The Virginia enterprise., 1908-02-21

o. taia Ore Bodies.
Judge Page Morris, of the U. S.
Circuit Court, on Wednesday denied
the writ o., ejectment prayed for by
Murphy, porr & Finn against Ne,
linda Tanner, y lljam, Shea, and F.,
IT, Raab, settlers On the public lands.
about Cedar Island, or Ely lake,
believed to contain valuable ore
bodies.
~ The plaintiffs in the actions are
William Ell. Murphy, Elisha H.
Finn and Selwyn Eddy, as execut.
ors and trustees under the will of
Simon J. Murphy, deceased, and
George O., Robinson, Elisha Finn
and Temple f. Dorr. The defend
ants in the three ejectment suits
were Melinda Tanner, William II.
Shea and E. L. Raab.
The gist of Judge Morris decision
is that the plaintiff owners of lots
adjoining the Howe meander line,
did not acquire any more territory
by reason of the Faison survey, and
the 200 acres of land in dispute is
held to belong to the. government
and cannot be taken away from the
defendant settlers. who have first
claim on the same when the land is
surveyed.
Before the writ could issue the
plaintiff had to prove their title to
the land in dispute, and this, the
court holds, they have utterly failed
to do.
Judge Norris decision is contrary
to a ruling made by Former Secre
tary of the Interior Hitchcock, and
to recent ruling by Secretary of
the Interior Garfield. The court takes
the position that the land depart
ment had no authority to run a
meander line which would operate
to give to private parties lands that
in reality belong to the govern
ment.
Under Judge Norris decision, the
plaintiffs are entitled only to the
amount OF the territory specified in
their patents.
To uee the words of the court, in
rendering his decision: "The plain
tiffs got what they got when they
got it,"
The litigation over the disputed
territory about Cedar Island lake,
which has been in progress in the
courts for over fifteen years, and
by reason of the determined fight
that has been made by the settlers
to hold onto the land on which they
established their claim years ago,
has attracted widespread interest
Shorn of the legal technicalities,
the facts alleged concerning the
situation are about as follows:
In the northeast corner of town.
ship SIT is located Cedar Island,
or Ely lake.
The township is supposed to
have been surveyed by govern
ment surveyor in 1876. His plat
showed the lake as having an area
of about 1900 acres.
Subsequent investigation dis
closed the fact that Surveyor Howe
never ran any interior lines in the
township nor did he locate any of
the government marks. The in
vestigation also disclosed the fact
that the lake really covered about
1000 acres instead of 1900 acres.
AS result of the investigation,
about 200 acres of land were found
to be lying between the actual shore
of the lake, as it exists on the Howe
plat and the meander line laid
down by him on the plat.
In 1892, when the country began
to be settled, this discrepancy be.
tween the actual shore line of the
lake and the plated meander line,
was discovered and a number of
settlers located on the land in ques-
ton, claiming it as public land,
subject to homestead entry.
They made application to the
land department for survey of the
land 80 they could perfect home
stead settlement.
s. This precipitated legal conflict
between the settlers and the owners
of patent lands which adjoined the
Howe meander line and this con
'flict has been in progress since 1892.
These adjoining land owners
claimed the unsurveyed lands on
the theory that their lots extended
clear to the actual lake shore. This
claim was tried in the courts in the
case of two settlers and a decision
was rendered against the adjoining
lot owners by the United States
supreme court in 1893.
In that year the land commission
er ordered survey, which was
made by Faison.
The settlers claimed that he failed
to survey all of the lands and that
he left strip of about 200 acres on
the north of the meander line as
run by him and the south boundary
line of the adjoining lot owners.
This strip is supposed to be the
most valuable part of the lands
claimed nv tho aettIera
The adjoining lot owners claimed