One Branch's Experience

In 1910, a branch of the family in Huntsville, Ala., hired lawyers to investigate the claim. Though the lawyers concluded that enough evidence existed to substantiate that the money was still owed, no suit was brought.

In the 1920's, President Calvin Coolidge told Congress that he thought the loan, then calculated at $4 million, should be repaid. In 1966, Representative Tom Pelly of Washington State introduced a resolution to repay $50,000 in settlement to the family, but the bill died in committee.

The latest attempt is thought to be the first time that the case has been brought to a court, rather than to Congress or Federal agencies. The suit began in January 1988 when Thelma Weasenforth Luunas of Stafford, Tex., a DeHaven on her father's side, approached Ms. Kloecker. Mrs. Luunas had promised her father shortly before he died that she would do her best to recover, or at least verify, the legendary loan.

Ms. Kloecker consulted the Texas Commerce Bank in Houston to determine what the amount owed would be. The Continental Congress offered 6 percent interest on loans at that time; thus, the total, compounded daily, was calculated to be $141.6 billion in March 1989 when the suit was filed.

Fresh out of law school, Ms. Kloecker accepted the case for less than the customary 30 percent contingency. She is being helped by Peter W. Murphy, a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, Ms. Kloecker began by searching for other descendants and for any documents they might have through advertisements and publicity in papers throughout the country where family members believed relatives would be found. #800 Respond to Call So far responses have been received from more than 800 people, all of whom had been reared on the story of the loan, and they said they were amazed to find that someone else had heard it too. Many were from Pennsylvania, but letters and photocopied documents came from as far away as Italy and Hawaii. So far the search has not produced the original loan certificate.

Charles DeHaven, a pastor in New Braunfels, Tex., said his father first told him about the loan while he was studying the American Revolution in the fifth grade. ''He told me, 'Someday, someday, the DeHaven family will be known for what it really did,' '' he said.

More than just a lawsuit has resulted from what Mrs. Luunas started. There is now a DeHaven Family Club, resurrected from one that existed in the 1880's, that has more than 180 members and a $10 registration fee. There are also plans for a DeHaven family reunion in San Antonio next summer.