Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-09-19
WALDRoN WINS.

A. the END of a Contest Secretary Villas
Awards Him the Towns1te of syinona,
Dakota,
Bismarck, special: The United
States land Office here is In receipt to,
day OF very important decision by
Secretary Villas. 1t involves the town
site OF Winona. opposite Fort Yates,
defeats she Northern Pacific title and
knocks the speculation of Harry Doug.
las and Maj. McLaughlin, townsite pro-
prletors. higher than Sam Wilkinson's
historic kite. The Northern Pacific also
has an interest In the property, as have
many Inoeent los purchasers, including
persons who have buildings thereon.
John s. Waldrcn, hotel proprietor at
Winona, fell out with the proprietors OF
the townsite company, and concluded
to set up his claim ss O homesteader to
the trsut where the town was. He blum
dered around for six months, half iu
earnest, until be got his case before the
department at Washington. No one
suspected his claim amounted to any
thing more than bluff. He had con-
trscted with the toWnsite company for
lot at nominal figure, built ulon it
and made garden. Us then called
these pioneer improvements of the town
his homestead improvements, on which
he was entitled to make entry. The
land is within the fifty mile lin1is. In
April, 1885, he applied TO enter it as o
homestead. Register Rea rejected his
application for the reason that the land
had been selected BY the railroad COM
pany in January, 1885. Wsldron made
these hotel improvements In 1884, when
the land was surveyed, bat after it was
laid out as town. Over year after
the plat wes filed and the selection of
| the railroad company was made, Wal
dron applied to enter his alleged home.
| stead. The secretary says the railroad
| company bases its claim upon the fact
that Waldron did not make the entry
| within three months after the filing of
| the township plat, and his legal right
for that reason became extinguished.
The secretary, allowing that WaIdron
| was bona tide settler at the dste of the
| selection by the railroad company, says
there Was at that time no legal reason
why Waldrons settlement should not
ripan into title, as the said land did
| not pass to the railroad company by
the same being included in Its lists OF
selections. A settlement right existing
| ut the date when the grant became eff
fective exoepts the land covered thereby
from the operation of the grant.
'These principles" says MIR. Villas
"sre 30 well settled by the decisions OF
this department that the citation OF
authorities is unnecessary. While the
same rule is not declared by the statute
to apply to selections, yet il is provided
that no selection shall be operative until
| approved by the department, and il may
we'll be laid down as q rule that what
was estimated by congress as sufficient
to prevent the land passing by the grant
shall be sufficient to deny the approyal
of selection"
| The secretary dismisses all other ques.
tions raised by the railroad company ct
al, and assumes that Waldron was q
settler, and not hotel proprietor
What seemed TO be bluff turns out to
be business. and gives Waldron the
right OF entry. Il is presumed that the
railroad ct al will further resist Waldron
when he offers his final proof, and when
beaten there carry the question into the
courts. II the matter was not so serious
it might be called huge joke and Villas
che victim.