The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-09-06

ont; no mention was made of woman.
Prior to the passage of this law, but III
anticipation of it, an old w%nan calling
herself Mrs. Caruthers, with an I'M
married son named Finicc Caruthers,
arrived i'll Oregon and settled upon a
tract of land of $40 acres, exactly where
| the city of Portland now stands. As the
| law required actual residence and cult
walton, the mother and SON drew Il line
| through the middle of their tract, throw
ing 500 acres on one side and 800 on
the other. They built a house which
stood right ON the line, and the mother
lived i'll one end Of the house and cult
waited her claim, while the son lived in
the other end and did the same by his
500 acres. At the end Of four years both
applied to the land Office at Oregon City,
and certificates for the two tracts were
issued III the name of the government.
They lived upon the land for many
years, and no one disputed their posses
sion Of it. In 1858 the woman, who had
claimed to be Il widow, died and left
her property to her son. At any rate, he
claimed it as sole heir Two years later
he died, leaving, as it was supposed, no
heirs, but some debts. Mr.. Silvers, il
merchant, was appointed administrator
Of the estate. and as | was his lawyer it
thus CHANGED that / was drawn into the
case
about this time the state of Oregon
put III a claim to the property under the
law of escheat, it being supposed that
there We're no heirs Two residents of
Portland, Andrew Knott and Robert
Ladd, having been advised by their at
torneys that Mrs Caruthers' had no
right under the law to take land, Jump
ed the property, as we say i'll the west
that is, they proceeded to settle upon
it, each taking one-half or 100 acres I'M
der the homestead law and applying TO
the land office for certificate of patent.
appeared at the land office and entered
protest, and this was the beginning of
a famous case I argued that the title !
of the old lady was perfect that tho act /
Of congress should be construed gener- |
ously, as are the naturalization laws; !
that the words him and his should |
be so construed as to include She and |
her The local land office decided |
against me. Certificates We're issued to |
Ladd and Knott | appealed to the COM
missioner of the general land office here
in Washington and was again overruled.
carried the case to the secretary of the
him.
mot to weary you with legal details,
suit was at once brought in the state
courts. The sole question involved was
whether or not woman could take
donation of land under the act Of con-
,ress. We We're beaten here, and in the
court of the state, but when we
inally reached the supreme court of the
United States and asked for an interpre-
alton Of the law it was decided in our
avor The women of this day and gen.
ration will be glad to know that this
,reat tribunal, by that decision, placed
woman on an equality with man before
he law.
You would naturally suppose this to
70 the end of the case, but it wasn't In
act, we had only passed the skirmish
inc OF this great legal battle
while this litigation was pending .
itizen of Oregon named Dolph Hannah !
listed the southern states and came
ack with n great number of deeds from
Iivers persons named 'Caruthers, and
laced them on record conveying this ;
property to him-that is the whole GAO ;
cres His theory was that the old wo
nan Caruthers had never been married; {
hat her son, Finice, was an illegitimate ,
hid, and therefore could not inherit,
nd that the property descended under
he law to her collateral heirs, Of which
here were a great number, rs he claim
i, and from these were the deeds he
laced OH file. c
About the same time another and {
ne most important question of all
rose Two old pioneers residing i'll Ore {
Oh, named james Moore and Gre t
davidson, insisted that the old iad-' C
anne was rot 'Caruthers. but Thorn i