John D. Bush, Appellant v. Jacob Marshall and William B. Whitesides

This suit originated in the District Court for Dubuque county, in the Territory of Iowa. It was a bill in chancery to foreclose a mortgage given by the appellant, Bush, to Whitesides. The property mortgaged consisted of two lots (numbered 7 and 194) in the town of Dubuque, which Whitesides had sold and conveyed on the same day to the mortgagor, for the sum of $3,000; and the mortgage (dated 8th February, 1839) was given to secure the sum of $1,500, the balance of the purchase-money. At the time of this transaction, the United states had not yet offered the lands on which the town of Dubuque was situated for sale. But notwithstanding the occupants of lots were mere tenants at sufferance only, they proceeded to make valuable improvements, under the expectation of the grant of a right of pre emption from the government, or, at least, that they could complete their title by purchase from it, when the lots should be offered for sale.