Claim of Michel Crow
Michel Crow, son of Isaac Crow, who wed the widow Chabineau of the Post at Natchitoches, bought the land of Miguel Viciente which has been granted to Miguel Viciente in 1769 by Governor Hugo O’Connor, who was at that time Governor of Los Adais and all of the Texas country. The grant was listed as San Miguel de Los Rio Patrice and was located on the Sabine River and Patrice Creek in the northwest portion of Sabine Parish.
One incident in which an arrest and the results of which served as evidence in favor of the victim occurred while Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike was in command of a police patrol of the Neutral Strip in 1806, when he arrested Michel Crow and brought him to the post at Natchitoches, accusing him of contraband operations to and from the Texas country. Captain Bernardino Mantero, leading a Spanish patrol with the assistance of Lieutenants Pike and McGee, came to the ranchero of Michael Crow and upon questioning Crow’s wife and her two sons, learned of the actions of Lieutenant Pike previously. Captain Mantero went to Natchitoches and declared that Crow was innocent of such charges and that the unfortunate Crow was only engaged in farming and ranching; further the Spanish did not have Crow’s name on the list of traders in contrabrand known to the Spanish at Nacogdoches, thus, when Michel Crow registered his claim for land, he had proof of the length of time he had resided there taken from the arrest papers.