Sprague Railroad Section (All of Section 29)

This property has a few distinctions. First it is the only section in the township that was sold intact as a complete section. But this happened at a cost, the property was foreclosed upon at least twice and eventually broken up into more manageable pieces. Otis Sprague was the first person to own the land, buying it from the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1886. Later the land was in the hands of the Northwestern and Pacific Hypotheekbank of the Netherlands implying that the land was foreclosed upon, and the NE quarter was sold to John Mahrt on May 2, 1888. This is just before John bought the west half of the SE quarter of section 20 from his brother Fred (these two quarters lie on opposite sides of a road (then the Mahrt Road, now the Rice Road). The records say that the county sold the entire section in 1897 and 1898 again to the Northwestern and Pacific Hypotheekbank of the Netherlands [probably less the NE ¼ that John already owned]. [Some land transactions are missing.]

John Mahrt bought the NW ¼ on December 18, 1900.

The SW ¼ was sold to James Heard in 1900. This quarter along with the adjoining quarter NW ¼ of 32 were sold to Richard Gerken in 1902. Richard Gerken sold this to Amila Gerken in 1904.

Albert C. Plaster bought the SE ¼ on Febuary 9, 1901. This is the land where the Plaster home, farm buildings and barn are today. (Only a grain elevator and school house remain across the road on the homesteaded quarter. A strip along the southern edge of the quarter was sold to Richard Gerken in 1905 for a road to his buildings.

The Plaster buildings were the only buildings that were ever in this section of land.