The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-24
SOME GEORGIA LAND TITLES.
How They Gave a SChCmer Opportunity
to DupO English Capitalists.

Montgomery County Tract of 1o4,-
600 Acres That Never Did Exist-At-
torneys Afraid to Take Ejectment
Suits Against Occupants in Some
Sections of the State-How Wilson
Located the Fictioious Land in the
Mortgage He Gave for Security-Fre-
quent Leniency of the Courts to Oc-
cupants of Land-It is a Hard Matter
to Gust Them.
Land titles in some in the counties of
South Georgia are in such state of I'M
certainty in many instances, that they af-
ford splendid opportunities for the prac-
tice of fraud, that are occasionally taken
advantage of by adopts in winning the
confidence of gullible money men.
Another story of how capitalists were
taken in by the suavity and smoothness
of an individual who travelled under the
/ name of Roger Q. Wilson, through the
graceful manner in which their confidence
was won, as much as anything else, per-
haps, by the seeming detailed accuracy
with which plot of land was described,
has just come to light.
Wilson claimed to hail from Brisbane
county in the colony of Queensland Aus
trala. He represented to r. L. Powell and
George J. Nisbett, moneyed men of Lon
don, in general that he was a large spec
lator in lands and real estate, specifically
that he was the owner of 100000 acres of
land in Montgomery county, Ga, the seat
of which is Mount Vernon. Upon these
representations he induced the foregoing
parties to let him have 5000, or about
$4,000 in American money, in considera-
ton of which he executed a mortgage to
D . a
which he exhibited a paper title.
! He had evidently reduced this sort of
/ business to an art, as his description of
/ the tract read like an engineer notes.
| He described the boundary of the
/ first tract of 5000 acres as be-
ginning at a certain pine tree
which he located running thence by
the lands of Joseph Cooper, east 500 chains
/ to another certain pine tree, west 200
/ chains to a pine north As degrees west 100
] chains to a pine, south 40 degrees west 600
! chains to pine, and thence by unknown
/ lands south As degrees east LOO chains.
He similarly described a tract of 1900
acres, making in all 100000 acres all of
which he located in Montgomery county.
! Thus armed Wilson secured the cash and
left the two capitalists who put it up to
tell the rest of the story.
The time came round for the payment
of the amount according to the mort
| was at hand. Messrs. Powell & Nisbett
thought the transaction rather a queer
one, but came to the conclusion that VIII
son was unable to pay and had decided
to let his land go. The mortgage was sent
to Messrs. George A. Mercer & Son with
| instructions to foreclose it, and Mr..
George A. Mercer, Jr., went up to Mount
Vernon to investigate. The fact that the
I mortgage had been recorded in the Mont
/ gomery county superior court, rather gave
1t the stamp of a bona fde transaction
Mr.. Mercer first wrote to a lawyer in
Montgomery county, stating the case and
asking him if he could get up the record
in the matter. The attorney replied in a
general way that he would not dare take
up case in which lands there were in
volved intimating that he was afraid OF
being assassinated if = should interfere
with the occupants of any of the prop
erty there.
Mr.. Mercer then went up to Mount Yer
non to look up the record, and he says
found it was a plain case of fraud. All
that Wilson ever had was paper title
which was valueless. So far as could be
determined the certain pine tree" where
the boundary line began, might have been
located in England, Australia or the other
world. Suffice it to say It was never To-
Gated there and some of the people said
there was scarcely as much as 104, 900 acres
in the entire county. The alleged JoseEh
] COOp6l pIONGu u DG d lily III, ana 6pOuI the
only true statement of the boundary con-
tanned in the mortgage was the portion re-
ferring to unknown lands The mortgage
I stated the $4,000 acres was granted by the
state of Georgia to Joseph Cooper in 1874
IL IS grants of 1000 acres each, and that
the $4,000 acres was similarly granted TO
Jonathan Black. These lands were al
legged to have been conveyed to r. w. Will
son by w. H Belt, Sept g. 1890
The fact that the mortgage had been
recorded in the superior court of Mont
gomery county, probably induced Powell
and Nisbett to accept it and lend the
| money As matter of fact however, there
is not only no such tract of land in Mont
gomery county, but there has not been in
years any one tract there of half the size
of that mentioned. Many of the people in
that section, occupants of land, hold their
property not through any well defined le-
gal titles, but by the right of occupation,
and though in many instances such titles
could perhaps be successfully attacked,
there is no lawyer in that section at least
who would undertake such a case 1t is
said such case occurred some years ago,
where an attorney set up a claim to GER
tain lands for a client, and d white can
gang made brief his stay upon earth
thereafter. Since then very few attorneys
have been found with the nerve to at
tempt to eject the occupants of years.
from the premises on which they are To-
Gated via cat utleS are numerous, but
they are liable to be kept Gagged until
tanned, when ousting becomes impractic-
able or impossible. The courts have be-
fore them many cases involving such IL
ties, and as a usual thing sthe courts re-
alize the gravity of the situation. and the
tenants, who have that we'll known nine
tenths of the law on their side are given
the other tenth and remain in possession.
Wilson was recently seen In Atlanta bv
a Savannahian, and the last heard Of him
he was still representing himself as an eN-
tensive owner and Spectator in real es-
tate. He was, It is said. wining and dining
his friends in a royal manner, perhaps
with the money Of the realm, which he So
cured on the fictitious MONTGOMERY
county property.
Jefferson street Opened.