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356 stories matching homestead
- When the Forestry Agent Came for the Homesteaders’ Timber
In Republic, a federal forestry agent pressed charges against settlers for cutting timber on their own homesteads, raising a hard question: how else was a family supposed to clear land and survive?
- The Homestead Scam That Turned Public Land Into a Speculator’s Prize
An 1883 exposé from Walla Walla describes how doctors, lawyers and merchants faked frontier residency to grab government land—and why the law made perjury easy.
- A Homesteader, an Indian Agent and the Land at Lake Chelan
When a federal agent prepared to forcibly remove a homesteader from land newly allotted to Colville Indians, Judge Hanford drew a line: the eviction would have to go through the courts.
- The Lake Washington Land Fight That Turned on a Cabin, a Railroad Claim, and 'Crazy' Miller
A decade-long homestead contest ends with William L. Miller keeping first claim—if he or his guardian can prove it within 90 days. His rival says the cabin was never really a home.
- The Widow, the Missing Will, and the Yesler Homestead
Mary Booth lived nineteen years at Sixth and Jefferson before Henry Yesler's promised bequest vanished and the house passed into his estate.
- The Union Veteran Who Sued the Railroad for a Million-Dollar Tacoma
Anthony P. Carr says Northern Pacific agents helped a claim-jumper steal his homestead. More than a thousand Tacoma lots—and the people living on them—depend on what the Supreme Court decides.
- The Speculative Homestead That Built Everett
A federal land office ruling exposes how a 'homestead' was actually a calculated land grab to secure the future site of a new industrial city.
- The Shadowy Business of Land 'Jumpers'
A look at the corruption and speculation surrounding homestead land claims in Washington Territory, where the rules of pre-emption favored the well-connected over the actual settler.
- Tacoma Labor Rallies for Homestead Strikers
Hundreds of workers gather to denounce Pinkerton agents and call for protective labor legislation in Washington State.
- Forest Service Challenged Homesteaders in the LeClerc Creek Timberlands
Thirteen claimants faced a March 19 hearing over whether their Pend Oreille River homesteads were homes or timber grabs.
- The Price of a Homestead
A local teacher faces the loss of her land claim after government inspectors rule she prioritized her career in town over the requirements of the Homestead Act.
- The Government Wants the Timber Back: 24 Homesteaders Fight for Their Claims
A federal commissioner opens a day-by-day docket against settlers in the LeClerc Creek basin whose land was folded into the Priest River National Forest two years after they proved up on it.
- The End of the Homestead Era in Walla Walla
Federal authorities are canceling land claims after a wave of fraudulent 'residency' filings in Franklin County.
- A Lake, Not a Farm: Homesteaders Fought Over Calispell’s Swampy Shore
A Spokane sportsman’s club contests Calispell Lake homestead claims, arguing the land is water, not farmland—and more claims may follow.
- The Homesteader Who Outlasted a Mining Town
A long land fight at Loomis ends with Napoleon Sabourin keeping his homestead against Samuel Silverman's placer claims and the townsite of Loomiston.
- Railroad Land Grab Defeated
A Supreme Court ruling halts the Northern Pacific Railroad's attempt to claim homesteaded lands in King and Yakima counties.
- Northern Pacific Route Shifts Dispossessed Homesteaders
How the Northern Pacific Railroad manipulated government maps to seize millions of acres, crushing homesteaders in the process.
- A Legal Battle for an Inheritance
The abandoned son of an early Whatcom pioneer fights for his father's homestead after collateral heirs sell the land out from under him.
- The End of the Cattle Barons' Land Grab
Federal authorities tighten rules on soldiers' homestead claims to stop large cattle companies from using widows as proxies to secure public land.
- The Looming Transition: Homesteaders Face Bureaucratic Limbo
As Washington prepares for statehood, federal land officers warn settlers that their pending homestead proofs may become legally invalid overnight.
- Homesteading Rules Tightened in Spokane
A federal ruling denies a homestead title, asserting that occasional visits to a claim are not enough to prove residency.
- A Land-Fraud Prosecutor Warns the Homestead Loophole Is Closing
Fresh from prosecuting land fraud, F. M. Goodwin opens a Spokane law office and predicts Congress will tighten the Timber and Stone Act and the homestead commutation loophole.
- Federal Relief for Failed Homesteaders
A new act of Congress allows pioneers who lost their land to try again if the initial failure was truly beyond their control.
- The Business of Veterans' Benefits in 1880s Seattle
An advertisement for a local attorney reveals the complex bureaucracy of settling Civil War military land claims and homestead rights for pioneers in the Washington Territory.
- The Smallholder’s Victory Against the Railroad Giant
In a landmark 1883 ruling, the General Land Office denied the Northern Pacific Railroad's claim to homestead land within Tacoma, protecting a local settler's right to his property.
Also about this, in other words
- The Homestead Shortcut
A local legal notice illuminates the evolving, difficult process of securing land ownership in Washington Territory.
- The Battle for Homestead Titles
A legal dispute over a homestead in Franklin County signals potential trouble for many Walla Walla residents holding land claims.
- An Affordable Dream: A 60x121 Foot Seattle Homestead
In 1877, a lot on Second Street—now the heart of Seattle's high-density urban core—was listed for sale as a private residential homestead.
- A $500 Promise and a Government Land Dream: The Homestead Scam Drawing Inquiries Daily
Operating out of Seattle, Tacoma and Bellingham, promoters allegedly charged would-be settlers $500 for 'prior rights' to Oregon land tangled in a federal suit against the Southern Pacific.
- The Bureaucratic Frontier: Settling Homesteads in Snohomish
Before the age of easy travel, a local legal notice reveals the logistical hurdles of securing land rights in Snohomish County.
- A Frontier Homestead Lost to Debt
When a small-scale farm on the outskirts of 1880 Seattle becomes a casualty of high-interest credit, the Sheriff moves in to settle the accounts.
- The Price of Proving Up
A Ritzville homesteader defends his livelihood against malicious neighbors in a grueling legal battle over the integrity of his claim.
- Homesteaders Win a Round in the Kaniksu Forest Land Fight
Two settlers are declared entitled to their claims, but the legal battle over public land in the Kaniksu National Forest is far from over.