The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1903-06-12
ANDERSON EFT AIS VS.. BASS
MAN EFT AIS.
Interesting Historical Matter Con-
densed Into a Small Compass.

from ditch some place on the Clog
ston ranch which he now believes
was the Snowshoe No. l ditch. That
in 1851 or 1868 irrigating bitches were
scarce.
Peter Vallem testified that he work
ed a few hours one day with John
Hawkins, helping to drive pegs in as
sisting to survey the ditch line in 1860,
and that is all he did, and did not see
the ditch again until 1868, although in
1861 and 1862 he was running the Bar
Der ranch and owned one-eighth in
terest in the ditch. At another part of
his testimony he says he saw the ditch
again in 1861.
Pete Millich testified that he passed
by there in 1859 and saw men at work
apparently surveying a ditch.
Robert Trimmer testified that the
ditch was commenced in 1850 and COM
pleted in 1861, and that they got it
over the divide about the time they
learned of the Inauguration of Lincoln.
He was subjected to cross-examination
several times by each of the attorneys
for plaintiffs, because he testified to
being there himself as an owner. He
was finally asked how long was it be-
fore Lincoln was assassinated before
they completed the ditch, and he
answered only a few months. That
answer corresponds with plaintiffs
testimony on that point. However,
defendants counsel took him in hand
again, and by explaining the situation,
mer testimony.
w. H. Harvey testified that he was
there in 1861, but does not remember
whether he saw ditch there or not;
that he passed over the road in the
spring of 1868, and then saw the ditch.
AS against this testimony, plaintiffs
show by Ben Palmer, called sometimes
"Nigger Ben," being man likened in
appearance to Judge Terry, who was
killed by Dave Nagel, and referred to
by Theodore Hawkins, defendants
star witness, as "fine man, Mr..
Palmer was asked by plaintiffs coun-
sci if he had ever opened any of the
dams of the defendants and he replied
mo, sir; have never interfered with
any mans dams" He is a man feet,
2 inches tall, weighs about 200 pounds,
and his picture is in evidence.
Mr.. Palmer testified that he bought
the Barber ranch property in 1852, and
that was the first time he was inter-
ested in Alpine. That after he pur-
chased he put men to work in COM
pany with Snowshoe Thompson and
others to dig the Snowshoe Thompson
ditch No. /, and that he dug it. They
began work on it in the fall of 1868,
and they completed it and first turned
water into the ditch in the spring of
1864, and his neighbors above gobbled
all the water, and it never reached his
ranch, and that Snowshoe Thompson,
who then owned the Scossa ranch,
could not get enough to do him any
good, the ditch being too small to car
ry water through the sandy soil any
distance. That in the fall of 1864
Snowshoe Thompson started No. and
got water to his ranch in 1865, and
that in the fall of 1855, witness got an
interest in No. 2 ditch to irrigate his
ranch by widening it one foot top and
bottom, making it three feet wide and
F that he (witness) was without water
for the Barber ranch for two years,
not counting the fall of 1853, when he
, began work on the ditch.
The notice of location of No. 2 ditch
by Thompson and the Others named,
, August, 1864, reading in future, as ii
, does, corroborates every word of the
testimony of this witness.
The next year (1865) the Vallem
, ranch got an interest in that ditch by
charging it some more.
: Defendants attempt by testimony
: like a woman's reason-I know it, be.
, cause l know it, to show that No.
was dug in 1868, and that the notice OF
, location must have been put up one
, year after it was dug. But how easy
, it is to say that the ditch was dug in
: 1868, and stick to It'll
R. T. Wilkerson, plaintiff, and
: Elmer Carr, a disinterested witness,
/ testified that they met Theodore Haw.
, kins, and in conversation he admitted
that it was so long ago he did not re.
member when it was dug-referring to
No. ditch.
Chas. f. Holbrook, disinterested
witness, testified that he used to haul
wood over the road crossed by No.
ditch, above Woodfords at the point
marked on the map, and that he never
: saw the ditch until the fall of 1858, and
remembers it we'll on account of q
balky mule that gave him some troub'
lie crossing it.
d. B. Park, whose picture is in evi.