Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1884-11-13
PROJECTING THEIR INTERESTS.

Michigan Land Owners i'm Convention.
Pursuant to call there met at the
the Grand Pacific Monday morning some
fifty or more gentlemen, representing no
corporate interests, from Michigan and
Chicago to consider how best to protect
their titles to lands lying about the Mar
quette and State Line, and the OntOna-
gOn and State Line railroads. Mr.. A. A.
CARPENTER presided, and the Hon. j. II.
Van Dyke, of Milwaukee, acted as secre-
tary. The interests involved and imper-
lied by a recent decision, made Oct. by
the Secretary of the Interior, are best de-
scribed in the words of the attorney, Mr..
j. H. GOwan, Of Washington, employed
by the parties whose lands are in dan
ger Of forfeiture. Mr.. Gowan said to a
reporter:
"In 1856 Congress made a grant OF
lands to Michigan to aid in building two
railroads in the upper Peninsula. One
of these grants was vacated by act of
Congress, and the other was allowed to
lapse by failure to construct the road.
The roads, by the terms of the grants,
were to he built within ten years. Nei-
Their OF them have ever been constructed.
After the ten years had expired. anil af-
ter certain ACCOMPLISHMENTS of the lands
by the Governors of Michigan, the local
land Office at Marquette, and the general
land Office at Washington, treated the
tracts as other public lands, and sold
them to all corners. Sales were made up
TO 1880, and aggregated nearly million
OF acres. More than half of this amount
was patented; the balance of the entries
are pending in the land Office. In 1870
the state undertook to bestOw one of the
grants on new railroad company. About
the same time the land officials began to
doubt their legal authority to make sales.
In view of this the purchasers went TO
Congress at the beginning of this term
to get relief. Their bill is still pending.
1t seems now that few weeks ago the
Secretary Of the Interior made decision
which, if applied in its full scope, will
cancel all the entries which have not
been patented. 1t would also result in
canceling entries of lands all over the
country aggregating many millions of
acres. The purport of this decision is
that lands which have at any time been
Withdrawn from market by reason of
railroad grants Cannot afterward be sold
at $1.25 per acre until they first have
been put up at public auction. 1t is
claimed that the practice of the land de-
partment has been to restore such lands
to sale without public auction. and that
vast tracts have thus been restored and
subsequently sold. Thus, it is said, the
Secretary's decision endangers titles in
every state where there have been rail-
road grants. Hence the meeting of this
large number of the private owners in
the Michigan grants referred to, in order
to prepare for the winters work in Con-
gress."
The meeting was mostly devoted to
business, but the opinion was very freely
expressed that no government could af-
ford, through its officials, to take its cit
izens' money by pretended sales of its
public lands and then rob them. under
cover of technicality, of both the lands |
and the moneys thus paid.
A committee called the Private Land |
Owners Committee, and consisting off. |
B. Stoskbrldge, Of Kalamazoo, chairman;
j. H. Van Dyke, A. A. Carpenter, and 9TH
ers, was fully authorized to take such
measures as should best serve the ends
sought, The opposite side of the case is
represented by some four hundred home
steaders who have taken out claims
Inter Ocean.