Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/130

 92 HISTOKY OF GOODHUE COUNTY title of 'Bully.' He had succeeded in 'laying' some half-breed scrip upon land occupied by a settler. The committee watched his movements, knowing that his family was entitled to a large amount of scrip, and waited for his next visit to the land office, which was not many days after. He came as far as the door of the land office, when he was taken into the custody of a strong guard of armed men. whose leader commanded him to march into the office forthwith and raise the entry he had made upon a settler's land by scrip. He utterly refused to comply with this demand and defied the committee to compel him to do so. Meantime preparations were made for his trial and its conse- quences. "Witnesses were summoned and he was convicted of refusing to obey the mandate of the committee. He was then escorted down to the river, which was still covered with ice, although it was near the close of March. Very near the middle of the stream a hole had been cut big enough to put a good sized man into. He was there told to take his choice either to go immediately to the land office, and in the presence of the members of the committee, raise that entry of scrip or be put down through the ice. He looked into the faces of those determined men a moment, and made up his mind to go and do as they had ordered in relation to the scrip." There were several cases of this kind, disposed of by threats, but it is said thai uo personal injury was inflicted on anyone A few weeks later a decision from the land office at Washington obviated the need of such a committee. By this decision, those who had settled upon a tract and made improvements thereon had the preemption and homestead rights, the same as on other government lands. The same decision granted to the holders of half-breed scrip the privilege of laying the same upon any other government land not previously claimed by an actual settler. All the vacant land on the half-breed tract was taken very soon after this decision, the situation near the river enhanc- ing its value. The disadvantage of a distance of a few miles from market was considered a great drawback in those days, before the advent of the railroads. Few or none of the mixed bloods ever cared to settle on the land thus set apart for them. Occa- sionally, a decade or so afterward, there was an echo of this half-breed affair, when some half-blood whose guardian had sold his (the half-breed's) scrip rights would, upon attaining his majority, demand of the settler on the property that he, too, he paid. In most cases these demands were complied with, the farmers, whose land had greatly enhanced in value, deeming it wiser to pay a small sum than to undergo the expense of a lawsuit. Thus passed the last vestige of Indian title to the rich valleys