The Dickinson press., 1906-11-17
ILu.
Get Their Land.

Last Saturday, DR.. M. Williams, John
Harps, John Setterberg, Martin and An
drew Wilhelm of Wheaton, Minn., ap-
peared before the U. S. land Office in
Dickinson and made homestead final
proof for I6o acres each of government
land in this locality under the provisions
of an act of Congress approved April II,
1906.
In the final settlement of the old in
demnity claims in Minnesota a good
many settlers in the vicinity of Wheaton
were compelled to abandon their claims
after continuous residence thereon for
a period of to 10 years. Realizing the
injustice of this, Congressman Volstead
secured the enactment of law that par
tiers.
The proofs made on the 10th were the
first of the kind ever taken at the Dick
inson land office, and for that matter,
with one exception, the first in North
Dakota.
These Minnesota parties feel that they
are fortunate in being able to acquire
title to land in the locality of Dickinson
without making residence.
The 1906 law reads as follows:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House
of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, That
all qualified homesteaders who made
settlement upon and improved any OF
the land hereinafter designated and who
were prevented from securing title to
such land by reason of the contracts
hereinafter described shall, in. making
final proof upon homestead entries made
for othrr lands, be given credit for the
period of their bona fde residence on
and the amount of their respective i'm
provements upon the land for which they
were SO prevented from completing title,
including the time of continuous resi-
dence upon and Improvements of said
land while defending in good faith their
respective claims thereto as homestead
settlers. The land above referred to is
that part of the indemnity grant to the
St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba
Railway Company defined by the Acts
of Congress dated. respectively, March
3, 1857. and March 3, 1866, which by rea-
son of certain contracts between Rev.
erend John Ireland and the ST. Paul,
Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway
Company, one dated July II, 1880, and
one dated March 80, 1883, (more particu-
larly described in the decision of the
Commissioner of the General Land
Office contained in his letter of Febru-
ary sd, 1858, in the appeal of the case of
John Ireland against Joseph Bennon and
others from the action of the local land
Office and at St. Cloud, Minnesota) the
said John Ireland and those with whom
he contracted to sell certain of said
lands, either for himself or for said rail
way company, were held authorized to
purchase from the United States under
the provision of section five of the Act of
March 3, 1887, after the date upon which
the claim of said railway company to re-
ceive said lands as indemnity lands had
been denied and Cancelled by the In
terror Department: Provided, That no
such person shall be entitled to the ben
e6ts of this Act who shall fail to make
entry within two years after the passage
thereof: And provided further, That
this Act shall not be considered as en-
titling any person to make another
homestead entry who shall have re-
ceived the benefits of the homestead
law since being prevented, as aforesaid,
from completing title to the lands SO
settled upon and improved by him.