] Some
men surveyed and staked out their own claims; the others employed
professional surveyors, or else hired old hunters like Boone and Kenton,
whose knowledge of woodcraft and acquaintance with the most fertile
grounds enabled them not only to survey the land, but to choose the
portions best fit for settlement. The lack of proper government surveys,
and the looseness with which the records were kept in the land office,
put a premium on fraud and encouraged carelessness. People could make
and record entries in secret, and have the land surveyed in secret, if
they feared a dispute over a title; no one save the particular deputy
surveyor employed needed to know. [Footnote: Draper MSS. in Wisconsin
State Hist. Ass. Clark papers. Walter Darrell to Col. William Fleming,
St. Asaphs, April 14, 1783. These valuable Draper MSS, have been opened
to me by Mr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, the State Librarian; I take this
opportunity of thanking him for his generous courtesy, to which I am so
greatly indebted.] The litigation over these confused titles dragged on
with interminable tediousness. Titles were often several deep on one
"location," as it was called; and whoever purchased land too often
purchased also an expensive and uncertain lawsuit.
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