Looters of the Public Domain/Chapter 30

by Horace Stevens

Chapter XXX

The story of Siletz—How the Indians were robbed of their homes for the benefit of palefaced looters, under the guise of treaty rights—The scheme to open the reservation to settlement under a special homestead law merely a cloak for grabbing the timber by dishonest methods, as only a few entrymen were acting in good faith—The part United States Senator Fulton, of Oregon, took in the game of trying to induce the Secretary of the Interior to expedite the issuance of patents to the bogus entries of Willard N. Jones—How old soldiers were lured into committing perjury by the clink of land fraud gold—Fulton's senseless warfare on William C. Bristol prevents the latter from being confirmed as United States Attorney for Oregon, and also helps materially in the overthrow of Fulton at the polls.

ASSOCIATED with the restoration of public entry and the subsequent alleged settlement of the former Siletz Indian reservation, situated on the Western coast of Oregon, is a story of intrigue from the moment of inception of the idea of throwing this vast domain upon the market, down to the time when some of those involved in the plundering scheme to acquire title to the lands in a fraudulent manner have stood palefaced before the bar of justice and listened to the scathing rebukes of a committing magistrate.

There must be something in the irony of fate when All-Hallowe'en's Day was selected by the representatives of the Government for concluding a treaty with those who had held almost undisputed possession of the wilderness since time immemorial. Perhaps they regarded it as a period when gobblins might be holding high carnival within the confines of the dense forests, and it would be an auspicious occasion for appealing to the imagination of the aboriginess, to the end that they might be induced, by glittering promises, to barter their heritages for a song.

At all events, on October 31, 1892, a treaty agreement was entered into, according to the official records, between Reuben P. Boise, William H. Odell, (he of Oregon State School land notoriety) and H. H. Harding, Commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen and other male adults of the Alsea and kindred tribes residing upon the Siletz Reservation, whereby the Indians disposed of all their holdings, aggregating ten full townships in extent, and embracing some of the finest timber in the world, for the paltry sum of $142,000! What the Indians were coaxed into giving for this comparatively insignificant amount represents an area equivalent to about 1,300 homestead claims of 160 acres each, or practically 200,000 acres in round numbers, and is worth today at a conservative estimate, more than $8,000,000! If Uncle Sam could do as well on all his real estate investments, he could afford to retire, satisfied with his sagacity, if not his conscience.

The territory ceded comprises the. four tiers of townships from the center of Township 6 South to the center of Township 10 South, and from the western bounds of Range 8 West to the Pacific ocean. Not more than one township was reserved for Indian allotments, and from this congested district must come the miserable existence of a race that has been referred to poetically in the dim, distant past as the "noble redmen of the forest"—after they have been further robbed by designing whites— until such time as the last one has answered the final call to the happy hunting grounds, and his memory lives only as a tradition of wrong.

The humble home of Daniel Clark, who filed on a claim in the Siletz country. At the Jones-Clark trial Clark confessed to having induced numerous members of the G. A. R. to perjure themselves in an effort to fraudulently acquire title to a large body of timber land on the former Siletz Indian Reservation in the interest of Willard N. Jones

Another important epoch in history was observed in the next step in the proceedings when Congress ratified this unfair bargain on the anniversary of the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte—August 15, 1894—so it has been a sort of milestone proposition all the way through, as if some mystical power had a hand in branding human memory with the impress of perfidy.

At high noon on July 25, 1895, the reservation was thrown open by Executive proclamation. By Act of Congress of August 15, 1894 (28 Stats. 326) the treaty had been ratified, and the same act contained the following provision for the disposition of the lands:

"The mineral land shall be disposed of under tho laws applicable thereto, and the balance of the land so ceded shall be disposed of until further provided by law under the townsite law and under the provisions of the homestead law; Provided, however, that each settler, under and in accordance with the provisions of said homestead laws shall, at the time of making his original entry, pay the sum of fifty cents per acre in addition to the fees now required by law, and at the time of making final proof shall pay the further sum of one dollar per acre, final proof to be made within five years from the date of entry, and three years' actual residence on the land shall be established by such evidence as is now required in homestead proofs as a prerequisite to title or patent."

This Act has not been changed in any particular, except that the payment of $1.50 an acre by the settler was dispensed with by the Act of Congress of May 17, 1900 (31 Stats., 179).

While these lands have been thrown open for settlement for nearly fourteen years, many of the townships were unsurveyed at the date of the proclamation. Official surveys have been made from time to time ever since, so that at the present time only one whole township and portions of two others remain unsurveyed.

Palatial residence of a Siletz homesteader Notwithstanding several fraud reports from honest special agents. Commissioner Ballinger passed the entry to patent

No sooner was a township surveyed than it was quietly gobbled up by alleged settlers under the special homestead Act created by Congress for their so-called benefit. The whole proceedings looking- to the disposition of these lands was a mistake from the beginning-. In the first place, the country is of such general character that no person could ever make his living there by cultivation of the soil, as it would take a lifetime to develop any kind of respectable clearing. As a matter of fact, the region is a vast jungle, impenetrable to a greater degree than any portion of the heart of Africa, and it has been estimated that it would cost fully $300 an acre to clear the land.

It is essentially a magnificent forest, and as such should have been preserved by the Government, allowing the few surviving Indians therein to retain possession of their own. They could do no harm by their occupancy, but on the contrary, were capable of accomplishing a great deal of good, as they would naturally take a pride in preserving it from devastating fires, thus affording a continuous protection to the watershed, and thus operating to the material benefit of the climate of the Western coast of the State. Provision should have been made for the sale of the ripened timber to the highest bidder in an open market, and in this way the Government could have secured a revenue sufficient to have maintained the reserve for all time. Wild game could thrive there almost unmolested throughout the closed season, and eventually the region would have become one of the world's greatest hunting grounds.

But there was design on the magnificent timber from the very start, and the proposition to throw the reservation open for settlement under the farcical Homestead Act quoted, was merely a ruse to cloak the real motives of those interested, who figured wisely that few honest claimants would attempt to comply with the prohibitive conditions of the law, and go there with the idea of making a home in every sense of the word. With only one method of acquiring a legal foothold, hundreds of men, and not a few women, were found base enough to lend themselves to the scheme of the looters, and even old soldiers, who had shed their blood on the battlefields of their country, were lured into committing perjury by the fascination of the plunderers' gold. Most of them established a quasi right in a manner that it were a vain pity to call residence, and was seemingly done more for the purpose of maintaining a franchise on the right of possession, than through any honest effort^to make a permanent settlement.

Here it was that Willard N. Jones, himself the son of a distinguished officer of the Rebellion, and honored in his own name by the gift of political favor, discarded all his claims to good citizenship by employing such methods to acquire these titles that has made him a candidate for prison bars. His scheme contemplated the location of a large area by process of "dummy" entrymen, and to the shame of all concerned, these were drawn mostly from the ranks of old soldiers,

Ira Wade, County Clerk of Lincoln County, who bears the distinction of being the only person acquitted of Oregon land frauds in any case prosecuted by Heney Wade was involved with Jones and Potter in the Siletz matter

members of the G. A. R., who were tempted and fell. Scores of this class invaded the forests and staked out what they were pleased to call their homes. I have shown by photographs the general character of these residences so-called, and will state that these pictures are fairly representative of the alleged "settlement" of the group of entrymen controlled by Jones and his associates. They were mere makeshifts, as will be seen at a glance, and in every case it was shown at the trial of Willard N. Jones, Thaddeus S. Potter and Ira Wade, in consequence of their connection with the frauds, that the entrymen transferred their claims to Jones before the ink was yet dry upon their final certificates, and that they had previously entered into an agreement to do so. Practically the entire body confessed upon the witness stand how they had been led astray, and how they had been induced to commit perjury when making the necessary proof of settlement and cultivation, and that their alleged residence was all a delusion and a snare. Herewith is presented a list of those who thus perjured themselves for the sake of a few dishonest dollars, nearly all of whom were old soldiers or their widows:

Entry No.	Name.	Entry No.	Name.
13137	Edward C. Brigham.	14154	Bert Blauvelt.
14233	Daniel Clark.	13116	Oliver T. Conner.
12946	Esther P. Collins.	13113	Richard D. Depue.
14237	Homan K. Finch.	13088	Joseph Gillis.
13087	Anthony Gannon.	12932	Annetta Huston.
13135	Benjamin S. Hunter.	13136	Franklin Hummel.
13089	Thomas Johnson.	14236	James Landfair.
14239	Addison Longenecker.	14235	Granville C. Lawrence
14234	George F. Merrill.	14238	Thad. S. Potter.
13105	Louis Paquet.	13091	George Rilea.
14240	Henry M. Riggs.	13142	Nelson B. Smith.
13396	William Teghtmeier.	13090	John L. Wells.
13406	George West.	13416	William T. Everson.

What lends additional peculiarity to the situation, is the fact that United States Senator Fulton lost no time, after his election, to urge upon the Land Department at Washington the absolute necessity for prompt action in regard to the Jones group of entries, with a view that these fraudulent claims should be passed to patent with as little delay as possible. He even went so far as to write personal letters to the head of the Land Department, insisting that an injustice was being done the homesteaders by longer withholding their final titles, and in at least one instance wrote a letter extolling Willard N. Jones as a man of irreproachable character and high standing in the community! It may be only a coincidence, and all that, and it may be that Senator Fulton falls back upon his well-worn plea that he was misled regarding his conclusions, but it would be interesting to know what kind of an excuse he is able to offer for the following self-explanatory correspondence between the Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office and Secretary Hitchcock, brought about through the unwarranted eagerness of Senator Fulton to have the Jones claims expedited:

Fac-simile of letter written by United States Senator Fulton to the Secretary of the Interior recommending Willard N. Jones, who was afterwards convicted by a jury for frauds in connection with the Siletz Indian Reservation lands

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

Washington, D. C., September 14, 1904.

Address only the
Commissioner of the General Land Office.

The Honorable Secretary of the Interior.

Sir:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, by your reference of the 3rd instant for early report in duplicate and return of paper, of a letter from Hon. C. W. Fulton, Astoria, Oregon, dated the 25th ultimo, which is as follows:

I have received a great number of complaints from homestead entrymen on the Siietz Indian Reservation, in Oregon, about the treatment they have received at the hands of the Department. I know how difficult it is for a homesteader to comply with the letter and spirit of the general homestead law in that country. At the same time I realize that you did not make the law and are not responsible for its provisions. That section of the country is so isolated from any inhabited region and so difficult of access that it is very expensive and difficult work to get provisions in to the homesteaders. Being heavily timbered, it is of course very difficult to make a farm out of a tract of land in that locality, and as a result, entryment cannot remain long at a time on their claims, but are compelled to go outside and work. In cases of married men it is difficult to get their wives in to the land and utterly impracticable for them to keep their wives residing there continuously. Nevertheless they are anxious to secure a tract of land on which they will ultimately make their home. I think in construing the homestead law the character of the country in Western Oregon should be taken into consideration. It is not so easy to make a home on a tract of land here as it is in an open prairie country, nevertheless we are very anxious that the country shall be settled up and that homesteaders shall be allowed to exercise the right of entry and to secure their titles and ultimately make their homes on the land. I have therefore prepared and determined to introduce and work to secure the passage of, through the next Congress, a bill for the relief of the settlers in that section of the country. I shall make provision for issuing patents to every homestead entryman who has spent a certain amount in the way of improvements on his tract, whether in labor or cash, without regard to settlement. I will wish to confer with you about the amount of expenditure required, etc. It may be well to require some character of settlement, but 1 wish, and that is the particular thing I do wish to do, to relieve them from the necessity of continued residence on the land. I wish. therefore that you would suspend your investigation of claims in that section and not prosecute matters relative thereto until I can have an opportunity to confer with you relative thereto, and to attempt at least to secure the passage of some measure of relief.

The investigation of all entries in the former Siletz Indian Reservation was directed by letter "P" of March 26. 1903. under departmental letter of March 12, 1903, referring to this office copy of correspondence had with Mr. Warren H. Brown, Agency Clerk at the Yakima Indian Agency, Fort Simcoe, Washington, relative to frauds in connection with such entries.

The special agent to whom the matter was originally referred having been transferred to other territory before he had made any reports, directions were given August 7, 1903, to the agent then in charge, the latter having made general reports touching said entries under dates of August 19, November 7, 8, 9, and 11, 1903, and subsequently thereto, stating in effect that in his investigations of the lands in question lie had found the same heavily timbered, with a dense growth of pine, hemlock, cedar, and other timber, and not exceeding one-tenth of the land would be fit for cultivation if cleared of the timber; that the cost of clearing a sufficient number of acres to make a living upon would entail an expenditure, which would be out of reach of any m;in of ordinary means; that almost the whole of the lands of said reservation have been filed upon, but there are no roads over which the claims may be reached, either with a team or saddle horse, nothing but a few dim foot trails, which are only used semi-annually by these claimants in going to or from their respective entries prior to making proof, and except in few instances never afterwards.

The special agent submitted lists containing a large number of entries which he felt satisfied had not been made in good faith for the purpose of making homes thereon;

United States Senator Charles W. Fulton, of Oregon, who pleaded hard for the alleged Siletz settlers

Sample residence of a Siletz homesteader, described in pathetic terms by Senator Fulton in his letter to the Secretary of the Interior, pleading for the issuance of patents on the fraudulent entries made in the interest of Willard N. Jones

and stated that it was the evident purpose of the entrymen to acquire this laud in the interest of other persons under cover of the homestead law, and that the entrymen had disposed of their claims to certain named persons.

It was shown that twenty-one entries made at or near the same date were transferred to one party for from $1,500 to $4,400 each, the lands being in the same township or the one adjoining and the sales made soon after the issuance of cash certificates on commuted entries; that twenty-three entries had been mortgaged to another party, it being quite evident that said party is to become the owner of all of the lands covered by said twenty-three entries.

A number of adverse reports have been made by the special agent and the affidavits submitted therewith by the entrymen are in all essential respects similar, and to the effect that they learned of the land through a party in Portland, Oregon, and made their entries under an assurance and agreement that said party would furnish all necessary money to make entry, the necessary improvements, the final proof cost and traveling expenses to and from their claims; and in accordance with said agreement they executed mortgages to said party and subsequently deeded the lands to him.

One entryman alleges that he assisted in getting about thirty "old soldiers and soldiers' widows" to locate homesteads on these lands, nil of whom made such entries under such an agreement with said party in Portland.

Inasmuch as a large number of the entrymen sold the land to one party immediately after proof, coupled with the fact that the lands are not tillable even after the timber is removed, goes to show that the entries were not made in good faith for the purpose of a home, but in the interest and for the benefit of the party to whom sold.

It would seem from the foregoing that a failure on the part of the persons making entry ou these lands to comply with the liberal provisions of the law is recognized.

The law opening these lands to settlement (act August 15, 1894, 28 Stats., 323,326), only required a three years ' residence in order to secure title thereto, thereby giving to such homesteads benefits not afforded those entering other lands. They also shared in the general relief afforded by the Free Homestead Act of May 17, 1900 (31 Stats., 179), and the act of January 26, 1901 (31 Stats., 740).

From the record before this office, there is every reason to believe that a great many of the entries were made without any intention of compliance with law; that they were made in the interest and for the benefit of other parties for the timber thereon and not for the purpose of residing upon or cultivating the land and that the entrymen, as a rule, immediately after making final entry transferred whatever title they thereby obtained, abandoned the land, and now have no further interest therein.

In view of the showing made by the record, which the office believes is a fair statement of facts in the case, it is unable to see how the parties who acted in violation of law and with full knowledge of its requirements, can ask this office to recommend that they be granted any relief or that they have any right or interest in the land entered which can be made the ground for such a request.

The office therefore states it as its opinion that to suspend this investigation, and to adopt the policy suggested by the Senator would be to reverse the policy now vigorously being prosecuted by this office, of securing such a compliance on the part of claimants to public lands as the spirit and letter of the laws and official regulations relating thereto require. Senator Fulton's letter is, therefore, herewith returned with the information that this office will proceed with such investigations, unless otherwise instructed by the Department.Very respectfully,

(Signed)J. H. FIMPLE,

Acting Commissioner.

Mr. Fimple was unquestionably one of the ablest and most sincere officials that ever graced the position of Assistant Commissioner, consequently his remarks upon the subject must be considered accordingly. At the time Senator Fulton wrote the letter in question to Secretary Hitchcock, it was well-known that the Siletz homestead entries were under investigation by the Land Department, and if he was in ignorance of the situation, what then becomes of any of his recommendations?

Since all this happened, Senator Fulton has been retired to private life by his constituents, he having been defeated by H. M. Cake at the primaries held throughout Oregon on April 17th last, after one of the most sensational campaigns ever conducted in the State. Upon this occasion Francis J. Heney took an active part in the proceedings, coming from San Francisco especially to oppose Fulton's re-nomination. The distinguished graft prosecutor made three speeches in Oregon—two in Portland, and one at Salem—and it is noteworthy that the counties in which he appeared rolled up the largest majorities against Mr. Fulton. Much more might be told concerning the systematic manner in which Senator Fulton was led astray with such consistent regularity that it eventually became a sort of second nature for him to get deceived, but it would be equivalent to inflicting punishment after death were I to attempt to enumerate all the different instances where he has assumedly had the wool pulled over his eyes. If it had come to pass that he had developed a blind side, and that those wh5 were anxious to secure favorable action on questionable measures had learned the fine art of getting on that side in their operations, then it was high time for him to give way to somebody capable of representing Oregon in a creditable manner. Although Mr. Ballinger, while Commissioner of the General Land Office, undertook to make it very plain that it was his intention to investigate the different entries of public lands in the est before permitting patent to issue, and that in cases where there had been no protest or adverse report of a special agent within two years from the date of issuance of the final certificate, he would pass such entries to patent, it is apparent that he overlooked a great many things in the Siletz country. For instance, fraud reports had been made at different times by special agents of the General Land Office on the following entries, all within the two years after the issuance of final certificates:

Furthermore, in August and September, 1907, Acting Chief Neuhausen was directed by the Commissioner to cause field investigations to be made on fully fifty different Siletz entries, and under this authority, detailed Special Agent James D. Watts and Assistant William J. Mitchell to make such investigations. They were in the field fully six weeks, during which they inspected every claim that had been designated by the Land Department as subject to such consideration. While engaged in making out their reports, wherein it was shown that many of those under investigation had failed to comply with the laws governing the acquisition of the Siletz lands, an order came from Assistant Commissioner Dennett passing to patent a number of the claims then under investigation, without regard whatever to their fraudulent character. This act of the Land Department disgusted Special Agent Watts to such an extent that he forthwith tendered his resignation, and is now no longer in the Government service.

R. A. Bollinger, Ex-Commissioner of the General Land Office

Thad. S. Potter, convicted with Willard N. Jones in the former Siletz Indian Reservation frauds

Watts had formerly been a Montana sheriff, and was a man of strict integrity, as well as utterly oblivious to fear of any kind. An attempt was made to bribe him upon the occasion of his investigation of the Siletz entries alluded to, and this act he reported promptly to Acting Chief Neuhausen, but it is questionable whether it had any effect in causing those in Washington to entertain greater respect for him.

It became the habit, finally, for the General Land Office to ignore all reports of special agents affecting the character of the Siletz entries, and to pass them to patent in utter disregard of prevailing conditions. Thus, the claim of Robert B. Montague, the crooked deputy county clerk of Linn county, Oregon, was picked out as a worthy subject for final title, although it was notorious in the Department, through the reports of special agents, and from other sources, that Montague had never in the slightest degree complied with the laws relative to residence and cultivation. Two other claims, equally fraudulent, were included in the letter from Assistant Commissioner Dennett, conveying the information that the three entries had been passed to patent, but fortunately, somebody recovered from the shock sufficiently to enter such a vigorous protest, and set up such well-founded charges of fraud, that even Dennett was obliged to take some sort of official cognizance of the situation by recalling his action in passing the entries to patent, and permitting contests upon specific charges of fraud!

If necessary, I could cite numerous instances in the Siletz country alone where the General Land Office, under the Ballinger and Dennett administrations, has strangely shut its eyes to glaring frauds, and passed entries to patent that it must have known should have been cancelled. This condition applies only to the Siletz country, and whether or not it extends in other directions, I am in no position to state.

In the case of the Siletz entries, it is a matter of record that in nearly every instance the claims were transferred to speculators as soon as final certificates

Fred Dennett, Commissioner of the General Land Office

were granted by the local Land Office. and that the holders of title were exceedingly active in securing the issuance of patents.

The trial of Willard N. Jones, Thad S. Totter and Ira Wade during 190r. wherein the two former were convicted and the latter acquitted, developed enough evidence to show that hardly an entry in the former Siletz Indian Reservation was made in good faith. Naturally, there are some exceptions, but they are so scarce as to render them unworthy of notice.

When it became known that John H. Hall, the United States Attorney for Oregon, was shielding from punishment some of those since found to have been most prominently identified with the general system of looting. President Roosevelt lost no time in removing him summarily from office, and appointing Mr. Henev to the vacancy. The latter continued to conduct the affairs of the office until December 3. 1905. when President Roosevelt sent in the name of William C. Bristol, a brilliant young lawyer of Portland, Oregon, to fill the position. Bristol was known to be a man of strict integrity and marked legal ability, and as one possessed of the courage of his convictions. It was an open secret that he was Heney's choice for the place, and this, in itself, was sufficient to bring down upon his head the accumulated opposition of every land grafter in^ Oregon and elsewhere, who were against everything bearing the stamp of Heney's approval.

Every possible effort was made to prevent the confirmation of Bristol by the United States Senate, until finally the President withdrew his name and after Christian Scheubel, of Oregon City, James T. Cleeton, of Portland, and James McCourt. of Pendleton, had been successively named for the place, the Senate, in March, last, confirmed the latter.

The fight against Bristol was led by United States Senator Fulton, of Oregon, and it is believed that his stand in the matter had much to do with his recent rejection by the Republican voters of the State for re-nomination as a Senatorial candidate, and while there is, no doubt, a multitude of causes that led to Fulton's defeat at the polls, it is thought the friends of Bristol contributed their share, nor is there any reason to deny that Fulton's indifference in connection with fraudulent land schemes of the Siletz order operated as much as anything to his political downfall.

Under a recent ruling of the General Land Office, Special Agents are required to make daily reports to the Commissioner covering all their movements, while on duty. This order has had the effect of arousing considerable hostile criticism in the ranks of the better class of Special Agents, who reason that if the head of the Laud Department was a person of unsavory stripe, these daily reports would have a tendency to keep him in constant touch with the movements of all the men under his jurisdiction, and enable him to thwart any honest effort to prevent fraud where the Commissioner himself was personally concerned. As an illustration of the idea there is herewith presented a facsimile of the report cards in use by the Special Agents of the General Land Office at the present time, which is filled out with a presumed report of a crooked special agent: