The Great Land Grab: Citizens Unite to Stop the Railroad's Theft of Public Soil
In a packed meeting at Reinig’s Hall, Snohomish leaders condemn the Northern Pacific Railway for hoarding millions of acres while building a secret coal line, vowing to fight Congress to return the land to settlers.
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.
A large number of our leading and influential citizens attended the adjourned citizens' meeting at Reinig's Hall last evening, to consider the matter of the restoration to the public domain, of the lands in this county held by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.
The meeting was called to order by the chairman, Mayor Weed, and L. B. Andrews was elected Secretary. After a few opening remarks by the chairman, then-once [a] committee on resolutions submitted their report as follows:
Resolved, That the people of Washington Territory have been long and patient sufferers, in consequence of the withdrawal from sale and from settlement by homestead and pre-emption claimants of every odd section of the public lands over nearly the entire area of said Territory, in favor of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, thereby preventing compact settlement of neighborhoods, with the advantages of roads, schools and churches, and increasing the price to double the former minimum at the remaining public lands;
And Whereas, The said Northern Pacific Railroad Company have located their terminus on Puget Sound at Tacoma... thereby forfeiting their right to fill withdrawals on their main line north of that point;
And Whereas, Said company are now building a local coal road from Tacoma in a southeasterly direction, up the Puyallup river, for a distance of thirty-one miles, to certain coal mines... and it is the avowed purpose of said company to fulfill and if possible to obtain the full benefit of their land grant on this branch line via the Natchez Pass...
Resolved, That it is an important duty on the part of the people of Washington Territory... to prevent, if possible, the misappropriation of the public lands for the building of said coal road... and also to procure a restoration to the Government of all lands in said Territory north of the adjusted limits of the said coal lands at said company's main line...
Resolved, Also that... the chairman of this meeting appoint a committee of five persons... to raise such sufficient amount of money... to defray the expenses and means of carrying out the object... and that the money so raised be deposited with the banking house of Dexter Horton & Co....
Committee appointed: J. J. McGlavern, Betsy [Betsey] Everett, Dexter Horton, A. Mackintosh and M. V. Sinclair.
This 1877 meeting in Snohomish captures the raw friction of early Washington Statehood, where local citizens felt powerless against federal land grants given to railroad monopolies. The fight over 'odd sections' of land mirrors modern debates about corporate ownership of housing and infrastructure versus public access and affordable development.
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