One of Ontario's most famous cases of adverse possession involved massacring an Irish immigrant family.
"Land title dispute
The property the Donnellys settled on originally belonged to the Canada Company which sold it to James Grace. Patrick Farrell had leased part of the lot occupied by the Donnellys. In 1856, owner John Grace brought an action for ejectment in the Court of Common Pleas of Huron County.[3] Squatting was a common North American frontier practice often supported by the courts in the establishment of common law property rights.[4] The judge, recognizing the improvements Donnelly had made to the land during his ten year occupancy, split the lot, awarding Donnelly the north 50 acres (200,000 m2) and Farrell the south.[4]
Despite the settlement, hard feelings remained. At a barn raising bee on Saturday, June 27, 1857, James Donnelly and Farrell fought. There are various accounts of what transpired, but in the end Farrell suffered a blow to the head from a handspike thrown by Donnelly, and died two days later. James Donnelly then went into hiding. (Farrell's young son was adopted by the Donnellys, and was brought up by them until adulthood.)[citation needed] Almost two years later, James turned himself in to Jim Hodgins, a sympathetic Justice of the Peace.[5] James was sentenced to be hanged on September 17, 1859. A petition for clemency started by his wife Johannah saw his sentence reduced to seven years in Kingston Penitentiary."
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"First massacre
Once the decision to attack the Donnellys was made, the Peace Society got together at roughly one o??clock in the morning to drink before they mounted the attack on this family; this is referred to as the "water of life."[32] The men used the liquor as a way to numb their senses as well as use it as a way to enhance their courage and their motivation.[32]
Once the men had had enough alcohol in their system, they began to walk in the direction of the Donnellys' home; there were also many witnesses that stated they could hear the group of men coming down Roman Line that night.[32] When the group of men finally arrived at the house, they surrounded the perimeter of the property and James Carroll took the first step inside the house, which was considered to be the first attack of the massacre; creating an element of surprise.[33]
Carroll walked into the room and slowly took the handcuffs out of his pocket (these were given to him by the Constable Hodgins) and handcuffed Tom Donnelly while he was still asleep.[34]
Once Tom Donnelly was handcuffed, Carroll did proclaim that "he was under arrest," and at that moment Tom sat up in bed as well as Ms. Donnelly and Bridget Donnelly due to all the commotion.[34] Carroll slowly moved from Tom's bedroom into Mr. Donnelly's bedroom, where he noticed that John Donnelly was nowhere to be found; their plan was to kill all the Donnellys in a single location.[34]
The commotion woke up Mr. Donnelly and he noticed that his son was handcuffed and proclaimed "what have you got against us now?" Carroll responded that they were being charged with another crime.[34] At that moment in time, Tom requested that Carroll read the warrant; since there was no warrant involved, Carroll let out a signal for the men to come storming into the house with their clubs.[33]
At this point, the men were beginning to beat Mr. Donnelly, Ms. Donnelly and Tom Donnelly; Bridget Donnelly was able to escape and race up the stairs in order to hide from her attackers.[35] Johnny was so terrified that he hid underneath of Mr. Donnelly's bed; since the men were not expecting him to be there that night, they did not know to look for him as a witness.[35]
The first one to fall to the ground was Mr. Donnelly; he was beaten rapidly and James Maher hit his skull repeatedly causing brain damage; Mrs. Donnelly on the other hand, fought hard against her attackers.[35] However, she was eventually beaten to the ground by Carroll and Tom Donnelly was fighting extremely hard to protect his family as well as himself; he broke free from the attacks and ran towards the front door, as he was running, Tom Ryder was waiting for him with a pitchfork and thrust the sharp points into Tom multiple times.[35]
Once Tom was limp on the ground, James Maher, Timothy Toohey and Patrick Quigley carried his body back into the house and placed it in the kitchen with his parents as well as Carroll removed his handcuffs from his wrist.[35]
"Hit this fellow on the head with that shovel and break his head open!" [35] It was said that either Jim Toohey or Patrick Quigley bashed Tom's head in three or four times.[35]
Once Mr. Donnelly, Ms. Donnelly and Tom Donnelly were all laying on the ground, the men realized that Bridget Donnelly was nowhere to be found.[36] A group of men went upstairs and found Bridget hiding and they began to beat her to the point where they were able to bring her limp body down the stairs to where the rest of her family was located.[36] To increase the amount of blood that was shed in a single household, one of the men bashed in the dog's head with a shovel because it would not stop barking.[36]
After the group realized that they were missing John Donnelly, they decided to create another plan for that night to rid their community of the Donnellys; they lit the house on fire with the bodies still inside and went hunting for John.[37]"
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"The Second Massacre
At roughly two in the morning, the Peace Society arrived at Whalen Corners; they surrounded the house, in a similar way as they did to the Donnelly's house.[39] However, the difference was the men were not as relaxed as they were in the beginning and they decided to try to get Will Donnelly to come out of the house, instead of storming into the house; they beat his prized stallion in order to lure him out of house from his dying horse's screams.[40] The problem was that the stables were far from the home and no one inside was able to hear what was going on outside, Jim Ryder called for "Will!" while carrying a shotgun to the side door of the house.[40] Will Donnelly woke up from the calling for his name, however it was John that opened the door to Will's house and was greeted by gun shots to the chest and groin; thirty holes were placed in his chest that pierced his lung, broke his collarbone and several ribs.[40] John dropped to the ground; McLaughlin and Ryder walked up to the body and placed seven more shots into John as a form of punishment for his action against the community.[40] Norah Donnelly (Will Donnelly's wife) heard the commotion as well as saw John's body on the ground, she tried to pull his body to safety but it was too heavy to move.[40] Will Donnelly hid in the bedroom and was able to peer through a window in order to get a glimpse of the individuals who were attacking the house; John Kennedy and Carroll were only a few feet away from the bed where he was hiding with his wife.[40] He could also place the faces of Big Mike Heenan, William Carroll and Patrick Ryder; the others faces were blurred by darkness.[40] Since Norah could not pull John to safety, Hogan got down on his knees and snuck out to where John was located and pulled him into the bedroom, which left a bloody trail behind him (John Donnelly died five minutes after).[40] The men of the Peace Society were so worn out from their previous attacks that they decided to just survey the perimeter until someone showed their face inside; the members of the household hid in the house for almost three hours before the group decided to leave the property.[41]
"There's been enough bloodshed tonight boys. Let's go home."[41]
These words spoken by Jim Feeheley ended the massacre, which would have continued to Big Jim Keefe's house.[41]
There were two trials in London, Ontario, at the courthouse on Ridout Street."
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There were no convictions in the murder trials.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Donnellys
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These events would then lend the name to an NBC TV show where Captain Janeway was a tough ol' cuss:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Donnellys
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In 1875, hockey games in Canada were moved inside in an attempt to keep the bloodshed of everyday life contained to a single building.
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There are many oddities regarding Ohio but I'll just keep it to one. The State of Ohio does not include any of the Ohio River. The southern boundary is the north bank of the Ohio River but the State of Ohio will be paying a majority (at least they were years ago when I had knowledge of the deal) of the cost of the bridge carrying IRs 71&75 across said river. We are doing that to get the people from the state up north and Canucks through our state and on to Florida quickly. Ohio wants to put a toll on the bridge but Kentucky has a state law prohibiting any toll on a bridge to Ohio.
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This has been dragging on since 2000 and probably before. The feds couldn't find any money for the project but they could for a bridge to no where in Alaska?!?!? Apparently our Senators, Ohio and Kentucky, aren't smart enough to hold up any important or popular bills until they get a few bucks for one of the busiest truck routes.
The Crow Indian Reservation east boundary in Montana is defined by the 107deg of Longitude. As mapping became available based on NAD27 the 107th line of longitude did not line up with the monumented east boundary. The east boundary did not hold a true bearing and was west of the NAD27 line of longitude. The Crow Tribe argued for years to have the boundary shifted east to align with the 107th. Finally the US Congress passed a law to do that. The BLM produced maps for the new alignment but did not monument the controversial line. I know of only one survey of the line but the question has been which 107th line, NAD 27, NAD 83 (86), NAD 83 (93),,,,,,,,,does the line shift with each new realization, how far will the new 2022 system "move" it.?ÿ
I've seen no study for where the Washington Meridian may have set the east boundary, but like the 4 corners that could answer some questions.?ÿ
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Very interesting.?ÿ But, along that same line of thinking, some State boundaries are a certain longitude or a certain latitude.
@andy-bruner At least when you went in the other time it was for the "right" reasons.
Many know the Vancouver, WA area was originally settled by former members and associates of the Hudson Bay Company, but did the HBC convey land which should have been honored by the treaty which establishing the boundary between USA & Canada? I contacted the archivist with HBC and was sent rolls of microfilm to review.?ÿ Surprisingly, while they didn't grant land in our area, there were numerous parcels conveyed to people on Vancouver Island after the Crown gave that to HBC. There are pages of descriptions in the archives with the notation it would be granted to the landowners if they established a portage on the property and kept it open.?ÿ
The Willamette Meteorite was found in Oregon and now resides in New York
Willamette is the?ÿlargest meteorite?ÿever found in the?ÿUS, at 7.8 square metres long and with a weight of 15.5 tonnes. The Willamette?ÿMeteorite?ÿis made up of iron and nickel and was acquired by the?ÿAmerican?ÿMuseum of Natural History in New York City in 1906.
This reminded me of a claim in Kansas to the largest meteorite found in the U.S.?ÿ This one is a pallasite meteorite, apparently.
http://www.worldslargestthings.com/kansas/pallasitemeteorite.htm
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Still trying to comprehend?ÿ the term from One cup o joe's post of a 7.8 square metres long anything.
The state line between Montana and Wyoming is the south like of the Crow Reservation. It is defined by the 45th line of latitude. It is south of that line, sometimes by 1/2 a mile, yet no one is proposing sliding the line north to re-bound the reservation line
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Still trying to comprehend?ÿ the term from One cup o joe's post of a 7.8 square metres long anything.
It is rather flat, and about a metre thick so its cubic dimension is roughly the same as it square foot face dimension.?ÿ
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Using the numbers from the link of 3 meters by 2 meters by 1.3 meters thick gives a volume of 7.8 cubic meters.
Very interesting story.?ÿ Thanks for the link.
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Wikipedia also says this (AK):
Wood-Tikchik State Park?ÿis the largest state park in the United States, comprising some 15% of total state park land in the nation.?ÿ
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Wonder which one is correct?
Nimrod O'Kelly, accused in the first murder case to go to the supreme court in Oregon, is thought to have traveled the Oregon Trail three times (twice from East to West and once from West to East). The murder case all came about from trespass on his Donation Land Claim. There is a great book about it written by Ronald B. Lansing.
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Also for those interested in historical state and county boundaries, a non-surveyor friend of mine sent me this.
https://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/index.html?ÿ
I have not checked it's validity, but it is an interesting interactive map.?ÿ
It may be the largest in the contiguous or conterminous US but Alaska is also in the continental US.
The New York one MAY be bigger. It seemed like the acreage was larger on the NY one. AK is strange in that most of the land is owned by the Federal Government...a tiny bit is owned by the state or by private individuals. (Almost none on a percentage basis...after you subtract the feds and the native corporations.)
@dmyhill Adirondack Park is 6 times larger (about), even just the State owned portion is about 3 times larger.?ÿ But the AK area is certainly a larger wilderness area with the national lands abutting it and lack of development within it.
Colvin, the NY State Surveyor/Engineer who was in large part responsible for creation of the Adirondack Park, put together some really great survey reports.?ÿ
But "Did You Know?", the office of the State Surveyor/Engineer was abolished in 1926 in NY.?ÿ Disputes over boundary lines of Towns, Parks, etc. used to be under that authority.?ÿ Then it was recognized "...the determination of disputed boundary lines is judicial in nature and should be determined upon legal evidence before a court of competent jurisdiction."?ÿ So us surveyors aren't going to resolve which park is bigger under NY law:)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adirondack_Park
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One of the most surprising things about NY (because most folks associate that name with the City of NY) is that we have the most least densely populated County anywhere east of the Mississippi river; doesn't even have a permanent stop light in the whole County. And in Hamilton County we can get away with saying things like "the most least".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_County,_New_York
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