Arizona republican., 1895-06-02
THAT BIG FRAUD. The PeraltareaViS Claim
 for Final Hearing. Formal Close of a Stu-
 pendouS Farce.
It's Beginning Floating Min
 ing Claim Near Wickenburg
An AWkWardly Managed Fraud Car ried Through Mexico and the
 Spanish City Of Seville.

The beginning of the last attempt of J. Addison Peralta- -Reavis to establish a claim to the Salt River valley, a fringe of the surrounding gold bearing mountains and large section of ad- joining and fruitful country beyond, will take place at Santa Fe tomorrow morning in the court of private land claims.
 The claim itself, though it lowered at one time like cloud over the best part of Arizona is now seriously re- garded by TO one. The coming trial Is on all sides looked upon as the last act of bowling farce, though it had in it's time been believed by many to be a piece of realism. So strongly did they think so that the fraudulent claimant reaped a golden harvest. Among the witnesses at tomorrow's trial is ex- Mayor J. D. Monihon, who left last night for Santa Fe. Mr. Monihon was cognizant of the beginning of the fraud It originated with Dr. Willing, long since dead
 Mir. Monihon while living in Pres colt, was approached by Dr. Willing, who asked him if he knew a man named Peralta, at Wickenberg. He said something about floating mining claim which might be shifted to any part of the country and suggested that It be moved to the vicinity of Prescott SO AS to leave out the town. The doc tor pointed out the cnencial advant- ages Wf1iut1-wvtrfd7 cTrue to aft-ri.o- could get inside the scheme.
 J. Addison Reavis appeared next on the scene as representative, he said, of the Alta California, then the leading newspaper on the coast. Addison readily became implicated in the scheme which, under his superior im- aginative ideas assumed the propor- tions of a royal grant. It's location was changed to cover the territory now claimed. Thus the floating claim. at first ''no bigger than a mans hand," moved and spread.
 Dr. Willing, the originator, in the meantime was dead7aRd the mantle of fraud descended solely upon Reavie, who wore it with grace. The original Peralta had also disappeared from view, though the name of Peralta still appears as the locator of the floating claim" near Wickenberg. The other Peralta, the descendant of Spain's royal munifcence, is creature of the Alta Californian's correspondent fer tile brain.
 The claim was now grant supported by Undiscovered and moth-eaten docu-
 
 These were in turn supported by other documents more dust covered and more moth-eaten in the archives of the his- toric Spanish city of Seville. The papers at Seville were the result of an after thought of Raavs, whose original claim based simply upon the Mexican grant was proven to be fraudulent. He had committed forgeries in Mexico but they availed him nothing. The docu- ments he had created though would have been of no avail if they had been genuine. The dates were wrong will respect to certain treaties which would have been required to make the grant valid. Reavis then began to build castles in Spain. He went to Spain to superintend the construction. funny thing happened. Soon after his arrival at Seville by a romantic incident he came in contact with beautiful young lady who by strange coincidence was noble daughter of the house of Peralta, presumably related, though Reavis never suggested the idea, to the obscure Mexican prospector who had located the floating claim near Wickenburg. Reavis married this female and took upon himself thenceforth the name of Peraltareavis, without space or hyphen.
 Fortified by documents alleged to be discovered at Seville, conferring upon his romantically discovered wife the right and title to the best part of Ari- zona, Peraltareavis returned to this country. It was then that his claim became shadow and many settlers be- gan to recognize him. Then the fraud began to profit and it became ques- tion whether or not the Alta California newspaper correspondent had or had not become the Duke of Arizona.
 Successive sessions of the court of private land claims were held without determination of the matter. A year ago Attorney Matt G. Reynolds, of the land court, investigated the records ia Mexico and obtained proof of their fraudulent character. He next went to Spain and discovered that the records | at Saville had been tampered with in