St. Paul daily globe., 1890-01-26
Two Town Sites and a Bis
Slice Of Helena Are
Involved.
No Key to the Iowa Dead.
lock Has Yet Been
Found
North Dakota Statesmen Are
rendered the Freedom Of
Grand Forks.
Snecial to the Globe

Special to the Globe.
HELENA, Mont, Jan. 25.-A sensa-
ton was created in Helena to-day by
the discovery of an alleged flaw in the
title to valuable realty III this city,
Great Falls and Anaconda. The prop
erty in question is valued at several
millions of dollars, and includes two
valuable additions to Helena, the town
site Of Great Falls and also part of the
town site of Anaconda. The man who
proposes to profit by the alleged flaw is
X. q. Davies, an attorney Of this city.
In reference to the case Davies says:
''In 1878 or 1879 Maj. James r. Boyce
took up 240 acres of land east of Helena
under the desert land act. Atthe same
time he made application at land Office
to make final proof on said desert claim.
William Wallace Sr. filed protest
against Boyre's entry. The case was
eventually carried to the general
land office at Washington, where
b wees entry was cancelled. Sub
sequently the land was ell
tered by Boyce and Wallace Sr. 100
acres each, with additional homestead
(soldiers) scrip. The name of the
scrip was issued under the provisions of
special law. and accompanying each
piece of scrip are two powers of attOr-
ney-one to locate the scrip upon lands
and one to sell. | was the attorney, in
fact, for Abbott; located the land, and
as such attorney, in fact. transferred
the same to James r. Boyce." The
supreme courts of Arkansas. California
and Kansas have lately decided that the
power of attorneys accompanying said
scrip is void. Davies dropped upon the
fact chat there were parcels of land in
Montana located with fhis kind of scrip.
He went East and procured deeds from
Abbott and others for the property, il-
Guiding Boyce's addition, Central Park
addition, eighty acres upon the West
side, 100 acres in which the business
portion OF Great Falls is situated. and 8
portion of the
BUSINESS PART OF ANACONDA.
A few days ago F. B. Sterling, in
searching the records to get an abstract
of piece of land in Boyce's addition,
found deed from William P. Abbott
to r. q. Davies, dated Jan. 2, 1890. for a
piece of property which he (Sterling)
supposed he owned. Sterling called on
Davies. and the latter offered to clear
the title for $500. After much dickering
Davies took $500, and Sterling let the
matter drop. The parties affected are
among the most wealthy in Helena and
include S. L. Hauser and other capital
lists. 1t is said that Marcus Daily, of
Anaconda, has offered Davies S1,0U0 for
deed to Anaconda property on which
there is cloud. A great deal of the
property affected is owned in st. Paul.
Chicago, New York. Boston and st.
Louis, and on some of it Eastern money
has been advanced. The general opin-
ion among the leading land attorneys in
the city is that it is a money making
scheme: that so for as they know there
has never been decision by the su-
preme court of the United States on
this question: that the legality of locat-
ing land with scrip has never before
been questioned. Davies has started to
make all he can out of the matter. but
he will be fought to the court of last re-
sort by the heavy capitalists of Mon
tana.