memorial, as it made matters no worse for them. Miller is respected much at home; he owns a lot, I think; he is interested to have the matter quieted. In May Mr. Rice told the settlers that he would do all he could to have their lands brought in at $1 25 per acre, and they should have ample time and notice when he would be down to give them duplicates of the land. A few had money to pay $1 25 per acre, but it was harder for them to pay the extra twenty-five cents than the price they expected to pay. The settlers felt certain that they would have to pay but $1 25 per acre, and, from Rice's representations, thought they would have at least six weeks' notice; they knew nothing of the extra twenty-five cents until the day of sale. A few paid before the day of sale. Mr. Brisbois told Hall that Rice's instructions were that the settlers should pay twenty-five cents per acre extra for expenses. Town plats can be bought for fifty cents at Dubuque. Settlers expect at least six weeks; the notice was but three or four days.

WILLIAM S. WITHROW.

Buel E. Hutchinson, being duly sworn, says:

I have resided at Prairie du Chien for nearly ten years; I am acquainted with all the settlers upon the portion of the reserve on the Wisconsin river, and with a number on the Iowa side; understood a survey was made by H. H. Hall, or an examination to ascertain the residence of the various settlers; I was at the first sale, in May; when any tract was offered for sale, if a settler indicated his claim, it was withdrawn; Mr. Rice stated that these would be sold to settlers at some future time, of which notice should be given; this seemed to be generally understood; I did not hear any one authorized state at what price these lands would be sold, but it was understood that it would be for $125 per acre; for the second sale public notice, for a few days, was given; the settlers were all there; the salesroom was open to all, and others besides settlers were present; saw there the map made by Brunson or Hall, like a land office map, with subdivisions indicated; did not see any hanging up; settlers paid $1 50 per acre-this was publicly known; the extra twenty-five cents per acre was said to be to cover incidental expenses; heard some complain that they were taken by surprise, and were not prepared to pay it; the land was worth all they paid for it; knows nothing of any charge being made beyond that sum; there was not much conflict; I saw nothing exceptionable in the manner of conducting the sale; disputed cases were to be postponed, Mr. Rice declaring he could not decide between adverse claimants, and he said these must be referred to the Secretary of War; Hall and Styles received the money and receipted for it, and Mr. Rice signed the certificates of purchase; could not say that Hall's receipt stated the whole amount paid, but understood that they were all for $125 per acre; I offered the application of Mr. Wadsworth to Mr. Rice, and he directed me to send it to the Secretary of War; I sent such an application, with affidavits of settlers as to fact of residence, for Samuel G. Ralph to the Secretary of War, accompanied by a letter of inquiry as to right of pre-emption; this I mailed a day or two after the sale, but never received any answer to this application;

Hall showed a map at the sale; I never saw any of the petitions spoken of. I heard of the sale three or four days before it occurred; I heard no dissent to the course of Mr. Rice, except in cases of adverse claims; both parties to these could not be expected to be satisfied, and it was also understood that these were left for the action of the War Department, as at the time stated by Mr. Rice.

HINS

BUEL E. HUTCHINSON.

H. S. Granger, being duly sworn, stated that he has resided at McGregor, Iowa, for a year; knows most of the settlers; don't know that a survey of the land was made; it might have been done without his knowledge; can't say what notice was given of the sale; think the attendance was pretty general; complaints were made for want of time, especially to receive the extra twenty-five cents per acre. The settlers say they were required to pay one dollar and fifty cents per acre. In May, the settlers were generally content, though some complained. At the time of sale, there was a general complaint; knew nothing of the petitions which have been referred to, except from hearsay.

B. F. Spalding, being duly sworn, states:

H. S. GRANGER.

June 5, 1858.

That he is a citizen of Giard, Clayton county, Iowa; knows most of the settlers on the Fort Crawford reserve; was present at the second sale, and at part of the first; knows nothing personally about any survey being made of the reserve; was deputy county assessor; had occasion to examine and inquire in relation to the lines; also had a purchase on the reserve, and wanted to find the lines, but was told by the settlers that there were no lines but the section lines, and that they could not tell anything about the lines of their lands; was in the room when the sale was going on; saw in the hands of several settlers maps, (a common township map, to be had at the land office for fifty cents,) upon which they had their claims marked out; paid the money for three of the settlers, which was $1 50 per acre; no explanation was made about the twenty-five cents overcharged; paid the money to H. H. Hall, as agent for H. M. Rice; saw one receipt signed by Brunson, the others by Hall; the certificates for duplicate had H. M. Rice's name on them; the receipts were for $1 25 per acre; complaints were made by citizens, as they had been informed by a letter from Hon T. Davis to Dr. Scott that the War Department had said that the settlers should have their claims at $1 25 per acre, and also talked of taking the agency from Mr. Rice, and placing it in the land office, and giving the settlers a chance to pay for it, and the price paid was considered an extortion. Notice of first sale was rather short; don't know that there was any notice of second sale given; witness filed affidavit of sixteen settlers in relation to a petition which complained about the extra twenty-five cents; also affidavits of A. Hillis and Guy Winsley and A. Dickinson, and a receipt by Brunson for $50 for forty acres of land, upon which there were memorandum of H. H. Hall. The letter from Davis to Dr. Scott was exhibited at

Prairie du Chien at the time of sale; called upon Hall with Mr. A. Hillis' receipt, and demanded his certificate for duplicate, and offered to pay one dollar, but was told by Hall I could not have it without I paid six dollars; Hall sat in the office; did all of the business; receipted for the money, and was considered Mr. Rice's agent. I presented one receipt for fifty dollars on forty acres of land, and had to pay ten dollars more, which was put on the same receipt; I asked no questions about the extra twenty-five cents; I do not know that more than $1 50 was paid by any purchaser; saw no plats, except in the hands of settlers, such as they bought at the land office for fifty cents each; Hall & Brunson were partners in business, as I have been informed; don't know if Hall held Hillis' certificate as collateral; Hillis paid the money before Mr. Rice arrived; don't know if Mr. Rice instructed Hall to retain the duplicate till the money claimed by Hall was paid.

STATE OP IOWA,

Clayton County.

B. F. SPAULDING.

Micajah Foster, being duly sworn, states that he is one of the settlers on what is known as the Fort Crawford military reserve, in the county and State aforesaid; that at the sale of said reserve, made by H. M. Rice, at Prairie du Chien, in the State of Wisconsin, on or about the 28th day of December, 1857, he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, included in and belonging to said reserve; that he paid to Henry H. Hall, agent of the said H. M. Rice, one dollar and a half per acre for said land, so purchased as aforesaid; that afterwards, to wit, on or about the 15th day of May, A. D. 1858, Frederick Miller and Theodore Warner came to affiant at his house on said reserve, with a petition from the settlers on said reserve and purchasers thereof to the Secretary of War, setting forth that they (the purchasers of the lands embraced in said reserve) had learned that an effort was being made to have the sale of said lands set aside and annulled, and praying that the title of said purchasers might be confirmed, as they were satisfied with their purchase and the proceedings of H. M. Rice in connexion with the sale of said reserve; that, at the time the said Frederick Miller presented said petition to affiant, he stated to affiant that the Secretary of War had, before the sale of said lands, ordered the said H. M. Rice to charge the purchasers thereof a quarter of a dollar more on each acre thereof thin the regular government price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and that the effort to set aside and annul the sale of said lands, made as aforesaid by H. M. Rice, was being made by speculators; that, being influenced by the representations and statements of the said Frederick Miller as aforesaid, affiant was induced to and did subscribe his name to said petition, believing at the time that the extra charge of twentyfive cents on each acre of land, sold as aforesaid by H. M. Rice, was authorized by the Secretary of War; and also fearing that, unless said petition was presented to the Secretary of War, the sale of said reserve would be set aside and annulled, and, in consequence thereof, affiant would be deprived of his home and improvements; that, not

withstanding affiant signed said petition at the instance of said Miller, he would not have done so had he not been put in fear by the statements of said Miller. And affiant further states that he is not satisfied with the proceedings of H. M. Rice in connexion with said sale, notwithstanding said petition, nor with the extra charge of twenty-five cents on each acre of land sold, as made by the said Hall, agent of said Rice. MICAJAH FOSTER.

Subscribed and sworn to, before me, this 26th day of May, A. D. RODNEY HURLBUT,

1858.

STATE OF IOWA, Clayton County.

Notary Public.

This is to certify that the statement and representations alleged in the foregoing affidavit to have been made by Frederick Miller to Micajah Foster were made in substance to each of the undersigned settlers on the Fort Crawford reserve by the said Frederick Miller, on or about the 15th day of May, 1858, for the purpose of inducing us to subscribe our names to the petition referred to, and the substance of which is set forth in the foregoing affidavit of Micajah Foster, and that the same statements were made in the presence of Theodore Warner, who came to us with the said Frederick Miller; and we further state that, in consequence of the statements of the said Frederick Miller, so made to us, that we were induced to subscribe our names to said petition; and that, had it not been for the statements of the said Frederick Miller, so made to us, we would not have subscribed our names to said petition; and that we subscribed said petition, thinking that, if we reused to do so, we would lose the lands which we had severally purchased of the said H. M. Rice, together with the improvements thereon. M. M. JENNINGS.

his

JOHN × KNAPP.
mark.

Subscribed by M. M. Jennings and John Knapp this 28th day of May, 1858, and sworn to.

RODNEY HURLBUT,
Notary Public.

This is to certify that the statements and representations, alleged in the first and foregoing affidavits to have been made by Frederick Miller to Micajah Foster, were made in substance to each of the undersigned, settlers on the Fort Crawford reserve, by the said Frederick Miller, on or about the 15th day of May, 1858, for the purpose of inducing us to subscribe our names to the petition referred to, and the substance of which is set forth in the foregoing affidavit of Micajah Foster; and we further state that, in consequence of the statements of the said Frederick Miller, so made to us, we were induced to subscribe our names to said petition; and that, had it not been for the statements

of the said Frederick Miller, so made to us, we would not have subscribed our names to said petition; and that we subscribed said petition, thinking that, if we refused to do so, we would lose the lands which we had severally purchased of the said H. M. Rice, together with the improvements thereon.

Isaac Knapp,
John D. Lawson,
Simon Lawson,

John Lawson, jr.,

J. H. Wilson,

Daniel C. Withrow,

Samuel S. Phillips,

Guy Kinsley,
Abner Dickinson,
P. Sandganger,
Christian Vaupel,
Matty Kelly,
Joseph Hillard.

Subscribed and sworn to, by the above, the 29th day of May, A. D.

1858.

Guy Kinsley and Almer Dickinson, being duly sworn, say that they are residents of Fort Crawford reserve, and were at the time Henry H. Hall came on to said reserve for the purpose of obtaining the names of the actual settlers on said reserve, the amount of their claims, and the numbers of the same, and that the said Henry H. Hall brought a surveyor's compass but no chain; and that he did not survey any land on said reserve at that time; neither has he since; and that there has been no surveying done on said reserve, except, what has been done in some instances by settlers; and that the said Henry H. Hall did not use his compass only in one or two instances on said reserve.

GUY KINSLEY,
ALMER DICKINSON.

[L. S.] Subscribed and sworn to, by the above, the twenty-ninth day May, A. D. 1858.

B. F. SPAULDING, Notary Public of Clayton County, Iowa.

Alexander Hillis, a resident of the State and county aforesaid, deposes and says, that on the twenty sixth day of December, A. D, 1857, he did pay to Ira B. Brunson the sum of fifty dollars for the purpose of paying for forty acres of land which he claimed on the Fort Crawford reserve, and was told by Henry H. Hall and the above named Brunson that that was the amount he would have to pay for said land, but that the said Henry H. Hall could not give him a certificate for a duplicate until Mr. H. M. Rice came to Prairie du Chien. And affiant further says that on the 1st day of January, A. D. 1858, he did go to Prairie du Chien for his certificate, when he was told by H. H. Hall that he would have to pay fifteen dollars more, or he could