Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1914 — MARBLE DITCH WILL AT LAST BE BUILT [ARTICLE]

MARBLE DITCH WILL AT LAST BE BUILT

Supremo Court Bules Against Romonstrators From Lake County ; Reclamation. The supreme court has sustained the decision in the Jasper drcult court in approving the petition for the construction of the Marble ditch, Which is the enterprise for reclaiming the swamp lands along the Kankakee river from the Starke county line to the Dlinois boundary. This will probably be the last attempt on the part 'of John Brown, of Crown Point, and other land owners north of the river to defeat this reclamation scheme, in which W. F. Powers, of Lafayette, and the Northern Indiana Land Co. were associated with Horace Marble and for which Attorney Halleck has labored for the past eight years. Thousands of acres of land in Jasper, Newton,. Lake and Porter counties will be reclaimed by the lowering and straighterting of the channel of the Kankakee river and the construction of the laterals provided in the Marble petition. Since the death of Horace Marble, the ditch has been generally known as the Marble-Powers ditch, Mr. Powers being the next named of the petitioners. The estimated cos£* of construction exceeds $328,000, and the report of the engineer and the viewers recommends that- the ditch be sold in four sections.

-The following abstract of the decision of the court was published in Friday’s Indianapolis Star: —Public Drains—Ditch , Commissioners.—22l4l. Brown et al. vs. Powers etal., Jasper C. C. Affirmed. Morris, C. J. Proceeding commenced in April, 1907, after drainage act that year took effect, to establish drain in more than one county to straighten Kankakee River and build lateral drains. The drain commences three miles east of Jasper county line and extends through Jasper into Newton county, with laterals and affects lands in Jasper, Newton, Porter, Lake, Laporte and Starke counties, the greater portion being in Jasper county. The court appointed surveyor of Jasper county and a resident of Porter county who was not drainage of that county, drainage commissioners, his was not an abuse of discretion. (2) There was no error in appointing county surveyor of Jasper county prior to his apointment as drainage commissioner by board of commissioners, especially where the court thereafter appointed incumbent commissioner appointed by the board as one of commissioners. (3) Objections to report of an after appointed surveyor, not county surveyor, appointed commissioner on resignation .of county surveyor, were not sufficient where surveyor had served without objections and no showing after elected county surveyor ever attempted to qualify, were properly overruled. (4) There was no error in refusing to dismiss cause on hearing of remonstrances filed in report of commissioners becaues the petition was amended after the filing of the -report of the commissioners, -or for refusal to strike amended petition from files. (5) There was no error in allowing a change of judge after the hearing of one remonstrance by the regular judge by agreement ahead of the date set tor trial of the remonstrance, where the affidavit for change was made after the advanced hearing and before date set for hearing of remonstrances, and while appellants made no objection to change of judge. (6) “Appellants claim the entire proceeding is void because they assert tlje Kankakee

River, in. Jasper county, is naviga- ' ble. This court judicially knows the contrary.” (7) The court can not consider the question of the destruction of the timber on the banks as required by the commissioners’ report in the absence of the evidence from the record.

FOR SALE—A shed that mUst be torn down, but contains some good lumber. Goo. H. Healey.