Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-30
SOME BIG LAND CLAIMS.
Many That Are Still Unsettled in the
Interior Department..

| ing In the Secretary's office of the Depart
ment of the Interior. 1t has been hung I'D
| there for years and there seems no imme-
| date prospect Of Its decision. 1t is known
as the Reavis claim. The claimant is the
widow of Jas. A. Reavis. once a resident Of
ST. Louis. She is known to the Interior De-
partment records as Dona Sofia Loretta Mi
| caela de Maro-Reavis y Peralta de la Cor
| doba- She claims a tract of land 149 miles
| long and 40 miles wide in Arizona The
tract is of great value "a conservative esti-
mate is s20,OOO,OOO). and it holds more than
$4,000 settlers. This tract is said to have
been granted to Don Miguel de la Peralta
! Baron of the Colorados, by the King Of
Spain more than 100 years ago. The land
office reported that this claim was a fraud
and that the papers supporting it (and they
NIL hve volumes) were forged. 1t is not at
all likely that the heir of the Baron of the
Colorados will get anything from the gov
eminent The theory of the land office is
that the claim was made with view to
levy1ng on the settlers in Arizona and per-
suadlng them to compromise. Another
fraudulent claim which was rejected some
| time ago was known as the Arkansas
grant. 1t included 1871 900 acres in Tex
as and Colorado. The claim of a Spaniard
named Houmas was one of the remarkab able
! cases which came to the land office. The
original grant to him included all of the
vacant land for a league on the left bank
VI Tic hlSSiSSlppl. ftOuIQaS claimed
cant all of the land on the island which
was not timbered to the width of his water
front. His claim amounted to 10000 acres
He got title TO $500 feet from the river.
Some other Big Land Claims.
There have been many claims involving
the title to property in large cities sup
posed to have been included in some old
grant. One celebrated contest which was
before the land office and Congress for
n1f nf
United States. John Cloves Symmes OBJ
| tained from the United States in 17sS a
grant Of 100000 acres of land bounded
| south by the Ohio and west by the Miami
On this he founded the settlement of North
Bend and Cincinnati. Symmes did not get
patents for all of the land, and many years
after controversy arose over II. Congress
| settled the matter by ordering that patents
should issue to the people who were in pos
session of the land.
Sometime ago a claim was made on a
piece of the lake front at Chicago by a man
who held some of the scrip issued to T. Il
valentine in 1872 Scrip was issued by
Congress to the amount of 1,516,0OO acres
The holder was authorized to take up any
unsuryeyed land of the United States on it.
| a great deal Of very valuable land was OBJ
| tanned by the use of this scrip. In many
places the holders of the scrip would find
that there was an unclaimed space between
two townships, and this land would be
Gained under the Valentine grant This
row In existence is valued at 500 an acre
The Maxwell Land Grant
Land claims come to the land office from
every part of the country But the great
est number of them comes from New
Mexico, which is a part of the territory
Included in the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty
Perhaps the most celebrated of these New
Mexico claims is the Maxwell land grant
Congress and the Sc ,retary of the Interior
h.iV m h;
land for many years. The delegate from
New Mexico is always active in efforts to
have the matter investigated in the inter-
estS of the settlers on the land included
in the Maxwell grant, who want the Secre-
tary of the Interior TO issue patents to
them Associated with the Maxwell grant
Is the Nahil and St Vrain grant in Col
orado. The Interior Department did issue
an order in 1874 that the Maxwell lands
should be treated public lands; but Sec
| rotary Noble held that the order had been
dead letter from the time it was made
and that since it was made decision of
the Supreme Court had interviewed to pre-
vent its execution. The land commissioner
too, refuses to treat a TART of the Vahil
and ST. Nrain tract as public land, although
| an act of Congress provided that it should
/ be treated SC; because the commissioner
holds that the fact that a patent was is
sued to the Maxwell claimants for a part
| Of this property makes it impossible for
him to patent it to any one else. Resolu-
| tons have been reported to Congress for
| the lnVeStlSaIlOn OF this land grant, and
| the charge was made on the floor Of tina
House by Mr.. Otis of Kansas that the con-
duct of the Secretary of the Interior and
| the commissioner of the general land office
rs in the interest of a conspiracy in 1877
Of Hon. S. B. E11ins. then delegate to
Congress from New Mexico, and Hon t
b. Catron. then United States attorney for
| New Mexico. and Hon. ]. A. Williamson
then commissioner of the general land
office, to deprive homestead and pre-emp-
ton settlers of private and vested rights
without due process of law and to de-
fraud the United States of it's surveyed pub
lie lands"
The Maxwell grant was originally made
by the Spanish government to Beaubien
and Miranda Maxwell was a scout, who
married Miranda's daughter. Miranda had
bought out Beaubien. Maxwells wife in
herited the whole of the grant-about 45O
square leagues.
StilI Unsettled.
The Maxwell grant still remains unsettled
So do the Mora, San Pedro and half a dozen
other grants in New Mexico, about which
the delegate from New Mexico Is continual
ly stirring up the animals. The reason for
his activity is the desire of the settlers on
the thousands of acres involved to have
their title TO the land cleared up, so that
they will know where they are at"
The chief reason for all the contests that
are made in New Mexico was the vagueness
Of the surveys, or the uncertainty of the
outlines of tracts as named in the grant
The boundaries of these grants are being
Strengthened out as rapidly as possible.
A claim which is brought before Con oreSS