West, Margaret West Virginia contested-election cases, Davis vs. Wilson and Hagans vs. Martin... West, William R. Wharton, Henry D. Wheeler, Appropriations- Appropriations for the support of the Army.. Wheeler, John F. Oath of loyalty White, Baker, children of. White, Fannie B...... White, William... Whitehead, Matthias.. Whittaker, Matthew B. Whitthorne, Naval Affairs- Heirs of William C. Brashear.. Williams, Charles G., Foreign Affairs- Consulate at St. Michael, Azores.. Willard, Charles W., Foreign Affairs- Alexander Thomson. Williams, John M. S., Post-Office and Post-Roads- Willard Howe Williams, William B., Revolutionary Pensions and War of 1812- Wilson, Jeremiah M., on Affairs of the District of Columbia, (select)— Subject. Vol. No. Wilson, James, War-Claims- Randall Brown Salmon B. Colby. Mrs. Flora A. Darling Thomas Day David Kleim Mrs. Jane Northedge, widow, &c. Capt. Thomas McKinster Wright, George S., administrator of John T. Wright, deceased Wyoming and Ta-kiang, relief of the officers and crews of the Yaeger, Augustus.. Yerby, Albert F., administrator Young, James R. Young, John Young, John D., Invalid Pensions— Sciotha Brashears. Martha E. Brixley Mrs. Nancy C. Brooks Elizabeth J. King. Ade H. McDonald. Mrs. Sally Oatly Y. Elizabeth Prindle, guardian, &c 26 1st Session. No. 263. HOT SPRINGS RESERVATION, ARKANSAS. MARCH 26, 1874.-Recommitted to the Committee on Private Land-Claims and ordered to be printed. Mr. PACKARD, from the Committee on Private Land-Claims, submitted the following REPORT: [To accompany bill H. R. 608.] The Committee on Private Land-Claims, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 608) extending the time for filing suits in the Court of Claims to establish title to the Hot Springs reservation, in Arkansas, report thereon as follows: The descendants of Don Juan Filhiol claim title to a tract of land known as the Hot Springs tract, situated in the State of Arkansas. Their memorial shows that there are missing links of title, or at least such a cloud upon the title that they are induced to ask Congress either to confirm their title or to allow them thirty days to bring their suit in the Court of Claims to establish it. A former act of Congress, June 11, 1870, gave these parties two years within which to bring their suit. They failed to bring it within the time; hence their application for the further extension of time. In support of their claim, they say that their ancestor, Don Juan Filhiol, was an officer in the Spanish army in the war between Spain and England, and acted as the commandant of the post of Ouchita, in the province of Louisiana, then belonging to Spain; that, as a recompense for this and other military services, sundry grants of land were made to him, among the number the Hot Springs tract, by Don Estovan Miro, then Spanish governor-general of the province of Louisiana, and who was authorized to make such grants; that the grant to the Hot Springs tract bears date 12th December, 1787, but the original grant is not produced before the committee. The reason given for its non-production will be alluded to in another connection. The memorial further states that Don Juan Filhiol sold said Hot Springs tract to his son-in-law, Narcisso Bourjeat, by deed dated November 25, 1803, and a copy of such deed is exhibited. That said Bourjeat resold said land to Don Juan Filhiol, by deed bearing date July 17, 1806, and a copy of such deed is produced. It is further stated that Don Juan Filhiol was married in 1782; had three children; that his wife died before he died, and that he died in the year 1821, about eighty-one years of age, and that memorialists are his lineal descendants. They further state that Grammont Filhiol, son of Don Juan Filhiol, has, from time to time, for the last fifty years, employed different agents and attorneys to prosecute their claim, but that they had either neg lected to do so, or they, by collusion with others, endeavored to secure the land for themselves. The deed from Don Juan Filhiol refers to a grant from Don Estovan Miro, as the basis of the claim of Don Juan Filhiol. This recital, however, would only be evidence as between parties and privies to the deed, and would not be evidence to establish the existence of the original grant as against strangers and adverse claimants. The original grant remains unaccounted for, except by a probability that is raised by circumstantial statements that it was burned at the time the old St. Louis Hotel was burned, in New Orleans, in 1840, or that it was sent to the governor-general of Cuba, or was sent to the home government of Madrid. The memorialists have filed with the committee a paper purporting to be a copy of a copy of a grant answering the description of what they allege was the original. There is also a copy of a certificate and figurative plan, accompanying the supposed copy of the grant, made by Don Carlos Trudeau, surveyor-general of Louisiana, under the government of Miro and Carondelet. The evidence of Lozare shows that Don Juan Filhiol during his life claimed the land. Other evidence shows that he leased the springs to one Dr. Stephen P. Wilson about the year 1819; but there is no evidence before the committee to show that Don Juan Filhiol, or any one claiming under him, ever had the actual possession of the land. By the report of the Hon. Thomas Ewing, the Secretary of the Interior, June 24, 1850, Senate Executive Document No. 70, Thirty-first Congress, 1849-50, vol. 14, it appears that the Interior Department had the whole subject of the Hot Springs before it, and to which reference is made for the detailed history. We, however, may allude to the leading facts presented in the report: One Francis Langlois claimed title to the "Hot Springs" by virtue of a New Madrid location certificate, dated November 26, 1818, pursuant to the act of Congress, February 17, 1815, for the relief of the citizens of New Madrid County, Missouri Territory, who suffered by the earthquake. S. Hammond and Elias Rector applied to the surveyor of public lands for the State of Illinois and Territory of Missouri for an entry or donation of land to include the Hot Springs, on the 27th January, 1819. The widow and children of John Perceval, filed in the office of the Interior Department, in 1838, or some year prior thereto, a caveat to suspend the issuance of a patent to any other claimants, and setting up a claim for themselves under the pre-emption act of 1814, and showing by proof that John Perceval had possession of land as early, perhaps, as 1814, and held the possession to the time of his death; and that his widow and children, by themselves or tenants, had held the possession up to the filing of their caveat. About the year 1841 Ludovicus Belding and William and Mary Davis set up a claim to the land. On the 1st March, 1841, Congress passed "An act to perfect the titles to the lands south of the Arkansas River, held under New Madrid locations and pre-emption rights, under act of 1814." These lands had not been subject to location and pre-emption prior to 24th August, 1818, the date of the Quapaw treaty which extinguished the Indian title. On the 26th April, 1850, Hon. S. Borlan, as agent of Grammont Filhiol, set up a claim of title to the Hot Springs, based upon the Spanish grant before alluded to, and applied to the Department for time to pre |