The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-04-26
"a A5coMPLETE. HISTORY OF The
CASE WRITTEN BYA SPECIAL
RESENTATIvE
OF THE WEST WRGINIAN-AF-
FEcTS FIVE HUNDRED THous-
AND1lACRES OF LAND
IN SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA
AND DViRGiNlA-THIS ARTICLE
is WORTH PRESERVING.

The King land case, for which spe-
cial term of Circuit Court was held
Monday, and which was put off until
July IS, owing to the absence of At
torney Stiles, who represents King is
the most renowned case in the history
of our State. There are 100000 acres
of land in question, situated form erS
in 5Wythe and Russell counties Vir-s
ginia, on the waters of tI1eSSaHelEs ami
Guyandotte rivers, and now embraced
in Logan, NIingo, MCDOWELL and Wyo-,
ming counties, West Virginiasin Bue-
hanan county Virginia, and in Ken
tucly-S
In 1892 the State of Virginia passed.
"a law Offering for sale the waste and
unappropriated'' lands west of the Al
leghenies at the rate Of two cents per
acre: SyndicateSi were formed and
most of the lands were entered for
But what has caused great deal of
trouble is that. in some cases the,
grants overlap each other, or the same
tract is covered with two or more
grants
About the year 1894, Wilson. Cary
SN1chOlaS, VINO was Ol-
General Washington's body guard in
the Revolution, entered for several
large tracts of land. one of them being
& the 100000 acres in question. The
next year this was assigned by Mich
oIas tossRohert4Morris.s the Banker
of tile Revolution" who obtained a
patent for it. Morris decided the tract
to James Swan, who decided one-fourth
to .Dallarde, sone-half to Schwitzer and
then deed all his lands in Virginia and
.#Kentucky-in all over two and a half
million acres-to Allison, including
Z the 100000 acre tract; notwithstand-
ing that he had already decided most of
this tract. Allison conveyed the whole
of the lands to Hollbrook, and Holl.
brook to Tregent. Then HoilbrooE,
overlooking his conveyance to Tre-
gent, decided the 100000 acre tract. to
Green and DeForest, trustees for the
Virginia and Kentucky Real Estate
Trust Fund, Then, in 1887 grand
daughter of Holbrook claimed an inter.
est in the 100000 acres She con-
veyed it to Grooms, who conveyed it to
Armstrong.
In 1888 John Peter Dumas was ap-
pointed trustee, by the General Assem-
bly, of Virginia, vested with all the
lands which James Swan had died
possessed Of, the lands to be sold for
the benefit of Swans creditors. Du-
mas paid no attention to the deeds
made by Swan to Dallarde, Schwitzer
and Allison, but :. conveyed 100000
acres of the 100000 acre tract to
Thornield, who in turn conveyed 1t
to French corporation. This corpor-
alton was dissolved in 1857, and made
a deed to Maupertins, who, so far
as can be learned, never disposed OF
his claim.
Dumas claimed the remaining 2oo,-
900 acres until his death, when his
son claimed title by Inheritance. Du-
mas son was an alien and could not
legally hold the land, so it was es-
4 cheated in 1850. Thus the claims of
Dumas went to the State of Virginia.
In 1855 the Circuit Court of Kanawha
appointed Josiah Randall trustee. He
was succeeded by Robert Randall
who was succeeded by Reed. The lat
ter sold all claims to the remaining
4 100000 acres to Armstrong in 1891.
Reed claimed that through a lien on
Thornfields part he had right to sell
the other 800, 900 acres, which he con-
veyed to Armstrong. Later Reed and
Armstrong conveyed most Of the tract
to LeMoyne.
The Pittsburg National Bank of
!, Commerce claimed title to three
1 fourths of the 100000 acre tract. Al
though there is no record, it is claimed
that the land was sold from Dallarde
and Schwitzer, passed through differ
ent hands until it came into the hands
of the Pittsburg bank. This bank
conveyed its claim to Armstrong in
1893 Armstrong and LeMoyne have
both conveyed their claims to Henry
C. King, who is party to the suit.
III AT different times have the lands in
question become the property Of the
state according to the laws thereof,