The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-07-25

y man named Graham was elected
president of the meeting and thirteen
aiticles were drawn up, regulating the
holding of claims, signed by all the
miners interested. one OF the agree
ments was that they would stand to-
gether for the upholding of the laws
that they were making themselves. 1t
was in effect primitive legislative as
sembly. The country was absolutely
unorganiZed.
Laws Lived Up To.
The seat of government of the ter
ritory was 50 far away that no one
ever went there. There were no
judges to make decisions or peace Of
ficers to enforce the decisions. And
1t is of record thai the laws made by
these men We're never broken
There must be a book in which to
record the laws. Blank books were
very scarce. Graham remembered he
had an old hotel register down at his
cabin, that he brought with him when
he had closed his hotel back in the
states, because it contained the names
OF men who had stopped at his hotel
and had not paid him for their enter
tanment. The hotel register would
do and the new district was welcome
to it. SO Clark, then a slight young
man, volunteered to go to Graham's
cabin and get the hook
Miners Laws Made Valid.
At the first session of the legisla-
ture of the new territory of Montana,
created a few years later, the laws
of the miners were made valid, and
their primitive records were declared
the official records of the state. So
the hotel register of Graham, by this
took on the official status
Of a county record. and became the
property of Beaverhead county.
This book, which contains the laws
Of that early day assembly, as we'll as
the names Of Graham's delinquent
ocarders, now reposes in vault in
he court house of Beaverhead county
md has been referred to repeatedly in
making up abstracts of title
Clark was named as recorder of !,
Jeff Davis gulch, and the book con-
aims many interesting entries |
Among the more quaint records is the |
GLOWING:
Know all men by these presents: !
That |, w. Harvey, for and in con-
liberation of one sorrel mule, have
his day sold all my right title and
interest in claim No. 10, above Dis
'overy, jeff Davis gulch, to w. B.
Perkins,
Harvey rode the sorrel mule away
o find new diggings, but was unsuc-
essful. Perkins worked the claim
nd took out several thousand dol
ars in gold dust
Graeter Tells of Clark.
Gus Graeter, well-to-do pioneer,
Iho was in Bannack in the early days,
avs he recalls seeing Clark make his !
tart on the stampede to Jeff Davis
'ulch. Il remember the morning
veil" is Graeter's statement. He had |
lot been in Bannack very long, hav-
ng come by bull team overland from
He was wearing a bright
lue soldiers overcoat, a relic of the
ivil war. The color Of the coat con-
rasted sharply with his hair, which
vas red. He had apparently gotten
90 close to some camp fire, and had !
urned off the tail of the coat. But
Re was too busy making his start to
ay any attention to a bobbed off 4
oat tail. He had his pack on his
ack on this particular morning, and
seemed to me thai it was too much
f load for him. 1t occurred to me
hen, and l was young and not much |
wen to philosophy, that man who
ould carry a load such as he had,
'ould go far if the diggings should
rove what we hoped they would. {
ave since ridden with him in his pri- s