The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1899-05-13
A NEIHART
MINING CONTEST.
Details of the Litigation Be-
tween the Florence Mining
Co. and F. A. Preston.
A LONG WINDED CONTEST.
History OF a Quibble Without Any
Apparent Moral Justification.

cOuTt Dot W ocu tU0 II lOTcuCS MllluS
company and F. A. Preston, both OF
Neihart, the particulars of which
have never been made public, and
the HERALD IS now prepared to state
the facts relating to the various act
ions and the history in their connec
ton.
The Florence Mining company,
incorporated, of which the owners
are A. M. Henry, R. G. Wight, w.
E. Johnston, ct al, owns and oper-
ates two claims, viz: the Florence
and the M and I. Up to 1896 these
were its only possessions. The
property was originally worked by
Geo. L. Johnston and under his
careful management was put on a
paying basis. On account of the
death of Mr.. Johnston in 1893 the
property remained idle until the
spring of '94, when it started up
with Joe Davis as superintendent.
Up to this time the owners had real
lied very little from the mine, and
were looked upon as poor men.
Soon after the resumption of work
in 1894 the richness of the mine was
uncovered, and the owners began to
declare dividends, paying regularly
for period of two years or so, and
the principal stockholders instead Of
being poor were placed in good f.
nanclal circumstances. All this oc-
CURED while silver was lowest in
price, and when these men most
needed money. To them it must
have seemed providential. Ebery-
body rejoiced with them over their
good fortune and said they were de-
serving men. Meanwhile Joe Davis
as superintendent was superseded
by Dan Lenny.
In 1895 the Florence company de-
cided to purchase the adjoining
ground known as the Monarch
group, composed of three claims,
namely, the Concentrated, Monarch
and British Lion lodes. This prop
erty was then owned by w. J.
Clark, J. w. Stanton and F. A.
Preston. On account of clouded
title Clark could not give clear
deed to the ground, although he had
previously attempted to close out
the other owners by foreclosure pro-
ceedings. In his undue soliditude
for securing full possession of the
property Clark failed to make Stan
ton and Preston parties to the fore
closure, and as the law clearly states
in such case, their interests re-
mained unaffected.
The Florence people, knowing
these facts, wanted the ground, and
gave it out in and around Neihart
that they wanted the Monarch group
only for dumping ground. VIM.
Tierney was their agent in making
the deal. He secured the interests
of Clark and Stanton, comprising an
undivided nine-tenths of the ground,
and the only interest which was not
purchased by Tierney was that of
Preston consisting of one-tenth.
Shortly after this deal Tierney
called upon Preston and told him
that the Florence company did not
consider that he owned in the Mon
arch group, but in order to avoid
any trouble, the company had au-
thorized him to make Preston an
offer of $3.50 for his quit claim.
Preston refused the offer, but made
a counter offer to Tierney. Nego-
tiations were temporarily dropped
and nothing was done toward acquir-
ing Preston's interest.
In August 1895, papers were
served by w. J. Clark upon Pres
ton, to close out his interest. On
account of the sum of money which
Preston had invested in the proper
ty he thought it wise to make as
gallant fight as possible to protect
himself, even though in the end he
lost, and so he engaged the service
of A. c. Gormley as his attorney to
look after the case. Fl. G. McIn-
tyre of Helena was attorney for
Clark or rather for the Florence,
whose fight it really was.
In the spring of '97 it was known