Benjamin H. Yandell
1868-1913. Aged 45 years.
127. Exhibit D, Case 1005, Superior Court
(microfiche), ICCO. Judging from official documents on file,
Steininger lacked any advanced education, with one legal notice being
rudely spellled, and others signed with an "X".
128. Deeds, Book 4 Pages 262-263, ICRO. The deeds
refer to the canyon property as "the 'Upper Grapevine Ranche', also
known as Steininger's ranche."
129. Gilbert, Lura and Enid Yandell, "The Yandell's"
in Saga of Inyo County (Covina: Chapter 183, South Inyo American
Association of Retired Persons, 1977); Inyo Independent, April 12,
1907 and January 10, 1913 Harding, S. T. Water in California (Palo
Alto: N-P Publications, 1960), p.121. Yandell's sister (or aunt) Mamie
was reportedly the mother of Horace Albright, who would become
director of the National Park Service and have a direct involvement in
the creation of Death Valley national Monument. Yandell's funcions as
a city attorney are not known, but he likely worked with local
landowners in negotiations with the city. the year he died, 1913, is
the year that the aqueduct work, which had begun in 1908, was
completed.
130. Exhibit I, Case 1005, Superior Court, ICCO;
Deeds, Book 4 Pages 608-609 [originally recorded in Esmeralda County,
Nevada], ICRO.
131. Complaint, Case 1005, Superior Court, ICCO;
Testimony of John Bogonalis, Case 1013, People of California vs.
Thomas Argentos, ICCO, P.21.
132. Deeds, Book 6 Pages524-525, Book 11 Page 90,
ICRO; Exhibit K, Case 1005, ICCO. Steininger signed the last deed with
an X. Other references note and incorrect patent date of December 2.
133. Deeds, Book B Page 64-65, ICRO.
134. Death records have been searched in Nye and
Esmeralda Counties, Nevada, Inyo County, California. California.
135. Complaint and Amended Answer, Case 1005, Ben
H. Yandell vs. J.S. Davis and Mrs. J.S. Davis, Superior Court of
Inyo County, ICCO. A curious document, located in Exhibit K of Case
1005, is an unsigned indenture dated June 4, 1907 wherein Tom Argentos
sells to Spiros Argentos, for ten dollars, "Two ranches known as
Stenikas Ranch and Creek Water Ranch, Inyou County." The former is a
common mispelling of Steininger, but the latter name is so far a
mystery, only mentioned once again in a newspaper account; it may be a
name for the Davis ranch, or the upper ranch overall.
136. Clay Tallman to Ben Yandell, August 3, 1907,
as Exhibit I, Case 1005, ICCO. Other squatters came and went from the
lower ranch during this period, including Scotty himself and Albert M.
Johnson; see the following chapter.
137. Mining Claims, Book 10 Page 128, Book 12 Page
78, ICRO. The claims sold to Pavlovich included:the Argos, Athens,
Montana, Rhyolite, Nevada, Tripoli, Parahara, Washington, Arahora,
Carytena, Pasha, Budia, Bardua, Lonica, Filtia, Chicago, Salt Lake and
Spokane.
138. The Goldfield Daily Tribune, July 18, 1907, P.
1 (CNM).
139. The Goldfield Daily tribune, July 22, 1907, P.
4.
140. For detailed newspaper accounts of the murder
and trials, see the Goldfield Daily tribune, July 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
and 27, 1907 (CNM) and the Inyo Independent, July 26, August 30,
October 18, December 20,27, 1907, and February 21, 1908 (Inyo County
Library).
141. See testimony in Case 1013, People of
California vs. Thomas Argentos.
142. Ibid., pp 3, 15, 17.
143. Ibid., pp 1,15,82; Case 1005, Ben H. Yandell
vs. J.S. Davis, ICCO.
144. Ibid., pp 28-29, 34, 45.
145. Ibid., pp 1, 3, 14-16, 21, 29, 45.
146. Ibid., pp 1, 3, 21, 34. At theis same time
(1907) A.M. Johnson described Montana Station and Bonnie Claire as one
and the same.
147. Walter G. Mendenhall, Some Desert Watering
Places in Southern California and Southern Nevada. United States
Government Bulletin (Department of the Interior, 1909), p 31.
148. Inyo Independent, January 10, 1913, ECM. The
newsaper tribute also stated the following: " Indians, who he had
befriended, stood on the outside of the family home and wept, knowing
that in his death they had lost a man who they could trust."
149. Saga of Inyo County, pp 163-164.
150. Ibid., Buchel, Susan J., "Scotty's Home Was
Not His Castle" (Field Report in a partial fulfillment of the Master's
Degree, University of California Riverside, March 1985), pp 18-19;
Deaths and Marriage Records, ICRO.
151. BBuchel, p 19; Peter Perkins, Cowboys of the
High Sierra (Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1980), p 117. [Also see
Lester Reed, Oldtimers of Southeastern California 28-32, and Linda
Greene, Mining Vol. 1 Part 2]; Unrau, Special History Study 1997, pp
129-130. Ethnographer Lynn Johnson reported that Bev Hunter's son Roy
believed that Steininger had asked Bev Hunter to occupy the springs to
deter squatters. If true, the requesting party might have been Ben
Yandell rather than Steininger. Roy Hunter, in Perkin's book, claimed
that his father also ran cattle in the "Koweechee Mountains of Nevada,
South of Silver Peak." That mountain range has not been identified,
although its name is smilar to the Kawich Range, Nye County, which is
not in the vicinity of Silver Peak. Albert Johnson later owned grazing
and water rights in the Kawich Range leading to speculation among
historians that johnson may have succeeded Bev Hunter in the Kawich
Range as he had at Grapevine Springs.
152. Memorandum by A.M. Johnson dated November 19,
1926, pp 1 and 2, MSS 19, Box 8, Folder 8.
153. Affadavit as to Settlement Upon Unsurveyed
Land, n.d.; John C. Ing to Ruth Hunter, October 10, 1927, M6.BFolder
1.
Benjamin H. Yandell
1868-1913. Aged 45 years.
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