Claim clubs, also called actual settlers' associations or squatters' clubs, were a nineteenth-century phenomenon in the
American West
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
. Usually operating within a confined local jurisdiction, these pseudo-governmental entities sought to regulate land sales in places where there was little or no legal apparatus to deal with land-related quarrels of any size. Some claim clubs sought to protect
squatter
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
s, while others defended early land owners. In the twentieth century,
sociologists
This is a list of sociologists. It is intended to cover those who have made substantive contributions to social theory and research, including any sociological subfield. Scientists in other fields and philosophers are not included, unless at least ...
suggested that claim clubs were a pioneer adaptation of
democratic bodies on the
East Coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
, including
town hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
s.
Purpose
Claim clubs were essentially designed to "do what politicians refused to do: make land available to needy settlers." Their general purpose was to protect the first settlers to arrive on unclaimed lands, particularly in their rights to
speculate
In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.)
Many s ...
and
cultivate. With the continuous availability of
frontier
A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...
lands from the 1830s through the 1890s, settlers kept moving west. Each claim club established its own rules of
governance
Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...
and
enforcement
Enforcement is the proper execution of the process of ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, rules, standards, and social norms.
Governments attempt to effectuate successful implementation of policies by enforcing laws and regulations.
Ena ...
; however, these were almost always
vigilante
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority.
A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...
actions. Period accounts report that in some areas, claim clubs were regarded with "the same majesty of the law of the Supreme Court of the United States."
[Dilke, C.W. (2005) ''Greater Britain: A Record of Travel in English-Speaking Countries During 1866 and 1867.'' Cosimo, Inc. p. 167.]
East Coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
land
Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various islan ...
speculators were prone to roam the recently opened
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
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.
[(nd]
"Tidricks in Nineteenth Century America"
. Retrieved 7/19/07. Claim jumpers were also a problem. Generally they sought to be present at a land sale when the first claimant 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 the land, including roads and schoolhouses, and assign the heavy costs of development as a
tax burden
In economics, tax incidence or tax burden is the effect of a particular tax on the distribution of economic welfare. Economists distinguish between the entities who ultimately bear the tax burden and those on whom tax is initially imposed. The t ...
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 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.
[Boorstin, D. (1967) ''The Americans: The national wide experience.'' pp. 73-78.]
The institution of the claim club is said to have "reached perfection" in
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
, where more than a hundred such groups carefully regulated land commerce until the United States government intervened.
Examples
One early claim club in the United States was established by settlers around
Burlington, Iowa
Burlington is a city in, and the county seat of, Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,982 in the 2020 census, a decline from the 26,839 population in 2000. Burlington is the center of a micropolitan area, which includes ...
, 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
Julius Sterling Morton (April 22, 1832 – April 27, 1902) was a Nebraska newspaper editor and politician who served as President Grover Cleveland's United States Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Agriculture. He was a prominent Bourbon Dem ...
described as a
claim meeting According to one report, "Such clubs sprang up 'as readily as did 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
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
,
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
,
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
,
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
and
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
.
Colorado
In
Colorado City, Colorado
Colorado City is a census-designated place (CDP) and post office in and governed by Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Pueblo, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Colorado City post office has the ZIP Code 8101 ...
, 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
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...
(Colorado) Claim Club first
plat
In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...
ted the town of
Cañon City
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...
in 1860. The club had six members, each of whom mined coal, iron, gypsum, marble and granite mining in the area, and
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
also had a claim club.
Nebraska
The
Omaha Claim Club The Omaha Claim Club, also called the Omaha Township Claim Association(1954 ''Omaha's First Century''. Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved 7/14/07. and the Omaha Land Company, was organized in 1854 for the purpose of "encouraging the building of a city"Mo ...
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 the frozen
Missouri River, running off legitimate settlers, and other forms of
vigilantism
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority.
A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...
. The club imposed their will on the
Nebraska Territorial Legislature
The Nebraska Territorial Legislature was held from January 16, 1855 until 1865 in Omaha City, Nebraska Territory.
Major issues
Slavery
In 1854 the Kansas–Nebraska Act created the Nebraska Territory, overturning the Missouri Compromise b ...
as well, and with the passage of a territorial law granting per settler, they doubled the federally imposed limit of . The club ran Omaha until the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
ruled against their violent measures in ''
Baker v. Morton'', a hallmark in
contract law
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...
cases.
In the 1854 the
Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to:
Placenames
Australia
* Bellevue, Western Australia
* Bellevue Hill, New South Wales
* Bellevue, Queensland
* Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales
Canada ...
(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
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Two-dimensional space#In geometry, two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of ...
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
Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture and punishment used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a t ...
an old man and his three sons reportedly squatting in 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
Fort Saint Vrain was an 1837 fur trading post built by the Bent, St. Vrain Company, and located at the confluence of Saint Vrain Creek and the South Platte River, about 20 miles (32 km) east of the Rocky Mountains in the unorganized territ ...
,
Nebraska Territory
The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebraska ...
also had a claim club in the late 1850s that was designed to keep the town from failing. It did not succeed.
Kansas
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 the provisions of the
Homestead Act
The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of th ...
. 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
Preempt (also spelled "pre-empt") is a bid in contract bridge whose primary objectives are (1) to thwart opponents' ability to bid to their best contract, with some safety, and (2) to fully describe one's hand to one's partner in a single bid. A ...
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", the original settler was never seen again.
Iowa
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
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
claim club purchased 15,000 acres (61 km
2) in central Iowa, which eventually was sold in order to develop both the state capitol in
Des Moines
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
and
Iowa City
Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...
, where
the state university is today.
Iowa had several other claim clubs, as well. In
Fort Des Moines,
Fort Dodge, Iowa
Fort Dodge is a city in, and the county seat of, Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 24,871 in the 2020 census, a decrease from 25,136 in 2000. Fort Dodge is a major commercial center for North Ce ...
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."
Others
From 1832 to 1843,
Dupage County, Illinois
DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat is ...
created 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
Yankton is a city in and the county seat of Yankton County, South Dakota, United States.
The population was 15,411 at the 2020 census, and it is the principal city of the Yankton Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the entirety of Y ...
. There is also a report of a claim club in
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
in the 1850s.
Decline
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, the
United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
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'', the Supreme Court ordered that city's club to disband. Other sources say that with the arrival of several
United States Land Office
The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...
s across the West, the claim clubs simply were not needed.
[Sorenson, A. (1874]
"Chapters XIV - XVII: Early history of Omaha"
, ''Early History Of Omaha; or Walks And Talks Among The Old Settlers: A Series of Sketches in the Shape of a Connected Narrative of the Events and Incidents of Early Times in Omaha together with a Brief Mention of the Most Important Events of Later Years''. Omaha Bee Publisher. p. 110. Retrieved 7/14/07.[Larsen, L. and Cottrell, B. (1997) ''The Gate City: A History of Omaha.'' ]University of Nebraska Press
The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Univer ...
. p. 43.
The Omaha Claim Club, along with many claim clubs around Nebraska, disbanded by 1860.
See also
*
Preemption Act
The Preemption Act of 1841, also known as the Distributive Preemption Act ( 27 Cong., Ch. 16; ), was a US federal law approved on September 4, 1841. It was designed to "appropriate the proceeds of the sales of public lands... and to grant 'pre-empt ...
of September 4, 1841
*
Bald Knobbers
The Bald Knobbers were a group of vigilantes in the Ozark region of southwest Missouri from 1885 to 1889. They are commonly depicted wearing black horned hoods with white outlines of faces painted on them, a distinction that evolved during the r ...
*
Stockgrowers association
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claim Club
DIY culture
Real property law in the United States
Geography terminology
History of the Midwestern United States
Squatting in the United States