The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-08-13
S40.000,O0O WANTED.
Tho Decision in the Great Coal Land
suit--Twenty Years OF Preparation
for a TrIal--Tho Claimants Adven-
tures,

Tho Decision I'm the Great Coal Land
suit--Twenty Years OF Preparation
for a TrIal--Tho Claimants Adven-
tures.
The great $40, 900, 900 coal land law
suit OF Turnbull against Pardee and
others, which has been pending in
Pennsylvania for two years, and which
occupied the lawyers twenty years be-
fore it was in a position to warrant n
hearing, has been decided in favor of
the defendants, under the provisions of
the Pennsylvania law governing the
gaining of title to land by treasurers
deed.
The question at stake was the title to
several thousand acres of coal land in
lower Luzerne county, in possession of
Turnbull, as the heir of Alexander
Turnbull and James Turnbull, Sr. The
land is in the heart of the coal fields,
and was the property of the Turnbulls,
once an influential Philadelphia family,
long before it was known that it con-
cealed untold wealth. The last of the
Turnbull family in whom the title vest
ed was James, the father of the claim
ant. Unconscious of its value, he neg
lected to keep the taxes paid, and it was
sold at treasurer's sale, as provided by
the State statue. 1t subsequently went
to Ario Pardee, Asa Packer, and other
capitalists. Turnbull, the elder, died
in Philadelphia before coal was discov.
cred on his tract. He left q divorced
wife and the claimant, then child.
Some time after the decease of his
father, young Turnbull went to sea.
His mother, being a woman OF more
than ordinary activity, in 1852 began to
inquire about the land her husband had
owned, and concluded that her son was
the rightful owner. She found a friend
in o. H. Wheeler, of Mauch Chunk, who
shared her confidence in the just claim
of her son. Wheeler recommended an
ejectment suit but it was first neces-
sary to find the missing heir. 1t was
twenty years before he gained any clue
to Turnbull, and then heard of him by
accident at Mazatlan, Mexico. He was
summoned to his native land, arriving
in Philadelphia early in 1872.
His career had been one of danger
and hardship. On his first voyage he
was shipwrecked. With eight others he
| uOdueu uiHe udyS III Ill open uohU ou eho
ocean. The boat was picked up at sea
near the island of st. Thomas. Every
inmate was dead except Turnbull.
When he recovered from the effects of
this voyage he went to Central America,
and subsequently, in 1s49, to Califor-
mia, where the gold fever was at its
height. Remaining there year or two,
he succeeded in saving considerable
money, working in the mines, and adj
herring to an early formed resolution to
abstain always from strong drink and
gambling. From California he went to
Mexico, engaging in the construction OF
q canal at Mazatlan. While there he
was robbed several times, and was once
left for dead by gang of natives who
had assaulted him, with twelve daggers
sticking in his body. On his way from
California to Mexico he was blown ur
by steamboat explosion, being one ol
a very few who were saved out of the
hundreds on board. He was severa'
times shipwrecked, but lived to sur
mount all the perils about him, and tC
answer the summons to return home.
Since his arrival in this country hi
has worked faithfully in the prosecu
ton of his claim. He takes his grea
defeat philosophically, and if he does
not carry it to higher tribunals, will
doubtless again seek new adventures