The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-08-24

near Jefferson Furnace, i.r twenty-five
cents, so improbable was it that these
lands would ever be bought. As mat
ter of course, the improvements made
on the Congress lands were Of the rudest
and cheapest kind. No orchards were
planted, and the buildings were Of a tenn
porary kind
There was kind Of common law
which grew up among the early settlers
from the necessity of the case, which was
we'll observed. Most of the settlers
made sugar in the early spring. man
would go and select his sugar camp as it
was called, and blaze the trees, which
meant cutting off strip of bark on the
side Of the tree, with an ak. He would
thus blaze circle around say one hun
dred sugar trees; sometimes, if he had
large family to help him, he would in
close two or three hundred sugar trees.
Everybody regarded these squatter
claims 10 sugar orchard, or camp, as
sacredly as if the squatter owned the
/ land in fee.
/ Wild bees were abundant, and made
honey in the hollow limb, or trunk of
large trees. 1t took some practice and
skill to become a good bee-hunter. Bee
bait was put in a small trough and set in
the woods, and then the bee hunter
would wait until the bees came and took
their fill, when they would fly in a direct
line to the tree where they were at work.
1t was almost marvellous how far prac-
ticed eye could trace bee in the sun
light. Going in the direction the bees
went, the hunter would examine each
tree where it was likely the bees had
their hive. If he failed, he would take
his bait off at an angle, and by tracing
the course of the bees from different
points, he could tell, by the angle made,
almost the exact locality of the bee tree.
Having found his tree, he would mark
it, generally by cutting the initials Of his
name on the bark, and perhaps the date
when it had been found. These bee
trees were respected as sacredly as were
times the tree was cut down at once, and
the honey secured; at other times it was
let alone until the bees had time to get
full stock of honey made.
When Congress lands began to be
bought, some curious law questions arose.
| can remember attending several law
suits before justices of the peace growing
out Of these matters. Equity seemed to
require that a man should have pay for
his work, in opening up farm in the
woods, when some other man would buy
the land On the other hand, the pur-
chaser would contend that timber had
been destroyed, and land worn out, and
the squatter, il he had had possession of
the land for several years, had really re-
ceived a compensation for his improve
ments Some times when a man desired
to enter lands, as it was called when he
purchased it from the Government, he
would go to the squatter and purchase
his improvement. and then go to Chilli |
cothe, to the land office, and buy the |
land. This prevented all i'll feeling. |
when the squatter found |
that his Congress improvement was about |
to be taken from him, he would injure |
or destroy, all the property he could. l
remember that there was we'll on an
improvement half mile below where |
Portland is located, and the squatter
who made the improvement. and dug the |
well, found that it was about to be |
bought, got several of his neighbors to |
assist him, and rolled great stones into |
the well, and ruined it,
The last lawsuit l attended, where the |
question of Congress improvements came |
up, was in Jefferson township, as late as
the year 1894. A man who had made an
sued the man who had
bought the land. The owner of the land
employed a noted pettifogger, who de-
manded a nonsuit. He said the plaintiff
asked judgment for the value of Con
gress improvement, whereas he had the
proof in his pocket that the premises
were decided lands before the suit was
and it could not, therefore,
be Congress improvement. The Squire
took that view Of the law Cf the case, and
a nonsuit was granted accordingly.