Los Angeles herald., 1890-06-10
Defendant ChOrmicle Com
mences His Statement.
He Tells How the Trouble
Originated.
1t Began Over the Ownership of a
Tract of Land.
His Story About the Quarrel Over the
Hauling of Lumber Upon the
Land in Question.

uay DelOre Judge Cneney dnua jury, Ilie
first witness being William B. Rose, who
was recalled for a brief examination on
a few minor details.
James p. Wade, an employee of w.
w. Jenkins, was next examined as to
having accompanied Mr.. Jenkins to tn e
scene of the tragedy, and seen both Cook
and Walton's bodies there after the
shooting. He merely corroborated Mrs.
Jenkins > testimony, and was not cross
examined.
The next witness called was George
M. Gardener, brother of the defendant,
who was on the ridge of mountain on
an adjoining section and saw Chormicle
and his brother standing in front of the
cabin, and heard shots fired. He also
saw Dime running away afterwards. He
saw Dime and Walton earlier in the
morning with the load of lumber, and
saw Chormicle talking to them, but was
too far away to hear any of their con-
versation.
William G. Chormicle, the defendant,
then took the stand and testified in effect
as follows He was born in Missouri in
1910, and left there for Eldorado county,
California, in 1856. After working for
year in the mines there and in Placer
county he went to Nevada county, where
he engaged in mining and teaming until
1859, when he left for Sonoma county
and worked in the redwoods on Russian
river for while. He next went to work
on ranch and remained there until
1872, at which time he owned 1,O13.6O
acres OF land. After leaving Sonoma he
went to Siskiyou county and raised
stock for two years, when he again
moved and came down to Los Angeles
county, settling at Rock-creek meadows.
Here he remained ff0rr three years stock
raising, and at the end of that time he
went to his present residence in Ventura
county. He has been twice mar
rled, his first wife having died,
and is the father OF six children.
He had known the Castac cai1on since
1876; and had purchased some land
there from man named Martinez, before
he purchased the land in controversy for
his wife. He had known w. w. Jen-
kins for the last five years Some two
years ago his wife contested the title to
section 23 with Jenkins before Mr..
Cabot, the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company's agent, when the property
was awarded to her, and he paid for the
land.
At this juncture the defense offered
the contracts between the railroad COM
pany and Mr.. Chormicle and the receipts
for the money paid upon the land by the
defendant in evidence, and the court
ton and allowed their introduction.
ha al nf lo
Chormicle continued, he put up a small
cabin on section 23 and fenced the land,
assisted by his hired man, sufficiently to
keep out stock. There was gate in the
fence in order to allow ingress and
egress. In order to avoid trespassing on
Jenkins's land, which adjoined section
%, he had pulrposely put his fence
some twelve feet back from the
winter he sowed eighty-fve acres with
barley, and cleared about fifteen acres OF
brushy land. He also sunk a we'll in
the canon and piped the water to his
land. He raised over 1900 centals of
barley and three tons of hay from the
land, which proved too good for small
grain. and then left it to volunteer this
year, as there was plenty of seed. 1t
came up very we'll and exceeded his ex-
pectations. The grain was all round the
cabin, and when Walton hauled some
lumber with which to build cabin he
drove right through the barley.
He first saw George Walton on Janu-
ary 18th last at the gate in the fence.
He had sent his son and hired man to
drive Jenkins's cattle off the land, and
on riding over to them he found that
they had the cattle punched at the gate,
but Walton and Dime were inside the
gate heading them off. Seeing that
there was a likelihood of trouble ahead
he returned home and started for New
hall en- route to Los Angeles, with Henry
Gardener On the road he met George
Walton in his wagon and asked him to
give him ride. Walton did so and he
and the witness talked about the stock
as they drove along. Walton said that he
was going to take up section %, but Chor-
micle told him that that was impossible
as he already owned it. Walton replied
that he did not give damn for the rail
road, as he had already pre-empted it..
Chormicle requested him not to turn
stock on the land again as he did not
want to have any trouble. On arrival
at Los Angeles he called at the United
States land office and was informed that
the land was exempt from pre-emption.
Chormicle then related the circum-
stances of his quarrel with Jenkins and
Walton over the fence on his return, in
the presence of Rose, Brockwell, and his
two sons, Henry and George, when they
drove the cattle off from section 23.
corroborating Brockwell's testimony in
every. detail. He further said that he
had invited Rose and Brockwell to ac-
company him ON that occasion, as he
wanted them as witnesses in suit he
intended to bring against Jenkins for
damages to his crop. He did not ask
anyone to go there armed.
lie employed Juan Lieva to protect
the CROP, promising him half of the
proceeds for his trouble as he could not
remain there all the time, and he
thought that jenkins intended to annoy
him by trampling it down. Before this
contract was made he had been sum-
moned from mis- Santa Paula ranch by
his son, and on his arrival he found
Olme ploughing up a field on section 25,
which contained 120 acres belonging to
the witness. w. H. George was there
and threatened Chormicle when he told
Dime to quit. The witness came to Los
Angeles and obtained restraining order
to stop the ploughing.
A few days later his wife and boys
were arrested for putting IN the fence