Viewing Land Settlement / Agriculture Category (29) found:Douglas A. Hedin, "Commissioners of Deeds for Minnesota, 1851-1973."The offices of commissioner of deeds and its sibling, notary public, were established by the Territorial Legislative Assembly in 1851, and preserved in the state constitution adopted in October 1857. During the decades that followed, notaries thrived while commissioners of deeds declined until onl... David J. Meyers: Book Review of Donald R. Durbin Jr., "The Bigger They Are...." (2000).Sometimes the best advice that a good lawyer can give the client is that the client has no case. This is as true today as it was over 100 years ago when William Burfening first came to a lawyer about a real estate claim.
William E. Lass: "The First Attempt to Organize Dakota Territory." (1991)On May 27, 1857, the Dakota Land Company was incorporated in St. Paul by nine politically-connected investors, including Charles E. Flandrau, who was being considered for a position on the Minnesota Territorial Supreme Court. This article recounts the extraordinary story of how the Dakota Land Compa... Jonathan Hughes: "The Great Land Ordinances." (1987)."The Great Land Ordinances" is the name the late Jonathan Hughes gave to the ordinances of 1784, 1785, and 1787, which were passed by Congress under the Article of Confederation. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was, according to Hughes, "largely an update of the legislation of 1784, and it embrace... Frederick Jackson Turner: "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." (1893)Twenty years ago, Martin Ridge, a noted historian who died in 2003, began an article in "Montana: The Magazine of Western History" with this question: "One of the favorite discussion topics among American historians is the question: what piece of American historical writing has been most influen... Harold M. Hyman: "American Singularity: The 1787 Northwest Ordinance and the 1862 Homestead and Morrill Acts" (1985).How unique or exceptional is America? To Dr. Harold M. Hyman, America is "singular" because at different times in its history, it adopted policies that increased individuals' "access to recognized avenues of mobility, opportunity and success." These policies were expressed in particular laws that... Douglass C. North & Andrew R. Rutten: "The Northwest Ordinance in Historical Perspective." (1987).The Northwest Ordinance, passed by the Continental Congress on July 13, 1787, was, in the words of Professors Douglass North and Andrew Rutten, "a landmark in American economic history." Besides its famous guarantees of such rights as freedom of religion and prohibitions against slavery, taking of... The Land Revision Act of 1891.The Land Revision Act of 1891 repealed the Timber Culture Act (1873-1878) and the Preemption Act (1841), and revised other land laws. The last section of the statute authorizing the president to create forest reserves out of public lands has become so important that it is sometimes referred to as T... The Timber Culture Acts (1873-1891).Congress passed the Timber Culture Act in 1873 to encourage settlers to plant and grow trees on "western prairies." The following year, strict eligibility requirements and planting timetables were added. Amendments in 1878 loosened the schedules for "breaking" the prairie, "cultivating" the plowed... Homestead Act of 1862The Homestead Act was signed by President Lincoln on May 20, 1862. By fulfilling certain statutory requirements--filing an application, "improving" the land by actually settling on and cultivating it, and filing for a deed after five years--a settler could acquire title to 160 acres of previously u... "Pre-emption Law." (1859)The passage of the Pre-emption Act of 1841 marked a change in federal policy from the sale of public land to raise revenue to offering lands to encourage the settlement of western states and territories. Pre-emptors--or settlers or squatters--could acquire title by making minor "improvements" t... Town Site Act of 1844.The federal Town Site Act of May 23, 1844, is posted here followed by the Minnesota Town Site Act, first enacted in 1855 and amended twice, in 1857 and 1858.
Pre-emption Act of 1841The Pre-emption Act of 1841 was passed by the 27th Congress on September 4, 1841. It encouraged settlement of new states and territories by permitting settlers or squatters on government land to purchase up to 160 acres for not less than $1.25 per acre before that tract was offered for sale to... The Southwest Ordinance (also known as the Ordinance of 1790).The Southwest Territory, which was defined as "Territory of the United States, South of the River Ohio," was created by the Southwest Ordinance enacted on May 26, 1790, out of land that was ceded to the U.S. federal government by the State of North Carolina. The Southwest Ordinance was modeled aft... The Northwest Ordinance (1787)The Northwest Ordinance, effective July 13, 1787, organized the Northwest Territory, and established conditions for admitting new states to the union. It set forth six articles that constituted a "compact" between the original states and the people and future states in the new territory. That "comp... The Ordinance of 1785.Operating under the Articles of Confederation, Congress adopted The Land Ordinance of 1785 on May 20, 1785. Because Congress lacked power to tax citizens of the United States, it aimed, through the Ordinance, to raise revenue through the sale of land in the Northwest Territory. It required that th... The Ordinance of 1784.On April 23, 1784, Congress, operating under the Articles of Confederation, adopted a resolution known as The Ordinance of 1784, which applied to land west of the Appalachian Mountains, north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River -- land encompassed by the current states of Ohio, India... The Resolutions on Public Land (1780)In 1780, meeting before the Articles of Confederation were adopted, the Continental Congress adopted a Resolution calling upon the existing states--Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia were targeted--to cede their claims to lands in the Western Territory to the United States. A Recommendation to th... "Claim Making and Preemption." (1855)In 1855, the "Minnesota Republican" newspaper ran a series of articles to help newly arrived immigrants understand and adjust to their new land. This article on "Claim Making and Preemption" appeared in the issue of July 26, 1855. ... "Directions on how to obtain public lands from an official source" (1878).The 1878 Report of the Minnesota Commissioner of Statistics included a set of instructions on buying public lands that was subtitled, "Directions on how to obtain them, from an official source." It also listed the fees for certain claims and quoted excerpts from state exemption laws. This document... James H. Baker: "Government Lands" (1878).James Heaton Baker was United States Surveyor General for Minnesota from 1875 to 1879. In 1878, he contributed a short article on the history of the public lands in the state for the annual report of the Minnesota Commissioner of Statistics. In it, Baker describes the background of federal grants... Douglas A. Hedin: "The Conscientious Objector Amendments of 1877 to the State Militia Act" (2012).In 1877, the Minnesota Legislature amended the state Militia Act to exempt certain conscientious objectors. The law, effective February 20, 1877, provided:
Henry Titus Welles: "The Meeker Dam." (1899)After Justice Bradley B. Meeker's term on the Territorial Court ended in 1853, he did not resume the practice of law. Instead he invested in real estate. Among his holdings was a large tract of land below St. Anthony Falls on the Minneapolis-St. Paul border. When Meeker's corporation attempted to g... Samuel J. Albright: "The First Organized Government of Dakota." (1898).In the late 1850s, Samuel J. Albright, a St. Paul newspaper publisher, and other former Minnesotans, attempted to form a temporary "government" of Dakota, the land now encompassing the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. This government, it was hoped, would hasten the formation of a territory ... Ben W. Palmer: "Swamp Land Drainage With Special Reference to Minnesota" (1915).In 1915, the University of Minnesota published Ben W. Palmer's "Swamp Land Drainage With Special Reference to Minnesota." It was Bulletin No. 5 in the University's Studies in the Social Sciences. It is posted here.
Matthais N. Orfield, "Federal Land Grants to the States with Special Reference to Minnesota." (1915)In 1915, the University of Minnesota published Matthias Nordberg Orfield's "Federal Land Grants to the States with Special Reference to Minnesota." It was his Ph.D. dissertation and Bulletin No. 2 in the University's Studies in the Social Sciences. It is posted here.
Herbert E. Gaston, "The Nonpartisan League" (1920).Herbert Earle Gaston (1881-1956) wrote a history of the National Nonpartisan League, an organization of western farmers founded by A. C. Townley and others in 1915, to counter propaganda circulated against it by its opponents, of which there were many. In his "Preface" to the book, published in 1920... Oliver H. Kelley, "Origin and Progress of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry in the United States: A History from 1866 to 1873" (1875).Oliver Hudson Kelley (1826-1913) a farmer in Benton County, Minnesota, was a founder of the Grange. About that organization, agricultural historian Thomas A. Woods wrote in "Knights of the Plow: Oliver H. Kelley and the Origins of the Grange in Republican Ideology" (1991):
Edward Van Dyke Robinson, "Early Economic Conditions and the Development of Agriculture in Minnesota" (1915).In 1915 the University of Minnesota published Dr. Edward Van Dyke Robinson's "Early Economic Conditions and the Development of Agriculture in Minnesota" as part of its Studies in the Social Sciences. Robinson (1867-1915) was Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota. It is posted here.... |