Chapter XXI
BY reason of the Supreme Court of the United States having rendered a decision granting Ex-Congressman John Newton Williamson a new trial and promulgating a doctrine that amounts to a practical seal of approval on the methods of acquiring Government timber lands by "dummy" process, the case of the United States vs. J. N. Williamson, et al., may be regarded as one of the most important of any in the category of land fraud trials.
On February 11, 1905, the Federal Grand Jury of Oregon returned Indictment No. 2914, charging Williamson (then a representative in the lower house of Congress from the Second Congressional District of Oregon), his partner. Dr. Van Gesner, and United States Commissioner Marion R. Biggs, of Prineville. Crook County, Oregon, with conspiracy to defraud the Government of its public lands, under Section 5440 of the U. S. Revised Statutes.
Williamson and Gesner were extensive sheep owners of Crook County, and it was charged in the indictment that they had been guilty of inducing about one hundred entrymen to file timber claims on a large area of grazing lands in Township 15 South, Range 18 and 19 East, Willamette Meridian, embracing approximately 16,000 acres, for the benefit of the firm, who were to utilize the tract thus acquired as a pasture for their herds. The connection of Biggs with the case grew out of the fact that he was the official before whom the alleged fraudulent proofs were made.
It was set up in the indictment that on June 30, 1902, the defendants had conspired to acquire the lands in question under the Act of June 3, 1878, commonly known as the Timber and Stone law, and in pursuance of this conspiracy had induced the entrymen to commit perjury in making oath that they were taking up the lands for their own use and benefit, and not for speculation, whereas, it was charged that there was an understanding from the outset that the claims were to be transferred to Williamson & Gesner as soon as final title isued. While there was no evidence produced to indicate that any of the claims were ever turned over to Williamson & Gesner, the Government sought to show that the fact that such was the intention on the part of the entrymen constituted an overt act, and was sufficient grounds for conviction, and that it was only necessary to prove an attempted offense of this character in order to" bring the accused within the scope of a conspiracy charge. In fact, it was quite well established that while all the arrangements had been perfected in advance for the transfer of title to the firm, its members were deterred from taking further steps in the direction of completing title on account of the publication of a press dispatch from Washington, indicating that Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock intended to take criminal action against all engaged in the "dummy" process of acquiring lands under the timber laws.
At the trial, one of the witnesses testified that he was employed at a livery stable in Prineville, and that both himself and wife relinquished their filings, without making final proof on the land, at the suggestion of Williamson and Gesner, just before the time arrived for making final proof. It seems, according to the Page 339
