preëmptioner

plural preëmptioners · alternative pre-emptioner · alternative preemptioner

1. One who possesses the right of preëmption over certain land; compare: preëmptor.

   Green himself was reactionary, a preëmptioner who wanted strengthening of these laws alone.

   1917, Gertrude S. Mathews, James T. DuBois, Galusha A. Grow, Father of the Homestead Law, page 210

   2 more examples

   …the modern preëmptioner looks with jealousy at the stranger, and imagines that the corners of sections, quarter sections, and forty acre tracts, exite his curiosity, or awaken the avarice of the speculating land hunter…

   1877, William Wallace Beach, The Indian Miscellany: containing papers on the history, antiquities, arts, languages, religions…, page 118

   “If a qualified preëmptioner enter upon a portion of the public domain, with the intention to preëmpt the same, and performs all the acts necessary to perfect his preëmptive right, except the payment of the purchase price, the government may, nevertheless, at any time before the price is actually paid, or tendered, devote the land to another purpose, and thereby wholly defeat the right of preëmption.” — California Reports, July, 1871, Vol. 41, pp. 658-9.

   1888, James M. Hutchings, In the Heart of the Sierras: Chapter XII: Congressional and State Enactments Concerning Yosemite, Rulings of the Supreme Courts