record of the names of the individual squatters, and of the extent and boundaries
of their

respective claims, which record was to be received as prima facie evidence
of ownership of any

specified claim.  To still further protect their individual and collective
interests, they

appointed a committee of arbitration, to which all the disputes as to land
title should be submitted;

its decision was to be final and without appeal. To enforce its decree, this
irregular court was

authorized to call upon the entire community. Thus a  jumper' was complained
of by the

squatter to the committee. He was waited upon and notified that he was an
intruder, and must

establish his claim before the committee or vacate. The register's records
were then examined

and evidence heard, and if, after investigation, the committee or court decided
adversely to the

i'jumper,! it was optional with him to submit with the best grace he could,
or to be summarily

and forcibly ejected, possibly with broken bones or a cracked skull, So perfect
was the

organization of the ''squatters," however, and so universal in obedience
to the behests of their

court, that violence was not necessary except in a very few instances. The
defeated  jumper" knew

he could expect no sympathy and but little mercy, and was therefore disposed
to take the least

possible amount of risk.

    When the lands east of Rock river were at length brought into the market
by the public

sale at Milwaukiee, in 1839, the squatters were menaced with the loss of
their lands by the

readiness of the nonresident speculators to buy them up at a much higher
price than the minimum

fixed by the government. But the former were a determined class of men, ready
to maintain

their rights, or what they deemed their rights, even though their defense
involved a technical

violation of the law and some degree of personal danger. In addition to this,
they had for years

protected themselves, and success had given them confidence in their organization.
When

informed of this new danger, therefore, they became boldly defiant, called
meetings in several

settlements, and selected one individual in each, who should attend the sale
as the representative

of the several committees and make a bid for each tract of land as it was
offered at its minimum

price in the name of the squatter who had claimed it. This done, they caused
the speculators to

be notified that they would not be permitted to run up the price of the lands
they had squatted

on, and that if they insisted upon bidding in spite of this notification
the bidder would bring a

fight upon his hands certainly, whether he secured the coveted piece of land
or not. Nor did

they content themselves with this precautionary notification. They attended
the sale in large