St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-09
Suits Recommended in 700
Cases of Fraudulent Entry
in California.
"a Scotch Syndicate Which
Will Suffer for It's Mon
strous Triekery.
Secretary Villas Takes a Hand
Against the Conspiracy to
Obtain Patents.
New York State Senators
Want Peckham Promoted to
the Supreme Court.
Special to the Globe.

wood land frauds in California have Tor
some time been engaging the attention
of the officials Of the interior depart
ment. Upwards of 700 entries have
been pronounced fraudulent, and suits
have been recommended to vacate the
patents. Secretary Villas in recent
official letter to the attorney general,
recommending the bringing of suits IN
a number of cases, submitted the fol-
lowing details of the fraudulent methods
employed: From the reports of Special
Agent r. F. Benger and accompanying
affidavits, it appears that Scotch cor
poration or syndicate was formed for
the purpose of containing control OF all
The valuable redwood lands located in
Humboldt county. This syndicate was
represented in California by James D..
Walker. who made a contract with
Joseph Russ, David Evans and Charles
King. composing the firm Of Russ u
Co. to carry out the object in view.
These in turn employed as agents in
the various work Charles E. Beach,
Harry A. Mark and M. P. Roberts
(brother of the register of the Hum
boldt land office) who employed other
agents,
THE AFFIDAVITS
of some of whom will be found here
with. The affidavitS Of Frank McLOug-
Ian shows he was employed by Charles
e. Beach to furnish men to make tim
her applications, for which he (Mc-
I,Ouglan) was to receive So for each
man, and men were to be allowed $50
each on completion of entry. Under
this contract number of men were fur
nished. whose names and the contracts
entered by them are given. The con-
tract was then changed so as to make
McLoughlan'S compensation $40 per
week, and at this rate he furnished a
large number OF entrymen, whose
names and the tracts entered are also
given. The papers relating to these en-
tries were prepared by Beach, Roberts
and Marks. and acknowledged before
Fred w. Bill, j. p. The money to pay
for lands thus entered came through
Russ IL Co., and was not paid by the
men, but by Beach or some OF the
Others. John Conan, who is the keeper
of boarding house, testifieS that he en-
tered into an agreement with Marks to
furnish men, Seamen or sailors, to make
timber entries, for which each entry
man was to receive $50.
UNDER THIS AGREEMENT
be furnished a large number Of men
then boarding with him, whose names
and entries are given. II. H. FoSs testi-
fed that he was in the local land Office
and saw Harry Marks pay the money to
the receiver at one time for twenty or
twenty-five timber entries. David Cut
ten states he was employed by Russ d
Co. to draw deeds conveying the land
entered as aforesaid and under this en-
/ ~,
such deeds. Whist doing this work he
occupied the same room in which Beach
and Roberts were engaged in preparing
the entry papers to the different entry
men. Beach and Roberts would give
him list containing names of men and
a description of the tracts of land, and
he would prepare deeds for the same in
favor of David Evans, leaving always
the date of the deed blank so that
it could afterward be filled in to
correspond with the date of
acknowledgement. Every few days he
would go to F. w. Bell, the notary who
took the acknowledgements, and OBJ
tain from him batch of executed
and acknowledged deeds, and, after
filling the dates to correspond, would
draw other deeds for the same land from
Evans to James d. Walker, the agent of
THE SCOTCH SYNDICATE,
and then deliver the deeds to
Evans. George A. Kellogg, re-
corder of Humboldt county, certifies
that there were filed in his Office for
record July 10, 1884, 1868 deeds, all in
favor of David Evans. except twelve to
Charles f. Beach and two to Harry
Marks, and all for land in that county.
In addition to the foregoing testimony
in many of the cases af1idavits of the
entrymen will be found among
the particular papers thereof,
showing the circumstances under
which such entry was made
and who paid the entryman therefor.
Whilst such testimony by itself Ordi-
narily would have but little weight,
when supported and corroborated by
other testimony submitted and all the
surrounding circumstances, it is of
much Importance in making clear the
extensive conspiracy eliminating in the
mOnstr0us fraud whereby patents were
issued for this large body of land.
Therefore | have no hesitation in join
ing in the recommendation of the COM
missioner of the general land office that
suits be instituted i'll the proper tribunal
to secure the cancellation of these
patents, if it is thought such suits can
be maintained"