USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc. > Part 34
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gress, granting the same to the state of Wisconsin, approved April 25, 1862, and by act of the legislature approved June 16, 1862, granting the same to that company for eighty acres of land, as was .surveyed and approved by said commissioner June 11. 1864 The lands thus donated are now used by the railroad company for their depot grounds
The Fort Crawford military reservation was purchased from J H. Lockwood and James D. Doty by the government in the year 1829, and covered the front and main portions of farm lots numbered thirty-three and thirty-four, of the private land claims at Prairie du Chien, and com- prised about one hundred and sixty acres. Fort Crawford was built on this tract in 1829, 1830 and 1831. There was also a reservation of section eighteen, township seven, north of range four west, known as the Cattle Yard. This land was at the mouth of the Kickapoo river, and is now known as the village of Wauzeka. In addition to these lands which were located in Wis- consin, there was a reservation of lands lying on the west side of the Mississippi river, in Iowa. The lands in Wisconsin were relinquished by the secretary of war, January 10, 1851, and were originally set apart by the president of the United States, February 17, 1843.
In the month of April, 1857, the secretary of war authorized Hon H. M. Rice, of Minne- sota, to sell that part of the reservation not improved, in tracts not exceeding forty acres each; and, in the month of June of that year, he sold at auction five hundred and seven acres of the reserve opposite Fort Crawford, none of which was claimed by actual settlers ; and in the month of December, 1857, he sold the remainder to claimants of lands, also on the west side, and the section in Wisconsin known as the Cattle Yard, amounting to 17710% acres. A portion of this reservation was subdivided into town lots, 80 by 140 feet, with streets 66 feet and alleys 20 feet wide November 17, 1864, the acting commissioner of the general land office, by order- of the war department, offered for sale at public auction at La Crosse the reservation at Fort Crawford, which had been surveyed and subdivided into town lots, eighty by one hundred and forty feet, with streets sixty-five feet and alleys twenty feet wide, conforming to the plat of the village of Prairie du Chien. The lands unsold were subsequently opened to private entry and .. disposed of.
The lands of the Fort Winnebago reservation were set apart by order of the president, February 9, 1835, and consisted of the following territory: sections two, three, and that part of four lying east of Fox river, and fractional section nine, all in township twelve, north of range nine east, also fractional section thirty-three, in township thirteen, north of range nine east, lying west of Fox river, and the fraction of section four, township twelve north, of range nine east, lying west of claim numbered twenty-one of A. Grignon, and adjacent to Fort Winnebago, reserved by order of the president, July 29, 1851. the whole amounting to about four thousand acres. September the first, 1853, these lands were by order of the president offered for sale at public auction at the fort, by F. H. Masten, assistant quartermaster United States army, having previously been surveyed into forty acre lots, and were purchased by J. B. Martin, G. C. Tallman, W. H. Wells, Wm. Wier, N. H. Wood, M. R. Keegan, and others.
The first land offices in Wisconsin were established under an act of congress approved June 26, 1834, creating additional land districts in the states of Illinois and Missouri, and in the territory north of the state of Illinois. The first section provides " that all that tract lying north of the state of Illinois, west of Lake Michigan, south and southeast of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, included in the present territory of Michigan, shall be divided by a north and south line, drawn from the northern boundary of Illinois along the range of township line west of Fort Winnebago to the Wisconsin river, and to be called - the one on the west side, the Wisconsin land district, and that on the east side the Green Bay land district of the territory of Michigan, which two districts shall embrace the country north of said rivers when the Indian title shall be
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extinguished, and the Green Bay district may be divided so as to form two districts, when the president shall deem it proper;" and by section three of said act, the president was author- ized to appoint a register and receiver for such office, as soon as a sufficient number of townships are surveyed.
An act of congress, approved June 15, 1836, divided the Green Bay land district, as estab- lished in 1834, " by a line commencing on the western boundary of said district, and running thence east between townships ten and eleven north, to the line between ranges seventeen and eighteen east, thence north between said ranges of townships to the line between townships twelve and thirteen north, thence east between said townships twelve and thirteen to Lake Michigan ; and all the country bounded north by the division line here described, south by the base line, east by Lake Michigan, and west by the division line between ranges eight and nine east," to be constituted a separate district and known as the "Milwaukee land district." It included the present counties of Racine, Kenosha, Rock, Jefferson, Waukesha, Walworth and Milwaukee, and parts of Green, Dane, Washington, Ozaukee, Dodge and Columbia.
An act was approved March 3, 1847, creating an additional land district in the territory. All that portion of the public lands lying north and west of the following boundaries, formed a district to be known as the Chippewa land district: commencing at the Mississippi river on the line between townships twenty-two and twenty-three north, running thence east along said line to the fourth principal meridian, thence north along said meridian line to the line dividing town- ships twenty-nine and thirty, thence east along such township line to the Wisconsin river, thence up the main channel of said river to the boundary line between the state of Michigan and the territory of Wisconsin. The counties now included in this district are Pepin, Clark, Eau Claire, Dunn, Pierce, St. Croix, Polk, Barron, Burnett, Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Taylor, Chippewa, and parts of Buffalo, Trempealeau and Jackson.
An act of congress, approved March 2, 1849, changed the location of the land office in the Chippewa district from the falls of St. Croix to Stillwater, in the county of St. Croix, in the proposed territory of Minnesota; and, by section two of the act, an additional land office and district was created, comprising all the lands in Wisconsin not included in the districts of land subject to sale at Green Bay, Milwaukee, or Mineral Point, which was to be known as the Western land district, and the president was authorized to designate the site where the office should be located. Willow River, now Hudson, was selected. The district was usually known as the St. Croix and Chippewa district, and included St. Croix, La Pointe, and parts of Chippewa and Marathon counties. By an act of congress, approved July 30, 1852, so much of the public lands in Wisconsin as lay within a boundary line commencing at the southwest corner of township fifteen, north of range two east of the fourth principal meridian, thence running due east to the southeast corner of township fifteen, north of range eleven, east of the fourth principal meridian, thence north along such range line to the north line of the state of Wisconsin, thence westwardly along said north line to the line between ranges one and two east of fourth principal meridian, thence south to the place of beginning, were formed into a new district, and known as the Stevens Point land district, and a land office located at that place.
The boundaries enclosed the present counties of Juneau, Adams, Marquette, Green Lake, Waushara, Waupaca, Portage, Wood, Marathon, Lincoln, and Shawano. By the same law, the La Crosse land district was formed of the following territory : "Commencing at a point where the line between townships ten and eleven north touches the Mississippi river, thence due east to the fourth principal meridian, thence north to the line between townships fourteen and fifteen north, thence east to the southeast corner of township fifteen north, of range one east of the
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fourth principal meridian, thence north on the range line to the south line of township number thirty-one north, thence west on the line between townships number thirty and thirty-one to the Chippewa river, thence down said river to its junction with the Mississippi river, thence down said river to the place of beginning." The present counties of Vernon, La Crosse, Monroe, Buf- falo, Trempealeau, Eau Claire, Clark, and parts of Juneau and Chippewa were included in its limits.
By act of congress, approved February 24, 1855, an additional district was formed of all that portion of the Willow river land district lying north of the line dividing townships forty and forty-one, to be called the Fond du Lac district - the office to be located by the president as he might from time to time direct. The present counties of Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, and part .of Burnett were included within its boundaries.
By an act of congress, approved March 3, 1857, so much of the districts of land subject to. sale at La Crosse and Hudson, in the state of Wisconsin, contained in the following boundaries, were constituted a new district, to be known as the Chippewa land district: North of the line dividing townships twenty-four and twenty-five north; south of the line dividing townships forty and forty-one north ; west of the line dividing ranges one and two east; and east of the line dividing ranges eleven and twelve west. The location of the office was to be designated by the president as the public interest might require. The present counties of Chippewa, Taylor, Eau Claire and Clark were in this district.
There are at the present time six land offices in the state. They are located at Menasha,_ Falls of St. Croix, Wausau, La Crosse, Bayfield and Eau Claire. By the provisions of law, when the number of acres of land in any one district is reduced to one hundred thousand acres, sub -- ject to private entry, the secretary of the interior is required to discontinue the office, and the- lands remaining unsold are transferred to the nearest land office, to be there subject to sale. The power of locating these offices rests with the president (unless otherwise directed by law), who is also authorized to change and re-establish the boundaries of land districts whenever, in his_ opinion, the public service will be subserved thereby.
The pre-emption law of 1830 was intended for the benefit of actual settlers against compe- tition in open market with non-resident purchasers. It gave every person who cultivated any part of a quarter section the previous year, and occupied the tract at the date mentioned, the privilege of securing it by payment of the minimum price at any time before the day fixed for - the commencement of the public sale. To avail himself of this provision he was to file proof of cultivation and occupancy. As men frequently located claims in advance of the survey, it occasionally happened that two or more would find themselves upon the same quarter section, in which case the pre-emption law permitted two joint occupants to divide the quarter section equally between them, whereupon each party received a certificate from the land office, author- izing him to locate an additional eighty acres, elsewhere in the same land district, not interfering with other settlers having the right of preference. This was called a floating righ :. This pro- vision of the law was ingeniously perverted from its plain purpose in various ways.
As fast as these evasions came to the notice of the department, all certificates given to occupants of the same quarter section in excess of the two first, or to more than one member of the same family, to employees, to any person who had not paid for eighty acres originally occupied, as well as those which were not located at the time of such payment, and the additional tract paid for before the public sale, were held to be worthless or fraudulent ; but a large number of these certificates had been issued, and passed into the hands of speculators and designing men, and were a source of almost endless vexation and annoyance to settlers. The law of 1830
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expired by limitation in one year from its passage, but was revived by the law of 1834 for two years. In the interim no settler could obtain his land by pre-emption. The law of 1834 extended only to those who had made cultivation in 1833, consequently the settlers of later date were excluded from its benefits. Meanwhile the fraudulent floats were freely used to dispossess actual settlers as late as 1835.
The pre-emption law of congress, approved September 4, 1841, provided that every person who should make a settlement in person on public land, and erect a dwelling, should be author- ized to enter a quarter section (one hundred and sixty acres), at the minimum price (one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre), and thus secure the same against competition ; and if any person should settle upon and improve land subject to private entry, he might within thirty days give notice to the register of the land office of his intention to claim the land settled upon, and might within one year upon making proof of his right, enter the land at the minimum price.
At the public land sales at Mineral Point, held in 1835, all those tracts on which lead was found, or on which it was supposed to exist, were reserved to the United States, and were leased under certain regulations by the government for a rent of ten per centum of all the lead raised, The quantity of land thus reserved was estimated at one million acres. Considerable difficulty was found in collecting these rents, and subsequently it was abandoned, as the amount expended in collecting exceeded the value of the lead collected. In the period of four years the government suffered a loss of over nineteen thousand dollars.
The act of congress, approved July 11, 1846, authorized the sale of the reserved mineral lands in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, and provided that, after six months' public notice, the lands should not be subject to the rights of pre-emption until after the same had been offered at public sale, when they should be subject to private entry. The law also provided, that, upon satisfac- tory proof being made to the register and receiver of the proper land office, any tract or tracts of land containing a mine or mines of lead ore actually discovered and being worked, would be sold in such legal subdivisions as would include lead mines, and no bid should be received therefor at less than the sum of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, and if such tract or tracts should not be sold at such public sale, at such price, nor should be entered at private sale within twelve months thereafter, the same should be subject to sale as other lands. This act was changed by an act approved March 3, 1847, providing that any one being in possession by actual occupancy of a mine discovered prior to the passage of this act, who should pay the same rents as those who held leases from the secretary of war, should be entitled to purchase the lands prior to the day of sale at five dollars per acre. Mineral lands were to be offered for sale in forty acre pieces, and no bids were to be received less than five dollars per acre, and if not sold they were then to be subject to private entry at the same price. In 1847 or 1848 the reserved mineral lands were sold at public sale at Mineral Point at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, and they were all disposed of at that price.
Soon after the formation of Wisconsin territory, an act was passed by its legislature, approved January 5, 1838, incorporating the Milwaukee and Rock river canal company, and by an act of congress approved June 18 of the same year, a grant of land was made to aid in the construction of the canal. The grant consisted of the odd-numbered sections on a belt of ten miles in width from Lake Michigan to Rock river, amounting to 139,190 acres. Of those lands 43,447 acres were sold at public sale in July, 1839, at the minimum price of two dollars and fifty cents per acre. Work was commenced on the canal at Milwaukee, and the Milwaukee river for a short distance from its outlet was improved by the construction of a dam across the river, which was made available for manufacturing and other purposes. A canal was also built about a mile in length and forty feet wide, leading from it down on the west bank of the river. Much
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dissatisfaction subsequently arose; the purchasers at this sale, and others occupying these canal and reserved lands felt the injustice of being compelled to pay double price for their lands, and efforts were made to repeal all laws authorizing further sales, and to ask congress to repeal the act making the grant. The legislation on the subject of this grant is voluminous. In 1862 the legislature of the state passed an act to ascertain and settle the liabilities, if any, of Wisconsin and the company, and a board of commissioners was appointed for that purpose. At the session of the legislature in 1863, the committee made a report with a lengthy opinion of the attorney-gen- eral of the state. The views of that officer were, that the company had no valid claims for damages against the state. In this opinion the commissioners concurred. On the 23d of March, 1875, an act was approved by the governor, giving authority to the attorney-general to discharge and release of record any mortgage before executed to the late territory of Wisconsin, given to secure , the purchase money or any part thereof of any lands granted by congress to aid in the construc- tion of this canal. The quantity of lands unsold was subsequently made a part of the 500,000 acre tract granted by congress for school purposes. It is believed the whole matter is now closed against further legislative enactments.
The next grant of lands made by congress for internal improvements in Wisconsin, was one approved August 8, 1846, entitled "an act to grant a certain quantity of land to aid in the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and to connect the same by canal." By this act there was granted to Wisconsin on her becoming a state, for improving the navigation of the above-named streams, and constructing the canal to unite the same, a quantity of land equal to one-half of three sections in width on each side of Fox river, and the lakes through which it passes from its mouth to the point where the portage canal should enter the same, and each side of the canal from one stream to the other, reserving the alternate sections to the United States with certain provisions in relation thereto. On the 3d of August, 1854, an act of congress was approved, authorizing the governor of Wisconsin to select the balance of lands to which the state was entitled to under the provisions of the act of 1846, out of any unsold government lands sub- ject to private entry in the state, the quantity to be ascertained upon the principles which gov- erned the final adjustment of the grant to the state of Indiana, for the Wabash and Erie canal , approved May 9, 1848. In the years 1854 and 1855, acts of congress were passed, defining and enlarging the grant. Under the grants of 1846, 1854 and 1855, the number of acres donated fo this purpose and certified to the state, was 674,100.
After the admission of Wisconsin into the Union, by an act of its legislature, approve August 8, 1848, a board of public works was created, through which the work of improving th said rivers, by the application thereto of the proceeds of the sale of the lands granted by com gress, was undertaken by the state.
It soon became apparent that the moneys realized from the sale of lands were insufficient -
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meet the obligations of the state issued by its board of public works as they became due ; an in 1853 the work was turned over to the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement company, a corpora tion created under an act of the legislature of Wisconsin approved July 6, 1853. In 1856, by a act of the legislature of Wisconsin, approved October 3, 1856, the lands granted by congre then unsold were granted by the state, through the said company, to trustees, with power sell, and to hold the proceeds in trust for the payment of state indebtedness, the completic of the work, thereafter for the payment of bonds issued by the said company, and the balance, if any, for the company itself.
In February, 1866, the trustees, in execution of the powers contained in the deed of trus made to them, and pursuant to a judgment of the circuit court of Fond du Lac county, sold public sale at Appleton, Wisconsin, the works of improvement and the balance of lands grante
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by congress then unsold, and applied the proceeds to the purposes expressed in the deed of trust. The proceeds were sufficient to pay in full the expenses of the trust, the then outstanding state indebtedness, and to provide a fund sufficient to complete the work according to the plan specified in the act approved October 3, 1856.
Under an act of the legislature of Wisconsin approved April 13, 1861, and the acts amend- atory thereof, the purchasers at said sale, on the 15th day of August, 1866, filed their certificate in the office of the secretary of state, and thereby became incorporated as the Green Bay and Mississippi canal company, holding, as such company, the said works of improvement.
At a subsequent date, under instructions from the engineer department of the United States, the surveys of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers were placed in the charge of General G. K. War- ren, and by act of congress approved July 7, 1870, the secretary of war was authorized to appoint a board of arbitrators to ascertain how much the government should pay to the suc- cessors of the Improvement company, the Green Bay and Mississippi canal company, for the transfer of all its property and rights ; and by a subsequent act, approved June 10, 1872, an appropriation was made therefor.
The legislation on matters connected with the Fox and Wisconsin river improvement would make a chapter of itself. The work is now in charge of the government, and will be prosecuted to completion in a satisfactory manner.
On the 29th of May, 1848, an act was approved by the president "to enable the people of Wisconsin territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union," by which certain propositions were to be submitted to the convention which were to be acted upon, and subsequently submitted to the people for their approval. The first constitutional convention was held in October, 1846, and, having framed a constitution, it was submitted to a vote of the people at the election in 1847, and it was rejected. The second convention met December 15, 1847, and, having formed a constitution, it was adopted by the people at the election in 1848. The following are the propositions proposed by congress :
1. That section sixteen numbered in every township of the public lands of said state, and where such section has been sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to the said state for the use of schools.
2. That seventy-two sections, or two entire townships, of land set apart and reserved for the use and support of a university by act of congress approved June 12, 1838, are hereby granted and conveyed to the state, to be appropriated solely to the use and support of such university in such manner as the legislature may prescribe.
3. That ten entire sections of land to be selected and located under the direction of the legislature, in legal subdivisions of not less than one quarter of a section from any of the unap- propriated lands belonging to the United States within the state are granted to the state for completing the public buildings, or for the erection of others at the seat of government, under the direction of the legislature.
4. That all salt-springs within the state, not exceeding twelve in number, shall be granted to the state, to be selected by the legislature, and when selected, to be used or disposed of on such terms, conditions, and regulations as the legislature shall direct.
The title to all lands and other property which accrued to the territory of Wisconsin by grant, gift, purchase, forfeiture, escheat, or otherwise, were, by the provisions of the constitution of the state, vested in the state; and the people of the state, in their right of sovereignty, were declared to possess the ultimate property in and to all lands within its jurisdiction ; and all lands, the title of which shall fail from a defect of heirs, shall revert or escheat to the people.
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