In 1866, a man named Marcus Neff acquired 322.89 acres in Multnomah County, Oregon from the United States Government. This land would soon be at the center of a supreme court opinion that is read (and hated) by virtually every law student in America: Pennoyer v. Neff.
To settle a lawsuit brought against Neff by John H. Mitchell, an influential Portland lawyer, an Oregon court took control of Neff’s property and sold it to Sylvester Pennoyer, another lawyer. When Neff, who was not an Oregonian, learned that his property had been sold by the state without notice to him, he sued Pennoyer to get his land back.
That’s as far as most legal casebooks get into the facts of the case before jumping into the maze-like supreme court opinion that laid the foundation for modern personal jurisdiction, but I, a hardened historical geek, wanted to go a step further.
Where was the land that Neff bought?
What’s on it now?
Are there any markers celebrating its significance in American legal history?
With the help of Reddit user amp1212, I dug in and found out a lot of useless but fascinating information that animates the case in a way the textbook never could.
The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850
In the early 1850s, the first real tendrils of American civilization were beginning to creep into the West. The Mormons were starving but settled in the Salt Lake Valley. The miners who had started pouring into California in the summer of ’49 were coming in even greater numbers than before. Those pioneers not interested in gold were making their way across the Midwest in hopes of staking out a claim on the lush agricultural land of the Willamette valley in Western Oregon.
In order to facilitate this Western movement, and incentivize organized settlement, congress passed the Donation Land Claim Act. This made vast swaths of Oregon land available at no cost to anyone willing to settle on it and work the land for four years. Unmarried men were eligible to receive parcels of 320 acres, with married couples receiving twice that amount: 320 in the name of the man, and 320 in the name of the woman.
Interestingly, this was one of the first laws in American history that allowed married women to own property in their own name. In a cruel twist, mixed-blood Native Americans were eligible to receive property, but not the full-blooded Indians who had owned the land in the first place.
Marcus Neff
Beyond the facts of Pennoyer, practically nothing is known about Marcus Neff. He was almost certainly illiterate, signing documents with his mark rather than his signature. He immigrated from Iowa to Oregon in 1848, one drop in a swelling wave of intrepid or desperate Americans who began to drift West once gold was found at Sutter’s Mill.
He applied for land under the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, apocryphally retrofitting his application to reflect false information so that he could beat the deadline. This claim was granted, but not before an extended waiting period (during which he retained the legal services of John Mitchell, presumably to expedite the process). Indeed, the government took so long to process the request that by the time the title was placed in Neff’s name, he had moved South to the California goldmines, without paying Mitchell for his services.
The Property
Here’s the exciting or interesting part. Neff received a 320 acre claim in Sections 29 and 30 of Township 1 North, Range 1 East—land that had previously been the territory of the Multnomah Tribe.
Here is the 1852 Cadastral Survey showing those plots, on high ground near the banks of the Willamette River. (Thank you to amp1212 for sourcing this).
Guess what that looks like today?
An enormous portion of downtown Portland, covering dozens of city blocks. It bears noting that his 322.89 acre claim was located in this area. It didn't necessarily fill the whole space indicated here. However, 320 acres is nothing to sneeze at. Today it would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Even in 1866, when the title was finally awarded to Neff, this would have been very valuable land. It commanded good views of the area, was immensely fertile, and had good access to water without being subject to the seasonal floods that plagued settlers in lower plots. Interestingly, it was also located in the neighborhood of Sylvester Pennoyer, the wealthy Harvard lawyer mentioned earlier who was a sometime-associate of Neff's ex-lawyer, John Mitchell.
Sylvester Pennoyer
Pennoyer was a big man in Oregon's early days. Born in New York, he immigrated to Oregon at roughly the same time as Neff, quickly establishing himself in the legal and business communities there. He was not an entirely savory character, advocating for slavery before the civil war, and supporting anti-chinese policies after it. None of this prevented him from later becoming Governor of Oregon, and mayor of Portland.
In the 1860s, Pennoyer was involved in land speculation, at the same time as Mitchell. It is impossible to prove that they were partners, but I am inclined to believe that something fishy was going on in their joint interactions with Marcus Neff.
John Mitchell
Mitchell is the biggest character of the story. He was a libidinous frontier lawyer who left a trail of underaged lovers, bigamous wives and shady business deals in his wake. Mitchell wasn't even his real name—he changed it from Hipple after fleeing his first wife. Like Pennoyer, his bad reputation did not prevent him from achieving political success. He was elected to the senate three times, despite an almost constant stream of scandals and misbehavior. I think his actions toward Neff bear out his bad reputation.
For starters, Mitchell waited until Neff had left Oregon to file suit against him for failing to pay legal fees, knowing that he would likely default. At the time he filed the suit, Mitchell also knew that Neff had recently come into this valuable property adjacent to that of Pennoyer.
When Neff failed to appear in Oregon court to face Mitchell's accusations, Neff's plot of land was sold at a sheriff's auction to pay for the damages awarded to Mitchell. Most textbooks read that it was sold to Pennoyer, but apparently some records show that it was first deeded to Mitchell himself, who then sold it to Pennoyer.
The Art of the Deal
It strikes me as suspicious that two of the most ruthlessly intelligent and morally dubious men in Oregon were both involved in this land deal. Did they see Neff as an illiterate pushover? An easy mark for their land speculation hustle?
Mitchell was repeatedly accused of being involved in real estate fraud, and was finally convicted in 1905. Pennoyer, though never accused of financial improprieties to my knowledge, made many enemies during his lifetime—including two presidents of the United States—on account of his overbearing and patrician personality.
If I was an unscrupulous lawyer, (heaven forbid), I could think of less attractive ideas than suing my itinerant former client, knowing that he won't appear, forcing his valuable property to be sold at Sheriff's auction, acquiring it and selling it cheaply to his wealthy and influential neighbor in return for political favor in the future.
It must have seemed like an easy win.
Remarkably, Marcus Neff proved to be a worthy adversary, taking his case against Pennoyer all the way to the supreme court, winning, and setting a monumental legal precedent in the process.
Who was his lawyer, I wonder?
As a final irrelevant note, look at how much Portland has changed in 150 years! A whole island has been removed, (to facilitate shipping?), lakes have been drained, and the Willamette has been made narrower and deeper. The whole landscape now crawls with industry and commerce.
I don't pretend to be a historian. If I've made errors, please let me know and I will make corrections. If you know more about this story, please let me know in the comments! I find all of this really interesting.