August 27, 1929 – Proposal 620 from Conservation Department (MacDonald/Hopkins) to JSA re: claim for Lot#1 Ford & Robinson Tract)
Dear Apperson:
This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of August 22 with regard to your Claim #19003, filed July 29, 1929, for compensation for lands appropriated from you in Lot #1, Ford and Robinson Patent.
In an attempt to be helpful to you and to expedite as much as possible payment to you for the lands taken, this morning I interviewed Judge James Gibson, Second Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Court of Claims Bureau, who informs me that if you will appear at the next meeting of the Court of Claims, to be held at 10 A.M. on September 23 in the Court of Claims, Room #250, on the second floor of the Capitol that you can swear to your claim in person and that an attorney will not be necessary.
As has been stated to you many times, this Department will not oppose your claim so that further proof of value will not be necessary. Judge Gibson has assured me that he will take care of this phase of the situation.
In the absence of Mr. Charles E. Congden, Deputy Attorney General in charge of the Land and Title Bureau, the matter of the approval of your title was discussed with Mr. E. F. O’Connor, who has promised to take it up with Mr. Congden upon his return from his vacation some time shortly after labor Day, with a view of trying to work out some method of meeting their former objections to title now that your claim has been filed and the statutory time for the filing of other claims has expired. You, of course, appreciate that the approval of title is a matter over which this Department has absolutely no control.
May I call you attention again to the fact that the description of the Merrill property sent you on [?] 12, 1924, was complied description made up from an examination of the records and not from any survey of the property, [?] be apparent reading from it, from the indefiniteness of the statement “supposed to contain at least 15 acres,” etc., but as I remember very distinctly explaining to you at the time, was definite enough to certainly include within it the area the occupied by the refreshment booth and the area where other improvements might be located.
May I suggest that a conference between you and Mr. Congden of the Title Bureau shortly after his return from his vacation might be very helpful?
Very truly yours,
ALEXANDER MACDONALD, Commissioner
By (signed) A. S. Hopkins
Asst. Superintendent, Lands and Forests