Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-03-20

N.
one continuing thread which runs through
all the litigation of the past forty years and
this tenancy in common has been approved
and confirmed by every succeeding decision.
From lTs7 to lsl7 each Of the several owners
of the mine had taken from IL such ores w. he
needed without accounting. TO all appear-
ances and for all intents and purposes 1t
was deemed practically inexhaustible. SUR.
veys estimated the deposit of ore above
water level to be ioooo,000 tons No one
interfered with any other so great was the
superabundance of ore. such were the fscili-
ties for mining, so extensive the surface of
unmiNed masses, that 1t was always imma.
teriai TO any one what particular place or
spot might be selected by any other
mine hole. Except for the Temporary in
convenience OF tools and the track OF the rail-
road winding about the hillsides there was no
choice of spots to be selected for mining, no
shafts, pits or like contrivances for reaching
ore were necessary, aud the least la
Dor required to enable the parties to dig
and carry away any quantity whatever.
With the increasing diversity OF interest and
ownership however, the erection of new
furnaces and thelincreased demand for ores,
probably in inverse proportion to the in-
terest OF those taking II, a necessity arose for
system OF mutual accounting, the equity o!
which was promptly recognized.
In 1919 such an agreement was made he
tween Robert w. and William on one side
and q. Dawson on the other, the ore to
be accounted at 90 cents per ton. This was
10 continue for a period OF five years. In
ISL the q. Dawson Coleman interest began
proceedings in Partition, which were finally
adjudicated against the partition, on the
ground that the old agreement of i7S7 had
established a tenancy in common, which was
to endure while the ore endures and con-
e., 10. A..
While this doctrine has been established as
to the ownership, the courts ordered full
accounting for the ores taken by any interest
in excess of its share. This once established, a
series of litigation began as to the fixing of q
price for the ores thus to be accounted tor
and, with regard TO this, the principle settled
by the courts has been that the ores shall be
charged for at their market price, at the time
taken at the mouth OF the pit, less the cost of
mining.
Meantime the reservation by Peter Grubb
OF enough ore for one furnace had passed 10
Henry T. Robeson and Clement Brooke and
is now an incorporeal hereditament attached
TO Robesonia furnace. over this arose Iiti.
CATION to determine whether this right WAS
to be measured by the needs and Consump-
ton OF a furnace in the days of its grant or
in the latter days of marked improvements
and increased capacity and by a narrow ma.
iority Of the supreme court it was decided in
favor Of the latter view-greatly enhancin .
the value of the BpbesoGia right Tho same
question Is of importance to Mt Hone
furnace, in upper Lancaster county, which
has the right, out of the Grubb sixth of the
estate, to enough ore for the supply of one
charcoal furnace, whatever its enlarged ca
pacity, by reason of modern improvements.
This valuable right is what made Robesonia
sell for about 100000 some time ago the
heirs of Robert Coleman's estate acquiring
IA obi int fr,t ~.
| over 100000, passing into control of &. h,
Grubb. The Robesonia right at Cornwall is
| charged entirely to the Coleman five-sixthS
| interest in the hill. The Robesonia decision
| made rich man out OF Nicholas Furguson,
who went up there a poor boy from COlerairl
| township, maybe 40 years ago /; but alas AT
| the time of his greatest prosperity falling
| powers of mind and body disqualify him fol
enjoyment of it.
AS ! have tried To make clear the Cole
man five-siNths OF the Cornwall mines some
| forty years ago was represented by two es,
| tates, and the diyisor for the fractional in.
terest became S. The estate of Thomas
Burd Coleman owned fifty ninety.sixths
and James Coleman's estate thirty ninety.
sixtbs. Robert W. Coleman and William
| Coleman (brothers) became the owners by
Inheritance and purchase of their sisters
| interest of the estate of Thomas Burd
| Coleman, their father. William Coleman
died in 1862, leaving a son and daughter
Robert II. aud Annie, to inherit his twenty.
five ninety-siXths interest. This il the
young Robert Coleman who walked Corn.
wall TO new life. 1t was he to whom his
guardian, Samuel Small, of York, handed
sl,2O,Ovo when he came TO his majority As
the earnings OF his estate | think he then
gave $4,000 to the York Collegiate institute
so handsomely endowed Dy the SmaiIs.
Young Coeman's ten years business career
has been one of high enterprise Itwas he
who built the great Colebrook furnaces in
North Lebanon, the wonder of iron makers
and the triumph ot their founder He huilt
the railroad from Conewago to Cornwall. or
what he did not build he bought and p0ck-
eted afterwards. lie built the splendid
Episcopal church in Lebanon as a Inagnti-
cent memorial to his first wife, who died "A
bride and he gave $4,000 the other day Ia
Trinity college, Hartford, Conn. on whose
grounds he had already erected hall for his
Greek letter fraternity. The other Cole
mans-the coleman-A lden- reeman family
built the railroad from Mannheim to Corn
wall. They controlled the old road between
Lebanon and Cornwall, and young Robert
paralleled 1t with a double-track line One
OF the uustiest and most responsible mana
gers OF these vast interests is Hugh NJ. Max
well, likewise a Lancaster county boy, son
OF that Samuel Maxwell, ESQ.,, who lived and
died near Mechanics Grove, Drumore town.
ship, and founder of one of the worthless Il
families in the county.
IN lsGi Robert W. Coleman died unmar-
rled, leaving his twenty i've ninetv-sixtbs TO
three sisters, Mrs. Freeman, Mrs. Alden and
Miss Sarah ii. Coleman, and 10 the two chill
dren of his brother William, Robert II. and
Annie Coleman, who thus increased their
Interest to thirty-one and a fourth ninety.
sixths OF the whole eighteen and three-auar.
ter ninety-siXths remained with the other
combined branch of ''lhe Cornwall Coleman. -
fifteen ninety siXths with the G.. Dawson
Coleman family, of North Lebanon, and a
like proportion with his brother, Robert
Coleman, who married in Paris a thrift V
French woman.
Robert Coleman and George Dawson Cole.
man, sons of James Coleman, had bacome
the owners by inheritance, and purchase OF
their sisters interests, of the estate OF James
Coleman. Both OF these gentlemen died i'm
1873. The former and older Robert left
one son, George Dawson Coleman as the inner.
itor OF fifteen ninety-sixths. lie lives in Paris
and recently bought at sherii's sale upon
the foreclosure of mortgage the Watts
furnacesin Marietta George Dawson Cole
man, brother OF Robert, and formerly a state
senator, left two sons and five daiIgbters
and by will his fifteen ninety-sixths interest
in the Cornwall mines to his widow Deborah
Il. Coleman, and son-in-law, Horace Brook
IN trust, for the use of his children. Ali
other property and possessions, among which
were two furnaces at Lebanon, was left Ia
the widow.
The Grubb estate, consisting of sixteen
ninety-sixths, was owned equally by Clement
B. Grubb and Edward b. Grubb The latter
died in 1866, leaving two ninety-sixths to