The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-11-01
ItOpVsoN SECURED. Al RfOhts Reseftod1
Driven From Sea to Sea.
Or, JUST A CAMPIN'.
CHAPTER xyiS.--CosTISCEp
NJ Q. c. POST.
NJ O. c. POST.
PUBLISHED BY PERMISSION or J. r. DowNEY
& Co., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO.

ahAPlEh AAiN .--l0STISGED
And they had good neighbors. which
added much to the pleasantness Of their
surroundings. for though never content
to be separate from each other. even
for day, our young friends enjoyed
having their acquaintance drop in on
them, and often visited among their
neighbors, spending the evening Or
Sunday afternoon.
They heard regularly from Lucy's
parents, aud quite frequently from ,)cn-
ME and her husband. who were still in
Chicago and doing well. At least En-
sign had steady employment. and they
were comfortable aud happy
Mr.. and Mrs. Parsons had now fully
decided to sell their home on the mount
ain at the first opportunity, and move
10 the Slough: their out-of-the-way To-
cation alone operating against the ready
sale of the place.
Meantime Erastus and Lucy worked
on.
The size Of orchard and vineyard was
Increased by the planting of other trees
and vines. Rose bushes were set ont at
the corners of the porch and beneath
the windows, and eyergreens and
Towering shrubs in the front yard
The main irrigating ditch having
been completed the year before, the
work of carrying the water wherever
needed, by means OF small side bitches,
twas comparatively easy and rapid, SO
that some pretty broad fields of grain
sand grass were beginning to stretch
away on every side of their cottage.
But now came a terrible rumor.
It was told doubtingly at first as
something that could hardly be posi-
ble-that railroad company laid claim
to the lands about the Slough, and
market value, all Improvements includ-
ed, or evict the homesteaders from pos
session.
The settlers generally laughed at the
tale, as being started Ly some one for
the purpose of giving them a fright
what" they said. 1.-THE railroad
company claim our lands! Why, the
land was absolutely valueless. thought
not to be worth paying taxes on, until
we irrigated il and built houses and put
out orchards and vineyards.
besides. the land grant by Congress
was made to a company whose charter
fixed the line of their road more than .
hundred miles away. on the other side
of a range Of mountains; and even this
grant the company has forfeited long
ago. the time in which the road was to
be built in order to obtain the land hav-
ing expired two years since, and the
road is not built vel"
1t seemed absurd for anybo " to talk
about a ia lroad company having q
claim to their lands. when they had re-
deemed them from the desert, and were
almost ready to prove up on them
under the Homestead and Pre- emption
laws.
Yet there were those who were less
easily disarmed of fear
They knew that in Iowa railroad
company had dispos.essed settlers who
had actually proved up and received
deeds to their homes from the Govern
ment
There were those among them, too,
who had suffered from the overflow of
hydraulic mines, others from the Suscol
Ranch, and yet others who had uttered
from encroachments of corporations in
other States and other portions of this
state, and these were prepared to be-
iievo that nothing was too preposterous
for the railroad company to claim, if its
officers thought there was the remotest
chance OF enforcing it, either by fair
means or foul.
When Erastus Hemingway heard
the rumor his heart sunk, for he had
seen too much of the neartlessness and
greed of corporations not to fear the
worst, and he at once took steps to as
certain the truth
lie wrote to the headquarters OF the
company, repeating what he had heard,
and asking if there was any truth in the
statement that the company protested
10 have any claim to the land in the vi
entity of the Slough.
In reply he received a letter and also
= circular.
The letter was signed by the Presi-
dent of the railroad company, and was
TO the effect that the company hoped to
be allowed the original grant of lands
made by Congress in aid of the road,
but the boundaries Of tile grant had not
been determined, and probably would
not be for some time
Meanwhile. the letter went Oh to say,
the settlers could BE- assured that in no
case should they be the losers, as, if it
should eventually be determined that
the land which they occupied was
within the limits Of the grant to the
road. the company pledged itself to
transfer it to the occupants on pay
ment of the Government price. and at
tention was called to the accompanying
circular, copies of which. the letter
said, were being issued and distributed
all over the State for the purpose of
inducing people to take up land at the
Slough. This circular also contained a
pledge that if found to be within the
grant of Congress to the road. the CON-
pany would transfer the land to who
ever had improved it, Immediately on
payment of the Government price.
This letter. taken in connection with
kha circuiars which, w.ra vaatf.raa