The Siletz Land Fraud and Corvallis, Oregon
by Horace Stevens of the Govt. Land Office (1908)
Note: Willard Jones was the son of a man who, like T.E. Hogg, had served in the Confederate army. The stunting of such men's ethical growth by the practice and defense of human enslavement might, as has sometimes been theorized, have been a factor in their lack of any meaningful moral compass, but see below for evidence that the rank and file of the Siletz fraud sprang from aging veterans of the Union army.
Associated with the restoration of public entry and the subsequent alleged
settlement of the former Siletz Indian reservation, situated on the West-
ern 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 aborigines, 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 ex-
tent, 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, sat-
isfied 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.
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, l894—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 Exe-
cutive proclamation. By Act of Congress of August 15, 1894 (28 Stats. 326)
the treaty had been ratified, and the same Act contained the following provisiou
for the disposition of the lands:
“The mineral land shall be disposed of under the 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.
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
No sooner was a township survey-
ed than it was quietly gobbled up by
alleged settlers under the special home-
stead 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 for-
est, and as such should have been pre-
served 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 nat-
urally take a pride in preserving it from
devastating fires, thus affording a con-
tinuous protection to the watershed, and
Palatial residence of a Siletz homesteader
Notwithstanding several frand reports
from honest special agents, Commissioner Ballinger passed the entry to patent
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 main-
tained 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 in-
terested, 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 contem-
plated 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,
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 pre-
viously 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. Here-
with 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 I. Conner.
12946 Esther P. Collins.
13113 Richard D. Depue.
14237 Heman K. Finch.
13088 Joseph Gillis.
13087 Anthony Gannon.
12932 Annetta Huston.
13135 Benjamin S. Hnnter.
13136 Franklin Hummel.
13089 Thomas Johnson.
14236 James Landfair.
14239 Addison Longeneeker.
14235 Granville C. Lawrence.
14234 George F. Merrill.
14238 Thad. S. Potter.
13105 Louis Paqnet.
13091 Geor e IRilea.
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:
It was the evident purpose of the entrymen to acquire this land 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 trans
ferred 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 com-
muted 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.
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 fir 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, all 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 immediate
ly 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 on 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 state-
ment 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 recom-
mendations?
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 Ore-
gon—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 who were anxious to
secure favorable action on questionable measures had learned the fine art of get-
ting 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 West 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 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.
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 ques-
tionable 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 re-
covered 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
were granted by the local Land Office, and that the holders of title were exceed-
ingly active in securing the issuance of patents.
The trial of Willard N. Jones, Thad S. Potter and Ira Wade during 1905,
wherein the two former were convicted and the latter acquitted, developed
enough evidence to show that hardly an entry in the former Siletz Indian Reser-
vation 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 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 Roose-
velt lost no time in removing him summarily from office, and appointing Mr.
Heney 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 connec-
tion with fraudulent land schemes of the Siletz order operated as much as anything
to his political downfall.