Attorney for Defendants.

(f) Answer of Defendants Frank E. Tower, et al.- (Caption.) The answer of defendants Frank E. Tower, Mamie L. Tower, William Betterly and the Township of Burns.

These defendants, answering said bill of complaint, or so much thereof as they are advised it is material or necessary for them to answer, answering say:

1. These defendants have no knowledge as to whether Samuel W. Dexter was the owner of a piece of land such as described in paragraph, one of said bill of complaint, but they are informed and believe, and charge the truth to be, that since these defendants received their deeds of the property mentioned in such conveyances no person ever took possession of or occupied the land mentioned therein but themselves.

2. These defendants, further answering, say that, upon information and belief, they deny all the statements contained in paragraphs two, three, four, five and six of plaintiff's bill of complaint relative to the rights of plaintiff obtained through certain deeds and conveyances in said paragraphs set forth excepting that referring to the ownership of certain lands west of the Pontiac and Grand River Road by the plaintiff, and as to such statement of ownership, they neither admit nor deny the same, not having sufficient information in regard thereto upon which to base a belief, and they, therefore, put plaintiff to his proof thereof.

3. These defendants admit that they are the owners of certain lands and rights adjacent to the premises described in plaintiff's bill of complaint as set forth in paragraph seven thereof; but they deny the statement in said paragraph that these defendants have no right or interest in any of the premises described in said plaintiff's bill of complaint.

4. These defendants deny that the map, diagram or blue print, referred to in the eighth paragraph of plaintiff's said bill and marked Exhibit A, is in any way a correct or accurate map of the premises described In said bill or any of the premises owned by these defendants.

5. These defendants neither admit nor deny the contents of plaintiff's paragraph nine in his said bill, not having sufficient knowledge or information to the facts therein stated upon which to form a belief.

6. These defendants, further answering, say that they have no knowledge, information or belief concerning the other matters and things set forth in said bill of complaint, further than as above stated, upon which to form a belief, and they leave plaintiff to his proof thereof; and they aver the truth to be that the plaintiff never had more than a flow-age right upon any portion of the property described in his said bill lying east of the highway, known as the Pontiac and Grand River Road, and that such right has been surrendered and lost by non-user and contracted down to the natural and original banks of the Shiawassee River as the same existed prior to any of the dates set forth in plaintiff's said bill, and that the claim of plaintiff that he has a mill pond east of the said highway is a mere subterfuge to perpetuate a nuisance and mud-hole in the Township of Burns and try to hold the same for speculative pur poses to the injury and detriment of all of the lands adjoining said Shiawassee River in that part of the Township of Burns.

7. And these defendants admit that a long time ago, the exact time of which cannot be stated, plaintiff's grantors had a grist mill on the bank of the Shiawassee River on that portion of section 24 lying west of the Pontiac and Grand River Road, aforesaid, but they aver that a long time ago the said grist mill was destroyed, to-wit, more than twenty years ago, and that none of the land described as lying east of said Grand River has since been used for mill purposes or for flowage or for the purpose of providing power for the operation of a mill referred to in plaintiff's said bill, and that these defendants, and all of them, have, for a period of, to-wit, more than twenty years, been in open, peaceable adverse, notorious, hostile and continuous possession of the lands claimed by them down to the original banks of the Shiawassee River, and that the claim of plaintiff, set forth in said bill, of any rights upon their said premises constitutes a cloud upon their, the said defendants', titles thereto which they are entitled to have removed by the decree of this court; and they deny that the plaintiff has any right to the water in the Shiawassee River different or other than that of these defendants who own land joining said river, and they deny that the plaintiff has any right whatever in the real estate belonging severally to these defendants; and they deny each and every material allegation in said bill of complaint not herein specifically traversed or denied, and they ask that the rights of each defendant be determined and that they be protected both in their property and in their health and person, and they ask that they have such other and further relief in the premises as the proofs in this case shall show that they are entitled to.

(Signed) A. L. CHANDLER,

Attorney for Defendant.

(g) Decree.- (Caption.) At a session of said court held at the City of Corunna in said county, on the 1st day of May, A. D. 1917.

Present, Hon. Selden S. Miner, Circuit Judge.

This cause having come on to be heard upon the pleadings and proofs taken in open court, and after consideration of said pleadings, and hearing of said proofs and the arguments of counsel for the respective parties, it is ordered, adjudged and decreed that the said plaintiff is the owner, in fee simple, and his title is hereby quieted in and to the following described premises situated in the Township of Burns, Shiawassee County, Michigan, and described as follows, to-wit:

Beginning on the west line of Saginaw Street, and 75 links south of the southeast corner of lot No. 4, block 22, Village of Byron; thence south 1.25 chains; thence east 75 links to center of Saginaw Street; thence south 21 degrees 45 minutes east on center line of Pontiac and Grand River Road 6.56 chains; then south 89 degrees 30 minutes west, 6.96 chains to east bank of Shiawassee River; thence north 4 degrees west, on the right bank of said river, 7.3175 chains to a point 75 links south of the southwest corner of said lot No. 4, block 22; thence easterly parallel south line of said lot No. 4, 3.60 chains to place of beginning, containing 4.43 acres, more or less.