St. Paul daily globe., 1893-06-15
SIX SQUARE MILES
OF st. Paul Is Claimed in Right
to Be a Part. Of Mime
apolis.
The Matter Is Laid to a Bung-
ling Bit Of Old Leg
islatiOn.
The Whole Of the Town Of st.
Anthony Park Is In
vOlVed.
Records Of the Two Cities, st.
Cloud and Washington to
Be Searched.

A number of real estate men intend to
place petition before the next meeting
of the board of county commissioners
which may prove to be of great i'm.
portance to Hennepin county. 1t de-
veloped some time ago, in securing an
abstract of title to some East side
property, that after the title had been
passed as all right. it was found that
the deed had been given before the
filing of entry. As the filing of entry is
proof of title in Itself, all deeds given
before that time were void, and tnere-
fore. the title is actually in the heirs of
the one making the entry. This showed
prominent abstract people that some
thing was wrong, and it was concluded
that the fault lay in the fact that there
are no copies of early records in this
county for great amount of the real
estate. The petition will be asking the
commissioners to have an entry book
prepared containing all the early rec
ords of all property that is not now in
cluded in what copies are iii the keeping
Of the county. The whole Of the East
side is in that shape. and the board
will be asked to have copies of all the
carly IeCoIuS HidCc, SO lldI property
can be properly proved up.
On the face of it, that is all the real
estate men are after, but between the
lines are other matter which will de-
velop later. TO show what is expected,
it is necessary to go back into his
tory. Prior to 1856 all the East
side was in' Ramsey county, including
Hennepin island and all the islands Of
the river. AT tnat time the legislature
passed an act changing the boundary.
The idea OF the movers in the matter is
that the search in the records will bring
to light many disputed titles, which
will render it necessary to go back into
the legislative records. If that is
done, it Is claimed that it will
be shown that the first law
passed by the Legislature had only
clerical error, and that the curative
act could not altar law passed and
signed. The new territory added to
Hennepin county by that act was the
whole Of the East side. and will place
in dispute the possession as between the
two counties. OF the shaded area OH the
map, being strip one mile wide and
SIX miles long, including the town of
st. Anthony Park, which is now in st.
Paul.
The search OF the records will neces
state SONS little work, as all the rec
ords of Ramsey county will need to be
gone through, also the original entries
at ST. Cloud, and some OF them may
need to be traced out from the Washing
ton office. 1t is claimed, however, that
this. county should have complete
record book, and that the expense will
be small in consideration of what the
result will be. If nothing else is done
in regard to the dispute over the county
boundaries. it will at least, it is claimed,
have the effect of sattling the matter
beyond dispute. Should the agitators
prove successful, however, a strip of
valuable territory will he added to the
tax lists of this county, and ST. Paul
will lose six square miles of its present
city site.