Ask any Utican about Munson-Williams and they'll likely cite the art museum on Genesee Street. But the names may mean something else to people from Central Pennsylvania's Schuylkill County, where Utica residents were involved in an elaborate land grab scheme.

A land grab was on in the 1840s when the area around Pottsville, Pennsylvania was found to be rich in coal. Two Uticans, Charlemagne Tower and Alfred Munson, and known as the Munson-Williams Case. According to a Wikipedia article on the subject,

The plan called for Tower to use his legal acumen to clear all the liens and opposing claims to the 8,000-acre (32 km2) Munson-Williams claim, and to all the land around it. In short, the partners hoped to create a single landed estate, which would have measured 65 by 4 12 miles (104.6 by 7.2 km) at its widest point in southwest Schuylkill County. In return, Tower was to receive ownership and title to one half of all the land acquired once all the cost to Munson had been settled, or until Tower paid him half the value of the total land purchase.

At the time, the Schuylkill Valley was a hotly contested territory, with constant conflicts over titles, some dating to before the American Revolution and British colonial rule, and rights. Had any of their competitors became aware of what Tower and Munson were up to, they may well have bought up the land the pair were after, and charged exorbitant prices for it, or worse, refused to sell it at all. The partners operated secretly to protect their interests. Tower would make the purchases, and convey the titles to legal dummies to hide the ownership of the land. By 1858 Tower and Munson had acquired eleven thousand acres (45 km2). By now, Munson and Tower's plan was well out of the bag, and anyone who had even a partial claim to any of the lands began to litigate. Only Tower's considerable skill as a lawyer kept the whole enterprise from falling apart.

Once it was all said and done, Tower and the Munson family pocketed $3 million. Have you ever heard of this little bit of Utica history?

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