Digital Bob Archive

FEBRUARY 9, 1881-The first order of business at today?s meeting of the miners was a decision that henceforth only bona fide citizens of the United States may take part in the deliberations and voting in miners? meetings. Non-citizens may own mining claims and work them, but may not take part in making the local laws. As a result of this decision, Lt. Cmdr. Rockwell of the Navy was asked to administer the oath of citizenship to qualified persons at the meeting. Thirty-one men took the oath at the opening of the meeting and a few others later in the day.

John Dix, Pat McGlinchy and William Bennett then presented the code of local laws they had drafted. These were discussed and adopted after some slight amendments. Copies are to be made and posted for the information of all.

It was then proposed that a new recorder be elected, and Richard Dixon, John Dix and J. S. Sagemiller were nominated for the post. Secret ballots were duly cast and counted, giving Dixon 26 votes with six for Sagemiller and three for Dix. Colonel Dixon, as he is usually known, has been in many of the western mining districts and is said to have served as a recorder in the Cassiar for a time. He came to Harrisburgh earlier this year from Wrangell, traveling in a canoe with Neil McLeod and Robert Dunn. The new recorder will be a busy man for some time as there is a backlog of claims to town lots and mining property.

The next order of business was whether or not to let stand the placer locations staked last October by Dick Harris and Joe Juneau over and above their own discovery claims. These include claims staked for themselves and many staked by proxy for others. In this matter, tempers have cooled under the able counseling of Lt. Cmdr. Rockwell, although a few hotheads of the Cassiar bunch still want to wipe out all such claims and start over. A resolution was proposed, as follows:

?We hereby recognize the records kept by R. Harris as the legal record of this District and all claims recorded in said records be placed in the hands of the Recorder as soon as qualified.? The resolution was signed by 22 of the men who had been involved in the dispute and it was duly adopted, ending the controversy.