The Virginia enterprise., 1901-09-06
Settlers Vittpripa$
Judge Cant Renders Decision
In Favor of Ely Lake
Homesteaders.
AFFECTS ABOUT 1000 ACRES.

AFFECTS ABOUT 1000 ACRES.
The defendants win in the Cedar
island case of ejectment brought by
the Security Land and Exploration
company.
The suit came up in special term
of district court and the decision
was handed down by Judge Cant
yesterday. The title of the action
was Security Land and Exploration
company against G. A. and Mary
Burns and Henry Weckey and Ros-
aline Weckey. The result of the
case affects about twenty settlers
and about 1000 acres of land. It is
an important decision in case
that has been fought for several
years with varying success and the
settlers seem to have now received
much encouragement.
The Cedar Island land case has
been second only to the section 80
case in the matter of absorbinS
public interest. The settlers have
made a gallant struggle against
seeming odds. Much feeling on
their part has been aroused. In the
course of the attempt at ejectment
OF the settlers, dams have been
blown up, there has been bloodshed
and Luke Harcourt is now in the
county Jail awaiting trial on the
charge of assaulting Pat Shields
with deadly weapon. Shields
was employed by the Cloquet Lum-
Der company, which was enga ged
in cutting some of the timber off
the land.
The lands under contention are
said to be valuable for their iron
deposits. The settlers, it is said,
had no intimation of the value of
the lands for their mineral wealth
at the time they took their claims,
although the property .was.valuable
for timber. The whole trouble
arose over a mistake in the survey
of the lands. Cedar Island lake was
shown by the official government
survey to contain about 1000 acres,
whereas it contained not to exceed
SEQ. According to the survey of
the lake, therefore, the supposed
and actual shores were far apart.
The land that was surveyed as wat
er is the land in dispute. Since the
spring of 1892 the settlers have been
in possession of the land in dispute,
Between 1879 and 1887 the govern
lnent disposed OF the lands sur
rounding Cedar Island lake (also
known as Ely lake, to Simon J.
Murphy and others. Subsequently
the discovery in the government
survey was made. There was a
considerable body of land between
the supposed and actual shore line
and the settlers squatted upon it as
unsurveyed land. Murphy and 9th.
ers claimed that their lands sh ould
go to the shore line and that, there,
fore, the settlers were trespassers.
The decision of Judge Cant yes
terday that the settlers are not tres
Passers is one of the most interest
ing features in the development of
the case. Simon J. Murphy and
others quit claimed the property in
dispute to the plaintiff in the pres
ent action. Judge Cant holds that
the defendants are not in possess
sion of lands owned by plaintiff
which follows that the plaintiffs
claim that his property line extends
to the lake shore is not valid.
1t is found that in some cases the
actual shore of the lake is from one.
half to one mile from the pretend.
ed shore line and that the several
hundred acres intervening, upon
which the settlers squatted for un-
surveyed land, is really high and
tillable, and covered with a timbe,
growth of century or more. Moth.
ing is found to base the assump
ton that at the time of the survey
by the government that the shore
line at that time actually extended
to the point claimed for it.
Billson, Congdon & Dickinson ap
Peared for the plaintiff and Messrs
Wilson & Vanderlip and r. r
Briggs for the defendants.