Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-02-08
TRICKED LAND BUYER.


That he Had Bought Some Good Pine
Land. Whereupon State Auditor Whit
comb Cancels the Sale and Sells the
stumpage to Farnham s. Lovsjoy's Fore
man.
Mr.. Sampson Dover, of Staples, Todd
county, Mimi, being in st. Paul on business
connected with the affair, related to reporter
of the GLOBE transaction which seems TO re-
fleet upon the late state auditor of Minnesota
and the attorney general-unless 1t can be ex-
planned that the laws governing the land sales
of this state are so radically defective that
purchaser who makes good bargain is not
entitled to the benefit of it, Mr.. bowers
statement is as follows:
Prior to the sale OF state lands which took
place at Long Praire, Todd county, October
80, 1880, Mr.. Dover wrote to the state audi
tor, Mr.. Whitcomb, to inquire If the land
in that county would be offered, asked the
price and terms OF the sale. In answer Mr.;
Whitcomb Informed him that the land would
certainly be offered and that the cash p yment
to be required would Is to rs per cent, &C.
cording to the amount Of timber; that all the
land to be sold was appraised at s. per acre,
and that if Mr.. Dover had given the
numbers of the land he wanted he could have
told him just what the cash payment would
be. The sale took place and Mr.. Dover
bought 100 acres, paying as follows.
On the northwest quarter of the southwest
quarter of section 16. town 1873, range 80, OF
principal and interest, $50 IS.
On the west half of the southwest quarter,
16, 1873, SO, 1904 so.
On the northwest quarter of the southeast
quarter, SO, 1873, 33, $104.iO.
The difference in first payments re-
quired was based on the es-
L 10 f1r orr nf
| the Ivalue of pine timber on the land Thus
| Mr.. Dower's payment on the first tract, in
Guiding interest for year on the unpaid
principal, amounte to 80 cents per acre; on
/ the second tract to S. 80 Der acre, and on the
| third tract to 800 per acre.
| Some time after his purchase Mr. Dover
wrote to Farnham d Lovejoy, lumbermen OF
Minneapolis, asking them if they wanted to
| buy the pine on this state land he had bought,
| with which land Jerry Howe, a foreman for
Farnham & Loyejoy, was well acquainted. The
next incident was altogether unexpected to
| Mr.. Dover, for he was informed that State
| Auditor Whitcomb had cancelled the sale to
| him on the ground that the pine on the land
| was worth more than had been estimated by
| the inspector employed to estimate it by the
state In addition he was informed that the
money he had paid on the land, for principal
and interest, would be refunded to him. But,
as he had expended money and time in
| gaining information about the land, and
| had legal advice to the effect that the auditor
had no right to cancel the sale for such rea-
son. Mr. Dover concluded to maintain his
claim to the land. Last fall he put in camp
and made other preparations for cutting the
| timber. Then Jerry Howe, the foreman for
Farnham & Lovejoy, came along and notified
Dover that he (Howe) had bought the stump
age and should put in his men and begin cut
| ting the timber. Dover forbade this, and con-
| tinued his own cutting. About this time an
inspector or some other agent of the state au-
ditor notified Mr.. Staples, the sawmill owner, to
pile separately the logs brought in by Dover
| for his purchases on section 16 were cancelled
| Subsequently this party wrote to Staples thai
the purchases on section 16 were not cancelled
but that the purchase on section SO was can
| celled, and that agrees with the notice had
| from the state auditor.
Finally Howe did put in crew of men to
cut the timber from the northeast quarter OF
section SO and Dover stopped them. Their
Dover was arrested, on complaint of Jerry
Howe, charged with willful and
malicious trespass in cutting timber on the
states school land and was held to bail to ap-
pear for trial February %, at Long Prairie
Since then the county attorney Of Todd coun
| ty, acting under instructions from the capitol
has levied upon the logs cut by Dover and
they are still held under the levy.
| Mr.. bowers story is straightforward and il
backed by documentary proof. 1t suggests 6
close connection between Farnham & Lovejoy
and the late state auditor, or at least concert
| of action which needs explanation; and also
/ an uncertainty as to land transactions with the
| state which could not exist were q private
party the settler and certainly ought not to
exist when the state is the settler.