15. A Talent for Forgery
After the Civil War, Reavis traveled to Brazil, then got into real estate when he returned to America. In that line of business, Reavis discovered that the talent for forgery that he had discovered in his Confederate Army days could come in real handy. Especially when there was need to clear up messy paperwork and fix vague property titles. Clients sought Reavis when they had difficulty selling land because they were unable to establish clear ownership. He would magically produce some document that everybody else had somehow “missed” before, to clear up ownership in no uncertain terms. The “discovered” documents were forged by him, of course.
