Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-12-11
Real Estate.

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We frequently hear, by way of com
plant, that the advance in real estate
is not in proportion to the advance In
movable commodities. This is true but
it by no means follows that people
have lost confidence in that kind of in
vestment. And it should not be for
gotten that real estate-at least improved
and productive real estate-did not de-
cline in proportion to other things. Is
it really desirable that we have a real
estate "boom" such as the country eX-
perienced from 1867 to 1873? Is it not
true that any thing like a speculative
advance in unimprOved lots and lands
would tend to retard rather than ad-
vance the tide of returning prosperity ?
That city, that State, that Nation is
the most stable and prosperous which
possesses the largest number of real
estate owners in proportion to its popu-
lation. We trust that the day is far off
when we shall become a nation of land
lords and tenants; and yet it is un-
deniable that the tendency is in that
direction. Would not any considerable
advance in the selling values of real
estate give new and powerful impulse
to that tendency, especially in cities
and in all of the thickly settled por-
tions of the country? When real
estate advances beyond the reach of the
means Of the industrious and frugal
working people they must either emil
CRATE or become perpetual renters, and
either alternative involves both public
and private misfortune.
We hold that the man or men who
own bodies of land in the vicinity of
our cities and villages do we'll for them
selves and their families and make
themselves benefaCtors of their country
when they subdivide such lands and
put them upon the market at prices
within the reach of working men. By
doing so they are strengthening the
foundation Of the commonwealth, and
making provision against future discOn-
tent and turbulence.
The truth is, we must here in Ohio,
before many years, have reform in Iour
land system. We must amend our
statutes relative to the distribution of
inherited real property, or the courts
must take the matter in hand and see
to 1t that there be sweeping reform
in the manner Of executing existing
statutes. Our statutes provide that
upon the death of an ancestor his or
her real estate shall be divided among
the heirs unless such real estate be in
capable of division without injury to
the uses or value Of the whole. Com
missioners are appointed to pass upon |
the fact as to whether or not the prop |
erty can be divided without injury. |
This trust is shamefully abused in |
and thousands of instances, |
not because the commissioners are con-
sCiously corrupt, but because q per-
nicious custom has usurped the place of
the law. In hundreds of instances the
commissioners report, as q mere matter
of form, that real estate can not be
divided without injury to its value
when in fact they have not considered
that question at all, their real finding
being that it will be to the interest Of |
minor heirs to have the property con-
verted into money and invested by the
guardian In such manner as to make it
earn SOmethjagI
Let us reCite a single case by way of
In 1860 c., who was a
Of one ofour mineral counties,
lied intestate leaving four children
the eldest being married woman
nineteen years of age, and the youngest
/ son aged six years. His landed estate
of four hundred acres. The
married daughter petitioned for parti-
ion. The commissioners reported that
he real estate was incapable of division
injury. The property was sold
% the husband of the eldest sister, he be-
ng the highest and best bidder. He
all of his payments ON the
In due time, and the money
passed into the hands of the guardian
If the minor heirs. In 1875 the young
'st child received from the guardian the
um of one hundred and twelve dollars
n full for his interest In the estate of
lis deceased father, after paying ex-
lenses Of guardianship, court fees, etc,
n 1871 that tract Of four hundred
cres was sold by the husband of the
ldest sister of that young man for six
y Thousand dollars in cash; and thus
" operation of law he was swindled
ut Of near fifteen thousand dollars
ot through intentional corruption, per-
APPS, but because his guardian and the
appointed to partition
Is father's estate concluded that the
est thing to do was to turn that estate
lto money, instead of setting Off his
hare to him in land as the law intend
1,-OhiO State Journal.