Duluth Storage & Forwarding Co. v. Prentice
Duluth Storage & Forwarding Co. v. Prentice
Opinion of the Court
(after stating the facts.") This suit is brought to establish, as against the defendant, the titles derived from John M. Gilman, whose immediate grantors were Benjamin Armstrong and wife, under a deed dated August 31,1864. The defendant’s claim must stand or fall under his deed from Armstrong and wife, dated September 11,1856. If the title, of Gilman is sustained, the complainants must succeed, as they all trace title through him. Armstrong’s title, conveyed by this deed, is claimed to be derived under a treaty with the Chippewa Indians in 1854 at La Pointe on Madaline island in Lake Superior, and under the selection of Chief Buffalo, according to the provisions of the treaty and appointment by Buffalo that the lands selected by him should be conveyed by the United States to Armstrong and three other relatives.' The interest under the treaty of the three relatives was assigned September 17, 1855, to Armstrong. The question which must determine the rights of the parties to this controversy has been before this court in several ejectment suits brought by this defendant against persons claiming under Gilman, (see 20 Fed. Rep.‘819; 43 Fed. Rep. 270;) and in one instance a case was reviewed by the supreme court of .the United States and the construction by this court of the deed from Armstrong to Prentice affirmed. Prentice v. Stearns, 113 U. S. 435, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 547. It is true, additional testimony is taken in this suit by the parties under objections from each. The objections noted by the defendant to the testimony of Messrs. Ray, Carey, McFarland, and others are overruled. I am inclined to think this evidence is relevant. The admission of traditionary evidence in cases of boundary is admissible, and Chief Buffalo’s selection under the treaty was a matter of peculiar interest to the people in general who .were about to make or had made settlement upon government land in that locality, and so the declarations made by Chief Buffalo before his death, and those of Armstrong to the persons camping with him. at Endion, are admissible, the former as tending to show that the Buffalo selection lays east of the large rock mentioned, and the latter being relevant as also tending to show that it did, and that Armstrong fully recognized this location, and that the deed from him to the defendant of September 11, ÍS56, was intended to convey an undivided one half
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.