Wood County Reporter

That mandamus Suit.
The Adams County Railroad Squabble Transferred to Grand Rapids.

Monday morning some 50 citizens of Adams county, including many of the board of supervisors of that county, appeared at the court house in this city to witness the proceedings in the mandamus suit brought before Judge Webb by the Princeton & Wisconsin River Railroad Co. against the board of supervisors of Adams county.

That the public may understand the situation we republish a short statement of the circumstances leading up to this suit. Some Chicago promoters organized a corporation called the Princeton & Wisconsin River Railroad Co. and proposed to build a railroad from Princeton to Necedah. The road was to pass through the county of Adams from east to west, and through the village of Friendship. The promoters made a proposition to bond Adams county for $90,000 to pay the expense of the railroad through the county. Petitions for accepting their proposition were circulated and a majority of the names of those in the county who were qualified to vote on such matters were signed to said petitions. A board of canvassers, consisting of the judge, county clerk and chairman of the county board canvassed the lists of names and found a sufficient number to secure the bonding of the county.

During the time these petitions were being secured much opposition developed to the bonding of the county, and during the night of Dec. 12 and 13, the office of the county clerk was burglarized of the original petitions which had been filed in that official's office. Each party to the controversy charged the other with being responsible for the stealing of the petitions and the board of supervisors was called together to investigate the whole subject thoroughly. The work of this investigation was delegated to a committee of five of the board to carry on the investigation and to report to the full board at an adjourned meeting appointed for the 24th of January. This committee has been and still is pursuing this investigation with what result we shall hereafter see.

Upon this action being taken by the board of supervisors, the railroad company in question began mandamus proceedings before Judge Webb to compel the board to issue the $90,000 worth of bonds according to the stipulations of the petition of the railroad company filed with the county clerk at the beginning of the enterprise. The case was vigorously contested all day Monday before Judge Webb. the attorneys representing the railroad company being Winkler, Flanders. Smith and Vilas of Milwaukee and Albert N. Eastman of Chicago. The attorneys for the majority of the board of supervisors were Cate, Lamoreux and Park of Stevens Point and Judge W. S. Stroud of Portage City. A minority of the board were represented by S. W. Pierce of Friendship, Adams county. The last acts in court before adjournment were two motions,-one by the attorneys for a majority of the board asking that the mandamus proceedings be quashed because that a large number of the signers to the railroad petition had been found by the investigating committee to be illegal. The court overruled this motion. The other was by the attorneys for the railroad company who wanted the signers of the railroad petition alleged to be fraudulent, feminine, dead or otherwise disqualified by law from appearing upon said petition to be specifically described and their disabilities as signatories pointed out by the attorneys for the defense. The court then adjourned to February 7, 1901.