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 certificatesPage 480
