Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-03-01
THE PERALTA GRANT.
IT IS DECLARED TO BE NO GOOD
 TITLE.
The Claimants Receive Setback---Im- portant Decision Given by the Con- missioner of the General Land
 Office.
Special Dispatch to the S. F. Chronicle.

Special Dispatch to the s. F. Chronicle.
 Washington, February 27.-Every- body in California will remember the story of the Pcralta grant. The Per alta family is an old one, but in south ern California nobody ever dreamed 1t was entitled to any great landed estates. All this changed, however, when little over year ago James A. Reavis appeared upon the scene, marrying one of the Peralta girls. Then it was suddenly discovered that by reason of service rendered by some ancestor to the King of Spain, the Peraltas had been granted 4 ,O00, 900 acres of the best land in Arizona, the title to which grant Reavis immediately set about proving. He got himself interviewed in number of papers, and the thing created a great stir, particularly in Arizona, where numerous people had taken up claims upon the alleged grant.
 Now the whole thing has fallen flat, for the Peralta grant is no more. Reavis fought the thing industriously, digging into all sorts of musty records, the case finally reaching the Interior Department here. To-day Land Com missioner Groff delivered decision upon it, saying, in effect, that no grant 1 of the character claim was ever made, and ruling against the claimants at every point. The Surveyor-General of Arizona is directed to strike the case from his calendar
 In his letter to the Surveyor-Gen- eral, the commissioner says in part :: "You have ascertalned the facts ill the case to your own satisfaction, and re- port that there Is no claim under the laws, usuages and customs of Spain and Mexico, and furthermore, that the present petitioners have no connection with the alleged grantee. Reavis at first based his alleged rights upon pur- chases from certain individuals; but that claim of title through mesne con veyances he has voluntarily abandoned it seems, as untenable, and now rests entirely on the title of his wife as the lineal descendant and only living heil of Peralta, to whom the King of Spair is said to have given principality 1T this claim.
 "Is the consanguinity and descen set up for Mrs. Reavis verity whicl could be established to the satisfaction of court? It does not so appear iron the proofs submitted; suspicion sur rounds the case as presented at ever, step from its inception to the presen
 time. The papers claimed as ancien documents and exhibited as instru ments of title, some of which papers it is alleged, were found by Reavi , among the posthumous effects of on, Dr. Willing, are made up of shred
 and patches, full of inconsistencies anC anachronisms and utterly unworthy o faith or credit.
 "That most reprehensible fraud , have been attempted in this case b,
 some one at some time I have n,
 doubt. I agree with you and tn views of my predecessor that the es
 sential foundation of recognizabl claim under the laws of Spain and tn treaties and laws of the United State f does not appear in the case. Even 7 the claim is founded in fact, in tn !, absence of 8 grantee the mere asser
 ton of one or the other can invest n right and impose no duty"