The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-30
OF Large Size.
Some of the Big Things of the World.
ARTICLE NO. 7

S--O~-~~~-~-~~~@~-~~~~ ~~oO~-~l~.~.>~U~G
ARTICLE NO. Z.
FORGERS-James Addison Reavis, the
king Of forgers, the most ingenious ana
audaclouS SWiEdler ever known in the
United States, who played a brilliant
game with 12,500000 acres of land as the
stake and lost, who fooled the ahlest
lawyers and the sharpest financiers in
the country, later known as convict No
1854 In the New Mexican penitentiary, waa
released from confinement early in July,
1879. He served the term of two years
for which he was 3entenccd for forgery
less his good behavior" allowance, and
went to Denver, where his handsome
Mexican wife had been liying-the
daughter of an ordinary Arizona
ranchero-who appeared in her husbands
schemes as Her Excellentissino Dona
Sofia Loretta Miceala de FeraIta Reavis,
nee Maso Silva dc Peralta dc la Cor
doba,' etc, ETC. Her real name was
Sophia Maso and Ehe was born in 1852
on a ranch near the San Bernardino
mountains. Her parents werA common
MeXicans, who could not read or write.
Yet upon her beauty and natural accom-
plishments Reavis built up a romance
that brought him more than half 4; lnil-
lion dollars, but failed to carry through
the most audacious conspiracy that has
been conceived during the present gen
Grafton at least.
He worked at it with extra ordinary pa
tience and skill for more than twenty-five
years. He not only forged a royal grant
bearing the signature of the king Of
Spain end his ministers, but also q series
of wills large bunch OF deeds, records
of probate and other legal proceedings,
baptismal and marriage certificates, and,
what was much more difficult ard daring,
he Invented long line of distinguished
ancestors for his peon wife, connected
them by ties of kinship with the royal
house of Spain, scared a full set of
their portraits, both in oil and on ivory
miniatures, wrote their biographies sup
piled from his own brain correspondence
that had passed between them and dis
tinguished personages of the time, and
surrounded them with such complete ana
perfect evidences IF existence that men
like Roscoe Conkling, ex-senator Ed
munds, Thomas F. Rayard, Robert G.
In2ersoll and others were completely
humbUgged and accepted his f1Ctions for
facts.
John w Mackay c. P Huntington
Leland Stanford, Charles Croker and
other famous fnanciers furnished him
money to carry on his crime. the cabinet
ministers of Spain and Mexico gave him
their sanction and assistance, and even
the prelates of the Catholic church bore
testimony to the honesty and respecta-
bility of the swindler and n.s bogus
wife.
In all the annals of crime there cannot
be found a more complete ana compre-
hensive conspiracy, and it cost -he gov
eminent of the United States nearly
$250,000 and several years OF labor by
the department of justice to expose the
fraud and send Reavis to prison for two
years.
Reavis was the son of a farmer in Hen
ry county, Missouri who went into the
Confederate army, and thereafter led a
life of adventure for several years in
North, Central and South America. He
was a sailor and a soldier a clerk and
bookkeeper a street car conductor, an
insurance agent, drummer and finally
a real estate agent in st. Louis. There
he made the acquaintance of man
named Willing, who hired him to investi-
gate the genuineness of an old Spanish
grant for a small piece of property in
Arizona. In this inquiry Reav.s learned
the methods and the laws of the old
Spanish occupation, and his experience
with the Willing claim seems TO have
suggested the idea of getting up one for
himself, which he did on most magnif-
cent scale.
After ten or twelve years of the most
ingenious and Industrious labor he ask
ed congress to confirm to his wife the til
tie to a tract of land in New Mexico and
Arizona nearly twice as large as the state
of Massachusetts, about forty miles
wide and 300 miles long, and containing
a population of 10000 or 10000. The San
ia Fe railroad company recognized The
Justice of the claim before it was acted
upon by congress, and paid him $4,000
for right of way across his wife's prop
erty The Southern Pacific company not
only paid a greater amount for a right
of way, but its chief owners are said to
have furnished Reavis from time to time
not less than 100000 to pay the expense
of proving his title.
Several committees of congress reported
favorably on the claim, and if it had not
been for the persistence with which
some of the settlers fought it the title
might have been confirmed by legisla-
tive act. Reavis, who spent good deal
of time in Washington those days, and
lived with ostentatious elegance at the
Arlington hotel, had the nerve to con-
sent to an investigation by the United
States court of claims, which was never
finished. In the midst of the proceed
ings the claimant was tried and convict
ed of forgery, and the great structure
he had spent so much time and skill in
building collapsed like a house of cards.
His distinguished attorneys withdrew
from the case, his financial hackers re-
pudiated him and bill of $4,000 for
board at a New York hotel still remains
unpaid
The moral of all crime is that, how
ever shrewd and cunning 1t may be- 1t is
usually exposed and the criminal is pun