The Property Battle for Old Seattle

The officers of the U.S. Land Office at Olympia have issued a certificate to Lydia A. Maynard for the east half of the Donation Claim. No other result could have been anticipated by anyone who had examined the case. Thus the first step is taken in the march towards a good title to property in Seattle. The others will follow as fast as possible in view of the obstacles to be overcome. The person who sought to make his title good by procuring a deed from the heirs of Lydia Maynard did not seek to purchase the entire interest, and only did so at the earnest solicitation of Lydia herself, as she was in no condition to prosecute it. The name of the undersigned was included in the deed without any knowledge of the fact until it arrived in Seattle; and even then it was regarded as only security for the payment of professional fees. As soon as the undersigned was convinced that the first wife or her heirs were the owners of one-half the claim, he at once communicated his opinion to the leading property holders in Seattle, and advised that prompt steps be taken to clear up the title. The advice, however, was not only disregarded, but rejected contemptuously. Somehow and for some reason, the community had come to regard all lawyers as necessarily rascals, and the advice and suggestion must have been regarded as one of the everyday pettifogging attempts to get a fee. So the attempt at concerted action in the interest of all property holders was futile, and all effort in that direction was and is abandoned. In the proper prosecution of the case, it was obviously the thing to request the personal attendance of the claimant, and when she finally did come, the undersigned insisted that the land should be reconveyed, and the persons interested be protected under a Power of Attorney. Palpably the thing to do was to deal with the blunder in a manner to affect as few as possible and at the same time bring a speedy solution. Hence the settled and valuable portion of the claim was at once conceded to the husband, and an offer made to accept the South half for the wife. As the heirs of Plummer had some interest in that half, an offer was made to their Guardian to secure them those interests without cost, and also to give Lydia's title to all who had settled and improved. These offers were rejected by both Guardian and Executor, and the contest went on. It is still open. A fund has been raised to send a Member of the Bar to Washington to defeat Lydia's title. Why defeat it? Any lawyer will tell them that if Lydia's title is defeated, the land becomes public land, and being within the limits of an incorporated City, cannot be acquired in any other way than under the Town Site Law, and under this law only actual settlers can take, and then only two town lots each. So the whole contest would have no other object than spite against Lydia Maynard.