The Federal Reporter with Key-Number Annotations, Volume 272: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and District Courts of the United States and the Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, June-August, 1921. Page: 86
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86 272 FEDERAL REPORTER
quoted that East Ship Island, or some very considerable part of it, was
still in existence within the memory of these witnesses. It is un-
doubtedly true that John McCann had a farm and woodyard upon
East Ship Island. One of the allegations of plaintiffs' complaint is
that John McCann, by deed dated in 1852, from Benjamin Springer and
wife, became the owner of all fractional sections 27, 32, 33, and 34.
All these lands were on East Ship Island, except a few acres of
section 32 which was on West Ship Island.
The witness Palmer, testifying further, said:
"When I first remember Ship Island it was about 7 or 8 miles long and a
mile and a half or 2 miles wide. The lower end of it at that time was about
opposite Harbert's Landing on the Mississippi side, and the upper side was
about opposite Hunt's Landing on the Mississippi side."
Harbert's Landing was around the bend about 5 miles west of
Austin. Hunt's Landing was on the river bank at the foot of-Seld-
en avenue, a roadway running east and west, located more than a mile
north of Austin. It appears from the testimony of the witness Palmer,
last quoted, that in the interval since 1835, by accretions to East Ship
Island, or by the formation of a new island or islands south and west
of East Ship Island, and by filling in or accretions to the islands, new
or old, or both, all became united into one island, extending East
Ship Island southwest and west a distance of 4 or 5 miles, in the
form of an arc of a circle around the bend. This island we will
hereafter refer to as Long Ship Island.
There is no evidence in the record from which it is possible to
determine where, when, or how Long Ship Island began to be form-
ed, or when it reached its maximum size. It is a matter of conjecture
whether a sand bar or island formed somewhere southwest or west
of East Ship Island and thereafter built up to and united with it, or
whether by accretions to East Ship Island that island was extended
4 or 5 miles' in length, as described by the witness Palmer. If it is
assumed a sand bar or island formed somewhere southwest or west of
East Ship Island, which afterwards built up to and united with it,
then it is a matter of conjecture whether such sand bar or island when
first formed was on the Arkansas side or Mississippi side of the main
navigable channel of the river.
The testimony of the witnesses is convincing that, at some time dur-
ing or after the formation of Long Ship Island, the chute between
East and West Ship Islands became the main navigable channel of the
river. In addition to the testimony of the witness Palmer already quot-
ed on this subject, he testified:
"When I first knew this island, there was a channel on each side of it. The
old river came around by Austin, and what is known as the Chute went west
of the island. * * * I don't know which end of the old channel around in
front of Austin closed up first, but I think the upper end did. It justgradually
filled. * * * For a long time they could go down to the lower end of Ship
Island, and go on up the old channel nearly to Austin."
Henry Clark, 60 years old (born 1859), a witness called by plain-
tiffs, who had known the land commonly called Ship Island since 1869,
testified :
"The main channel was then (1869) west of the island."
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The Federal Reporter with Key-Number Annotations, Volume 272: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and District Courts of the United States and the Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, June-August, 1921., legislative document, 1921; Saint Paul, Minnesota. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38843/m1/108/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.