A Million-Dollar Piece of Everett Nearly Slips Through a Homestead Loophole

The famous contest of John Dennis against Wallace W. Ingalls and others, involving the property on which the Pacific Steel barge works at Everett is located, has been stricken from the calendar at the request of the contestants.

It was on May 2, 1892, that John Dennis filed his contest affidavit, alleging that the land known as lot 9, section 1, township 39 north, range 6 east, held by virtue of soldiers' additional homestead entry and final certificate, under date of October 21, was obtained through fraud; that prior to the date of the entry Ingalls made a contract with William F. Brown to enter the land and sell it to Brown. It was further claimed that Brown paid $1,200 for the land, which was transferred October 22, one day after the final certificate was issued.

The general land office denied a hearing upon the affidavit, from which decision an appeal was taken to the secretary of the Interior. Last August Secretary Smith reversed the general land office and ordered a hearing.

Such action now becomes useless, as Dennis forwarded to the general land office last month a document authorizing the land commissioner to dismiss the case and cancel it from the records. He also relinquished all right to the land involved in the contest, by virtue of any preference right obtained under his contest or otherwise. Dennis also signed a statement in which he said that he could not find sufficient proof to substantiate his allegations against the entry of Ingalls.

Commissioner Lamoreux dismisses the contest and thus settles the attack on property which, with its improvements, is worth nearly $1,000,000.