Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1911-11-04
IMPORTANT LAND DECISION.
Definite Rule is Established Claimant
Must at Once Begin Cultivating
Land of Entryman.


states that Attorney Robert Burton hal
recently received decision in the con
test case brought by William Bartsct
against the heirs of Thomas Brown, who
filed on homestead known as the swl
Sec. s, 7 In, r 10e.
Brown died shortly after he had filed
and his heirs of whom Mrs. James Boyd
is one, attempted to prove up on the
claim and perfect title. Bartsch first
retained Attorney Nelson and later Sc.
cured the services of Attorney Burton.
Boyd & Soule appeared for the heirs,
contending that all the requirements
regarding time Of occupancy, improve.
ments and building had been complied
with. Bartsch won the case in the land
office here but it was appealed to the
Com mmissioner. Then Burton appealed
to the Secretary of the Interior, who
through Samuel Adams, first assistant,
renders this opinion:
"The local officers found from the
testimony that the entryman departed
this life about February l, 1908; that he
never established residence on his
claim, and that his heirs have never
lived there and have not improved or
cultivated the land, except in a trihing
manner, the total expenditure not ex-
ceeding $40. They recommended that
the entry be cancelled. The General
Land Office reversed their decision and
held that the heirs were diligent in taxi
ing care of the land, making necessary
Improvements during the year 1908, and
the fact that no cultivation was done is
in no wise the fault of the heirs.
Thomas Brown made entry of the land
in question June 2S, 1907, and left the
neighborhood in August following, going
to Albion, Nebraska, his home at the
time of entry, where he died February
z, 1908, about seven months after entry,
without having established residence
upon the claim or in any manner com
piled with the homestead law. At the
time of his entry there was barn on
the place and in the fall Of that year a
small shack was moved upon the land
from Joe Lanes homestead adjoining,
which was moved back after the death
of Brown grandfather of said Joe
Lane).
Mrs. A. d. Lane, a daughter of Brown,
to whom it appears the remaining heirs
have conveyed their interest, is seeking
to complete the entry as heir Her
husband has a homestead in the neigh
borhood upon which he has submitted
proof and Joe Lane, her son, has home
stead adjoining the Brown homestead,
upon which he is living.
Mrs. Lane testified that her father
died of old age and never came back to
Pennington county, South Dakota, the
situs of the land, after leaving in August
following the making of his entry.
Mrs. Lane went upon the land the
spring or summer following the death Of
her father and made some repairs to the
barn that was on the land at the time of
the entry. She negotiated for the break
ing of or acres of land that year, but
it was not completed until the early
part of the succeeding year.
The final hearing in this case was not
had until February 10, 1910, and so far
as appears from the record, it is not
shown that any cultivation of the land
had been done by the heirs of the en-
tryman up to that time, except as found
by the local officers, in a very trifing
manner.
In the decision of the Department of
September IL, 1911, in the case of J. A.
Lawler vs.. Heirs Of Herbert Downing,
it was said that, perhaps too liberal con-
struction of section 1921 Revised Stat
utes, exempts the widow or heirs of the
deceased entryman from performing all
the conditions required Of the original
entryman, it is certainly necessary, in
order to preserve their claim, that the
widow or heirs should, after the death
of the entryman, proceed at once TO cul-
tivate during the proper season of each
year and improve the land, and continue
such cultivation and improvement for
such period of time as, when added to
the time during which the entryman
had complied with the law, would make
compliance for the full period required
by the statute" Schooley v. Heirs OF
Varnum (33 L. d, 45).
The heirs have not complied with the
law in the matter of cultivation and i'm.
provement of the claim and the decisio n
of the General Land Office is therefore
reversed.
(Signed) SAMUEL ADAMS,
First Assistant Secretary.