Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/301

Rh equal owners. The division being agreed upon, it became necessary also to make some bargain by which the lots sold on the three several portions of Lownsdale's interest might fall with some degree of fairness to the three owners when they came to make deeds after receiving patents; the same being necessary with regard to the lots previously selected by their wives out of their claims, which were exchanged to bring them within the limits agreed upon previous to going before the surveyor general for a certificate. Everything being settled between Lownsdale, Chapman, and Coffin, the first two filed their notification of settlement and claim on the 11th of March, and the latter on the 19th of August.

On the 8th of April Lownsdale, by the advice of A. E. Wait, filed a notification of claim to the whole 640 acres, upon the ground that Job McNamee, who had in 1847 attempted to jump the Portland claim, but had afterward abandoned it, had returned, and was about to file a notification for the whole claim. Lownsdale and Wait excused the dishonesty of the act by the assertion that either of the other two owners could have done the same had they chosen. A controversy arose between Chapman and Coffin on one side and Lownsdale on the other, which was decided by the surveyor general in favor of Chapman and Coffin, Lownsdale refusing to accept the decision. Stark and the others then appealed to the commissioner of the general land office, who gave as his opinion that Portland could not be held as a donation claim: first, because it dated from 1845, and congress did not recognize claims under the provisional government; again, because congress contemplated only agricultural grants; and last, on account of the clause in the organic act which made void all laws of the provisional government affecting the title to land. He also believed the town-site law to be extended to Oregon along with the other United States laws; and