Claim club facts for kids
Claim clubs, also known as actual settlers' associations or squatters' clubs, were groups that formed in the Western United States during the 1800s. These groups acted like small, local governments in areas where there weren't many official laws or police to handle arguments about land. Some claim clubs worked to protect people who settled on land without official permission (called squatters), while others defended those who already owned land. Later, experts who study society thought that claim clubs were an early example of how democratic ideas from the East Coast of the United States (like town meetings) adapted to the frontier.
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Why Were Claim Clubs Formed?
Claim clubs were mainly created to help make land available to settlers when the government wasn't doing enough. Their main goal was to protect the first people who arrived on unclaimed lands. This included protecting their right to buy and sell land for profit and to farm it. From the 1830s to the 1890s, new lands were always opening up, and settlers kept moving west.
Each claim club made its own rules for how it would operate and enforce decisions. However, these actions were often taken by groups of people acting on their own, outside of official laws. Some people at the time even said that claim clubs were respected as much as the Supreme Court of the United States.
People who bought and sold land for profit on the East Coast of the United States often came to the newly opened Western United States. They would pick the best spots, planning to offer more money than the settlers when the land was officially sold. Also, "claim jumpers" were a problem. These were people who tried to take land that someone else had already claimed. This often happened if the first claimant wasn't present at a land sale. Sometimes, if people claimed land but didn't live on it or build anything like a shelter or fences, claim jumpers would move in.
This is where claim clubs would step in. Land that was owned by someone who wasn't living there might be used or even taken over by the claim club. Members might vote to build expensive things for the land, like roads or schoolhouses. They would then make the absentee owners pay a lot for these improvements. This was a common way for some claim clubs to force absentee owners to sell their land to people who actually lived there, or at least to local land buyers.
Claim clubs didn't always protect only the honest settler. While they sometimes helped simple homesteaders, they were also used by land buyers. Claim clubs not only protected a squatter's right to land they lived on and farmed, but they also helped the same squatter protect extra pieces of land they weren't living on from new arrivals.
The idea of claim clubs is said to have "reached perfection" in Iowa. There, more than a hundred such groups carefully managed land deals until the United States government finally stepped in.
Examples of Claim Clubs
One of the first claim clubs in the United States was started by settlers near Burlington, Iowa. They formed claims even before the Sac and Fox people officially gave up the land in 1832. These clubs were actually against federal law. Such clubs appeared "as easily as sunflowers" in many states, including Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and Washington.
Claim Clubs in Colorado
In Colorado City, Colorado, the El Paso Claim Club was formed in 1859. This club reportedly "settled land disagreements and recorded land sales until the federal government opened an official land office in 1862."
The Cañon City Claim Club first mapped out the town of Cañon City in 1860. This club had six members, all of whom were involved in mining coal, iron, gypsum, marble, and granite in the area. Denver also had a claim club.
Claim Clubs in Nebraska
The Omaha Claim Club was started in 1854, the same year the city was founded. It began by protecting the interests of 20 men but grew to include almost 200 settlers. The group used strong methods to enforce their "frontier justice." The club even influenced the Nebraska Territorial Legislature. They managed to get a territorial law passed that allowed settlers to claim 320 acres (1.3 km2), which was double the 160 acres (0.6 km2) limit set by the federal government. The club controlled Omaha until the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against their actions in a famous case called Baker v. Morton.
In 1854, the Bellevue Claim Club was organized in Nebraska. Its first goal was to "peacefully sort out all cases where land claims in this un-surveyed area overlapped." The club was known for visiting "claim jumpers" and using force to convince them to leave their claims. Its last known action, around 1858, was an attempt to punish an old man and his three sons who were reportedly squatting in the area. The Platte Valley Claim Club was set up in Fremont in August 1856 to settle land disputes, but it closed down by late 1857.
Fort Saint Vrain, in the Nebraska Territory, also had a claim club in the late 1850s. It was meant to help the town survive, but it didn't succeed.
Claim Clubs in Kansas
One story about claim club "justice" comes from Montgomery County, Kansas, in 1867. An early settler had farmed and improved his land, following the rules of the Homestead Act. However, he hadn't 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 try and take the land back from the man he sold it to. When the local claim club told the town sheriff to "deal with the man," the original settler was never seen again.
Claim Clubs in Iowa
Claim clubs also helped members secure land they thought would become important to the federal government. Their goal was to sell it back to the government later. Members of one Iowa claim club bought 15,000 acres (61 km2) in central Iowa. This land was eventually sold to help develop both the state capitol in Des Moines and Iowa City, where the state university is located today.
Iowa had several other claim clubs. Active clubs were found in Fort Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Iowa City. In Iowa City, the club's goal was to "...protect all persons who hold claims, against anyone who tries to take their claims and improvements, by claiming it first or otherwise."
Other Claim Clubs
From 1832 to 1843, Dupage County, Illinois had many claim clubs until federal land surveyors arrived. In 1835, settlers in Elkhorn Creek, Wisconsin formed a claim club. Other settlers did the same, including in the town of Yankton, South Dakota. There is also a report of a claim club in Alabama in the 1850s.
Why Claim Clubs Disappeared
In the late 1850s, claim clubs faced pressure from the federal government and lost support from many communities. In an 1858 decision, the United States Department of the Interior directly addressed claim clubs. They stated that a member of a claim club, formed to illegally take and sell public lands, would need to show very strong proof of honest intentions when claiming land for themselves.
The strong actions of the Omaha Claim Club might have led to the end of claim clubs across the country. In 1860, in the case of Baker v. Morton, the Supreme Court ordered Omaha's club to break up. Other reasons for their decline include the opening of several United States Land Offices across the West, which meant claim clubs were simply not needed as much anymore.
The Omaha Claim Club, along with many other claim clubs around Nebraska, disbanded by 1860.
