About eleven o'clock at night the team would start for
the intended settlement, reaching there about one or two o'clock in
the morning. Between that hour and daylight the house would be erected
and finished. Sometimes the house would be put together with nails,
but when too near the residence of the landholder in possession,
screws would be used to prevent the sound of the hammer attracting
attention. Very few of this class of settlers remained upon their
claims above a few days, but soon returned to their ordinary
occupations in the towns.
Generally after they would leave the landholders would remove the
shanties from the ground. In some cases they would pull them down with
force immediately upon discovering them, and in the presence of the
settlers.
A few of them got settlements near enough to their places of
employment to enable them to work in town, or at the navy-yard, and
to sleep in their shanties; some regularly, others only occasionally.
These generally remained longer than the others, but none of this
class remained up to the time of trial.
None of the settlers, who went on since the grant was rejected,
have attempted regular improvements or cultivation. A few have
harvested the grain planted by the landholders, as it grew on their 1/4
[quarter-section]; they would harvest it, and offer this as evidence
of good faith and cultivation.
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