Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/300

282 registered in the name of Pettygrove, Lownsdale laid claim to the whole, including Stark's portion, and filed his claim to the whole with the registrar, residing upon it in Pettygrove's house.

In March 1849 Lownsdale sold his interest in the claim to Stephen Coffin, and immediately repurchased half of it upon an agreement with Coffin that he should undertake to procure a patent from the United States, when the property was to be equally owned, the expenses and profits to be equally divided; or if the agreement should be dissolved by mutual consent, Coffin should convey his half to Lownsdale. The deed of Coffin reserved the rights of all purchasers of lots under Pettygrove, binding the contracting parties to make good their titles when a patent should be obtained. In December of the same year Lownsdale and Coffin sold a third interest in the claim to W. W. Chapman, reserving, as before, the rights of lot owners.

Up to this time there had been no partition of the land; but in the spring of 1850, Stark having returned and asserted his right in the property, a division was agreed to between Stark and Lownsdale, by which each held his portion in severalty, and to confirm titles to purchasers on their separate parcels of land, Stark taking the northern and Lownsdale the southern half of the claim.

Upon the passage of the donation law, with its various requirements and restrictions, it became necessary for each claimant, in order not to relinquish his right to some other, to apply for a title to a definitely described portion of the whole claim. Accordingly, on the 10th of March, 1852, Lownsdale, having been four years in possession, came to an arrangement with Coffin and Chapman with regard to the division of his part of the claim in which they were