James Reavis - George Willing

George Willing

Reavis met George M. Willing Jr. in 1871. Willing was a physician turned prospector who supplemented his income selling patent medicine. He came to the real estate agent upon the recommendation of Colonel Byser, a previous customer of Reavis, seeking assistance with a real estate purchase. According to Willing, he had purchased the rights to a large Spanish land grant from Miguel Peralta for US$20,000 in gold dust, prospecting equipment, and saddle mules. The transaction had occurred at a simple mining site in Black Canyon, southeast of Prescott, Arizona Territory without the usual documentation. As Willing explained, "When the trade was made, I had no paper on which to write the deed, so I scoured the camp and found a sheet of greasy, pencil-marked camp paper upon which I wrote ... and as there were no justices or notaries present I had it acknowledged before witnesses." The deed of transfer was dated October 20, 1864.

It was 1867 when Willing reached Prescott to record the transaction. He was short of funds at the time of his arrival and offered to sell a half interest in the claim to the local stable owner. Willing suggested that the two of them could reap a sizable profit by selling nearby mines back to their owners. The stable owner was incensed by the offer and the local townsfolk were soon unfriendly to Willing. Fearing for his safety, Willing quickly settled his bills and left the next morning with a government surveying team destined for Santa Fe.

Reavis suggested Willing leave the documents to allow him time to inspect them. Willing declined the offer and instead returned the next day with an expert in Spanish land titles, William W. Gitt. Recently returned to St. Louis, Gitt was known as the "Old Spanish Land Title Lawyer" following a series of dubious land deals in Illinois and Missouri. The previous two decades he had lived in Guadalajara, Mexico after an 1847 land claim lawsuit had resulted in a bench warrant being issued in the lawyer's name.

The three men began meeting for several hours each week to examine the grant paperwork. In addition to the deed between Willing and Peralta there was an expendiente, a copy of the legal papers relating to the Peralta grant. Accompanying the copies was a letter dated 1853 and bearing the signature of Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna claiming a diligent search had been performed to locate all related documents and that the expendiente established secure title of the grant. Reavis used this time and association with Gitt to learn about Mexican and Spanish land documents. He also developed a friendship with Willing's wife, Mary Ann, whom the young real estate agent regarded as a second mother.

After a couple of years, Reavis and Willing formed a partnership aimed at promoting the claim. The two men planned to travel separately, allowing Willing to retain Reavis as a real estate expert upon his arrival. Willing left with the paperwork in January 1874, taking the overland route to Arizona Territory. Reavis traveled by sea to California via Panama. In California, Reavis visited Florin Massol, a Sacramento merchant with whom Willing had left papers assigning mining rights within the Peralta grant as collateral against a loan.

Reavis married Ada Pope of Montevallo on May 5, 1874. The couple had known each other since the days when Reavis' family operated their store. Following a brief honeymoon, he departed for the west and the couple did not see each other again for over six years. Dissatisfied with the state of their marriage, she received a divorce on grounds of desertion in 1883.