said Mississippi, so as the said tract make a quantity equal to a league square, but to include both rivers". Two witnesses testified that they had seen a large house and a garden upon this land for eight or nine years, but despite Dubuque's evidence the Board of Land Commissioners at St. Louis decided to reject the claim. A similar fate befell the claims of William Russell of St. Louis to 700 arpents of land somewhere between Jefferson, Missouri, and old Fort Madison, and two tracts of 1200 arpents and 800 arpents somewhere between old Fort Madison and the Spanish Mines.25

Private traders with small log cabins or stockades no doubt were many at this early day, but Giard, Tesson, and Dubuque, so far as is known, were the only settlers with definite habitations in the Iowa solitude. Back to the Spanish grants to Giard and Tesson reach the chains of title of many real estate owners in Clayton and Lee counties to-day. Despite the efforts of other claimants no further Spanish grants in the Iowa country could be proved to the satisfaction of the United States Land Commissioners and the. federal Supreme Court.

Such were features of the contest waged between Spain and England as rivals for the control of the fur-bearing region of the Upper Mississippi, especially to the westward. Moreover, the youthful government of the United States in 1798 was said to covet Florida and Louisiana Spain's property, and the acquisition of this territory was declared to be an ambition "fathered by the English" who

25 American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. II, p. 451, and Vol. III, pp. 364, 369. Russell based his right and title to 312 tracts of land upon Spanish and French grants and conveyances from the original claimants. He succeeded in getting only thirty of his claims confirmed -as to the remainder he could prove no acts of ownership.

As the reader may judge, information about the Spanish land grants and their first settlers is very meager indeed: the whole story is yet to be told.

saw in it an extension of commercial glory. Consequently, Spanish officials in the West anticipated an Anglo-American alliance and another war, and so the home government at Madrid had reason to hand Louisiana back to France in 1800.26

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA

JACOB VAN DER ZEE

IOWA CITY IOWA

26 Robertson's Louisiana under Spain, France, and the United States, 17851807, Vol. I, p. 350.

THE PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS OF THE OLD

NORTHWEST TERRITORY1

The successive jurisdictions of France and Great Britain over the Old Northwest Territory yielded a mass of private land claims which necessitated many years of Congressional attention and action. Over this area Virginia had long asserted its claim and when surrender of the region was made in 1784 the deed of cession stipulated that "the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskies, St. Vincents, and the neighboring villages, who have professed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their possessions and titles confirmed to them, and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties.''

Colonization of this region had long been contemplated and when the United States acquired jurisdiction over the area in 1783 by the Treaty of Paris the whole question of a land system became an important one. Various land companies were in the field early petitioning for surveys and sales. But until the foreign titles should be estimated and located there would be obstacles to exposing land to public sales.

Early in 1784 Congress was considering the petition of Colonel George Morgan from New Jersey who asked that the conflicting claims of States to the western lands be adjusted and that he be given a clear title to certain lands upon the Ohio River. A year later (February, 1785) Con

1 In the preparation of this article acknowledgments are due to Treat's The National Land System 1785-1820.

2 Printed in Donaldson's The Public Domain, pp. 68, 69.

3 Treat's The National Land System 1785-1820, pp. 201, 202.

4 Journals of Congress, Vol. IV, pp. 341, 342.

gress voted to appoint one or more commissioners who should repair to the Illinois settlements."

A report on Colonel Morgan's petition was adopted on June 20, 1788. At Kaskaskia, the committee reported, there were about eighty families at the beginning of the Revolution; about fifty at Cahokia; twelve at Prairie du Rocher, and smaller settlements at Fort Chartres and St. Philip's. A tract of land was set aside and from this each family was to be granted four hundred acres, provided the settler professed himself a citizen of the United States during or before the year 1783. Such donations could not be alienated until after three years' residence thereon. The final resolution directed the Governor of the Northwest Territory (Arthur St. Clair) to examine all titles and lay off the claims at the expense of the grantees."

Similar provisions were adopted for the French settlers at Post St. Vincents. A square tract adjoining the post was to be laid off with an area sufficient for completing donations of four hundred acres for each head of a family. The Governor of the Northwest Territory was again directed to execute these resolves of Congress.8

Owing, however, to the absence of Governor St. Clair, the Secretary of the Territory, Winthrop Sargent, carried out these provisions and communicated his report to the President on July 31, 1790. "The original concessions by the French and British commandants were generally made upon a small scrap of paper, which it had been customary to lodge in the notary's office who has seldom kept any book of record, but committed the most important land concerns to

5 Journals of Congress, Vol. IV, p. 473. It does not appear, however, that any commissioner was ever elected or sent to the Illinois settlements.

& Journals of Congress, Vol. IV, pp. 823-825.

7 Among the various names given to this settlement are: The Post, Au Post, Old Post, Post Vincents, Vincennes, and Post Vincennes.

8 Journals of Congress, Vol. IV, pp. 858, 859.

loose sheets, which, in process of time, have come into the possession of persons that have fraudulently destroyed them, or unacquainted with their consequence, innocently lost or trifled them away: for, by the French usage, they are considered as family inheritance, and often descend to women and children.''

Several petitions were presented to Sargent. One was signed by eighty Americans who had come to Vincennes with every assurance of the authority of the court at Vincennes to make grants; a similar memorial came from French inhabitants; another prayed for the confirmation of a commons of about 5400 acres; and a fourth was signed by one hundred and thirty-one Canadians, 10 French, and Americans who had settled after 1783 but who had performed, or were offering to perform, military services.

Secretary Sargent found that there were one hundred and forty-four heads of families who had settled at Vincennes prior to 1783 and who were entitled to lands. To the priest, Francis Vigo, several lots were given; a lot of twenty-five toises square was granted to Louis St. Aubin; other lots of various sizes, went to these simple peasants and gave to the region an aspect of feudal, medieval land tenure.

Governor St. Clair's report of February 10, 1791,11 revealed a chaotic condition of land tenures in the Illinois. settlements. Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Fort Chartres, and Prairie du Rocher were visited. Claims were based upon purchases; some French and Americans had secured grants from John Todd and Demunbrunt, lieutenants of Virginia in the Illinois country. In other cases titles were derived from the local courts; while some of the ancient residents based their claims upon long possession and residence,

9 American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. I, pp. 9-11. 10 American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. I, p. 10.

11 American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. I, pp. 18–22.