The Baron of Arizona
The American West holds many tales of many individuals; the honorable, the crooked, the good, the bad, the visionaries and the ordinary. But amongst the crooked characters of the old west few can claim to be in the same league as James Reavis, the "Baron of Arizona."
Here today, gone tomorrow
In the 1840s a situation was brewing between the United States and the newly independent country of Mexico.
President James Polk wanted the U.S. to be extended to the Pacific ocean. The trouble was, Mexico was there. Offers to purchase the land from Mexico had gone nowhere.
Texas had recently gained its independence from Mexico and became the Republic of Texas. The separation was a bit messy, the border between the two was still in dispute. Later, Texas joined the union and Texas' border headache now became the United States' border headache.
War broke out, the Mexican-American war.
At the war's end, the United States gained a large area of land.
Map of Mexican Cession by Kballen*
For their part, the United States government agree to a couple of terms.
The United States would pay all debts by Mexico to United States citizens, $3.25 million.
When Mexico was part of the Spanish empire, the crown of Spain had awarded land grants to certain families. The United States agreed to honor these.
Our tale hangs on the second point.
The snake in the grass
James Reavis was born in Missouri in 1843. Like many young men in his area, he joined the Confederate army when the Civil war broke out.
Army life proved a disappointment for young Mr. Reavis and his quest for glory. But he did learn he had a talent.
He was very good at forgery.
At first, he used this skill to forge passes of leave for himself. Later, his fellow soldiers learned about this and he went into business selling phony passes. When his officers starting getting suspicious he forged a pass for himself and left. He would later be fighting again, this time for the Union army.
After the war James knocked around, doing various odd jobs, even living in Brazil for a time.
Then, he met George Willing.
The Peralta grant
George Willing purchased an old Spanish land grant title for some land in Arizona. The grant was awarded to a man over a century earlier but did not do anything with it due to fear of the local Apache Indian tribes.
Shortly after James and George meet, George dies and James manages to get the document.
Not content with this small grant, James decides to apply his forgery skills to expand the grant with a vengeance.
He traveled to Mexico and Spain to research the claim and background.
He studied the type of paper and ink used so he can make high-quality forgeries.
He "found" and married a woman who is an heiress to the claim. Sophia Treadway, orphan and house servant became Doña Sophia Micaela Maso Reavis y Peralta de la Córdoba, land grant heiress.
By the time James was done in late 1887, he had put together a claim to one monster land grant.
The Peralta grant.
It was huge, taking in a large chunk of Arizona and some of New Mexico!
Peralta claim on a modern computer map
18,700 square miles, half the size of the entire state of Indiana!
House of cards
Immediately after filing his claim, James set out to get investors in New York to finance his development plans.
Back home, he was willing to have people live on “his land” as long as they pay him for it. Mines, not willing to take risks, agreed to the payments. For the rest, they had nothing but anger for him.
Likewise, it didn't take the local surveyor-general long to smell a rat. After looking into it, the claim was denied. Mr. Reavis reacted by taking the matter to court.
Bad move.
By going to court, his claim was given a more careful examination. Despite all his efforts, the truth came out; he was exposed. He would spend all the money he stole on court cases and high living. Finally, he died, penniless and alone, (Sophie finally divorced him) in 1914.
Thus ended the “Baron of Arizona.”
Great Films
The Baron of Arizona
(1950) This movie, starring Vincent Price, tells the story of James Reavis and his attempt to pass off one of the biggest con jobs ever.
Great Books
Tales of Arizona Territory by Charles D. Lauer
OK, not everyone lives in Arizona and might not feel like they can relate. Yet in this short book, Mr. Lauer shares a series of amusing tales of frontier life that's worth sharing with the family. My family's favorite is the story is the one about monkey tamales (You have to read it to find out more).
*Map of Cession shared through creative commons license 4.0.
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