a law, by ministerial officers respecting the boundaries of a land grant, has ever before produced so much suffering to the settlers on the public domain; threatening the irreparable ruin of so many families and the desolation of so many homes.”
Upon the presentation of this report and memorial by Jackson Orr to Congress, he introduced a bill in the House and secured its passage providing for the appointment of Commissioners—
“To ascertain the value, exclusive of improvements of all such lands lying north of the Raccoon Fork of the Des Moines River, in the State of Iowa, as may now be held by the Des Moines Navigation Company or persons claiming title under it adversely to persons holding said lands either by entry or under the preëmption or homestead laws of the United States and on what terms the holders thereof will relinquish the same to the United States.”
The Commissioners appointed were O. P. Chubb of Minnesota, Charles Aldrich of Iowa, and James Robinson of Ohio. Their report was made on the 20th of November, 1873, to the Secretary of the Interior, showing the number of acres to be 39,549, the average value was reported to be $10.22 per acre, making a total value of $404,228; and $14.25 as the average price per acre asked by the River Company and its grantees, making the total amount required to purchase it $563,416.
These lands were only such as were then claimed by the Navigation Company and its grantees and did not embrace those where the settlers had become discouraged in seeking justice from the Government and had purchased the title a second time rather than be driven from their homes. This accounts for the difference in the amount reported by the State and National Commissioners.
Upon the receipt by Congress of the report of the National Commissioners, Captain Orr promptly introduced a bill to indemnify the settlers whose titles had failed and appropriating $404,288 for that purpose. Willis Drummond, an Iowa man, was at that time Commissioner
