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The Iowa Evictions

The Iowa Evictions image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
November
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Masón Citt, la., Nov. 23. - One hundred additional wnts of ejectment were served Wednesday on settlers on the Des Moines lands. No trouble resulted. The settlers are driven out of their houses, their furniture piled up in the road, and the doors and Windows barred against them. The settlers around Lehigh have formed a unión, with R. S. Boynton as their president. It is expected that this union will issue a circular to-day outlining their grievances. [The lands in question comprise the seotions within tivo miles of the Des Moines river, from the Raccoon forks to its source. The lands were granted to Iowa by Congress in 1846 for the ïmprovement of navigaüoo in the Des Moines river from its mouth to the Kaccoon forks. In 1854 the State contracted with the Des Moines Navigation & Railway Company tolmprove the river as required, and four yeurs later a large amount of land, includlng that óver whlch the present controversy is being held, was granted by the State to the navigatiOD company to aid it in performing the work which it never carried out. In 1859 thi United States Supreme Court held that the rant did not include the lands north of the Raccocn river, and they were thrown open to settlers. The lands were withdrawn again, however, before final proofs could be made by homesteaders. In 1862 Congress entered the grant so as to cover the land In dispute, but it was alleged that, as the navigation company had failod to fulttll the contract, they had foF feited their claim to the lands of the State; and at the last General Assembly an act was passet! reconveying to the Uuited States all right of the Staie in these lands, the object being to allow the National Government full opportunity to do justice in the case. For years the company has made no determined efforts at evictions on a large scalo. fearmg dangerous resistance from the determined settlers, but now it seems that purchasers, homesteaders ünd squatters alike must yield to the demands of the company. 1

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register