The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-12-17
BOUGHT A FARM FOR $3.50.
And an 0pportune Cow Won Him Half
% d Million Dollars From It.

IA half-ton of hay won a fortune for
man and an Oil company In the courts Of
our county one time" said Cataraugus
county lawyer. "and then COW that ate
that hay came along and turned that for
tune all over to another man. The rec
ord Of 1t is in all the courts from the
county court up to the court Of appeals,
and the case hasn't it's parallel in the his
tory of litigation.
years ago Griffith Jones, who lived in
Oneida county, purchased at tax sale
100 acres of land in the town If ALLIE
ganny, Cataraugus county. 1t cost him
$50, but when he came to look his pur-
chase over he did not think we'll enough
of it to invest any more monye in it, and
after taking out his tax deed to protect
his title to the land he returned to Oneida
county.
1.-The farm had been the property Of
James HILL who had let it pass to sale for
arrears of taxes. When oil was struck
in Allegany county this farm lay on what
promised to be the oil belt and Hill took
possession of it again and transferred it
to the Bradford Oil company on a basis Of
a royalty on the oil that might be dis
cred upon the farm.
THE property proved to be rich oil
producer. In two years the farm re-
was still producing largely.
Jones about that time happened to be
in that locality and learned for the first
time what bonanza the farm had turned
out to be- and he at once began proceed
ings against the Bradford Oil COMPANY to
recover possession of it and for an ac-
counting for the oil that had been taken
from it, The case came up before the
county court, and the oil company denied
the title of Jones to the property on the
ground that he had not served on the Oc-
cupant of the land notice to redeem the
same within two years as the tax sale
law OF the state required.
Jones met this defense with the plea
that the farm was not occupied by Hill
when the tax deed was taken out, and
that there was consequently no one to
serve such notice upon. The oil COM
pany proved that Hin had left in barn
on the place half a ton of hay and con-
tended that il was evidence of his legal
occupancy of the property although he
was absent from it,
The contention Of the company was
accepted by the court as good in law and
the jury We're charged that if it had been
proved to their satisfacl .on that the hay
was in the barn on the day the plaintiff
took out his deed under the tax sale they
should find tnat his title was not good.
The jury found.
Jones asked for and obtained new
trial on The ground that new evidence had
been discovered. The case was tried
again. and Jones Ioved ny two witnesses
TAT on the Very day before he paid his
purchase price for the HIll farm and took
out .ne tax deed. giving him his title to
ii. i COW had strolled along that way,
entered the ramshackle shunty of a barn
II hal II f1eA
therein, the COW evidently having been
"A visitor there before
'On this evidence Jones won the case
The company carried it to the SUI
preme court, the general term, and the
court of appeals, and the judgment was
sustained by every court. Then all the
company could do Was To settle with
Jones' which it did paying him nearly
= million dollars and taking the fafm.''