Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1903-10-08
is AFTER LAND spEcULAToRs.
Agent Of General Land Office Makes
Investigation.

~
Col. G. "A. Lounsberry, special agent
of the United States genral land office
for North Dakota, was in st. Paul re-
Gently investigating charges that many
women and clerks in the Twin Cities
plan to prove up on homestead entries
fled in North Dakota who have no in
tention of actually settling In that
state. Col. Lounsberry points out that
under the law applicants are required
to reside on the tract continuously for
fourteen months. He says that it is
a fraud to take out a claim without In
tending to live on it, and that to prove
UP by false swearing is perjury.
There ere many women and clerks
in the Twin Cities Col. Lounsberry
said, "who have filed on claims and
return to them only once in six months
and call that residence. On this basis
they are about to prove up by paying
$1.25 an acre. To do this the residence
must be actual and continuous for
fourteen months.
Calling a claim home does not
make it so. Yet people who are ac-
tually living ON their land and making
it a home in fact would be permitted
to work whore their calling might tenn
porarily call them, but to take a claim
not intending to live on it is a fraud,
and to prove up by false swearing, as
many do, is perjury. II the attention
of the agent is called to it he must
act. The final certificate after proof
may be contested, and in several in
stances patents have been Cancelled
by the United States courts"
Col. Lounsberry says that in North
Dakota there are many violations of
the law against fencing in public lands.
Said he:
"The fence evil on the public do
main existed in North Dakota when
President Roosevelt was deputy sher-
iii at Medora. In the days of the ro-
mantle De Mores ranch several men
were killed because they persisted in
breaking the fences which the marquis
had built over the vast prairies about
Medora. There are LARGE enclosures
in that region now, but the fences
largely inclose railroad lands owned
by the persons making the Enclosure.
"The law prohibits the fencing in of
public domain under severe penalties,
and the orders of the department are
very strenuous on the subject. Where
there are more than I60 acres of pub
lie land Enclosed it is the duty of agents
to order them removed, and If the
order is not obeyed to report them to
the United States attorney for prose
cution. The penalty may be one year
in prison and $40, 900 fine."
In addition to the trouble over
fences on the public domain, there has
been Q conflict between homesteaders
who filed on desert land before the
great survey was made and those that
came later.
.The recent trouble at Buford," said
Col. Lounsberry, grew out of the
settlers entering upon land that had
been filed upon under the desert land
act by metes and bounds, or in other
words by stalking out a claim before
the survey was made. and therefore
the records of the land Office did not
show the tracts so filed upon. The
settlers supposed the land was vacant
or was occupied ~unlawfully, SO they
took possession, appropriating in some
cases cultivated land and irrigating
meadows for their own use.'