563 



town who made claim to lots 222 and 221 in said township No. 10; I 

 saw what purported to be a copy of an affidavit made by L. L. Smith, 

 in which he claimed to have made certain improvements by clearing 

 off several acres of land and to the sowing of grass seed and making 

 fence and cutting hay, etc., since 1877; the whule is a base falsehood ; 

 no grass seed was ever sown upon those lots or fence ever made; no 

 grass or hay cut by L. L. Smith, during the time I lived there; there 

 was a small beaver meadow upon the said lots and small amount of 

 hay cut by one Lovering one year, and one year the same was cut by 

 Bob. Stickney who lived with me the most of the time J. lived in the 

 woods. Stickney died last summer; these lots are covered with a 

 second growth of timber, and was very good hunting ground; no hay 

 was cut or occupancy had by L. L. Smith, during the time I lived 

 there, from 1878 to October, 1882; Mr. R. L. Ross, Jr., who told me 

 that his father had bought lands at tax sale in his lifetime in Franklin, 

 but had been dead for fifteen (15) years; Mr. Ross, Jr. said he himself 

 ne"ver bought any land at tax sale. , 



.ALBERT TURNER. 



Subscribed and sworn to before ) 

 me, this 21st day of May, 1885. ) 



T. G. Paddock, 

 Notary Public, Franklin County. 



Franklin county clerk's affidavit and seal attached, dated May 

 21, 1885. 



STATE OF NEW YORK, ) gg . 



County or Fbanklin. 3 



Lewis L. Smith, being duly sworn, says, he has resided in the town 

 and county of Franklin, in this State, for the last twenty-eight (28) 

 years, and has been during all of said years acquainted with lots 

 Nos. 221 and 222 township 10 of the Old Military tract in said 

 county; that several years ago he cut sawing timber .from said lots, 

 and one year he paid the taxes on the same, but that he never occupied 

 or was in possession of the same under any written instrument or 

 other color or claim of title. That the only claim he ever had or 

 made to said lots or either of them, was based on his cutting of saw- 

 ing timber thereon as aforesaid. 



s LEWIS L. SMITH. 



Subscribed and sworn to before ) - . 



me, June 8, 1885. ) 



John Vanoe, 

 . . . - Justice of the Peace. 



