The Homesteader Who Beat the Railroad and the Land Company
A Tacoma land dispute turns on a settler's 1883 claim, a canceled filing, and the Northern Pacific's grant.
OLYMPIA, July 29.—[Special.]—The local land office has just rendered a decision in a case that has attracted considerable notice of late and involves valuable land to the amount of forty acres in the city of Tacoma. The land was originally filed upon by Peter Mason, which filing was canceled later. The Northern Pacific Railroad Company claimed the land under its grant, but the United States Supreme Court decided that all odd sections that had entries upon them at the time of the grant were exempted from the grant. The Tacoma Land Company made application to purchase the land under an act of Congress of March 3, 1887, but one Abner Shrives had settled on the land in 1883. The local land officers recommend the rejection of the application from the Tacoma Land Company and the allowance of the homestead entry of Abner Shrives.
“The local land officers recommend the rejection of the application from the Tacoma Land Company and the allowance of the homestead entry of Abner Shrives.”
The case turned on a question that still shapes American cities: who owns land that a railroad or development company claims, and what counts as a prior settlement? In Tacoma, a single homesteader's 1883 arrival was enough to check two corporate claimants. The same tension between public land, private title, and who gets to stay runs through modern fights over development and displacement.
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