The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-03-02

A PACKAGE OF Very Valuable or Inval-
liable Land Papers, as tho Case
May .be. Found I'm the
YNrdOf BngniO

III VIII w io"iohipetoo tuas ieW uays aSO
m advertisement appeared in this paper
notifying any person who had lost any title
deeds to lands to call at d certain nImber on
Main street for them. Well, .hsce Is some-
thing mysterious about these psper'. They
were found three or four days ago, by Nellie
Gross in hor back yard at the CORNER of
Ervay and Commerce streets, She happen.
ed to DO in her back yard early in the morn
ing and discovered two handled basket,
painted black, in which the papers were.
On examining them, she said at once that
they were letter deeds 10 lands, and the first
thought that occurred to her
was that the court house
hsi been robbed and their basket OF papers
thrown into her yard. She soon afterwards
hurried down town to her lawyer. Col ID. r.
Williams. and acqusihting him with the facts,
asked his advice. He looked At the papers
and saw at glance that they did not belong
to the records of this county, and telling her
50, advised her 10 leave them with him and
he would advertise TOR the owner, which she
did.
A HERALD reporter yesterday examined
carefully the papers. They ore undoubtedly
the property Of Col. VIM. Bray, who either
now does or has lived at Independ-
ence, Washington county, Texas. Tho
nearest and best clue that could
be obtained as TO who Bray is, was from 4
letter head among the papers, which reads:
"Texas End Indiana mutusl exchange coloni.
cation and immigration bureau, w s. Webb,
president, VIM. Bray, secretary, j.. Erwin,
special agent, Bryan, Texas, 4. Il Tullis,
special agent Austin, Texas, Austin and
indianapolis; capital stock $500, 600; shares
| 500 esch." This WAS the concern alleged
to boat the head and the front and centre of
the land forgery business that so excited the
whole eiate few years ago. TGllis, one of
the special agents, is now ia the penltentiary
and Ham, .McCulloch, Stephens and Others
OF the clan are also in the penilentisry.
Whether or not Bray had ANYTHING
to do with these land frauds we cannot say.
We herewith publish the following from IN
old issue of the Austin Statesman, which
gives the various aliases under which the
members of the clan carried on operations
and with which they signed deeds: The
Statesman is indebted TO Captain Rhodes
Fisher, chief clerk of the land office, for a
carefully prepared list of aliases of tho land
thieves. This list should be filed away by all
persons interested in Texas land inyesiics-
tons, and. especially by officers of record.
Here is the list: n EAtwel!, Jacob Bates,
Bates, j d Barry, Job ID Barry, ii ID
Brown, John Burt, Herman Brandt, Geo ID
Brown, Jonas Cheek, John II Davis Job M
Davis, No 10. Jonas, d II jackson, A NJ
Jones, Orlando Kiger, W & Kelley, Alexan-
der Kelley, John NJ Mercer, John M Martin,
John M Martha, d A New
berry, George Ormsby, Zers Osks,
Thomas Dalton, Deorge Dawson II. A Ed
| ward, w. II. Gibbs, j. +. Goodman, j. r.
| Hamilton, j. r. Hamil, John II. Hall, John
Hall, Bartlett G. Hickman, j. B. Hughes
John /. Hudson, IL. g. Hszleton, James A.
Halves, Aron Hughes, Jonas, John
Jones, I. j. Ogden, Allen Oakley, S. A. 81 o.
Oliver, Luke OBennon, Sylvester Oppics,
John Bysn, H. l.. & 9 Rockwell, Urian p.
Smith, ID. II. Strein, w. l.. Stevens A. j.
Smith, Geo. w. Smith, Geo. A. Stevens,
George Stevens, Robert w. Teasdale,
Geo. Il. Thompson, b, II. Wiilisms.
Among the papers are deeds TO lands to
Bray or Tulis with claims of titles includ-
Ing patents, etc, in nearly every county in
| the state. Their arc also several powers of
attorney from Tullis to Bray to sell
lands and number O. letters from Tu!lis to
Bray, in ,one of which he says to him that he
has sent him quito number of land patents
ana gives him instructions to sell them for
diamonds, lewelry o. any kind of property
OF that sort. There are also a number of
| deeds to land in Indiana and in Tennessee
the whole amount aggregsting fully half a
million acres of land. All these titles are
perfect on their face, and SO far as the
| Texas lands are concerned, for each tract
there is a complete chain of title from the
land office up or down, whichever you may
call it. There are patents bearing the sigma.
lures of Governors Pcase, Il. j. Davis and
| Richard Coke and the land commissioners
under them. The seals and attestations are
all perfect on their faces. There is also one
package containing two promssory notes
for $3.50 each, given by a man in Charles
town, Massachusetts,, to VIM, Bray, and a
number Of deeds to land in differ ent counties
in this state from VIM. Bray TO j. w. Brad
ley, of Boston, Massachusetts, with directions
on the package for it to be forwarded to
Bradley in case of his, Bray's death. Who
is j. W. Bradley? Is it Aliunde Joe, guess
you! There are also number of love
letters, among the papers, some
from "Grscie," but the bulk from
Jennie" whoever "Jennie" may
DO. These papers are in tho possession of
colonel d. X. Williams. They arc I'M
doubleday the property of Colonel William
Fray, and upon their face they aro worth
fully a million dollars. How they came in
Mollie Cross back yard is mystery.
Whether Colonel Bray has been foulS dealt
with and robbed and these papers thrown
away is one Of the mysteries.