Omaha daily bee., 1902-02-23

k4 between states, In winch nun
dreds of men have been engaged,
~ forts have been captured, shots
exchanged and all the elements of a comic
opera except the music provided. One Of
the states. to be sure, is not yet on the gov
eminent maps, but 1t is struggling hard
for recognition, and it is this struggle
which has led to the great war between
the state Of Illinois, through its chief city
of Chicago, and the independent district
Of Lake Michigan, better known as cap"
Streeter's "deestric." n war Of the re-
bellion was fought over rights" So is
the present war.
do you know what them fellers
claims?" Captain Streeter demanded one
day Of a reporter. 'Lemme tell We what
they claims. They claims ~ripairin' rights,
that's what they claims.
what is ripairin' rights? Lemme tell
ye what they is. Ripairin' rights is the
rights to ri-pair yer shore where is wore
off by the water. Don't glen ye no more
right to fill in the lake an own the film
an 1t does me to dig a hole in yer front
yard an W tn hole"
And, acting on his belief in the correct
ness Of that statement, Captain Streeter
has seized 1856 acres Of the choicest lands in
Chicago, lying along the lake front north
of the river, and has there organized the
Independent District of Lake Michigan"
The leaders in its government have applied
to congress for recognition as one Of the
sovereign states of the union, and mean
while they are struggling by force Of arms
with the Chicago police for the life Of their
commonwealth.
This strange affair is the direct fault
of a we'll meaning and industrious surveyor
named John Wall, who was sent by the
Washington authorities in 1921 to survey
the ground they were about to buy from
the Indians. A town site was desired at
the mouth of Chicago river, and Wall was
ordered to survey a strip twenty miles
along the lake shore north from the Calu-
met river and running thence southwest
erly. All would have been we'll had he
bounded it on the east by the waters Of
Lake Michigan" but instead he mean
dered" the shore line, surveying each little
crook in 1t and describing In his maps and
field book a definite number of miles and
acres bounded on the east not by the lake,
but by the meandered shore line as It then
existed. When this land was put on the
market Robert Kinzie bought the north
half of fractional section 10 Of township
80, range IA east Of the third principal
meridian, consisting Of 1884, z acres, def-
nitely bounded.
Outside OF the shore line was a sand
bar. sometimes appearing above the water.
That sandbar gradually grew, was by I'LL
ings connected by the shore. and as Robert
Kinzie's holdings became divided up those
who had them gradually came to look upon
the "accreted" land as their own. They
set W, for the rest Of the city to worship
at a fetch called riparian rights" which
gave them ownership of all land outside
of their shore line. But they were him
dered from giving title by an early gov
eminent decision that they held only a
definite number Of acres secured under the
Klnzie grant, and which in total could
never exceed 1882 This was the situation
in 1856. when Streeter first appeared.
This George Wellington s~treeter, mariner
and fighter, is a doughty little man. full
OF scrap" to the top Of his head, red
whiskered, decorated with freckles that re-
semble blotches Of red. equipped with end
less argument, and always ready to take
up the cudgel in any good cause in which
he has a financial interest. Being a squat
ter or experience he looked up the title
to the lake front lands. saw it was disput-
able. and In an old steamer-the Ruetan-
set out one evening in June. 1886, from the
Calumet river, ostensibly for Milwaukee
With him went Maria. his wife.
By some inexplicable chance the engine
of the Ruetan became disabled when she
was just northeast OF the filled land, and
as the wind-purely by good fortune-was
northeasterly. the craft was driven ashore
and cap" and Maria were ingloriously
cast up Just where they wanted to be. They
hauled up their craft with the aid OF a
Waterman, and next day built a stockade
about IL. Thus they squatted, and for sew
eral years they defended this stoekade