James Reavis - Fraud Revealed

Fraud Revealed

The U.S. Presidential election of 1888 resulted in the return of a Republican to the White House. Following the inauguration of Benjamin Harrison, Royal Johnson was reappointed Surveyor General for Arizona Territory in July 1889. Despite having been out of office, Johnson had continued to investigate the validity of the Reavis claim. About this time, the acting Commissioner of the Land Office had received inquiries as to the status of the Peralta grant. In September 1889, he sent Johnson a letter directing the Surveyor General to "please report to me the exact condition of said grant as shown by papers and records in your office, and all the information you can obtain in regard to it." Johnson responded to this request on October 12, 1889 with the release of Adverse report of the Surveyor General of Arizona, Royal A. Johnson, upon the alleged Peralta Grant : a complete expose of its fraudulent character.

Among the issues found in the report with the Peralta grant were:

• Most of the claim's 18th century documents showed evidence of having been written with steel nibbed pens, a tool rarely used until the 19th century, instead of a quill.
• Printing styles on the Peralta documents differed with documents from the same time period, particularly in the use of the long s.
• Search of Spanish archives for supporting documents failed to find information on the Peralta grant in locations where such information was expected.
• Multiple spelling errors and grammar issues were present in the Peralta documents, a situation highly atypical of documents from the Spanish Royal court.

Johnson's report was met with celebration by Arizona residents and the once demonized Surveyor General became the toast of the town. The Gazette praised the Surveyor General's intelligence and fairness while extending the thanks of the Salt River valley. The Herald in turn printed "No one has criticized Johnson more than we and these criticisms were founded largely on his own statements, but no one will do Mr. Johnson complete justice for his actions on behalf of the settlers sooner or more heartily give him credit for standing by them in their time of need than the Herald." Governor Murphy even invited Johnson to Phoenix where a public reception was held in his honor.

Response in Washington to Johnson's report was more subdued. Reavis had enlisted the aid of Secretary of the Interior John Willock Noble and U.S. Senator Francis Cockrell in his lobbying efforts. As a result it took until February 20, 1890 for the Commissioner of the Land Office, Lewis Groff, to respond to Johnson's report. Groff's letter to Johnson was generally critical of the Surveyor General but could not disregard the report's findings. The letter ended with instructions for Johnson "to strike the case from your docket and notify Mr. Reavis of the action, allowing the usual time for an appeal to the Hon. Secretary of the Interior."