Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-09-19

only made his friond James Lindsay
| registrar of the Ironton land Office, but
made Carroll r. Peck receiver at the
| same office. This arrangement lasted
two years.
At the time l went to Ironton I
| found Carroll R. Peck installed as
| postmaster and his brother-in-law, an
| other son of James Lindsay, a mail
clerk on the Iron Mountain railroad.
This was a combination, feared, that
would render it impossible for me to
send reports out OF Ironton in the
usual way, and 1 Immediately arranged
to forward reports from another point.
Subsequently it developed that Iron
ton letters were frequently tempered
with and lost.
Robert L. Lindsay maintained three
ofices-one in Olive street, st. Louis,
another in Market street, in the same
city, and one at Ironton. At the lat
ter office he had in, his employ seven
or eight persons, most of whom, l
learned from cautious inquiry, were
employed steadily in making out deeds
to lands in the district. l could find
no evidence to show that these en-
ployes had anything like complete
conception Of the character of the
work in which they were engaged. The
four that did most If this work were
George Lopez. De Burns Casteel, Har-
vey Miller and Mrs Salisbury. The
latter was widow, and had evidently
cleaned enough to convince her that
all was not right, although she did
not know just what the wrong consist
ed in nor the extent of the fraud to
which she had been an innocent party.
Casteel and Miller were afterward of
considerable service to the govern
ment.
1t will be recalled that the grist Of
deeds being ground cut at the Lindsay
mill in Ironton were based on patents
issued by the government many years
before, and never claimed. l could
not understand, therefore, how such
a game could successfully he played
with deeds that showed their recent
manufacture on their face A casua!
examination of instruments obtained
by me showed them to bear the ap-
pearance Of proper age. More careful
examination, however, showed them to
lack some of the unmistakable charac-
teristics impressed on such papers by
age.
1t became apparent, both from exam
1nation and investigation, that the
Lindsay deeds had been treated with
coffee. This treatment many years
ago, was one of the improved methods
used by counterfelters and forgers
when they wished to impart to spu-
rlous documents the yellowness and
other indications of age 1t consist
ed merely in subjecting the paper to
be aged to bath in coffee water of
the proper strength. In the hands of
an experienced person the effect de-
sired could be obtained so accurately
that more than superficial examina-
ton was required 20 reveal the fraud
| These deeds came to be generally
| known as Smoked" deeds.
| AS l have said, land stealing from
the government is composite crime
The thieves, 1 found, had left no
means neglected, not only to confuse
the records, but to destroy those
through which their crimes might be
traced. In this method they had
adopted wholesale methods-the burn
ing of county courthouses in which
the records were Kept. Lindsay had
preserved abstracts Of title to such
lands as he was dealing in 1t was
to his interest to have the official rec
ords destroyed. This became true, and
Lindsay having brought the majority
of the county officials under his COR
rupt influence, the work of destruction
was accomplished
At Erninence, the capital of Shannon
county, the courthouse had been
burned three times. The leaguers had
stolen practically all of Shannon coun-
ty. The destruction Of the court
house occurred each tirra under ex-
actly similar circumstances the fires
starting at night between IL p. M
and three a. m, time during which
the building and the grounds around it
were deserted. The origin Of the fire
in each case was mysterious, and no
one ever was punished, owing to the
SlCoI lAlluSliCe VI tue lSuS ueTS III pre-.
ing an investigation
In each of the other counties In
which the ring had operated the court
houses had been destroyed in the
same manner and at the same hour
OF the night as the Shannon county
building. In some cases they had
been burned twice. Courthouse burn
ing came to be such a common occur
renee it excited little comment, but
throughout the section there was a
very distinct but we'll suppressed no.
ton that the fires were of incendiary
origin, and that the tre-bugs were
working in the interests of the land
league. When the government in
vestigation started these crimes were
too old to be available in furnishing
the criminals, even had it been pos
sible to establish their identity, but
they served to show the length to
which the land leaguers would go
This wholesale destruction of records