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51-543: The first claim club in the United States was established by settlers around Burlington, Iowa , where claims were staked out soon after the American Revolutionary War . These clubs were established in direct violation of federal law, in what J. Sterling Morton described as "that independence characteristic of the commonwealth by which it became a state." Early Nebraska settlers were breaking

102-543: A hallmark in contract law cases. In the 1854 the Bellevue (Nebraska) Claim Club was organized. The original aim of the club was "to secure the peaceful adjustment of all cases in which claims in this then un- surveyed country overlapped each other." The club was renowned for visiting " claim jumpers " with beatings to convince them to leave their claims. Its last act, reportedly in 1858, was to attempt to tar and feather an old man and his three sons reportedly squatting in

153-632: A lawless frontier . By enforcing the "laws" they made up, they supposedly created an order where the U.S. government was not prepared to otherwise. In 1857 when the Buchanan Administration announced the sale of lands in Nebraska would start in 1858, claims clubs across the state, led by Omaha, protested against him on the grounds that they would not be ready for the sale. The Administration was persuaded to wait until 1859. The Saratoga Claim Club , established in 1857 north of Omaha City,

204-552: A number of claim clubs until the federal land surveyors arrived. In 1835 settlers in Elkhorn Creek, Wisconsin formed a claim club. Other settlers did the same, including the town of Yankton, South Dakota . There is also a report of a claim club in Alabama in the 1850s. In the latter part of the 1850s claim clubs came under pressure from the federal government, and lost public support in many communities. In an 1858 ruling,

255-414: A surveyor, divided land into blocks starting by the ferry landing. That was the first time anyone planned what Omaha would look like. Jones was soon afterwards appointed the first postmaster of Omaha. Later Club leadership included Andrew J. Poppleton . The club's original claim of nearly four thousand acres (16 km) frustrated many settlers who came after the club was formed. Generally they objected to

306-633: A trouble-shooter in Missouri , and he started a long battle with the Frenchman that drew crowds from neighboring towns. "The Frenchman took his beating and fled", while Cam Reeves stayed. He became Omaha's first sheriff . The Claim Club's "vigilante committee" activities were not limited to claim jumping. The vigilantes often cooperated with Sheriff Reeves, but often acted as lawmen, judges, juries and executioners themselves. Public whippings and lynchings were common. Frontier punishment varied according to

357-625: Is the concern of all," was adopted. The stated goals of the Omaha Claim Club were to protect new settlers from illegal claim jumpers who would attempt to take possession of land already claimed if possible, and to promote the development of Omaha City. However, more than one claim was made of the Claim Club's dubious purposes, including collusion and bullying . There was an early understanding that no member could own more than 80 acres (320,000 m) of timber. Other agreements settled

408-529: Is the concern of all. When the Nebraska Territory was organized in 1854, there were no laws regulating land claims by settlers or claim jumpers . The Homestead Act remedying this was not enacted until 1862. In the meantime, a group of early settlers in the Omaha area formed a club determined to provide security for the land interests of its members. The organizing meeting of the Omaha Claim Club

459-532: The Kansas–Nebraska Act was signed on May 30, 1854. On June 24 of that year the U.S. government announced the treaty with the Omaha tribe, and within 11 days, on July 4, Omaha City was formally founded. The Omaha Claim Club met regularly to confer upon rules and elect officers as necessary. In February 1857 a mass meeting was held at the " Claim House " on the Pioneer Block in Omaha. The Pioneer Block

510-525: The Missouri River west of Kanesville, Iowa , and in 1848 Martin Van Buren 's Free Soil Party advocated the federal government give away free land in the presidential election . By 1853, Kanesville townspeople had already driven stakes in the land that would become Omaha. Logan Fontenelle , along with six other leaders of the Omaha tribe, signed over rights to Omaha lands on March 16, 1854, and

561-505: The Register of Deeds for Trumbull County during this time. Reed came to Omaha in late 1855, the year the city was founded. By the early 1860s he had accumulated a variety of land holdings across the city. As Omaha became an important gateway to the West and its economy boomed, Reed became very rich and assumed a prominent position in the business and political affairs of both the city and

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612-620: The United States Department of the Interior addressed claim clubs directly, stating that, "A member of a claim club, organized for the purpose of illegally appropriating and selling public lands, will be held to the strictest proof of honest intent, when asserting an individual claim." The violent actions of the Omaha Claim Club may have brought about the demise of claim clubs across the country. In 1860, in Baker v. Morton ,

663-705: The Claim Club were coming to "talk Kelly out" of his claim, she quickly hid him in her cellar in Saratoga . After a day of continual harassment from the vigilantes, Kelly walked 12 miles (19 km) south to Bellevue where he escaped to Iowa. After his deed to the land came, he went back to his land and was not bothered again. On February 2, 1856, the club was reorganized as the Omaha Township Claim Association but its arbitrary powers continued as before — in several instances even more viciously. Other victims of vigilante "justice" distributed by

714-554: The Nebraska Territorial Legislature later that year as they voted on the location of the state capitol, which Omaha kept until 1867. The club was effective in protecting its members' claims, primarily and frequently using mob violence to enforce its rule. The club's vigilantes rode masked and at night, frustrating efforts to identify the mob. The Omaha Claim Club became recognized as the unofficial court governing land claims, and in 1854 Alfred D. Jones,

765-613: The Omaha Claim Club include Jacob S. Shull, Daniel Murphy, and George "Doc" Smith, who was later the Douglas County Surveyor for many years. The Circuit court of the District of Nebraska decided against a claim brought by Alexander Baker versus William Morton, both early Omaha settlers; Morton was involved in the Omaha Claim Club. Baker appealed to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1870

816-564: The Omaha Claim Club, vary. The Supreme Court ordered the breakup in their ruling. Other sources say that with the arrival of Omaha's United States Land Office , the claims club simply was not needed. In 1856, the U.S. government surveyed the land in Douglas County , including Omaha, and on March 17, 1857 the U.S. Land Office opened. The Omaha Claim Club, along with many claim clubs around Nebraska, disbanded by 1860. The Omaha Claim Club and others like it are credited to bringing order to

867-574: The Supreme Court ordered that city's club to disband. Other sources say that with the arrival of several United States Land Offices across the West, the claim clubs simply were not needed. The Omaha Claim Club, along with many claim clubs around Nebraska, disbanded by 1860. Byron Reed Byron Reed (March 12, 1829 – June 6, 1891) was an American pioneer real estate businessman and local politician in Omaha, Nebraska . He founded

918-455: The Supreme Court ruled for Baker in the trial of Baker v. Morton . According to court proceedings, A. H. Baker was forced to sign over the land he claimed to another person for free because of threats made by members of the Omaha Claim Club. Important figures in Omaha's history testified during the trial, including John Redick and James Woolworth . In the trial the club was found to commonly take landowners who refused to sell their property to

969-462: The United States government intervened. One early claim club in the United States was established by settlers around Burlington, Iowa , where claims were formed before the Sac and Fox people ceded the area in 1832. These clubs were established in direct violation of federal law, in what J. Sterling Morton described as a claim meeting . According to one report, "Such clubs sprang up 'as readily as did

1020-425: The amount of land each member could own, requirements for claiming land in the area, requirements for maintaining land ownership, price fixing for land, as well as other price controls . There were also several punishments determined for settlers who violated any part of the club's rules, either stated or unstated. The First Nebraska Territorial Legislature was primarily composed of claim clubs members from across

1071-557: The area. The Platte Valley Claim Club was established in Fremont in August, 1856 to settle land disputes, and folded by late 1857. Fort Saint Vrain , Nebraska Territory also had a claim club in the late 1850s that was designed to keep the town from failing. It did not succeed. One story of claim club "justice" comes from Montgomery County , Kansas town in 1867. An early settler had tilled his land and improved on it, according to

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1122-399: The committee encountered resistance, the jumper soon found himself neck-deep in trouble — the severity depending upon the intensity of resistance. Cam Reeves was the first figure identified in a dispute for the Omaha Claim Club. An unnamed " Frenchman " had staked a claim in 1854 on part of Alfred D. Jones's land and refused to move off. The club sent for Reeves, who had gained a reputation as

1173-470: The degree of harm resulting from the crime. The pioneers dealt with most horse thieves mercilessly. In March, 1858, a posse of angered farmers captured two desperadoes who had stolen horses near Florence . After they were jailed in Omaha's courthouse, the Claim Club broke in and took the men, without any resistance from the sheriff. They hanged the horse thieves two miles (3 km) north of Florence that day, with no repercussions, except for Sheriff Reeves, who

1224-583: The first real estate office in the Nebraska Territory and became the foremost agent after Nebraska achieved statehood . Reed was born in Darien , Genesee County , New York . While he was attending the Alexander Classical School , Reed's family moved to Darien, Wisconsin . At the age of 20 he took a job as a telegraph operator , working in Warren, Ohio until 1855. He also served at

1275-589: The frozen Missouri River , running off legitimate settlers, and other forms of vigilantism . The club imposed their will on the Nebraska Territorial Legislature as well, and with the passage of a territorial law granting 320 acres (1.3 km ) per settler, they doubled the federally imposed limit of 160 acres (0.6 km ). The club ran Omaha until the Supreme Court ruled against their violent measures in Baker v. Morton ,

1326-462: The government's policy of selling land impeded rather than promoted progress ... Almost all thought that the land policy favored wealthy speculators." A federal decree in 1834 that defined lands west of the Missouri " Indian Territory " prevented settlement by Americans for another 20 years. In 1846 Mormon settlers received permission from the Omaha tribe to establish their Winter Quarters near

1377-422: The land, including roads and schoolhouses, and assign the heavy costs of development as a tax burden on the land held by absentees. This became the regular policy of some claim clubs, designed to force the sale by absentee owners to actual residents, or at least to local speculators. Claim clubs did not always protect the honest settler against the scheming speculator. Although claim club law sometimes shielded of

1428-499: The law as well, as they invaded Omaha tribal lands to which the United States had claim but no ownership . Morton noted that, "In both Nebraska and Iowa the squatters on lands were fully protected by the unauthorized if not positively illegal rules and promises of the claim clubs." According to two prominent historians, the roots of the Omaha Claim Club lay in the city's founders' disagreements with "federal land laws that they considered unfair and unenforceable. Critics argued that

1479-471: The law of the Supreme Court of the United States." East Coast land speculators were prone to roam the recently opened Western United States and select the most desirable spots with the intent to outbid the settler and real claimant when the lands were offered for sale at the Land Office. Claim jumpers were also a problem. Generally they sought to be present at a land sale when the first claimant

1530-428: The nearby Missouri River by force. With a rope tied around the person's neck, members of the club repeatedly dunked him until he agreed to sell. In this case, the club threatened to hang or drown Baker. The judge found Baker to have been forced to sign the contract through violence, and overturned the circuit court's earlier finding on behalf of Morton. Reasons for the demise of the Omaha Township Claim Association, aka

1581-480: The original settler was never seen again. Claim clubs also secured members' stakes on land they speculated to become important to the federal government, for the purpose of selling it back to the government at a later date. Members of one Iowa claim club purchased 15,000 acres (61 km ) in central Iowa, which eventually was sold in order to develop both the state capitol in Des Moines and Iowa City , where

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1632-551: The provisions of the Homestead Act . However, he had not lived on it for five years. After he sold it to another man, this same settler reportedly went to the United States Land Office to preempt the man to whom he sold the land. After doing so this settler attempted to displace the man he sold the land to and claim it as his own. When the local claim club ordered the town sheriff to "put the man away",

1683-499: The simple homesteader, it was also a tool and a weapon of the speculator. Claim clubs acted not only to protect a squatter's title to land he lived on and was cultivating, but also to help the same squatter defend unoccupied second and third tracts against the claim of later arrivals. The institution of the claim club is said to have "reached perfection" in Iowa , where more than a hundred such groups carefully regulated land commerce until

1734-453: The state university is today. Iowa had several other claim clubs, as well. In Fort Des Moines , Fort Dodge, Iowa and Iowa City active clubs abounded. In Iowa City the club's mission was to "...protect all persons who do or may hold claims, against the interference of any person who shall attempt to deprive such claim holders of their claims and improvements, by preemption or otherwise." From 1832 to 1843, Dupage County, Illinois created

1785-597: The state. In a time when correspondents were frequently targeted as targets, Reed was working as a correspondent of the New York Tribune and traveling throughout southern Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri to cover the Border Ruffians battles. In March 1856 he opened an office in the old State House building in Downtown Omaha and established a real estate business. Within three years the business

1836-588: The subdivisions that grew around downtown Omaha. The company he founded in 1856 is still active in Omaha today. In 1860 he was elected City Clerk in Omaha, serving until 1867. From 1861 to 1863 he served as deputy County Clerk of Douglas County , and in 1863 he was elected to a two-year term as County Clerk . Starting in 1871 he served on the Omaha City Council , acting as president in 1872. Byron Reed found time to collect rare books, manuscripts, autographs and American coins, in which last field he

1887-860: The sunflowers wherever the prairie sod was broken' in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska..." Other reports corroborate the spread of claim clubs, with their presence felt in the aforementioned states, as well as New Mexico , North Dakota , Wyoming , Montana , Colorado and Washington . In Old Colorado City, Colorado , the El Paso Claim Club was formed by members of the Colorado City Town Company in 1859. The Club reportedly "settled land disputes and recorded real property transactions until federal government regulations provided for an official land office in 1862." The Cañon City (Colorado) Claim Club first platted

1938-452: The territory. Despite federal law limiting land claims over 160 acres (0.65 km), state senators passed an act that legalized claims of 320 acres (1.3 km) and providing penalties for trespassing upon them. In 1855 Colonel Lorin Miller , later mayor of Omaha, surveyed Scriptown in the spring and summer on behalf of the Omaha Claim Club. This land was used to persuade members of

1989-435: The town of Cañon City in 1860. The club had six members, each of whom mined coal, iron, gypsum, marble and granite mining in the area, and Denver also had a claim club. The Omaha Claim Club was founded in 1854, the year the city was founded. Initially designed to protect the interests of 20 men, it grew to include almost two hundred settlers. The group used violent means to impose "frontier justice", including dunking in

2040-417: The vast extent of territory held by so few individuals and attempted to "jump", or occupy for themselves, the claims of the members of the Omaha Claim Club. After this happened, a vigilante committee formed by members of the club visited the claim jumper to inform him that he was trespassing upon land previously claimed. They would warn the intruder that if he didn't vacate immediately he would be forced to. If

2091-436: Was clerk, and R. B. Whitted was sheriff. John M. Thayer, A. J. Hanscom , Andrew J. Poppleton , Lyman Richardson, Thomas B. Cuming , Dr. George L. Miller , Dr. Enos Lowe , Jesse Lowe , Joseph Barker, Sr., Joseph, Jr., and George E. Barker, 0. D. Richardson, Byron Reed , John Redick , and James Woolworth were members, as well. In 1855 the membership included nearly all the town's male residents. The motto, "An injury to one

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2142-426: Was fined for not fulfilling his duties. Another story involved acting Governor Thomas B. Cuming . Apparently, Cuming hired an Irish man named Callahan to make improvements on Cuming's land in order to conform with the homestead law. Callahan, however, filed a claim on the land for himself. When the claim club demanded that Callahan surrender the deed of ownership, a committee was appointed to "persuade" him. Callahan

2193-584: Was formed in admiration of Omaha's club. The East Omaha Land Company of 1882 and the South Omaha Land Company of 1887 are unrelated. Claim club Claim clubs , also called actual settlers' associations or squatters' clubs , were a nineteenth-century phenomenon in the American West . Usually operating within a confined local jurisdiction, these pseudo-governmental entities sought to regulate land sales in places where there

2244-458: Was held on July 22, 1854, at the site of the "lone tree", the only landmark within the Omaha City limits at the time. The lone tree was also the ferry landing leading to Kanesville, Iowa . At the first meeting a constitution and bylaws were prepared and adopted, and officers were elected. Samuel Lewis was chosen chairman, M. C. Gaylord was secretary; Alfred D. Jones became judge, S. Lewis

2295-652: Was incorporated, and Reed's business was regarded as successful. That year he acquired the land surrounding the Prospect Hill Cemetery , and ten years later he donated it to the City of Omaha . Reed was instrumental in the formation of the Forest Lawn Cemetery Association and brokered the turn over of Prospect Hill to it in 1885. Throughout the rest of his life Reed was a surveyor, abstractor and land developer, creating many of

2346-534: Was little or no legal apparatus to deal with land-related quarrels of any size. Some claim clubs sought to protect squatters , while others defended early land owners. In the twentieth century, sociologists suggested that claim clubs were a pioneer adaptation of democratic bodies on the East Coast , including town halls . Claim clubs were essentially designed to "do what politicians refused to do: make land available to needy settlers." Their general purpose

2397-479: Was located between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets on Farnam Street, on the present-day site of the Gene Leahy Mall in downtown Omaha. With more than one hundred men present, delegations were also there from Bellevue , Florence , Elkhorn and Papillion . Each of these groups offered Omaha's Claim Club their "aid and counsel ... to assist people of Omaha in the protection of their rights." An injury to one

2448-423: Was not there. In many cases, when people who claimed land and then did not live on it and had not developed it with a shelter, fencing or other structures, "claim jumpers" would move in. This was one scenario where claim clubs would enter. The absentee-owned land would be exploited directly and indirectly, or just simply seized with the title held "by claim club." Members might vote expensive local improvements for

2499-522: Was preeminent; according to numismatists , "Byron Reed was one of the greatest collectors of the 19th century," with a reputation as a coin collector that is "largely unrecognized." His collection of colonial and United States coinage, paper money and sutlers' tokens is thought to be one of the most complete in the United States, and his numismatic library is one of the largest in the Midwestern United States ; according to experts,

2550-480: Was then taken to the Missouri River, a hole was chopped in the ice, and he was dunked through the hole until he and the claim club came to an agreement. Callahan died within a year, apparently from the after-effects of hypothermia brought on from his dunking. John Kelly was a carpenter with a legal claim to 160 acres (0.65 km) near Omaha. When word reached his aunt, Gertrude Wiley, that four wagons from

2601-465: Was to protect the first settlers to arrive on unclaimed lands, particularly in their rights to speculate and cultivate . With the continuous availability of frontier lands from the 1830s through the 1890s, settlers kept moving west. Each claim club established its own rules of governance and enforcement ; however, these were almost always vigilante actions. Period accounts report that in some areas, claim clubs were regarded with "the same majesty of

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