Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1903-06-03
+ 81 IS 81 81 81 * 81 IS 81 s. s. s. Fl
!. THE CAUSE OF THE - !. :.
: GREENBAUM ASSIGNMENT ):
Telling HotO a
Baby .Soived a
! Copyright, 1908,
By Edmund Randolph
( :: - r = = Il

r j. - - - 81 Fl
wNHERE didn't seem to be any
thing for respectable. law abid-
IA ing citizens to do but stand
aside and let 'em shoot 1t out.
If either had been professional claim
Jumper or "bad man" or one had
been tenderfoot, it would have been
different.
But with Jack Walker and Ben Jones
claiming the same ground we had no
call to interfere. 1t would not have
been neighborly and maybe not quite
safe. They We're both square men and
good miners, who knew their rights and
how to stand up for 'em. We We're sor-
ry enough, for good men were none too
thick in Mercur, but it was their party,
and we We're not invited.
The trouble came about in this way:
Their claims Joined on the sides. Wal
ker's was located back in the seventies,
but he followed the placer boom into
Idaho and only did his assessment
work until shortly after Ben Jones To-
Gated the ground to the west, when he
came back and went to work in good
earnest. He struck splendid lead and
after doing the necessary development
applied for patent. The official sur
vey showed his claim bore more to the
west than anybody supposed and at
the south end extended some sixty feet
over on the ground Jones was working
and took in his shaft Now, the shaft
was down 200 feet or more, and had
cost lot Of good money and hard
work, and was in ore besides, but that
wasn't by any means the worst. The
apex of Jones vein was in this little
triangular piece of ground, and it was
strong vein and the only one he had
yet found.
The apex of the vein is the point
where it comes nearest the surface.
When it is found ON ones claim, the
owner may follow the vein on its dip
| (Which is its direction into the earth)
between his end lines to the lower re-
gions, If he wants to, and all the ore in
it belongs to him. This may not strike
you as quite fair, but is mining law
nevertheless, as held by the courts, and
miners often find their best workings
under the surface ground of their
| neighbors.
i To understand this trouble you ought
to know how mining locations are
made. A claim may be 1900 feet long
by 800 on each side Of the discovery.
When 1t is located, stakes or monu-
ments are put up at the point of dis
covcry and Mt each corner, showing Its
dimensions and direction, and de-
scription of it, giving date of location
and name of locator, is recorded with
the district recorder, and it cannot
thereafter be changed, and all subse-
Quent locations are made with refer
ence toit.
When you remember that miners are
not surveyors, and measurements are
made by stepping the ground, and the
side of mountain is not as level as 9
floor, and that courses are run by look
ing at the sun or north star, you will
conclude that accuracy is next to i'm
possible until an actual survey is made
Jones searched the records before he
located and tied to the older claim, TAX
ing Walkers west line for his east. Ht
found Walkers northwest corner stake
all right and stepped 1900 feet in {
southwesterly direction, that being tn
direction the records showed the CLAIM
to run, but failed to find the southwes
|, corner stake. So he went over to tn
southeast one, which was still standing
and stepped 300 feet westward at RICH
angles to the other line, as nearly as b
could guess 1t, to where he intercepte
the other line He called that poin
\ northeast and put up u monument
You see how easy 1t is to make mis-
! take of few feet, and you will als
see, If you are as bright as you lool
that 1t wouldn't be difficult some plea
ant evening after Jones had ''struck II
in his shaft for Walker to move h
southeast stake little to the west an
J thus float his claim In that direction.
! The whole thing depended on thu
I stake Walkers was the prior Location
I and If the stake hadn't been moved Il
4 ground was his and II it had been
} was mighty hard thing to prove. Thu
! swinging stakes and foating claim
killing business if you are caught, I
was before courts and lawyers got {
] thick but it Is sometimes done neve
theless.
Jones knew the law and of cour
knew the vein went into his grouI
} through the side line and tn Walk
4 could follow it if he got the apex al
take all of his ore.
He had staked the ground himse
\ and had been honest and careful abo
it, and had spent all his money and tv
years of awfully hard work in Il
II shaft He was absolutely certa
Walker had foated his claim and
tended to steal the ground, and
didn't propose to let 1t go that way.
go to court meant big money for la
p yers, surveyors and experts, and
~ didn't have any money to throw ava
. Besides, courts We're slow, and
would be enjoined from taking out @
= until the case was decided, and tn
~ the chances were about even 1t wou
u be decided wrong anyway. The grou
was his. He had located and develop
q it and wasn't going to be beaten out
n 1t. So the night after the survey
u quietly moved his tent down near t
shaft, went to town and got Winch'
p tiers for himself and his two mine
~ pulled up the surveyors stakes and q
u nounced that he would hold the pre-
~ erty. OF course he had no business
u do that. What he ought to have do
was to file contest in the land OH
and protest Walkers patent, then CO..
" mence suit in the district court to {
u termine the title, and that is just VIII
a claim jumper or blackmailer won
= have done, in the hope of being bong
~ off. But Jones was only a comm
u miner who didn't know much about t
IS technicalities of the law, but did knc
y there was virtue in a good gun in
" righteous cause.