Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-02-17

twill be sad day for the cottage owners
at Bar Harbor when they find On their return
next season that their princely mansions
have been built on land not their own, says
Mount Desert correspondent of the Boston
Globe, and that they have been served with
writs of ejectment Yet such is likely to be
the case. Some 1000 acres of the most valua-
BILE land on the island is likely at no distant
day to become the subject of litigation.
1t seems that large tract of land, en-
bracing 81 900 acres, was ssld under quit
claim deed by the heirs of William Bingham
to Gilmore and Brewer, co-partners, in l845.
In 1855, one Russell S. Clark, by warranty
deed, conveyed this land-he having pur-
chased it of Gilmore and Brewer-to two men
by the name of Goodwin and Severance, who
gave their notes, secured by q mortgage, back
to Clark, who assigned to Andrew Hall.
Goodwin and Severance failed to meet their
notes when due. Prior and subsequent to
this, the mortgage had been assigned to sew
eral parties until at last it passed into the
hands of woman, who failed to foreclose
according to law, and in fact there never has
been a foreclosure made or attempted and
the land stands on the record in the name of
Goodwin and Severance.
On the failure of Goodwin and Severance
to meet their notes, their creditors at once
sued and attached their logs, wood and other
personal properly, and thus satisfied the debt,
waving, thereby their rights as mortgages
to the land. which land was scarcely worth
the taxes at that time. He then assigned the
mortgage to the above named woman for one
dollar, who ten years afterward sold the en-
tire tract of land for $500, and under this
conveyance it is held by hundreds of different
Tha 81 e1n,v "a -.
unforeclosed mortgage on wild land. For a
year party Of Bangor and Boston gentle
men high 10 legal and official life, have been
hard at work buying up the Goodwin heirs
and headed by Severance himself, one of the
original owners, they are prepared to
make over or compromise. They have
expended thousands of dollars in
perfecting their title and in getting
ready to assess and maintain their claim
believing that they have both the legal and
equitable title to the land. Such is the opin-
ion of the best lawyers in the State, and they
propose to bring suit to recover possession.
The value of this property is enormous,
embracing some of the most desirable building
lots on the island and some of the most valuable
cottages are erected on it. This land includes
| the whole of Green Mountain, the railway,
water works, Eagle Lake and its outlet. Mil
| lions of dollars are involved. The occupants
will be obliged to account for all profits and
the sale of vast quantities of timber for 80
years. The land owners At Bar HarbOr are
appalled, at the danger which threatens them.
| Under the laws of Maine no mortgage
can give legal title to land without fore
closure of his mortgage, according to the
statue. The mortgagor's right of redemp.
ton is never barred until such foreclos-
ure. The mortgages never entered
and took possession, but virtually abandoned
the premises for ten years after the notes
were due and paid. No one can claim the
land by adverse possessions, for the reason
that all improvements that have been made
have been within twenty years, and thousands
o: acres of it is still wild land, and the mere
chopping of wood and lumber is not such ar
improvement as to give them title under the
law, even if carried on for longer series OF
years than twenty.
This is not the scheme Of a few visionary
SPECTATORS, but a bona fide claim upon thi.
property, which is to be pushed vigorously
in the courts Severance himself is now an
old man, and at the time they gave theil
mortgage they lost heavily, and in fact the
transaction of the mortagagee, in Selling the
logs and machinery, utterly ruined him and
his partner, Goodwin. He now believes thai
he still has a valid title to the land