Land Fraud in a Booming Town: Two Everett Homestead Cases Go to Trial
A 170-acre tract valued at $1,000 an acre and a 40-acre parcel in the heart of Everett are at the center of separate land contests alleging fraudulent homestead and pre-emption claims.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
TWO EVERETT LAND CONTESTS. Trying to Disprove Sines' Residence—The McDougall-Cameron Case. The famous Everett land case of Hanscom vs. the heirs of George W. Sines, which involves 170 acres in the town of Everett, valued at $1,000 an acre, was still on trial at the United States land office yesterday. The contestant rested her case, after having introduced about twenty witnesses to disprove the residence and good faith of Sines. The testimony showed that he had no other place of residence and that he had a cabin there in which he lived to some extent. The only part of it which was damaging to the claimant's case was as to the quantity and value of the improvements that had been made upon the land. The claimant's side of the case is that he had lived on the land for more than nine years and had complied with every requirement of the homestead law. To substantiate this many of Everett's old settlers were called. Another land contest case involving forty acres of land almost in the middle of the town of Everett, in which John A. Cameron and I. W. McDougall are involved, is being heard. Cameron claims that the pre-emption was fraudulently entered. The case was commenced at 1 o'clock and the afternoon was taken up in putting in evidence for the contestant.
“Cameron claims that the pre-emption was fraudulently entered.”
In 1893, Everett was a booming town, and land was valuable. Homestead fraud was a way to acquire land. Today, land use and housing fights continue in Everett and the Puget Sound region, with debates over density, property rights, and public land. The story shows that land speculation and fraud are not new.
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