Harry L. Jenkins

There is no record that the $900 r-o-w fee was ever paid to Orsland, but an agreement dated August 28, 1899 and filed 9/15/99 transfers a huge chunk of the Orsland property, including the r-o-w, to Harry L. Jenkins, an individual.

Jenkins was from Minneapolis MN, and while another reference mentions him as a representative of the Iowa and Minnesota Land & Townsite Company, which is associated in some way with the M & St. L, Jenkins and his wife take possession of the property personally.Jenkins records the plat of the town of Rembrandt on November 3, 1899, and begins selling lots three days later (He also purchased and platted the town of Truesdale, the other new town mentioned above, and had gone so far as to have sale contracts and transfer documents prepared with his and his wife's names pre-printed where one would normally expect blanks in a standard document).

By the end of April, 1899, he has agreements signed for the sale of just 10 lots in Rembrandt.
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It looks to me like the railroad and the townsite company are promoting the sale of property owned personally by Harry Jenkins and his wife Anna, because nowhere in the abstract of title to these town lots does either the M & St. L or the IA & MN L & Townsite Co. appear.

Whatever happened at the Rembrandt auction, only 8 more lot sales agreements were signed by the end of 1900.The Town of Rembrandt officially incorporated by a vote on August 5, 1901.Harry Jenkins still owned quite a number of lots at that time, and a few weeks later he and a guy named Outcalt (who was supposedly the secretary of the IA & MN L & Townsite Co., according to a local report which also claimed that Jenkins was the president of the company) opened up an addition to the town called "Outcalt's Addition" which, once again, Jenkins and his wife owned.

It is clear from other information that Jenkins was in the lumber business as he formed many partnerships with local individuals who would co-own and operate lumber yards in these new towns---the Jenkins-Hesla Lumber Company in Rembrandt being an example.

In 1906, Jenkins finally gave up on the prospect for selling any more individual lots as he sold the last twenty or so in a cheap bundle and that was the end of him here.

My questions are multiple: Was the lumber business a front for the M & St. L railroad company?Was Jenkins acting as an individual or for this mysterious Land & Townsite Company?If so, who owned the L & T Co.?Was Jenkins an employee?Why would a railroad hide behind an individual?Why would an individual be given favors by the RR?
...
Parents were Harry and Helen (Schluntz) Craig, grandparents AC Schluntz on one side and Cora Craig on dad's side.

There is no record that the $900 r-o-w fee was ever paid to Orsland, but an agreement dated August 28, 1899 and filed 9/15/99 transfers a huge chunk of the Orsland property, including the r-o-w, to Harry L. Jenkins, an individual.

Jenkins was from Minneapolis MN, and while another reference mentions him as a representative of the Iowa and Minnesota Land & Townsite Company, which is associated in some way with the M & St. L, Jenkins and his wife take possession of the property personally.Jenkins records the plat of the town of Rembrandt on November 3, 1899, and begins selling lots three days later (He also purchased and platted the town of Truesdale, the other new town mentioned above, and had gone so far as to have sale contracts and transfer documents prepared with his and his wife's names pre-printed where one would normally expect blanks in a standard document).

By the end of April, 1899, he has agreements signed for the sale of just 10 lots in Rembrandt.
...
It looks to me like the railroad and the townsite company are promoting the sale of property owned personally by Harry Jenkins and his wife Anna, because nowhere in the abstract of title to these town lots does either the M & St. L or the IA & MN L & Townsite Co. appear.

Whatever happened at the Rembrandt auction, only 8 more lot sales agreements were signed by the end of 1900.The Town of Rembrandt officially incorporated by a vote on August 5, 1901.Harry Jenkins still owned quite a number of lots at that time, and a few weeks later he and a guy named Outcalt (who was supposedly the secretary of the IA & MN L & Townsite Co., according to a local report which also claimed that Jenkins was the president of the company) opened up an addition to the town called "Outcalt's Addition" which, once again, Jenkins and his wife owned.

It is clear from other information that Jenkins was in the lumber business as he formed many partnerships with local individuals who would co-own and operate lumber yards in these new towns---the Jenkins-Hesla Lumber Company in Rembrandt being an example.

In 1906, Jenkins finally gave up on the prospect for selling any more individual lots as he sold the last twenty or so in a cheap bundle and that was the end of him here.

My questions are multiple: Was the lumber business a front for the M & St. L railroad company?Was Jenkins acting as an individual or for this mysterious Land & Townsite Company?If so, who owned the L & T Co.?Was Jenkins an employee?Why would a railroad hide behind an individual?Why would an individual be given favors by the RR?
...
Parents were Harry and Helen (Schluntz) Craig, grandparents AC Schluntz on one side and Cora Craig on dad's side.