A Bishop Claimed 430 Acres of a Federal Military Reservation
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nesqually went to the U.S. Supreme Court to secure title to the Vancouver military reservation, setting church, Crown-era permission, and federal ownership against one another.
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.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26.—A. H. Garland, ex-attorney general of the United States, in the Supreme Court today moved an advancement of an important and interesting case of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nesqually against John Gibbs, T. M. Anderson, R. T. Yeatman and the United States. By this suit the bishop seeks to secure title to some 430 acres of land, comprising the United States military reservation at Vancouver, Washington. The land is worth now over half a million dollars. At the time Oregon Territory was organized the Catholic church had a missionary at this place by permission of the Hudson Bay Company, which had its principal trading station at Vancouver. The Oregon act confirmed the title to not exceeding 640 acres to religious societies occupying land as missionaries. Under this act the bishop claims this section, while the United States contends the Catholic church merely had permission from the Hudson Bay Company to occupy a small tract for religious purposes and had no title to the land except a half acre which had been allowed it.
“By this suit the bishop seeks to secure title to some 430 acres of land, comprising the United States military reservation at Vancouver, Washington.”
The case turned on whether a missionary presence permitted by the Hudson’s Bay Company could ripen into title to hundreds of acres of what became a federal military reservation. Today the Vancouver Barracks land is public ground, and the fight echoes modern disputes over church property, treaty-era land grants, and who controls valuable public acreage.
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