Hot Springs claims
An acquaintance wrote recently, inquiring if I knew anything about John Percival or Perciful, believed to be the first American to settle at what is today Hot Springs. Perciful was indeed an early settler, but he is primarily known to Arkansas history as being one of the many people who claimed ownership of the valley of the vapors.
Early Arkansans were a litigious lot, with many lawyers kept busy trying to prove or disprove competing land claims. Perhaps the most famous dispute among the early land speculators was over ownership of the site which became Little Rock, a confrontation which involved laying out competing towns and the ultimate destruction of cabins by the losing side.
The fame of the hot springs in the Ouachita Mountains predates the state of Arkansas by a long shot. When the Hunter and Dunbar expedition made its way to the springs on a cold Dec. 7, 1804, they were able to take shelter in cabins they found on the site—testimony to the existing reputation of the restorative powers of the thermal springs. It did not take long before American settlers were laying claim to the springs.
Anthropologist and historical researcher Sharon Shugart, author of an excellent history about the area’s litigation, summarized the various claimants this way: “The first major claim was the Juan Filhiol claim, based on a Spanish land grant reportedly awarded to Filhiol in 1787. The New Madrid claims of Samuel Hammond and Elias Rector were based on a land grant certificate awarded according to the New Madrid Earthquake Relief Act of 1815. In 1838, Henry Rector took up the New Madrid claim inherited from his father, Elias. The John Perciful claim (part of which was purchased by John C. Hale) was based on the Preemption Act of 1814. The Ludovicus Belding claim was based on the Preemption Act of 1830. All of these claims had serious flaws . . .”
Though of French birth, Jean Baptiste Filhiol changed his given name to “Juan” and rose through the ranks of Spanish Louisiana to become commandant of the District of Ouachita. After a brief stay at Ecore a Fabri, near modern Camden, Ark., Filhiol established Fort Miro lower down the river, where Monroe, La., now stands. He served as commandant until 1800. And he claimed to have a Spanish land grant for the hot springs, though the actual document was apparently lost.
The Langlois claim is based upon a New Madrid Certificate. The great New Madrid earthquake of 1811 is named for the small Spanish-era settlement on the Mississippi River, which was essentially destroyed by the quake. Then, as now, victims of natural disasters expected their government to provide relief. Congress obliged in 1815 by providing certificates to residents which could be redeemed for land elsewhere. Of the 516 certificates issued, land speculators bought 496.
Francois Langlois, owner of a town lot, was issued certificate 467, which soon fell into the hands of speculator Joseph Story. He sold the certificate to Samuel Hammond for $640 in January 1819, and Hammond soon sold half of the certificate to Elias Rector for $600. Hammond and Rector immediately filed for “the Hot Springs (so called) upon the waters of Washita River.” This effort failed when the U.S. Attorney General ruled that only surveyed land could be acquired. This was but the first of a lifelong effort by Rector and his son, attorney and Confederate-era governor Henry M. Rector, to acquire the springs.
Historian Walter L. Brown summarized it this way: “Henry M. Rector was a child of six when his father left him the legacy of the Hot Springs, a boy of nineteen when he began the litigation over them. When it ended, he was an old, and somewhat bitter, man.”
The third major claimant to the hot springs was the widow of John Perciful. A Pennsylvania native and Revolutionary War veteran, Perciful settled at the springs around 1808. His widow, Sarah Lemons Perciful, tried to claim the springs in 1838, based on the Preemption Act of 1814, but it was rejected due to the land being owned by the Quapaw Indians when the law was adopted and the land not having been surveyed. The Perciful claim was later obtained by John Cyrus Hale—and he sold half of that claim to Henry Rector.
Hale was determined to get control of the springs, and he enforced his claim at the end of a shotgun. Historian Shugart reported the rumor that Hale “had been shot some seventeen times during such skirmishes over the years, and in his later years he patrolled his claim in a wheelchair, his shotgun on his knee.”
Among the early settlers challenging Hale’s ownership of the springs were the wonderfully named Ludovicus and Lydia Belding, who bought part of the Perciful claim. Eventually, the Belding family won both state and federal court decisions upholding their claim.
Mercifully, Congress decided to consolidate all the claims into one hearing before a Court of Claims. That court ruled that the springs were owned by the federal government, based on an act of 1832. This decree was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, with Henry M. Rector hiring the legal team of Albert Pike and Augustus H. Garland.
The Supreme Court confirmed the Claims Court decree in 1876, essentially bringing an end to the litigation. In licking his wounds, attorney Pike wrote that “the hot springs were too valuable for an individual to own.”