The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-02-07
vALL1ERrs PRIHCELY CLAIM.

vALLIERHS PRINCELY CLAIM.
s-ss-r slsszsiss1
A Legal Strife for 1lillions Of Acres Of
Lnnd-Tho Grant thak the Barren Of Car.
SoS Ss' Wii.os t foasS rs Il n Ola fsS.eco-
houss-1lore Litigation After Year, on
Years It Law.
From the New York SUM-
The claim Of the heirs of Don Joseph
VALERIE to 1877, 800 acres Of land. I'M
der . grant made in 1898 by Baron de
Carondelet, Governor General Of Lou
isiana, then Spanish province. was
passed upon by the United States Su-
preme Court . week ago last Monday.
For many years this gigantic claim has
been slowly working its way through
the meshes of the law. Attorney. Cen
efal Devens said to the Supreme Court
that it was " q demand for . principali-
ty." The territory claimed is only 10
miles less than that of the
kingdom of Belgium. Its area
Is greater than that Of the whole
State of Maryland. The land claimed
stretches along the White River in Ar
kansas, through large section of the
States of Missouri and Arkansas, en-
bracing the whole or parts of "a coun-
ties and 1000 acres of land in the lndi-
an Territory. Tho value of the claim
was over ten millions dollars.
Don Joseph Valliere, to whom the
grant was made, was Captain in the
army of the King of Spain, stationed in
Louisiana when that State was prov
ince, and embraced q territory which
has since been formed into the States of
Arkansas and Missouri. Capt. valliere
died intestate in New Orleans in 1899,
still possessed of all the millions of acres
granted to him, and there was no adj
ministration upon his effects. The rec
ords of the Catholic Cathedral show that
he was married to Marie Felicite Moran,
and the baptismal records of the same
cathedral show that he had four chill.
dren, the eldest being Bernard VALERIE,
the second Marie Felicite Valliere, the
third Francis VALERIE, the fourth Eu-
genia Valliere. Marie Felicite VALERIE
was married to Capt. Don Francis
Vaugine, her fathers Adjutant- General.
His daughter, Marie Felicite, married
James Scull, the lineal ancestor of a
number of the plaintiffs in the suit just
decided. There was son and three
other daughters of Capt. Vaugine, the
youngest, Eulalie, becoming the wife of
Greed Taylor, an Arkansas farmer, who
is still living in Jefferson County, Texas,
and is nearly 80 years old. Taylor's
wife died in 1927, six years after their
marriage, leaving two children still liv-
ing, Annie E. Oracle and Mrs. Eulalie
Vaugine Walker. The next year after
her death Greed Taylor married Mary
Ann Valliere, his wife's cousin, also a
granddaughter of Don Joseph Valliere,
her father being Francis VALERIE. She
died in 1888, and her descendants are
three grandchildren, named Zock,
Greed and Maggie Taylor.
There are 40 plaintiffs, descendants of
these different branches, and among
them all there is only one who bears the
family name of the Spanish Captain.
In June, 1841, the only surviving heirs
at that time of Don Joseph Valliere sold
and conveyed to John Wilson one un.
divided half of all the lands granted to
their ancestors. John Wilson was an
enterprising man, with many strong
characteristics. Wilson emigrated to
Missouri before the State Constitution
was formed. There were then no titles
to any lands in the State but Spanish
grants, and he, being a-lawyer, was
thrown into the legal investigation of
these grants as the only source of land
titles. His whole life was spent pursu-
ing Spanish and Mexican grants. In
1875, when Wilson was past 80 years of
age, he wrote out his experiences for
the benefit of the Valliere claiman Is.
He made his headquarters at Fayette,
Mo-, and travelled about from county to
county, becoming familiar with every
Spanish grant in the State, and with the
signatures of all the Spanish officers.
He knew the signature of Baron de
Carondelet as well as he did his own.
Wilson tells how the archives were re-
moved from Pensacola by the Spaniards,
in 1908, when the Commissioners of
Spain, France, and the United States
met to complete the transfer of the Lou
isiana territory to the United States.
The Spanish Minister said the records
of the grants in Louisiana and Florida
WCAO luGCA uAAu&AOu Ill VIC sShAu0 UOOho,
and he was allowed to take the records,
in oroer to extract the Florida grants.
Delay followed delay, and the archives
were not returned. Mr.. Adams pitt a
clause in the treaty of 1918 requiring
the delivery of these archives, and Gen.
Jackson went to Florida with special
instructions to secure the archives. He
put the General under arrest,
Wilson says, but the archives were
taken on board a schooner in the night,
and carried to Cuba. After Gen. Jack
son became President, he tried to re-
cover the archives, and tedious official
correspondence followed. A Commits
sioner was appointed in 1886 or 1887 to
60 to Havana and receive the archives,
and purchase the surveyors records
that accompanied them. The Commits
sioner, Wilson says, was Toasted and
put off again and again in Havana,
and in the meantime the archives |
were concealed in an old tobacco |
warehouse at the head of an arm of the |
bay. In New Orleans, Wilson afterward |
purchased for $1,000, from Mrs. Pin
tardo, copies of the grants, some in full |
and some in substance. These formed
evidence of the grants made. Then he
found in the Secretary of States Office
the Governor Generals order book con-
tanning the first official act of the Valliere
grant in the handwriting of the Baron