The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-07-24
Poll Tax Insurgents.

trict No. 9 over work on the new judi
cial road that runs along the boundary
line of Mile Laos and Sherburne coun-
ties, commencing at the northeast cor
ner of the northwest quarter of the
northwest quarter of section in Sher-
burne county and crossing thecriver
and running up through section 33 IN
Mile Laos county and terminating at
the end Of Pleasant avenue in the viii
lage of Princeton. At the last term of
court an order was issued for the open
ing of the road, but no work has been
done on the road until last week, when
Road Overseer John Foot OF district No.
9put some farmers who we're working
out their poll tax to work on the road.
Some of the road builders entered
protest and among them were Lewis
Sausser and Mahlin Ellen baum who re-
fused to work on the road as they
claimed that to do so at the present
time when there was no brid &c across
the river making the road of any use
for travel was but waste of time and
labor. But Road Overseer Foot was
of the opinion that the road should be
worked and felt that it was the duty
of the poll tax slaves to turn in with
scrapers, picks and shovels and make
the road one of the great highways
leading up from the rich fields of the
south to the busy marts of Princeton.
Bridge or no bridge, be figured that
he would fix things so'that the road
would make matters 'up to the bridge"
The cry of this generation is for good
roads and he evidently desired to
touch up the judicial road so passers
by could distinguish it from an ordin-
airy COW path. But Ellenbaum and
Sausser were robust insurgents and
didn't care to turn the virgin sod on an
imaginary line that the decree of a
court had called a road. The conse-
quence was that Foot had the two in
surgents arrested and they were
brought before Justice Chadbourne
Saturday and the case was continued
until Wednesday, and defendants ap-
piled for change of venue to Louis
Rust, justice for the town of Princeton.
Ellenbaum and Sausser claim that on
looking up the records last Saturday
that there was no record of the court
having issued an order for the opening
of the road and that consequently no
work can be done on the same and
that it is illegal to work poll tax on
the said road or the place where said
road may be some day. Messrs Ellen
baum and Sausser are quite worked up
over the case and propose to find out
the legal status of the whole affair.
Commission for Sale of Land.
In the federal circuit court at St.
Paul this week Judge Amidon gave a
decision in favor of Charles Rossman
of Minneapolis against the Northwest
ern Improvement company OF St.: Paul
and M. S. Rutherford & Co. Rossman
sued to recover for the payment of a
commission of IS cents an acre on a lot
of land he sold for the Improvement
company in Mile Laos county some
time ago. Rutherford & Co. had a
contract with the company for the sale
OF the land at So an acre and were to
have all over that sum per acre for
which the land might be sold. Ruth
erford & Co. agreed with Rossman that
If he could find purchaser at 50. so
per acre that he should receive IS cents
an acre out of their so cents commits
sion.
Rossman found a purchaser who
bought large tract from the Improve-
ment company at $3.50 per acre, but
the Improvement company refused to
pay Rossman his commission, alleging
that Rutherford & Co. had no right to
engage his services for them, and
furthermore that, according to the
terms of the original agreement, the
land should have been purchased by an
intermediate party from them for So
an acre and then transferred to the
real customer at $3.50.
The court found that the Improve
ment company had ratified the engage
ment with Rossman, by accepting his
services in the making of the deal.
The commission aggregates about
SIS, 400 for Rossman. M. S. Ruther-
ford & Co., who, by the terms of the
same contract, were to receive Is cents
per acre for the part they had in the
deal, would be entitled to $4,000, but
were excluded from the decree because
they had taken sides with the Improve
ment company in the trial and had
waived their claims.
Quite number of people from
Princeton and adjoining places are
making arrangements to take advant-
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