The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-28
MILL VALLEY SENSATION,
Dispute Over Possession of Prop
erty Between Two Marin
County Men,
DR.. Liford's Fence.Building Stopped by
Peter Gardner, Who Pulls Up
the Posts.

MILL VALLEY, CAL, Nov 27.-This
town is duly excited and enjoying a sem
sation over dispute between two of Marin
County's Oldest citizens concerning the
ownership of a certain piece OF marsh land
near this place.
Casper Gardner, son of Peter Gardner,
bought strip of land from the Tamalpais
Land and Water Company bordering on
the marsh Just below Wildwood. The land
was almost worthless and there was con-
siderable speculation at the time OF the
purchase as to what use Gardner intended
to put it to. After he had acquired the
property from the company he built a
sma IL cabin and settled on the place. The
property was not fenced in and when he
built the house no one imagined that 1t
was not on the property he had purchased.
Old Peter Gardner knows every inch OF
land in the southern part of Marin County,
and there is strip of good property, con-
sisting of about six acres, that has never
appeared on the maps in the name of any
person, and consequently is considered
Government land. 1t was for the purpose
of squatting on this property that Gardner
built the cabin, which is half on his pur-
chased property and half on the unclaimed
six acres.
DR.. Liford, the guardian of the Defen-
bach heirs, who own the great tract OF
land extending between Mill Valley and
Belvedere, heard of Gardner squatting on
the property and sent nine men to build
fence around the land claiming that it
was included in the old Spanish grant by
which the Defenbachs acquired possession
of the vast tract in the southern part OF
Marin.
Peter Gardner got wind of Liford's
scheme to erect fence, and was on hand
to meet the men when they put in an ap-
pearance to commence work. The men,
all of whom were Italian, were under DR..
Liford, who drove over to boss the under
taking. The men were instructed to go
ahead with the work, and they commenced
| to dig the postholes.
All this time Peter Gardner stood by
| and watched them work, but as quickly as
they placed one post In position he would
tear 1t up. Things were getting exciting,
and Liford ordered his men 10 work faster,
| but Gardner was equal to the occasion and
managed to pull up the posts as rapidly as
they could put them down. Liford called
to the men to make Gardner stop interior.
ing, but Gardner refused to stop. No vlo-
| lence was resorted to. The men worked
faster and were getting the posIs in posi-
| ton more rapidly than Gardner could
bring them down, so he rushed into the
| cabin and obtained hatchet and started
| to chop the posts down.
This was too much for Liford, and he
withdrew the men, and the battle was
transferred to the Justices court in Mill
Valley. Dr. Liford came rushing into the
valley at breakneck speed, and demanded
a warrant from Justice Fottrell for the ar
rest OF Peter Gardner for malicious mis-
chief; but the Justice, after hearing the
facts of the case, refused to issue warrant
for Gardeners arrest, and DIR. Liford took
his men and went his way.
About ten minutes after Llford had gone
Peter Gardner drove up and wanted war
| rants issued for the arrest OF DR.. Llford
and the twelve Italians who had unsuc-
| cessfully attempted to erect the fence.
Gardner was also refused the warrants,
and the battle stands about even.
Llford says ne will attempt to gain pos
| session for the Defenbach heirs by bring
ing suit in the Superior Court to Gust the
Gardeners, but Peter has been to law about
land in Southern Marin many times before
and thinks that he will not be compelled
to give up the property He has nailed up
notices all over the property warning peo-
pie to keep off, and he occupies the cottage
night and day for fear Liford will attempt
to resort to some other method to gain the
property.