The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-09-28
An Important Land Suit.

JEFFERSON CRY, Mo-, Sept. 19.-The
case of Benz. II. Scull ct al, as heirs of
Don Jose Valliere, and w. II. Duryea,
as grantee of the heirs, VS.. the United
States, was again before the United
States District Court yesterday for argu
ment on the demurrer filed to the
second amended petition of plaintiffs,
and was elaborately argued by Assistant
United States Attorney Williams and
United States Attorney BOttsford in
support of the demurrer, and II. Clay
Ewing for the petitioners. The case
promises to become cause cele6Te in
the history of land litigation, from the
vast interests involved, the antiquity of
the transactions, and the curious and
intricate law learning connected with
it. The plaintiffs claim is based upon
a complete Spanish grant, made by the
Baron de Carondelet, as Governor
General of the Province of Louisiana,
to their ancestor, Don Jose Valliere,
who was Captain in the stationary
regiment of Spanish Infantry at New
Orleans. The grant bears date December
22, 1898, is signed by the Baron de Ca
rondelet, and conveys to Valliere the
enormous quantity of over 100000
acres of land ON the banks of White
River, between the Grand North Fork
and Buffalo River, 10 leagues in depth
on both banks, and includes the greater
part of 81 counties in South Missouri
and Northern Arkansas. The claims of
your Chouteaus and Soulards and Cla-
morgans. so famous in the early his
tory of St. Louis, sink into insignifi-
cance compared with this enormous
grant. The Forbes purchase and the
Anedonde grants of Florida were mere
potato patches beside it, and it is not
equaled in magnitude, and scarcely ex-
celled in value, by the celebrated Mari
posa grant in California. Ii it can be
sustained, it will be "bonanza" TO the
heirs of Valliere, the grantees and spec
ulators who have acquired title to the
largest portion of it for merely nOmi-
nal consideration, and to the attorneys
employed. 1t is said that the contingent
fee of Gen. Ewing is 100000. This
grant has a peculiar history. Al
though made in 1898, no survey
accompanied it, but only 4 "figuratiye
plan," by Don Carlos Trudeau, and this
plan seems to have been made from a
fanciful conception of the courses and
distances of the White River, and its
tributaries, rather than from actual
knowledge, and is altogether unlike the
true confguration of the country. Capt.
Yalliere died in 1899, at Arkansas Post,
hofOro toIyipc, ,,oCuacciOO of this la0d
and his title papers connected with his
grant seem to have perished with him.
He left widow and children surviving
him, but they were either unaware OF
the fact of their ancestor being the
grantee of this vast trac,, or too poor to
take any steps to assert their rights.
Fifty years passed away until, in 1913,
Gen. John Wilson, of Missouri, in hunt
ing through the old Spanish land
records at New Orleans, came across
the record of the order of survey and
figurative plan of Trudeau of this grant.
But the grant itself could nowhere be
found until, after great labor, it was
traced to the Spanish archives at
Havana, where it had been de-
posted after the evacuation of
Florida by the Spanish authorities
in 1920. Wilson instituted a suit in
1874 in the District Court of the United
States for Arkansas, at Little Rock, for
confirmation of the grant, but failed to
prosecute it, and it was dismissed. A
similar suit commenced in 1916 in the
same Court shared the same fate. Thir-
ty years were then permitted to pass
without any further claim being made,
under the grant, against the United
States, until May, 1875, when Gen.
Duryea, of New York, files his petition
before Judge Krekel, to have the grant
declared valid and binding against the
United States. The District Attorney
demurred to this petition, and the Court
sustained the demurrer, and the plain
tifs have been compelledto amend from
time to time, until the case stands in
the shape mentioned above. After the
argument Judge Krekel took the case
under advisement, and will not an
nounce his decision until the next tern
of the Circuit Court.-St. LOUIS Globe
Democrat