Bridgeton pioneer., 1890-05-08
BRIDGET0N, N. j., THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1890.

oysters, Wnlle these were being up.
loaded and counted. Charles Harris.
SAID he helped to count the oysters off
the floats and he knew then that there
was trouble about them and had par
tlcularly noticed the small number of
Bay oysters to be found among them.
Seth Bowen, one of the persons in
terested with Captain Daniels in the
Maggie Daniels" was called by the
prosecution, but, outside of telling
who Were the owners of the boats his
only material testimony was that he
knew that Captain Daniels did not
plant any Chesapeake oysters last
Spring,
With this witness the prosecution
closed.
Mr.. Mitchell opened the defense by
claiming that the ground in question
was the ground of Captain Daniels,
which he had purchased from Capt.
John G. Garrison, of Haleyville, in
1882. That be planted Chesapeake
oysters upon them; that he kept the
ground staked up. This would be
shown by the testimony of witnesses,
who knew the grounds and who had
worked upon them 1t would be
shown by Capt. BOYLE, who had testi-
he'd for the prosecution, that he had
known this ground as belonging to
Captain Daniels The ownership of
the grounds, he said, would be duly
established in Captain Daniels.
1t would then be shown that Captain
NeWcomb had undoubtedly planted
chesapeake oysters upoa this ground
with an intention to appropriate the
grounds TO himself; that it was not the
first tine that NeWeomb had done so;
that Newcomb had been demonstrated
with about it and had acKnow wledged
that he had planted over the line and
only asked permission to remove the
Chesapeakes froHa the grounds which
he had planted there, this was in 1886
and 1887. 1t would be shown that the
acts OF planting the Chesapeake oysters
in the spring of 1889 by Newcomb was
another attempt by Newcomb to ap-
propriate Captain Daniels ground to
his own use.
No denial was made by the defense
as to having taken oysters off these
grounds in the Fall of 1889, but they
admitted to taking them to the amount
of 1914 worth, the oysters being about
two-thirds Chesapeake and one-third
Bays, and that Newcomb had know
ingly confused his property with that
of Daniels, with the intention TO ap-
propriate that of Daniels TO hiu.self.
This case being likely to consume the
rest OF the day, Judge Red excused
all jurors not on this panel, until to
morrow morning, at 10 o'clock.
Ralph M. Howell, surveyor, was
called to identify map of the coast
chart, showing the Cove.
1t may be seen from the outline of
the defense, what complication the
case assumes, and what an intelligent
jury has got to find out-that is, who
owns the ground, who owned the
Chesapeake oysters, who owned the
Bay oysters, who is liable. if anybody,
and for what amount, if any.
Capt. David P. Daniels, one OF the
defendants, took the stand. He said
ne had been an oysterman some 20
years and had been captain of an
oyster boat for twelve or fifteen years.
He had been the owner of several diff
ferent oyster grounds in Delaware
Bay; had owned as many as Ii grounds;
never had any difficulty in finding his
grounds. He described the manner in
locating his grounds and stalking them
up. taking the ranges sc.
He testified that he owned the
grounds in dispute, described their To-
cation, giving the same ranges that
Captain Newcomb had given, and
stated that he had bought them of
John Garrison.
Court adjourned.