I located the information below which shows that Margaret Wilder had a homestead in 1906-7 (though not sure when the grant was initially issued), that was on the site of Fort Abraham Lincoln just south of Mandan, ND.  Fort Lincoln was the station of Custer’s 7th Cavalry in 1876.  Custer was the first post commander in 1873 until his death in 1876 at Little Big Horn.  Half of the 7th Cavalry command under Custer, massacred at Little Big Horn, did not return to their barracks at Fort Lincoln.

You will find Margaret’s name at the end of the letter located at the end of Congressional proceedings below.  She and about 25 other homesteaders sued the government for some resolution to the problem explained below.  Soon afterward President Teddy Roosevelt donated the recovered  lands to North Dakota and formed Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park.

Congressional serial set, Issue 5065

59th Congress, 2nd Session, December 3, 1906 – March 4, 1907

House Reports, Public, in Four Volumes – Volume 2,

By United States. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1907

pp. 161-164

2d Session. j | No. 8105.

RELIEF OF CERTAIN HOMESTEAD SETTLERS WITHIN LIMITS OF ABANDONED FORT RICE AND FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN MILITARY RESERVATIONS.

February 26, 1907.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. Gronna, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 7994.]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (S. 7994) authorizing the State of .North Dakota to select other lands in lieu of lands erroneously entered in sections 16 and 36, within the limits of the abandoned Fort Rice and Fort Abraham Lincoln military reservations in said State, having had the same under consideration recommend that the bill do pass.

The purpose of the bill is to give relief to certain homestead settlers who, through an error of the local land officers, were allowed to enter upon school lands belonging to the State of North Dakota, the manner of effecting relief being by authorizing said State to select other lands in lieu of the lands embraced in such homestead entries erroneously allowed, the selection to operate as a waiver by the State of its right to the lands in question. My information is that some 25 or 30 settlers who will be affected by the provisions of the bill have lived upon and cultivated their lands for several years and have made valuable improvements thereon, and it would not be justice to deprive them of their rights, having been allowed to make the entries by the said land office officials.

The proposed legislation meets with the approval of the Department, as will appear from the letters of the Commissioner or the General Land Office and the Secretary of the Interior, addressed to the Senate Committee on Public Lands, and which are hereto attached and made a part of this report.

The committee also attaches a petition signed by 21 of the settlers who would be affected by this legislation. They ask for this relief, which, after careful consideration, the committee believes should be granted.

Department Of The Interior, Washington, February 1, 1907.

Sirs: This Department Is In receipt, by reference from your committee, of copy of S. 7994, being ” A bill authorizing the State of North Dakota to select other lands In lieu of lands erroneously entered in sections sixteen and thirtysix, within the limits of the abandoned Fort Rice and Fort Abraham Lincoln military reservations, in said State,” with request for an expression of the views of the Department thereon.

The copy of said bill was referred to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for his report thereon, a copy of which report Is transmitted herewith. The changes suggested by him with reference to striking certain words from line 4, page 1, and lines 7 and 8, page 2, of the bill, will permit the reinstatement of entries canceled prior to the passage of the bill because of conflict with the grant to the State, which entries should, upon proper application of the entrymen, receive the same consideration as entries of record at the date of the passage of the bill.

The other minor modifications noted In said report, together with those above referred to, are approved and the papers are herewith returned with the recommendation that, with these changes, the bill be passed. Very respectfully,

E. A. Hitchcock, Secretary.

The Senate Committee on Public Lards.

Department or The Interior,

General Land Office, Washington, D. C, January SO, 1907.

Bra: I am in receipt, by reference of the First Assistant Secretary, January 24, 1907, for early report In duplicate, with recommendation and return of papers, of Senate bill 7994, Fifty-ninth Congress, second session, the text of which reads as follows:

” That the State of North Dakota be, and is hereby, authorized to select. In lieu of lands embraced in existing homestead entries made and erroneously allowed prior to the passage of this act for lands In sections sixteen and thirty-six, within the limits of the abandoned Fort Rice and Fort Abraham Lincoln military reservations, In said State, other unappropriated nonmineral public lands of equal area situated within the limits of said State, in the manner provided In the act approved February twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one (Twenty-sixth Statutes at Large, page seven hundred and ninety-six), entitled ‘An act to amend sections twenty-two hundred and seventy-five and twentytwo hundred and seventy-six of the Revised Statutes of the United States, providing for the selection of lands for educational purposes in lieu of those appropriated for other purposes:’ Provided, That such selection of lands by said State shall be a waiver of Its rights to the lands now embraced In said homestead entries of record.”

It Is well settled by departmental decisions that under section 2275, Revised Statutes, as amended by act of February 28, 1891 (26 Stat. L., 796), when an Indian, military, or other reservation is made to embrace surveyed school sections to which the right of the State has become vested the State may select other lands In lien thereof, and that by such act of selection the State sufficiently waives and relinquishes its rights to the school sections (28 L. D., 57; 34 L. D., 699). And In considering certain selections made by the State of North Dakota In lieu of the school sections to which the bill under consideration applies you held In letter of February 20, 1906, addressed to this Office (unreported) that—

” With regard to the provisions of the State constitution, hereinbefore quoted. It is the opinion of this Department that the same furnishes no insurmountable objection to an adjustment under the provisions of section 2275 of the Revised Statutes as amended by act of February 28, 1891 (supra), protecting the interests both of the State and of the individual entrymen misled by your office If, In your opinion, the facts bring the case within the provisions of said act.”

It was, however, held by this Office that as the school sections in question were not lost to the State nor within the limits of any Indian, military, or other reservation, the facts were not such as to bring the case within the pro

visions of the said act of February 28, 1891. The purpose of the bill under consideration is to make the provisions of that act applicable to these lands, and If enacted it would, in the opinion of this Office have that effect If, therefore, it should be thought that In case the State should make the selections as authorized by the bill the United States would thus be reinvested with title to the school sections and enabled to convey a perfect title to the entrymen, this Office sees no objection to the passage of the bill.

There are on file in this Office affidavits showing that several of the homesteaders followed entry by the establishment of residence and the placing of Improvements of considerable value on their claims. In other cases no such showing has been made. The lands In school sections within the boundaries of said abandoned military reservations have been surveyed for many years and doubtless are of considerable value to the State. Should the bill become law, it is not thought the State will surrender any such lands unless satisfied the homesteaders thereon are entitled to relief.

A few of the entries involved have been canceled by this Office. The entrymen in these cases may have valuable improvements on their claims. It is suggested that the word “existing,” In line 4, page 1; “the word “now,” in line 7. page 2, and the words ” of record,” in line 8, page 2, of the bill be stricken therefrom. Consideration may then be given the claims of those homesteaders whose entries have been canceled, in case formal applications are made for the reinstatement of the entries.

The bill (lines 8 and 9, page 1), authorizes the selection of “unappropriated nonmineral public lands.” It should be amended so as to authorize the selection of unappropriated, surveyed, nonmineral public lands.

This report is made in duplicate, as requested, and the bill Is returned. Very respectfully,

W. A. Richards, Commissioner.

The SecretAry Op The Interior.

Hon. A. J. Gronna.

Dear Sir : We, the undersigned, do respectfully represent: That we are bona fide settlers upon Government land of the United States embraced within the abandoned Fort Rice and Fort Lincoln military reservations.

That we have resided thereon for several years and have cultivated and improved the same in good faith, and the Improvements thereon are valuable.

That our entries upon the lands hereinbefore mentioned were allowed by the local land office at Bismarck, N. Dak., and accepted without instruction or Information to us as to any subsequent action taken or that might be taken by the Department of the Interior limiting, restricting, or in anyway impairing any rights we might acquire by reason of bona fide settlement and cultivation and compliance with the homestead laws of the United States. That at the time we filed we were allowed to place our entries upon lands in sections 16 or 36, which sections, as we were Informed at that time, were not reserved for the benefit of the public schools of the State of North Dakota, and for that reason our entries were allowed.

That since making our entries the Department of the Interior has ruled and holds that the said lands are reserved for school purposes and prohibits the making of proof by us under the homestead laws of the United States. That the Department of the Interior has not notified and did not notify the undersigned in due time to prevent them from incurring additional expense and placing further valuable improvements upon the lands entered by them.

The undersigned have complied In good faith for several years with the homestead laws of the United States, and that the ruling of the Department of the Interior prohibiting the making of final proof on our claims will work an Irreparable Injury in that we have expended much labor and money In the improvement of the claims entered by us, and in that, should applications for second entry be granted, the public domain In the territory in which we have located is so much exhausted and good land so well taken up that we can not enter upon land suitable for the agricultural purposes for which we entered upon the lands embraced in the alleged school sections.

Wherefore we respectfully petition you and the honorable body of which you are a member that you grant us relief by the passage of an act restoring

H R—59-2—Vol 2 34

to us the right of making final proof for the lands entered by us; and that In case the public schools of the State of North Dakota are entitled to a further allotment of lands to cover the sections embraced In the reservations mentioned, the State of North Dakota be granted the right and authority to make selections In lieu of the lands entered by us. Dated January 14, 1907. Respectfully submitted.

John Haley (sec. 16-135-78), Livona, Emmons County, N. Dak.; John W. Markham (16-136-79) ; Robert L. Markham (16-13679) ; George Smith (16-136-79) ; Adam Lung (36-136-79) ; William Hammond (36-135-80) ; Stefan Frankel (16-136-80) ; Margaret Wilder Welch (16-136-80) ; Christian Smith (36-137-79); Joseph Graner (36-137-80) ; Alex Helmsworth (36-137-80) ; John Brelner (36-138-81) ; John F. Thlessen (36-138-81) ; Joseph B. Fredericks (36-138-81) ; John Haley (16-135-78) ; Arthur J. Knudtson (16-135-78) ; Otto Dorman (16-135-78) ; Andrew T. Surber (16-135-79) ; James E. Surber (16-135-79) ; Leona W. Mickel (16-135-79) ; Gilbert E. MIckel (16-135-79).

[This resulted in Public Act 1218 regarding North Dakota school land:. An act authorizing the State of North Dakota to select other lands in lieu of lands erroneously entered in sections sixteen and thirty-six, within the limits of the abandoned Fort Rice and Fort Abraham Lincoln military reservations, in said State. Pm March 2, 1907 - Later in March, Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, the oldest state park in North Dakota, was created when President Theodore Roosevelt donated 75 acres of land to the North Dakota State Historical Society.]