New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-11-04
~ SIX CITY ~ llity Lands.


~ SIX ely IL i,iity Lands.
Considerable Of Juror has bee
created in certain localities by receu
ruling Of Commissioner Sparks Of th
general land Office effecting the titles t
certain railroad lands. The lands ef
fected hereabouts were cretifed to tn,
State BY the general government, ant
the State in turn decided them to tn,
St Paul & Sioux City company ane
they have been in possession for nearly
twenty years. Much of this land has
been sold to actual settlers, and the rul.
ing. of Commissioner Sparks, whether
rightfnlly understood or not, causes
considerable uneasiness on the part OF
many purchasers. Others. laboring
under the impression that the lands
will revert back to the government and
be opened to settlement under the
homestead laws, are focking to the o..
S. land Offices and making filings on
the lands, although the land officers
have as yet received no instruction from
the general land Office to receive such
filings; but. we understand, the Tracy
Office have accepted filings on lands
lying in the towns of Lake Hanska and
Albin in this county and entered them
as disputed" From a letter written
last Wednesday by ). H. Drake, land
commissioner of the Sioux City COM
pany, to NJ. K. Armstrong of St. James,
and published in last Saturdays Jour
nal, it appears that there is no cause
for alarm. The following is the con-
Guiding portion of commissioner brakes
letter:
''The State called for all of these
lands, thus making the selection, and
decided them to us, and we accepted
them. What peurile and ridiculous
technicality it is to say that we didn't
select when a deficiency existed, and
when We accepted all there was left.
The whole thing is so peurile that it re-
qulres only the proper authorities at
the proper time by few words to ex-
plode it.
Daniel Rohrer of Worthington has
been instructed to notify all whom it
may concern that our grant will be de-
Tended to the last extremity, and that
every trespasser upon our lands will be
prosecuted. Furthermore, any person
holding deeds to our lands assailed by
trespassers will be defended by us free
of cost to the land-buyer, and we invite
information of such cases.
am satisfied that it never has been
the intention Of the Land Office at Wash
ington to disturb existing grants by thus
clouding titles. 1t is unquestionably
the purpose of Commissioner Sparks to
question the certi6cation of lands not
actually in the possession of the COM
panies until their grants can be adjust
ed. The Supreme Court has decided
that certifcation is equivalent to pat.
ent, and that a patent carries with it
prlma facic evidence of title.
There IS no anxiety whatever among
the stockholders of our COMPANY as re.
CARDS the final outcome, but l deeply
regret that Southwestern Minnesota,
when fairly emerged from the blight OF
grasshopper invasions and failing wheat
crops. and just started on the highway
to prosperity, is thus to be clouded
again by an assault upon the land ten.
ures which, like an attack upon a won.
an, s vlrture, is u stain most difficult to
eradicate, groundless though it be. Our
Immigration agents are practically with.
drawing from the field, and, although
we sold ~, 600 acres in the month of
September, land sales have now practi.
caily ceased and promise to continue SO
until this bubble is burst. It will sure
y be exploded before Spring, because
the interests involved are so great. and
the effects OF the movement so baneful,
that it will hasten decisions which can
no longer leave doubt.
II the General Land Office attempt
any such readjustment as has been indi.
Gated by floating rumors, the Illinois
~SSsA ~ * AssACS III 11l1uOlS Will O0 lalO0O
in the same way, and MI the railway
grant tenures of the country will be as.
persed.
We are not alone in this, and the in.
terests involved are too great to suppose
for moment that after nearly twenty
years possession, and the sale of hun
dreds of thousands of acres to innocen
purchasers, with repeated decisions anc
combinations of titles in the Suprem,
Court of the United States, that the De
partment at Washington has any seriou.
intent to take such suicidal action al
these reports indicate.
Assure all our people that there is n.
cause whatever for alarm, and that GU,
inaction and silence has been who'll,
the result of deep sense of security ii
our possession. which is not only a,
opinion of our own, but is sustained b,
the best lagal talent at our command,
Josh Billings says: Next to clea
Conscience for solid comfort, CONS a,
old shu.n He probably never snffara,