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Outlandish and Extravagant Facts from the Gilded Age

Khalid Elhassan May 31, 2022 37 min

7. A Public Authority That Would Approve Anything for the Right Bribe

The lands taken from Mexico and affirmed by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and the subsequent Gadsden Purchase. University of Wisconsin-Madison

The fact that the Public Lands Commission was dirty was good news for James Reavis. Especially because the land claim of his deceased partner, George Willing, was weak. Willing claimed that in 1864, he had paid $20,000 in gold dust, mules, and other goods, to a Miguel Peralta for the land in question. Unfortunately, the deed of transfer was highly irregular, made on a sheet of greasy and marked-up paper, without a notary or justice. However, Reavis discovered how easy it was to get the Public Lands Commission to approve a claim, no matter how iffy, provided the right palms were greased.

So he decided it was time to head to Arizona. As a start, he “tipped off” his Gilded Age railroad tycoon acquaintances to the deceased Willing’s land – without disclosing his interest in it. He then told them that he could negotiate right-of-way privileges for their proposed Southern Pacific line through Arizona. Reavis then traveled to Kentucky, where he met the deceased Willing’s widow, and bought his late partner’s interest in the land. Next, he used his newspaper connections to hype the land grant, and exaggerate the supposed “solidity” of the title claim.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.