CHAPTER V.
PIONEER LIFE. (CONT'D)
THE CLAIM SYSTEM.
During the first few years of the early settlement of this country, the United States government encouraged the claim system. This induced many speculators to turn their eyes toward the Western States. It furnished lucrative business for many who had been hovering between civilization and barbarism. Their plan was to keep just beyond the line of settlement and pick out the best claims, holding them until some actual settler or speculator would come, then they would sell out again and move westward to repeat the same. The law provided that the land should be sold to the highest bidder, but not for less than $1.25 per acre, and it was seldom sold for more than this. It was generally understood, and, in fact, enforced, that those who had selected a certain piece of land should have it. One township of land was sold each day. The sales took place in Des Moines. When the day set for the sale of a township came, all those who had established claims in the township in question were present. As soon as the bid reached $1.25 per acre, the hammer came down instantly. If a rash speculator did now and then get in a bid for a little more, sometimes no attention was paid to him by the auctioneer, and the land would be knocked down to the claimant, but the person who did bid against the actual settler would be "laid hold of," and would receive a severe ducking in the river. In some cases like this the obnoxious bidders have been almost killed by the "settlers' rights men."
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, January, 2025 from:
"History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 272.
