; thence sontherly at right angles a distance of 78.8307 miles to a point; thence west a distance of 236.4921 miles to a point; thence north a distance of 39.41535 miles to the point of beginning, having been granted by metes and bounds. The grant embraces the Gila, Salt, San Pedro and San Carlos rivers as water-courses. It is impossible to estimate the value of this immense property, blessed as it is in mineral and agricultural resources. It contains the most famous mineral belt in Arizona, that of the Pinal Range, with the adjacent mountains in close proximity to these abundant streams; also the renowned Deer Creek coal fields, the largest coal measure yet discovered in America, and an anthracite deposit near the Gila Buttes which promises to surpass anything yet developed. Within the boundaries of the grant many important mining camps have sprung up, notably Silver King, Clinton, Silver City and Old Dominion. The Town of Phoenix lies within the border, as do also Florence, Globe, Solomonville and Silver City. The Southern Pacific Railroad cuts across the southwest corner. Numerous branch lines which are to traverse the very heart of this great property have already been surveyed and their projection is the question of only a short time.
Reavis described the wonderful fertility of the valleys of the Salt and Gila, which he proposed to irrigate by storing waters of the two rivers. One storage dam was to be "at the Little Tonto Basin," with a reservoir capacity of 989,- 600,000,000 cubic feet. Another reservoir was to be located at The Buttes, about ten miles above Florence on the Gila, with an area of thirty-two square miles and with capacity of 67,540,432,425 cubic feet. From the latter was to be built a canal 200 feet wide and 25 feet deep, to extend to a point on the Southern Pacific Railroad near Red Rock, and thence westward to cover the Maricopa plains, designed to supply 6,000,000 acres with abundant water at all times of the year. The surplus water unused by these 6,000,000 acres was to be returned to the Gila River by means of spillway ditches. At another point in the same argument is reference to the irrigation of 1,000,000 acres of land below Flor- ence by means of a tunnel from the dam at The Buttes. All of this is very refreshing, inasmuch as the damsite at The Buttes long ago was rejected as an impossible one and inasmuch as the flow of the Gila River above Florence has finally been adjudged by army engineers to be sufficient for the irrigation of
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not over 90,000 acres. These figures should be considered in connection with Reavis' careful provision of means for the returning to the Gila River of any surplus of water after irrigating 6,000,000 acres on the plains.
At Tonto Basin he told of almost vertical walls 2,000 feet high, within which a dam 450 feet high was to be built, with sixty-three discharge pipes carrying water into the box cañon, "an impregnable chasm as dark as night," from which it is to be taken eight miles from the dam by means of tunnels lead- ing out upon the plains to the north and south. The tunnel to the sonthward, through the Superstition Mountains, was to be 44,615 feet in length, with a fifty-mile waterway at its end, to connect with the Gila Buttes reservoir.
The total cost of all these projects was estimated at $12,535,637.00. It is possible that this southern tunnel referred to would have been nearer forty-four miles long than the length given, through one of the broadest mountain ranges in all Arizona. But it is evident that Reavis had to have some scheme such as this to contribute to his main plan, which was the irrigation of what now is known as the Casa Grande-Maricopa plain.
HOW REAVIS FINANCED HIMSELF
Reavis established headquarters of his Barony at Arizola, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, a short distance east of Casa Grande Station. There he main- tained his family in state, with his two children clad in royal purple velvet, with monogram coronets upon their Russian caps. To different people he had differ- ent tales. He generally stated that the mines were his by right and also all of the land, but that he proposed, particularly, to appropriate to himself the water and thus control everything agricultural. Around Phoenix and Florence, after his agents had laid the groundwork, Reavis sold clearances of title, and some of them were placed upon record in Maricopa County. Everywhere re- ports were spread that the title had been pronounced absolutely flawless by Robert G. Ingersoll and other great lawyers, that the Southern Pacific Rail- road had purchased, for $50,000, its right-of-way from Reavis across the Peralta estate and that the Silver King mine had contributed largely to his funds to secure against possible loss. It was told that in Phoenix, when several of the principal property owners refused to "come through," Reavis executed deeds to their property to covetous third parties. Thus, in divers ways, he secured funds for the carrying on of his fight. It is probable that most of his money came from weak-kneed, fearful land owners and not from eastern capitalists, as was reported at the time.
Rcavis traveled very little in Arizona after his campaign was well under way, for he might have been treated harshly, but at first he was very open in his methods, even taking some of his documents around to establish credence of his tale. Editor Tom Weedin in Florence, looking over the Reavis papers, dis- covered that one very ancient document was printed in type that had been invented only a few years before. Surveyor General Johnson on another an- cient document, a deed, found the water mark of a Wisconsin paper mill.
There was testimony to the effect that from 1887 until 1893 the Reavis family spent $60,000 a year, living at expensive hotels in New York and at points in Europe, especially at Madrid, where a retinue of servants was maintained, together with carriages of almost royal character. The American Legation at
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Madrid would fain forget a banquet given by Reavis in its honor, although the spread was a wonderful one.
In further researches in Mexico, Reavis took his family and servants in a private car. At Guadalajara, he gave $1,000 for new altar cloths for the cathedral. At Monterey on the plaza he set up a $1,500 drinking fountain to honor the memory of his wife's suppositious ancestor. He established homes in Washington, St. Louis and Chihuahua, as well as Arizona. When the claim was transferred into the Land Court with it came a great accumulation of alleged original records, mainly in Spanish, ancient parchments, many of them with illuminated headings, and even there were copies of oil paintings of the Peraltas, from whom had descended the Barony of the Colorados. Testimony had been provided concerning the genealogy of the Northern California bride.
The chief attorney for the court was Matthew G. Reynolds of Missouri. He secured the assistance of Severo Mallet Prevost, a Spanish scholar, who went on the trail of the Reavis evidence which had been accumulated during a period of over eighteen years of labor and scheming. Bribery, corruption and fraud were found everywhere touched in Mexico and Spain. Reavis with all his care had been a bit careless. It was found where he had bought his photo- graphs, where he had bribed officials and sought to bribe priests, where he had interpolated very cleverly written pages into old record books, and the most important document of all, the cedula appointing Don Miguel Peralta as Baron of the Colorados, on microscopic examination was discovered once to have been a royal document of very different sort.
The claim was unanimously rejected by the Justices of the Land Court, and the same day Reavis was arrested on five indictments for conspiracy. He was convicted in January, 1895, and sentenced to six years in the Santa Fé penitentiary.
CONFESSION OF THE ARCH PLOTTER
Reavis served his light sentence, and got time credits for good behavior. When released he was far from being the same debonair character he had been. He was a thin old man, with whitened hair and a stoop, but with much of the same mental vigor as of yore. He is still drifting around in the West. For a while he went back to his old business as canvasser, and in 1910 he worked hard to float a scheme for water storage on the Gila River, to irrigate 500,000 acres of the Casa Grande and Mesa plains.
Reavis does not deny his guilt, for some time after serving his sentence he wrote a confession, complete though brief, as follows :
I am of Scotch-Welsh antecedents, with a traditional Spanish extraction in the remote generations. Three of my great grandparents fought in the Revolution. I was reared in Henry County, Mo. In May, 1861, at the age of 18, I enlisted in the Confederate army, and during my life as a soldier committed my first crime. I forged an order, and heing successful in this, I raised a furlough, and before this expired I surrendered to the Union forces. After the war I worked as a street car conductor, but subsequently opened a real estate office in St. Louis. I was successful in forging a title to sustain a tax title to some valuable land I had bought, not knowing the title was imperfect. But these are incidents in which there is little interest. However, success in these early evils sowed the seed that later sprang forth into the most gigantic fraud of this century.
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The plan to secure the Peralta Grant and defraud the Government out of land valued at $100,000,000 was not conceived in a day. It was the result of a series of crimes extending over nearly a score of years. At first the stake was small, but it grew and grew in magnitude until even I sometimes was appalled at the thought of the possibilities. I was playing a game which to win meant greater wealth than that of a Gould or a Vanderbilt. My hand constantly gained strength, noted men pleaded my cause, and unlimited capital was at my command. My opponent was the Government, and I baffled its agents at every turn. Gradually I became absolutely confident of success. As I neared the verge of the triumph I was exultant and sure. Until the very moment of my downfall I gave no thought to failure. But my sins found me out and as in the twinkle of an eye I saw the millions which had seemed already in my grasp fade away and heard the courts doom me to a prison cell.
Now I am growing old and the thing hangs upon me like a nightmare until I am driven to make a clean breast of it all, that I may end my days in peace.
In Denver, Sophia L. M. Peraltareavis, who described herself as wife of James Addison Peraltareavis (a name later adopted by Reavis), sued for divorce on the ground of non-support for over two years, and she was allowed to prosecute her case as a person without means. The plaintiff at the time lived in a narrow little room at the far end of a dark, smelly hall, in a cheap Larimer Street lodging house in Denver, under very different conditions than those she had enjoyed during the palmy days of the great fraud. She stated that the marriage was in San Francisco, December 31, 1882, and she asked the custody of the twin boys of the union, Carlos and Miguel.
A variation of the ordinary land grant case is one which cropped up only about a year ago on the basis of an agreement said to have been made in 1880 by José Maria Ochoa, head chief of seventeen Papago villages, and a number of other chiefs and captains, giving an undivided half interest in 3,284 square miles of land to Robert F. Hunter of Washington, D. C., for his services in verifying Papago claims to land on which they lived, their rights having had acknowledgment by the Mexican government. This claim has been taken into the courts and is now in the process of adjudication. It includes lands almost vrholly within Pima County and generally desert in character.
RAILROAD SUBSIDY LAND GRANTS
With the grant of a right-of-way for the Atlantic and Pacific Railway across Arizona came also 'a governmental subsidy of every alternate section of land for thirty miles north and south. While much of this land is desert in char- acter, the gift was a rich one in the mountains of Arizona, where from east of Flagstaff to a point west of Williams, most of the way was through heavy timber. Immense sums were secured by the railroad company by the sale of stumpage to sawmills at different points and the company itself at the begin- ning materially decreased the cost of construction by the ready availability of lumber for ties and other construction material.
Much of the railroad land north of Williams and at other points was not timbered, save possibly with juniper and piñon, yet much of this sort of terrain was embraced within an order for the consolidation of the San Francisco Moun. tain forest reserve secured from the Government early in 1901, when lieu land scrip was issued for an enormous acreage. For several years a diligent lobby had been working in Washington toward this end. A number of plausible reasons had been advanced in support of consolidation. It was urged that the Government or the state-to-be could hardly receive any revenue from land that Vol. II-15
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lay in parcels of only one square mile, that it was necessary to have govern- mental supervision by the Forestry Bureau over the entire tract, that future erops of pine might be saved and that the watersheds would be protected, though this last item had little force from the fact that the forests around Flagstaff and Williams almost wholly drain toward the north, into the Colorado.
The odd-numbered sections, held by the Santa Fe-Pacific Railroad Com- pany, the Perrin Brothers and Wm. F. Baker, were turned over to the Govern- ment in exchange for 225,000 acres of non-timbered lands south of the twenty- seventh parallel and land scrip was given for the remainder. By executive order of August 17, 1898, all of the even numbered sections, embracing 975,000 acres, had been set apart within the San Francisco Mountain forest reserve. Baker represented the Saginaw & Manistee Lumber Company. The Santa Fé had holdings of 341,543 acres and the others of 369,955, in all valued for taxation at about $177,000. This listing, according to a protest filed in January, 1901, by Coconino County, did not embrace 300,000 unsurveyed acres or nearly $500,000 worth of cattle, horses and sheep. It was shown in the protest that nearly half of the assessed valuation of Coconino County would be removed by reason of the consolidation. The same protest was made in House Memorial No. 1, passed by the next Legislature.
The scrip secured was widely scattered. Some of it was placed in northern California in the center of great pine and redwood forests and only lately has the last been sold, generally placed in southern Arizona on lands considered susceptible to irrigation. One block of 70,000 acres thus was placed northwest of Phoenix.
The Santa Fé under its subsidy grant successfully had fought any attempt of the territorial or county authorities to tax its right of way, equipment or franchises. So, about the time of the lieu land troubles, there was a com- promise, the railroad company offering to pay $175 per mile annually on its trackage through Arizona. This arrangement continued till statehood, when the Santa Fé went under the same taxation regulations as other transportation companies.
The Southern Pacific claimed all grants that had been made the Texas Pacific and alternate sections along its route, as far northward as the Salt River Valley were known as railroad land and were considered as locally held under rather poor tenure. This grant was vacated in 1884.
In January, 1908, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation making a national monument of the Grand Cañon and another creating an addition to the Tonto National Forest, as protection for the water supply of the Salt River Valley. Most of the forested area of the state now is under reserve regulation.
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