The Timber Cases
| Decision Date | 01 January 1881 |
| Citation | 11 F. 81 |
| Parties | THE TIMBER CASES. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri |
KREKEL D.J., (charging jury.)
The laws of the United States invite settlement on public lands for the purpose of acquiring homesteads. While doing so they seek to protect the timber, often constituting a valuable part of the land, so that the pre-emptor may obtain the full benefit intended. The law will not allow injury to the value of the land under either the pre-emption or homestead law. In the case before you the defendant first pre-empted the land and before the expiration of the year during which he ought to have proven up his claim he homesteaded his pre-emption thus obtaining an extension of time within which to acquire his homestead at a greatly reduced rate of cost. Whether such a proceeding was contemplated by the law it is unnecessary to determine, but I am inclined to think that it is at least within the spirit of the act. Both the pre-emption as well as the homestead must, however, have been taken in good faith that is, for the purpose of residence, settlement, and improvement. Residence on the land alone, without intention of acquiring the land as a homestead, will not answer the purpose. From the testimony in the case you will have to determine whether the entry on the land claimed by pre-emption or homestead was for permanent residence and for cultivation, or for the purpose of cutting and selling of timber. A pre-emption or homestead claimant may cut timber needed for the improvements he is or contemplates making.
The timber standing on the land intended for cultivation the claimant may cut, and after applying such portion as can be used, and is needed for the improvement for that purpose, he may sell or dispose of the balance to the best advantage. The law is not so unreasonable as to require timber which has to be removed for the purpose of cultivation to be burned or otherwise wasted, but will allow the pre-emptor to have the benefit of it to aid him in accomplishing the design of the law. A settler on the public lands cannot, however, go outside of the improvements, cut and sell timber, even though he intends to acquire the title under his claim, for he might at any time change his intention after the timber is taken and thus defeat the object of the law. The length of time the defendant has been on the land pre-empted or homesteaded, the character of the buildings erected by him, the...
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Roy F. Stamm Elec. Co. v. Hamilton-Brown Shoe Co.
... ... but certified the case to this court because its decision ... directly conflicted with two earlier cases of the Kansas ... City Court of Appeals namely, The Bolen Coal Co. v ... Ryan, 48 Mo.App. 512, and Missouri Central Lumber ... Co. v. Sedalia ... ...
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... ... 3, 1878. 'Without positive license by statute, or other ... competent authority, no person or corporation can lawfully ... cut or use the timber cut upon the public lands, be they ... mineral lands or otherwise. ' U.S. v. Eureka & P.R ... Co., 40 F. 422; Schulenberg v. Harriman, 21 ... Lumber Co., 21 Minn ... 491; U.S. v. Ball, 31 F. 667; U.S. v. Lane, ... 19 F. 910; U.S. v. Williams, 18 F. 475; Timber ... Cases, 11 F. 81; Bly v. U.S., 4 Dill. 464 ... The ... defendants in error, having admitted that they cut the wood ... in controversy upon ... ...
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United States v. Douglas-Willan Sartoris Co.
... ... indisputably and confessedly the law. Besides, it seems that ... the language used shows that the act was intended to apply to ... cases such as we have at bar. What is forbidden? The ... inclosure-- i. e. , the environment, the ... surrounding--of the public land, to any of which ... character as public lands. Barkley v. U.S. (Wash. T.) 3 ... Wash. Terr. 522, 19 P. 36 ... PUBLIC ... LANDS--CUTTING TIMBER ON ... One who ... enters upon public land in good faith for the purpose of ... securing title by pre-emption, or of claiming a ... ...
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...over the timber, but he is not allowed to sever the timber from the land for the purpose of sale and traffic. As held in the Timber Cases, 11 F. 81, 'a settler on the public lands has no authority to go outside of the improvements, cut or sell timber, and thus denude the land, and destroy t......