Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1870-12-01
Far West Romance Land in Search


Portland iOre2onl Corrs spondence Of the Sacra.
mento Union.
They have romantic land case at Port.
laud, one that involves about quarter OF
a million dollars worth OF real estate, and
the efforts made t. hunt up the heirs by
spectators who honestly covet the inheri-
lance Twenty years ago / remember n
quiet, staid individual who had u land
claim adjoining Portland on the south. 1t
consisted of some bottom land subject to
overflow, strip or bench OF upland. ana
back further the heavy FIR forest
covered rough rising ground. This
Finice Caruthers and his mother
had mile square of land there, six humid
red and forty acres. He used his opportu-
nit es to moderate advantage, and he and
his mother both lived and died there, lea
wing the land immensely valuable as the
only field for the city to spread III that di-
ection, 1t was charged that he was an IL
legitimate son, and the State claimed the
land for an escheat as they made no Will,
the mother dying first Then it came ont
there vas n marriage and 1t proved an I'M
happy one; the wife had taken her son.
and, resuming her maiden name, they went
westward and cared for themselves This
happened early in the century, aud after a
while they found their way to Oregon, and
made them home on the rough hill-sidas
along the river, above Portland. Idv-
ing quietly, and being plain folks of no cul-
.inetion, though OF fair intelligence, and OF
good reputation, they made no stir while
alive, save that of her maiden name being
adopted by both, gave rise to the surmise
and rumor that his birth was not sanction
ed by wedlock. 1t remained for their
deaths only to make their names
famous. The joint property then be
came his by the death of his mother and
on his death the question of whose 1T WAS
become more interesting each year as the
spread OF the city and the great increase
IN value of property made the "Caruthers'
estate" the subject OF general speculation
At first the state claimed II as an escheat
for want of legal heirs. Then it was dis
covered that relations on the mothers side
were alive, and some enterprislng person
undertook to secure all the titles, which
process involved much time and money
The attorney Of one ofthese parties visited
seventeen states and traced every clue that
could be discovered, and the titles were
thus secured, as was thought, so that these
gentlemen looked on the original Caru-
theirs section of donation, aud the import
ant and valuable property outside of it, ac-
CURED by the frugal Caruthers, rs their
own valuable perquisites The claim of
the state was abandoned, and the matter of
hunting up heirs and purchasing their IT,
ties was prosecuted with most commend
able assiduity.
The husband of Elizabeth Caruthers,
and the father of her son, Finice, seems
to have been frontersman named Joe
Thomas, who possessed frontier vices and
virtues 80 mixed that matrimonial felicity
was not easily achieved. When the sep
aration took place, Joe Thomas, known
on the frontier and in the Indian country
as Wrestling Joe, either from natural in
clinstion or overpowering grief, Is said to
have abandont haunts of civilization and
rushed into the Arkansas country, and for
twenty years WAS lost to sight among the
Indians and scarce heard Of He was re-
ported dead, and it seems that his family
supposed him to be so when they came
to Oregon. AT or near Oregon
City there lived two old
men who knew of the marriage and who
seem to have some clue to the history OF
"Wrestlng joe" To find ont what had
| become OF him, they wrote multitude o.
! letters to all the old frontiersmen renowned
through the last halt century. and the re-
| suit is said to be that the old wrestler has
| been discovered in the form of misera-
bic, ragged old beggar in the city of st.
Louis, who, for the consideration of
SIS, 600 cash ia hand, has decided all his
interests i'll the Carathers estate to the en-
| terprising prospectors who have resurrect-
ed him from his rags and made his oldage
trihe more honorable. He is said to be
ninety-one years of age, and has now
probably arrived in Portland, for the pur-
pose of aiding his friends to make good the
title he has given them to the rich domains
of his son. The story is romantic and
quite interesting to the parties who have
brought up the scattering titles to the pub
lie.
The Heart and its Diseases.