TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 117 



tary, Ella L. Moiles. My commission expires April 20, 1910. — Liber 

 34, page 180." 



The lands in question were 700 acres Located in Town 22, N E 2-W, 

 Roscommon county. 



In Mecosta county our examinations have brought to light a repre- 

 hensible condition. These lands had been owned by various lumbering 

 companies, who removed the pine, and the last two or three years of 

 their occupancy failed to pay the taxes. The present owners obtained 

 quit claim deeds from these lumbering companies, and as they are none 

 of them lawyers, and did not understand the land and tax laws of the 

 State of Michigan, deemed this title suflQcient without having taken into 

 consideration the fact that two or three years of taxes were listed 

 against the various properties. 



These people have paid the taxes for the past fifteen or "twenty years, 

 having, in the meantime, put forth their best efforts toward improving 

 their several holdings. This spring an appraiser from the Land Ofiflce 

 was sent to that part of the country, and this was the only notice they 

 received that their homes were to be sold at public auction for taxes, 

 which the original lumber dealers had refused or failed to pay. As a 

 result, many of them were obliged to mortgage their homes in order to 

 buy their land at the auction and so prevent their falling into the 

 hands of speculators. This has been the cause of great hardships to 

 many of the settlers and, as a consequence, many of these people have 

 been obliged to seek work elsewhere, so as to get the money necessary 

 to take up these mortgages. In some of the cases this will be almost an 

 impossibility, and as a result they may eventually lose their homes 

 because of these mortgages. 



As evidence of these conditions, we name you the following owners, 

 together with their holdings, and period of occupancy: 



Samuel Holsworth has occupied the E % of the S W % of 28-15-8 for 

 fifteen years, under title from the Joseph Collins Lumber Co. W. T. 

 Brink has occupied and paid taxes on the E % of the S E l^ of 17-15-8 

 for the past twenty years. Wm. Thorn owns the W % of the W % of 

 the S E % of 17-15-8. His home was destroyed by fire last fall and 

 he now has the additional burden of paying a mortgage made neces- 

 sary because of the State's demand for $80 on this homestead. S. J. 

 Thorn has the E y2 of the W 1/2 of the S E i^ of 17-15-8, which he has 

 occupied' for twenty years. He has a large family and must now work 

 to pay off the mortg^age which he placed on his home in order to buy 

 it from the State at the recent sale. Eugene Hathaway lives on the 

 S l^ of the S W 1/4 of 17-15-8 and has paid taxes on same for seven- 

 teen years. Geo. Gilmore owns the E % of the S W 14 of section 20- 

 17-8. W. F. Jentzen lives on the S % of the N W i^ of 17-15-8 and has 

 paid taxes for the past twenty years. 



These are merely a few of the people who have in a sense been rob- 

 bed of their homes in order to satisfy the State's claim against the 

 lumbermen who stripped this section of its original pine.. 



