The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-05
LORD OF 10000 ACRES.
A Court Decision Makes Mai. Carlisle
the Owner of n BarOniaI Estate.

Court Decision Makes Mai. Carlisle
the Owner of BarOniaI Estate.
From the New Orleans Times-Democrat.
birmingham. Ala, Dec. 2i.-Ope of the
biggest land cases ever litigated in Ala
bama was decided i'm the federal court
yesterday. II was the case of the Uni
ted States against Hugh Carlisle and the
Tennessee and Coosa Railroad Company.
The defendants won, and the chief party
in interest, Maj, Hugh Carlisle of Gun
tersville, Ala. is receiving congratuls-
tons from far and near over the happy
issue of what had long been to him
great business vexation.
The land involved consists OF about TO-
600 acres which were originally granted
by act Of congress in 1856 to aid in the
construction of the Tennessee and Coosa
railroad. A bill was filed in November,
1891, to forfeit the grant This bill aileg-
ed that the road had not been completed
within the ten years prescribed by the
granting Of the act. The bulk of the
land had been conveyed to Mai. Carlisle
in payment for constructing and equip
ping the road. The court in its final de-
cree decided that the Tennessee and
COOsa Railroad Company sold to Mai.
Carlisle and other bona-fide purchasers,
prior to Sept. 20, 1890, the date of the pas
sage of the forfeiture act all the lands
embraced in the first 100 sections, which,
by the terms of the granting act, it was
struetion of the road or any part there
OF. The court also found that the road
from Gadsden TO Littleton had been COM
pleted and was in operation by Sept. %,
1880, and the lands opposite that point
had not been forfeited, and for that rea-
son the court held that none of the land
mad been forfeited. that the sale TO CaB-
Isle was bona fide, based on a good con-
sideration, the proceeds being used for the
construction and equipment of the road.
Something like 100 sQuatters anu pur-
chasers had settled upon the land. many
of them being purchasers from Maj Car
Isle or the railroad company, but had re-
fused TO make payment. hoping to get
possession and title by entry from the
government. The courts decision di-
place the property in the possession of
Maj Carlisle
With the 10000 acres 80 about 500 notes.
with interest, ranging from 500 to 500. In
the territory is comprised some of the
best mineral lands in the state as well as
valuable farm lands, in a wonderfully
beautiful and picturesque region. In
cluded in it are the ore mines of the Eto-
wah Mining Company, which has been for
the last eight years turning out from 400
TO 500 tons of red hematite ore which has
generally been shipped to South Pitts
burg, Tenn. Another large body of the
land adioins the big Dwight cotton manu-
featuring plant at Alabama City. The
litigation over this property has been a
stumbling block in the way of its develop
ment to many any anxious investor. who
had no doubt of it's valuable possibilities.
iron ore lands, such as are utilized by the
furnace of the Birmingham district and
a vast area of good coking coal lands,
where coal can be handled TO water trans
portation by the simple aid OF gravity.
Mai Carlisle's estate is now as grand
as any of the titled lairds of his native
country, Scotland, whence he came to
be a sturdy American citizen and a valued
and honored Albanian. His triumph will
be glad news to his hosts of friends and
well wishers all over Alabama He was
one of the untlagging pioneers of progress
sive industrial Alabama. He showed his
zeal and proved his faith in the Coosa
railroad by spending $25000O in it and stick
ing to it after it had been abandoned by
every one else. on account of the heavy
grading il was an unusually difficult road
10 build, one mile of IL cost as much as
$1,000. Mai. Carlisle will be a generous
and forbearing landlord and creditor to
his numerous tenants and debtors and eX-
pressed the opinions that honest purchas-
ers of the lands ought to be satisfied at
Leaf that all doubt as to the title is now
removed.