St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-10
Surveyor General Compton
Will Investigate Eight
Squatters' Claims.
He Wishes to Find Out If
They Are Actual Set
tiers.
Employees Of Pine Land Spec
ulators Will Not Get
Titles.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
WASHINGTON, May 9.-"Find out
whether these are actual settlers or
people in the employ of timber syndi-
cate initiating fraudulent claims"
Thus wrote Judge LamoreauX, commits
sioner of the general land office, today
in lengthy letter to the surveyor gem
eral of Minnesota, Hon. James Comp
ton, directing him to inquire into eight
suspicious squatters in township 63,
range 25. This town is just north OF
the Bots Fort Indian reservation, and is
covered with valuable timber. 1t is not
surveyed, and in order to hasten its
survey IL. Stewart and seven others
sent petition to Gen. Compton asking
for its early survey. This was &C
companied by affidavlts stating that
each of these men had settled on his
claim in 1890 or 1891, and that they had
made valuable improvements. The
af1idavits and petitions were forwarded
to the general land office by Gen. Comp
ton as usual. The quick eye of Judge
LamoreauX discovered several peculiar
tiles in the papers which caused him to
write to Compton and request an inyes-
tigation.
THE peculiar feature Of this case"
saws Commissioner LamoreauX, sis the
fact all the papers are in the handwrit-
ing of one man, the signatures being in
the same writing, and all are sworn to
before John Il. Lopez, notary public
of st. Louis county. Then again each
man swaars he has built good sub
stantial log house fifteen by seventeen
feet, one story high. with an eight-foot
l. with scoop roof.
All of These Houses
are the same size, built of the same ma
terlal, and six are valued at $500 each
and two at $3.50 each. The fact that the
lands in question are admitted to be
covered with timber, together with the
apparent similarity of dates OF settle
ment and meager character and high
valuation of the improvements made by
each alleged settler, as also the lack of
any corrOborative evidence as to the
good faith of the petitioners. constrains
me to desire for additional evidence.
llQ Out WJ1GlilCI tilCoC pVOPiO "a wv
ual settlers or in the employ of timber
syndicate, and as no contract tor the
survey can be made until June 30 no
injury can result from delay"
This prompt movement by Judge La
moreauX, as soon as he had suspicious
case from Northern Minnesota presented
to him, shows that the work of Congress
man Baldwin is bearing fruit.
The operations of the Minnesota pine
land ring must stop. and bona fide
settlers only can be sure of securing
titles from the government. If these
men have made the improvements. as
stated in their affidayits, they will have
no trouble in securing the survey OF
their town, and eventually titles to their
lands; but if they are in the employ of
some of the lumbermen, with no i'm
proyements save hut costing s25 or
less, uninhabitable for nine months OF
the year, they will find themselves in
bad box. This township is nearly sixty
miles in an air line north of Grand
Rapids, and the timber, when cut, must
be fioated down the Big and Little Fork
rivers and manufactured at Rat Portage
or keewatin.