Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1910 — DITCH CONTROVERSY IN NEWTON TOWNSHIP. [ARTICLE]

DITCH CONTROVERSY IN NEWTON TOWNSHIP.

To the parties concerned! in the Abner C. Pancoast ditch in Newton township, Jasper county, Indiana: Why should Mr. Pancoast ask you to make a ditch for him when his part of the ditch was never received on the old Martindale ditch? He says he wants a ditch and will have a ditch, so let him have one by completing the old Martindale ditch. He may not get it in the circuit court, but one thing is certain, be will have a better chance to get a ditch in the supreme court than he will have had in the report which the viewers reported in their report, and which came up for trial September the third, and was sent back for correction on account of not being according to law. The John Makeever estate and others have been fighting this ditch and that it what stopped it long enough to give us a chance to breathe and find out where we are and not have it railroaded through. This gives all one more chance to remonstrate agaiqpt the ditch. We have ten days after the viewers file their next report to remonstrate. No matter what anyone says about not having the ten days in which to remonstrate, I have good legal advice from one of the best attorneys in the United States, who belongs to neither trust, organization nor combination, who ! says we have the ten days to remonstrate and that two-thirds majority will defeat the ditch. The attorney for the ditch would not listen to reason. I was explaining to Mr* Pancoast how he could get this ditch on the lower end of it by not reaching so far (/it and . taking in the big ditches on higher ground of sufficient capacity to carry all the water that will ever fall on the ground above, even the overflow water. Mr. Pancoast was friendly towards that argument, and while we were talking, the attorney for the ditch came up, shook bis linger at me, was indignant, and said, "You will have a ditch up there.” He meant on the higher ground, so he called Mr. Pancoast to go with him. As he left me Mr. Pancoast said, “Well, that’s the wav U will be then.’ So let’s all give him a chance to have a ditch, but defeat the present one by a twothirds majority, and give him a tty-out on the oi_d Martindale ditch, which is made a part of this A. C. t ancoast dit'fch, and send it to the supreme court, where they judge irrespective of men and cases, but of law. For our, part we are tired making ditches for Mr. Pancoast, but would like one more chance clean out our allotments in the old Martindale ditch, and have Mr. Pancoast have his allotments received and recorded. Then this ditch will be sufficient lor all whose lands were issessed for the construction of the <td Martindale ditch. Would like to hear soon from all those who fee! that this is an imposition for Mr Pancoast to force his new ditch upon all of us. Yours truly, JAY W. STOCKTON, Rensselaer, Ind