The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1900-08-11
Canal Company Loses It's Case
at Issue With Ann
Patterson.
HER TITLE IS CONFIRMED
If She Was Legally Qualified to
Preempt When She
Filed.

The interior department last week
transmitted to the Marquette land
Office an important decision which
has direct bearing on the claims
of some eighty preemptors who filed
on lands in Iron county in the year
1888, says the Mining Journal.
The test case which has just been
decided was in dispute between Ann
Patterson and the Lake Superior
Ship Canal, Railway & Iron com
pany, and if she can prove in an APP
preaching hearing that she was pos
sessed of the required qualifications
for a preemptor on May /, 1888, her
title to the 100 acres comprising the
northeast quarter of section 3, town
ship ~ north, range 3 west, will be
assured.
The lands in dispute were part of
an old grant to the Lake Superior
Ship Canal, Railway & Iron company.
BY governmental act they were
thrown open to the preemptors who
were at liberty to file May |, 1888,
at which time Ann Patterson filed
on the description mentioned above.
Under the same act some eighty
other preemptors filed on lands
which were part of the same grant
under identically the same circum-
stances as those which attended
Ann Patterson's presumption of the
tract she took up.
The Lake Superior Ship Canal,
Railway & Iron company was not
despoiled of what it had come to
consider its vested rights without
demur, and it endeavored to prove
the validity OF its old title. The
case was heard in the Marquette
land Office in 1898, when decision
identical with that which has just
been handed down from the interior
department was rendered.
An.appeal was made to Washing
ton and for the past several years
Ann Patterson and the other pre-
emptors have been waiting for the
final decision, which has just been
handed down.
In Ann Patterson S case there
seems to be a question as to whether
she possessed the required qualifica-
lions for a preemptor on May !,
1888. This point was not cleared
up at the bearing in 1898, and sec
ond hearing will be held to deter
mine whether she was legally en-.
titled to file. If her right to file is
proved conclusively she will be
secure in the possession Of the 100
acres preempted by her.
Other preemptors on what were
formerly the Lake Superior Ship
Canal, Railway & Iron company S
lands, OF whose qualifications there
is no question, are already assured
of the possession of their claims by
this decision.
Here follows part of the decision
in the Patterson case: "The evil
dence produced at the hearing, the
substance of which is hereinbefore
recited, shows that on May /, 1888,
Patterson was in actual occupation
of the land under color of laws of
the United States and was intend
ing to acquire title thereto by full
compliance with conditions of the
preemption law; that her claim was
initiated in good faith and has since
been maintained in like manner. If
on May /, 1888, she was possessed of
the requisite qualifications of a pre-
emptor her claim was validated or
confirmed March 2, 1899, by the act
of that date, and she is entitled to
perfect her title to the land without
regard to the selection and certi6ca-
ton there of under the canal grant. "
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For sale at Zellen's Pharmacy,
L'Anse. Mich.