26 FEDERAL BEPQRTEB.
V .SuitYfor.—Bartition..   .3 it       i. `»A, -T< ~
 iGcorgc·.aH.,Durhcm and H. Y. Thompson, for plaintiffs.
  Trimble and Benton Killtn, ,for defendants.
Ds.u>v,—J;. —.T·hese cases were bothheard and submitted on the
plea of thegstatute of limitations to thebill, and.will_ be considered
together. ZATIIB plaintiffs George W. Traver and.[Emma S., his wife,
are citizens Cof<the state of Oa1iforn.ia, and George A. Grahamand
Ida M.,,·hisé wife,; are citizens of the state of Ohio. They bring these
suits for the partition of lots—5 and 6, in block254, of the city of Port-
land.. The bills were hledon October .16, 1879, and allege that the
·defend·ant‘George  Tribou is the owuerof an undivided one-hfth of the
W.·‘g*of>said·‘lots, and the defendants Amasa Brooks, John E. Brooks,
and#·Julia.A...-Brooks are the owners of a similariifthof the Eg thereof,
and that the plaintiffs George W. and Emma S. Traver and Ida  
Graham are the owners of thei remaining four+f:fthsof both lots, in
the following proportions: the iirst of the undivided 82—125 and the
last two of 9-125 each. The pleas allege thatrthe defendants and
those under whom they claim have been in the open, actual, and ad-
verse possession of their respective portions of the premises, as the
exclusive owners thereof, for more than 20 years before the commence-
ment of these suits. The pleas are accompanied by answers. , Dis-
regarding the averments of the pleadings, which are mere conclu-
sions of law, the admittediandmaterial facts of the case, as they
appear therefrom, are these: __ _ _ _ I,
On June 25, 1850, Daniel ‘H. Lownsdale, Stephen Collin, and W. W. Chap- i
man werevin the joint occupation of`“that portion of the public 'domain upon
which the city of Portland was thenpartially laid out and has since been
built, without any other right tlieretothan the possession under the laws of
the provisional government, when Lownsdale released and quitclaimed to
Chapmancertain blocks or parcels therein, including block 254, with a cove-
nant oftwarranty against all persons, the United States excepted, and another,
that if Lownsdale should thereafter acquire titleto the premises from the
United Statesyhe would convey the same to Chapman; and the defendants
and those under whom they claim have occupied said lots as the owners
the,-eof under said deed to Chapman and successive couveyances thereunder
ever since.
On July 6, 1850, Lownsdale married Nancy Gillihan, a widow with two
children, namely, William T. and Isabella E. Gillihan.
, On March 11, 1852, Lownsdale filed his notincation in the oilice of the sur-
veyor general upon a certain portion of said public domain, including block
254, as a settler thereon, under the act of September 27, 1850, (9 St. 497,)
commonly called the donation act; and on April 8, 1852, he filed in said ollice
his ownafiidavit and those of two witnesses, showing his marriage to Nancy