Antonia Maltos Davis: Dressmaker to the Rich and Infamous

San Francisco Call, Volume 108, Number 71, 10 August 1910

Mrs. Antonia Maltos Davis is called to court in San Francisco to testify.  The question put to Antonia : was the heiress Maria Conception de Laveaga of sound mind? Or was Maria dim, feeble-minded, and deranged?  Our Antonia says she was of sound mind.

The circumstances tell us our dressmaking grand aunt Antonia was a master seamstress.  Maria Conception, her client,  with her multi-million dollar fortune could afford the best. Antonia testifies in her defense. When Antonia spoke in court Maria Conception had already died in Madrid. Her body had been brought home to San Francisco. Her de Laveaga brother and sister were squabbling over who would  inherit her millions. Maria C. spoke mostly Spanish,  her affairs were handled by her brother Miguel. Sister Ignacia, aka. Nacha ran her household. We know the de Laveagas were no strangers to court. A years long battle raged when the de Laveaga family banded together to disinherit Anselmo, their brother's son who was the result of a liason with the housemaid.

What we do know about the De Laveagas is that they migrated from Mexico, from an area around Mazatlan. The De Laveaga patron owned a rancho of many acres on the way to the town of Rosario where the Maltos clan were born.  We know that Antonia's family and Maria Concepcion's families moved north to seek their fortunes in California about the same time.   Antonia becomes dressmaker to the De Laveagas in San Francisco of the 1860's.

Coincidence? More? Perhaps we will never know. 

Apparently the dressmaker's testimony didn't have much effect on the judge.   Judge Coffee after 212 days and 18,000 pages of court testimony deemed the dead daughter Maria Conception De Laveaga impaired and incapable of making her own handwritten will without "undue" influence. Nacha, the big sister and her lawyer husband lose their claim and are forced to split the family fortune with the other relatives.

I wonder if our Antonia, the dressmaker was paid for her time in court?