The Ghost of a Homestead Claim
When Charles Henry Vauwy vanished from the territory, he left behind a contested homestead and a legal mystery that required the notice of the courts to solve.
NOTICE. United States Land Office, Olympia, Washington Territory, August 25, 1877. Complaint having been entered at this office by James P. Taluho of Snohomish County, W. T., against Charles Henry Vauwy for abandoning his homestead, Entry No. 1,534, dated February 7, 1872, upon the lots 3 and 10 of Section No. 22 and N W 1/4 of N E 1/4 and lot 1 of Section No. 7, in Township No. 29 North, of Range No. 5 East, Willamette Meridian, in Snohomish County, Washington Territory, with a view to the cancellation of said entry; the said parties are hereby summoned to appear at this office on the 10th day of November, 1877, at 10 o'clock A. M. to respond and furnish testimony concerning said alleged abandonment. J. T. BROWN, Register. ROBERT G. STUART, Receiver. It appearing by affidavit filed in this case, that the said Charles Henry Vauwy has left this Territory, and that his present location is unknown, I therefore order that service of notice be made by publication in the Northern Star, a newspaper published in Snohomish City, for the period of nine weeks prior to the date of hearing.
“It appearing by affidavit filed in this case, that the said Charles Henry Vauwy has left this Territory, and that his present location is unknown.”
In the 1870s, homestead claims were the primary vehicle for land acquisition, but abandonment was common due to the harsh realities of frontier life. Today, this dispute echoes the modern bureaucratic struggle over property rights and absentee owners in a rapidly developing Snohomish County.
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