The St. Johns herald., 1886-09-02
F. Ii. Buck Explains.


 ly granting me permission to make cor
 rections, statements of facts, etc., as to
 the Holbrook Irrigating Canal Dam and
 Bridge Company, and my connection,
 as its Secretary, with the building oi
 the bridge over and on its property, 1
 beg leave to state that the company was
 organized in February, 1885, having
 been talked of for several months. The
 incorporators were Pedro Montana, David Rope, 4. $. Stivers, B. M. Ter
 Till and myself, who subscribed to the articles of incorporation. as shown by
 the officers certificate on the 9th ol of March following, and on the 9th of the same month were filed in the offices of the Territorial Secretary and Recor- der of Apache county. call attention to the fact that the law creating the
 Board of Wagon Road Commissioners
 was not introduced until late in the ses- sion, and approved on the 12th day of
 March-the very latest date in which the acts of the Thirteenth Legislature were approved by his excellency, the Governor-six days after the signing of the articles of incorporation, and three days after their fileing with the Territo- rial and county officers. Furthermore that after diligent inquiry, find no man in our town who claims to have known anything of the existence of said bill or
 law at the time and dates referred to.
 I cite these facts to show that there could not at that time have been any thought of building bridge out of the public funds. Do you ask why the bridge idea was incorporated in our enterprise ? 1 answer, to the best ot my recollection, at meeting of the Board of Supervi- sors in 1883, or first of 1884, the County Survt tyJr was directed to inquire into the feasibility, make survey, etc., of a bridge at Holbrook. The action of the Board was freely discussed by our,clti- zens, many of whom decided that if the Board carried out the idea, they would petition for the location to be at the present site of the dam, as there are good permanent rock banks, on the di- rect line of travel, versus the sand banks and bottom at the town. All of this transpiring long before the dam was thought of-before the Surveyor made his report-if he ever made one. I vis- ited the locality in company with a civil engineer of long experience III railroad building, there and then receiving my first idea of starting point and the practicability of an irrigation scheme that would water our town and adjacent valley. When getting up the articles of incorporation year or more later, l was reminded of the former bridge talk and concluded the proper way to guard our interests and property, was to in- clude the bridge idea in our charter, which would prevent the authorities from condemning right of way across our property for bridge purposes with out our consent. All of which was fully discussed by the incorporators, and our citizens long before the existence of the law creating the Board of Wagon. Road Commissioners. Furthermore, that one of the Commissioners, wholly disinter- ested in the town or its enterprise, months before the location was made, while here on his own business, rode down the river four miles and up to the present site two miles, and of his own volition decided that the present site was the only suitable location for bridge. The judgment of all who visit ed the structure, after it's completion, declared it to be an excellent piece of work, even to the strongest wagon road bridge they had ever seen built of wood, and your remark that the dam was solid Gas the rock banks at either end of it." The frame work of the bridge was 265 feet long, with connection of rock and earth protected by rock wall laid in 32 feet long, making total of 297 feet, which at $15 per foot, price paid for the Navajo bridge, makes the sum of $4, 4,455. Then add $45 for the ap- proach AS feet long protected by a heavy stone wall on upper side, making total sum of $4,500 paid to the company represent, by the Wagon Road Com missiOners. Belt remembered that $IOO was paid for the approach to the Navajo bridge, not half so long or one-fourth as expensive. It is easily seen what did with the $4,500. Another fact worthy of mention is that the material used in our structure is one-third to one-half heavier than in the Navajo structure.
 In reply to your remarks about the water and fire clause in bond and con- tract. l respectfully state that our Di- rectors, nor any other bridge builders, are silly enough to build bridge at the lowest price, and then insure against the acts of Providence. You, Mr. Editor. are too good lawyer to be ignorant of the fact that the courts have decided, time and again, that in such cases lia- bility does not lie or attach. We built