Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/181

 the barbed wire battles. Then began one of the most determined conflicts in the courts known in the history of litigation in the State. An association of farmers in Buchanan, Black Hawk, Butler and Fayette counties was organized to carry on the litigation and meet the expenses. A similar one had been organized in New Jersey which was making a vigorous fight. The Iowa farmers employed Colonel Jed Lake, a talented lawyer and vigorous fighter to defend them against the Greene combination. In May, 1883, in a case tried in the United States District Court of Iowa before Judges Shiras and Love, the Court held that the patent of Greene was void on two grounds. First, that Greene had slept upon his rights in that he did not apply for a patent until the device had for a long time been before the public. Second, that a fatal defect in his patent was found in the fact that the reissue embraced an important principle not found in the original application for a patent and was consequently void. This was a most sweeping decision and left the patent combination no ground to stand upon. The well owners over the entire country at once refused to pay claims and the Greene combination had but one hope of continuing the extortions so long practiced by threats and intimidation. The case was taken to the United States Supreme Court in the hope that this decision would be reversed or that the farmers would be unable to continue the expensive litigation. One hundred and seventy-five suits had been brought against the farmers in the four counties mentioned, in 1878, and one hundred and twenty of them were defended by Lake and Harmon for the Association. The money was raised and the cases were ably presented in the Supreme Court. In 1887 the final decision was rendered in which the decision of the United States District Court was affirmed and the so-called patents declared invalid.

It was estimated that this decision saved to the farmers of Iowa, who were owners of drive wells, not less than