| Show IMPORTANT LAND DECISIONS Accretion Tracts at Chicago Belong to the State Washington Sept 3rhe Acting Secretary of the Interior has rendered thr e Important decisions regarding the ownership of Immensely valuable accretion ac-cretion lands lying north of the Chicago Chica-go river In the city of Chicago Th gist of the decisions Is that the land does not belong to the United States Government but probably does belong to the State of Illinois The first case Is that of George W Streeter and P T Johnson who applied to make homestead home-stead entry of about 150 acres of land lying on both sides of the Chicago river at Its mouth In Lake Michigan It III I a portion of land filled In 1 > > dumpIng between the meander line establlshei by the Government survey In 1821 and the present water line Johnson claims to have lived there In a house built on piles for sixteen years and Streeter claims to have been wrecked there In ISfcG and to have lived there for two years Technical I this land Is part of sections 3 and 10 of township 39 and these sections the Secretary says wore selected by the State of Illinois in 1827 for canal purposes pur-poses under authority of an act of Con gross The Secretary says the Stat of Illinois Illi-nois owns the lands under the navigable naviga-ble waters of Lake Michigan within Its limits and that the filling In by any > erson or corporations not the owner of shore lands gives them no riparian rights In any case he says the United tales Government has no title and therefore could convey none to any claimant The second case Is that of Jacob Nine and others against N K Fairbanks and others The former tried to locate nllltary bounty land warrants on 120 ores of accretion land north of the Chlc ° go river between the orl Inal rur vey meander line and the present watr line The Secretary decIdes that the United States has no title to the land The third cape Is that of Peter T Johnson who joined with Streeter In the first mentioned application to locate cate Valent hiP scrip on fifty ores of accretion lands south of the Chicago river It Is rejected like the others for vant of title by the United States Oov eminent |
