Decline
In the latter part of the 1850s claim clubs came under pressure from the federal government, and lost public support in many communities. In an 1858 ruling, the United States Department of the Interior addressed claim clubs directly, stating that, "A member of a claim club, organized for the purpose of illegally appropriating and selling public lands, will be held to the strictest proof of honest intent, when asserting an individual claim."
The violent actions of the Omaha Claim Club may have brought about the demise of claim clubs across the country. In 1860, in in Baker v. Morton, the Supreme Court ordered that city's club to disband. Other sources say that with the arrival of several United States Land Offices across the West, the claim clubs simply were not needed.
The Omaha Claim Club, along with many claim clubs around Nebraska, disbanded by 1860.
Read more about this topic: Claim Club
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