The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-12-30
STIRRED UP THE TOWN.
Washington's Well the Bone Of Con-
tention in a Law Suit.

New York, Dec. 27.-Tradition says
that General Washington was wont to
quench his thirst at an old well in Tap
pan, n. Y, which has been the point
of contention in a lawsuit just decided
Despite it's hallowed associations the
people of the historical village have been
divided by it into two factions. Only a
stones throw away General Washing
ton had his headquarters. A short dis
tance up the road is the rise of ground
where Major Andre expiated his offense
upon the gallows.
Mrs. L. F. Deming, a native of Tap
pan, has had decision rendered in
her favor by Referee Alonzo Wheeler,
appointed by the supreme court to take
testimony in the suit instituted by her
against neighbor, T. H. Thomson, to
decide the ownership of the old well and
the boundary line between their proper
ties. Thomson is a newcomer in Tap
pan.
In order to decide the ownership of the
well and the right to the patch leading
to it the lawyers, A. S. Tompkins for
the plaintiff and George A. Wyre for
the defendant, called upon all the old in
habitants to give their testimony. Each
side tried to produce the very oldest in
habitant, the one whose memory con-
corning the well would bark back fur
thest into the dim and misty past.
The majority upheld Mrs Deming's
claim, but the real point at issue al
most became lost in the rivalry to see
whose memory was really the longest.
Finally there was dispute as to who
was the oldest inhabitant. This threat
ened to disrupt the entire village. Old
cronies who had known each other from
boyhoOd quarreled.
Few of the witnesses were younger
than seventy; there were half dozen
iH the eighties, and several even laid
claim to ninety odd years. When the
hearings were on it looked like an as
semblage in an old peoples home.
The facts in the case were these: For
merly that was one-story kitchen at
the rear of the Deming homestead. A
door opened to the south on to patch
fhaf lonn tho ~ ci1o of tho ho,,Sa
to the famous well at the front of the
house, near the road. The fence that
divided Mrs. Deming's property from
what is now Mr.. Thomsen's land ended
at the southeast corner of the kitchen
1t stood so close to it that no one could
pass between this kitchen and the well,
a distance of about forty feet. For years
without number the Demings have used
this path along the side of the house to
the well.
In the summer of 1903 Mr.. Thomson,
who had purchased the property adjoin-
ing Mrs. Deming's, took down her fence
and built another diagonally across the
path to the southeast corner of the main
house. He claimed that some one had
told him that the fence formerly stood
so close to the southeast corner of the
house that no one could pass between
them; also that Mrs. Deming had taken
it down and appropriated his land.
The Demings were furious, as the
fence cut them off from the well that
had been theirs for generations.
Referee Wheeler decides that she is
entitled to the path and well. Thomsen's
fence must come down. He will have to
pay the costs of the action, which, with
surveying fees, amounts to about $500.