Claim Club

Claim Club

Claim clubs, also called Actual Settlers' Associations or Squatters' Clubs, were a nineteenth century phenomenon in the American West. Usually operating within a confined local jurisdiction, these pseudo-governmental entities sought to regulate land sales in places where there was little or no legal apparatus to deal with land-related quarrels of any size. Some claim clubs sought to protect squatters, while others defended early land owners. In the twentieth century sociologists suggested that claim clubs were a pioneer adaptation of democratic bodies on the East Coast, including town halls.

Read more about Claim Club:  Purpose, Examples, Decline

Famous quotes containing the words claim and/or club:

    Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
    Bible: New Testament, 2 Corinthians 3:4-6.

    Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.
    Groucho Marx (1895–1977)