Arizona republican., 1898-03-25

Miss Margaret Underhill entertained
 number of her friends at her fathers
 home on the Kenilworth ranch this ] evening"
 Money is being collected in the
 Scottsdale school to send to the famine
 sufferers of Cuba.
 MT. Crozier expects to start for
 Yuma on a business trip tomorrow. i THE HOUSE THAT CANT BUILT.
 CHAPTER II.
 About this time trouble began to brew in that otherwise peaceful and
 happy community. Trouble which cost Mir. Cant many a tug at the heart
 strings, many tug at the purse l strings, many tug at the old mares l tug and many a mile of travel. Trou- 1 ble that actually threatened to in volve the whole neighborhocd. It is a. l long story and the bottom of it all
 might be called "The Ditch That Cant I Bought
 l In 1886 the Goodwin boys went out
 south of Tempe and constructed a
 ditch from the end of the southern
 branch of the Tempe canal two miles south, thence one mile west and thence
 one mile south. In 'S8 Lon Harmon
 rented the section of land which MT. Cant now owns and also the quarter
 section which is known as the Daggs
 land and which lies at the southwest corner of the Cant section. MT liar mon could not get water enough to suit him on the Cant and Daggs land through the Goodwin ditch, 50 he con- structed ditch of his own.
 For the benefit of those who are not informed it will be stated that the Salt River valley was once inhabited, perhaps by a more intelligent race i than that which now gains subsistence
 in it. The handiwork of this extinct race can be seen everywhere, cut deep
 into the surface of the valley or piled conspicuously high above it in the form of great canal systems. through ! sections which as yet this civilization | has utterly failed to water because of its great elevation: sections. too, which | if watered, would be as valuable as any farming or orchard land on earth:
 in the form of silent sombre ruins of public buildings. homes and work shops. In this district, which is un- der discussion. these proofs of the past 1 are exceedingly numerous and a great many pieces of pottery. axes. skele- tons, ornaments, household imple- ments and many other things have been found and are now part of many highly prized collections
 MT. Harmon discovered an old water way lined with ruins, which takes it's i course right down aud diagonally through the Yaeger section. across a corner of what is now Zech's land, a corner of Gant's section which lies inn mediately west of Zech, diagonally through the Daggs section which is at the southwest corner of Gants. and diagonally through Miss Seass' quarter section. which is south of the Daggs land. So it is seen that this was a diagonal waterway according to the cardinal points of the present day and | age and that this dead people con structed ditches where they would sup ply water to all the land whether it
 spoiled the appearance of a section of land or not. Were there no other evidences in the case which took place years after MT. Harmon discovered this
 waterway this fact alone that the 1 people who first subdued this desert
 waste constructed a canal down this ridge is proof enough that this is abso- lutely the best natural waterway through that country.
 | MT. Harmon began at the corner where the Goodwin ditch turns west two miles south of the end of the south ern branch, and reconstructed this Az tee waterway down to the Daggs cor ner and watered this land and the Cant land for his sheep. Two years later in 1890. R. G. Goodwin filed on the Zech section.
 Col. Shultz took Valentine Cant out and showed him section 26, as Mr. Cant wanted to buy MT. Shultz showed him the Goodwin ditch which, as has been stated ended at the cor ner of this section and which was in
 good condition. But MT. Cant who
 was a man of great experience in waterways, both for farming and min ing purposes, and who assisted in building one of the first irrigating ca nals in California, said he could not get water on enough of the land through this ditch and told Mir Shultz ] he wouldn't buy. He was then shown this Harmon ditch, which was in poor condition and half grown over with brush. On seeing this Mr. Cant bought the land on the spot, with all appur- tenances thereto" This was in 1892. i The new owner rented the land to the Daggs brothers and went back to Cal ifornia. Fletcher Schureman and R. G. Goodwin put the Goodwin (Zech) section into grain that year and plowed in the Harmon ditch, none knowing much about waterways, thinking it was a nuisance and therefore thinking 2
 MT. Cant would have no objections, they dug a ditch around the corner
 in order that the Daggs could have
 water for their sheep. They them ! selves watered their grain from ditch which they built straight south from