The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-12-22
GRANT & CO.. GRABBERs.
Fred. Grant, John A. Logan and
n. II. Honore.


II. II. Honore.
THE REASON WHY.
THE PELICAN AND DIVES SILVER MINES
TURNING OUT JUDGE IN ORDER To GRAB
GREAT TPRoPRRrY-THE PRESIDENT HELP
ING HIS RELATIONS AND FRIEND5-A NICE
APPOINTMENT.
The Washington correspondent OF the
New York Sun of Saturday says: The state
ments made by your Chicago correspondent
in regard to the manner in which Senator
John A. Logan, II. II. Honore and Fred
Grant obtained possession OF very vslua-
BILE silver mine in Colorado Territory were
so remarkable that have taken the trouble
to investigate the manner. My first visit
was to the department of justice, where /
made In your Chicago correspondence about
Juoge Belford being removed was literally
true. Section ! ,S64 of the Revised Statutes
provides that "the Supreme Court Of
every territory shall consist OF a chief
justice and two associate justices, any two
and they shall hold their offices for
four years, and until their successors are
appointed and qualified" Judge Belford's
commission expired in June, 1874, and was
not renewed immediately, as is usual in
such cases. He, however, continued TO be
under the law an associate justice until his
successor was appointed aud qualified.
The files ofthe department OF justice show
| that in February last Senators John A.
Logan and John p. Jones recommended the
appointment OF A. w. Stone as successor to
Judge Belford, and filed along with these
recommendation were two letters In one
from Senator Oglesby to ii. III. Honore, In
which the senator regrets that he can not
join in recommending Stones appointment.
He would gladly do anything to oblige his
friend Honore, but he was urging the ap-
pointment of his friend Mark Bangs, OF
Lacon, ILL.,, to q judgship In Idaho territory,
and he was AFRAID that it would
IMPAIR HIS CHANCES OF SUCCESS
in this direction il he recommended Stones
appointment. The following history of the
Pelican and Dives mines 1 have derived
from the most authentic sources, and IL any
one of the interested parties dares to ques-
tion the accuracy Of a single statement
| therein made, will take great pleasure in
proving the truth thereof by the tesl imony
of unimpeachable witnesses: For the past
three years spirited litigation has been
| going on in the courts of Colorado over GER
tain mining property named by one of the
litigants the Pelican or Zillsh lode, and by
the others the Dives lode. Immense
euul5 Vi uOuoy uhNo De6E epo0b ny
| both sides, and the controversy is lar
from it's end. Suits and counter suits,
now in chancery and then in law, have
been instituted, and are still drawing their
slow length along. When the litigation
| commenced, one John McMurdy, lately
| deceased, was the claimant o1 the Dives, and
he determined at all hazards and cost to be-
come, if possible, likewise the owner OF the
Pelican. He left Colorado, visited Lafsy-
| cite, Indiana, and organized a mining COM
pany known as the Purdue Company, and
| to this company so organized he convey ed
seven hundred feet on the Dives in a wes-
tern direction from the discovery, still re-
tanning seven hundred feet in an easterly
direction, and now known the East
Dives, and of which John A. Logan, ii. III.
Honore, aud McMurdy's heirs are the
owners. Some two years ago one William
| A. Hami, the agent OF McMurdy and q
lessee of the Purdue Company, run q cross
cut from the Dives discovery shaft, in a
northerly direction, some forty feet, tapped
the Pelican mine, discovered therein an
IMMENSE DEPOSIT OF SILVER,
and took therefrom during the ensuing
year ore of the value, as McMurdy alleged
of $500, 900. Soon after the Dives party
struck the Pelican vein, an application wal
made by the owners of the latter for wri
OF Injunction. This application was made
before Judge Belford, then justice of thai
district, who changed the venue on bis owl
motion, and sent the case to Chief Justice
| Hsllett. This resulted in the granting of
temporary writ restraining the Dives PARTY
from interfering with that part of the Peli
can vein of which the compliments at that
time had the actual and exclusive posses.
sion. In few days thereafter the Dives
party presented bill to the same Judge
|, praying to have the Pelican parties re-
strained from proceeding esstwardly of The
point they then had reached which prayer
was granted: in other words, the judge
established division line beyond which
neither party should go until the legal title
| should be determined by an appropriate
action at law. In the following December
at Georgetown, the law cases came on to bt
heard before Chief Justice Hallett, anC
both parties conseDting, jury was waived
and the cases submitted to the chief justice
for trial. These trials lasted some ffteer
days, and the chief justice decided both &C
tions in favor of the Pelican parties. Th,
statute OF Colorado allows in actions o
. eiectment two trials. McMurdy, after tn,
? first defeat, set about forming a combius stioI
by which, through legal process aud unde
, color of law, he could ultimately captur,
this valuable property. Soon AFTER the ad
journmeDt of court, gentleman from
Chicago visited Georgetown, and called OIL
Streeter and McCunniff, the owners of tn,
Pelican, and proposed that this litigation
should be compromised by dividing th'
property. He stated to McCunniff that b,
and ii. 81. Honore, Fred. Grants fsther-in
law. were jointly interested, and that th
Pelican parties would fare badly unless tbey
submitted to these terms, as powerful
combipstion had been formed at Washing
ton, which was not only able to but woulC
control the judiciary of the territory. Thes
terms were rejected and Mr..
HoNoRE THEN PRoFFERED HIS SERVICES
! which proved equally Intellectual. In tn
previous September Gen. Logan had visite'
Georgetown and become quite intimstel.
acquainted with McMurdy. After the trial
McMurdy declared to number of person
that Fred Grant, Gen. Logan, Fl. III. Honor
and others were Interested with him in thi
property and that, through their influence
? he would cause the chief justice, and especi
ally Judge Belford, to be removed, and hsv
/, men appointed who would decide the case
aS ha xvishad them decided On this erran