Benjamin Shambaugh - History of the Constitutions of Iowa

In March, 1833, the act of 1807 was revived with special reference to the Iowa country to which the Indian title was, in accordance with the Black-Hawk treaty of 1832, to be extinguished in June. It was made "lawful for the President of the United States to direct the Indian agents at Prairie du Chien and Rock Island, or either of them, when offenses against the said act shall be committed on lands recently acquired by treaty from the Sac and Fox Indians, to execute and perform all the duties required by the said act to be performed by the marshals in such mode as to give full effect to the said act, in and over the lands acquired as aforesaid." Thus it is plain that the early settlers of Iowa had no legal right to advance beyond the surveyed country, mark off claims, and occupy and cultivate lands which had not been surveyed and to which the United States had not issued a warrant, patent, or certificate of purchase.

But the pioneers on their way to the trans-Mississippi prairies did not pause to read the United States Statutes at Large. They outran the public surveyors. They ignored the act of 1807. And it is doubtful if they ever heard of the act of March 2, 1833. Some were bold enough to cross the Mississippi and put in crops even before the Indian title had expired; some squatted on unsurveyed lands; and others, late comers, settled on surveyed territory. The Government made some successful effort to keep them off Indian soil. But whenever and wherever the Indian title had been extinguished, there the hardy pioneers of Iowa pressed forward determining for themselves and in their own way the bounds and limits of the frontier.

Hundreds and thousands of claims were thus located! Hundreds and thousands of farms were thus formed! Hundreds and thousands of homesteads were thus established! Hundreds and thousands of improvements were thus begun! Hundreds and thousands of settlers from all parts of the Union thus "squatted" on the National commons! All without the least vestige of legal right or title! In 1836, when the surveys were first begun, over 10,000 of these squatters had settled in the Iowa country. It was not until 1838 that the first of the public land sales were held at Dubuque and Burlington.

These marginal or frontier settlers (squatters, as they were called) were beyond the pale of constitutional government. No statute of Congress protected them in their rights to the claims they had staked out and the improvements they had made. In law they were trespassers; in fact they were honest farmers.

Now, it was to meet the peculiar conditions of frontier life, and especially to secure themselves in what they were pleased to call their rights in making and holding claims, that the pioneers of Iowa established land clubs or claim associations. Nearly every community in early Iowa had its local club or association. It is impossible to give definite figures, but it is safe to say that over one hundred of these extra-legal organizations existed in Territorial Iowa. Some, like the Claim Club of Fort Dodge, were organized and flourished after the Commonwealth had been admitted into the Union.

In the "Recollections" and "Reminiscences" of pioneers many references are made to these early land clubs or claim associations, and Constitutions, By-laws, or Resolutions are sometimes reproduced therewith in whole or in part. But complete and adequate manuscript records of but two Iowa organizations have thus far come to light. The "Constitution and Records of the Claim Association of Johnson County," preserved by the Iowa State Historical Society, were published in full in 1894. The materials of this now famous manuscript, which are clear and complete, were arranged as follows: I. Constitution and Laws; II. Minutes of Meetings; III. Recorded Claims; IV. Recorded Quit Claim Deeds.

The Constitution of the Johnson County Association is perhaps the most elaborate Squatter Constitution in the annals of early Iowa. It was adopted March 9th, 1839, and consists of three articles, twenty-three sections, and over twenty-five hundred words.

Article I. fixes the name of the Association, and declares that "the officers of this association shall be one President, one Vice President, One Clerk or Recorder of claims, deeds or transfers of Claims, seven Judges or adjusters of claims or boundary.. and two Marshalls." All of the officers were elected annually.

Article II. relates to "sallerys." It provides that "the Clerk or Recorder shall receive Twenty-five cents for recording each and everry claim, and fifty cents for everry deed or conveyance.. and Twelve & a half cents for the privalege of examining his Books." The Judges and Marshals were allowed one dollar and fifty cents each for every day spent in the discharge of the duties of their respective offices.

Article III. contains ten sections bearing upon a variety of subjects. Section 1 indicates in detail how claims are to be made and recorded and the boundaries thereof designated. No person was allowed to hold more than four hundred and eighty acres. Section 2 provides that "any white male person over the age of eighteen can become a member of this association by signing the laws rules and regulations governing the association," that "actual citizens of the County over the age of seventeen who are acting for themselves and dependent on their own exertions, and labour, for a lively hood, and whose parents doe not reside within the limits of the Territory can become members of this association and entitled to all the privalages of members," but that "no member of the association shall have the privalege of voting on a question to change any article of the constitution or laws of the association unless he is a resident citizen of the county and a claimholder, nor shall any member be entitled to vote for officers of this association unless they are claim holders."

The same section provides that "any law or article of the constitution of this association may be altered at the semianual meetings and at no other meetings provided, however, that three fifths of the members presant who are resident citizens of the county and actual claim holders shall be in favour of such change or amendment, except that section fixing the quantity of land that everry member is entitled to hold by claim and that section shall remain unaltered ."

By the same article semi-annual meetings of the Association are provided for in section 3. Section 5 declares that "all persons who have resided within the limits of the County for Two months, shall be recognized and considered as citizens of the County." Another section stipulates that "members of the association who are not citizens of the County shall be required in making claims to expend in improvements on each claim he or they may have made or may make the amount of fifty Dollars within six months of the date of making such claim or claims and fifty Dollars every six months there after until such person or persons becomes citizens of the county or forfeit the same." The 10th section relates to the procedure of the Claim Court. Finally, in section 11 the members pledge their "honours" for the "faithful observance and mantanance" of the Constitution by subscribing their names to the written document.

In addition to the Constitution, Resolutions were, from time to time, adopted with the force of laws. It is here that the real spirit and purpose of the pioneer squatters is best expressed. With characteristic frankness they resolved to "discountenance any attempts on the part of any and every person to intrude in any way upon the rightful claims of another," since "the presumption is that a person thus attempting to take away a portion of the hard earnings of the enterprising and industrious setler is dishonest & no Gentlemen."

That they insisted upon equity rather than upon refined technicalities in the administration of their law is seen in the following: "Resolved that to avoid difficulty growing out of the circumstance of persons extending their improvements accidentaly on the claims of others before the Lines were run thereby giving the first setlr an opportunity or advantage of Preemption over the rightful owner that any person who hold such advantages shall immediately relinquish all claim thereto to the proper owner and any one refusing so to do shall forfeit all claim to the right of protection of the association."