People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1896 — AFTER VALUABLE LAND. [ARTICLE]

AFTER VALUABLE LAND.

Extensive LUlfzUaa PraeMdliifi B*(ai to MlniMOts United State* Courts. St. Paul, Minn., March 3.—United States District Attorney E. C. Stringer has brought about a dozen suits withiu the last few days in one of the largest litigations which has ever been carried on in the northwest. About 1,000 defendants, all residing in this state, and about 200,000 acres of the most valuable land in Minnesota are involved. The lands are valued at $4,000,000, and the entire town of Litchfield is involved. The defendants most concerned are the St. Paul, Minneapolis £ Manhsba railway company, now part of the Great Northern system; the St. Paul & Northern Pacific, now leased by the Northern Pacific company; the St. Paul & Sioux City, nxow operated under the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha division of the Chicago & Northwestern railway company, the Winona & St Peter railroad company and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad company as the successor to the Southern Minnesota railroad company. The actions are based on the certification, which, it is claimed, was erroneously made on lands involved by a ministerial department of the United States to the state of Minnesota and by its officers to the companies mentioned.