The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-08-20

to reveal the fraud These deeds came
to be generally known as smoked"
deeds.
As have said land stealing from
he government is a composite crime.
The thieves, 1 found. had left no means
leglected, not only to confuse the rec
0rds but TO destroy those through
which their crimes might be traced. In
this work they had adopted wholesale
methods-the burning of county court
houses in which the records We're kept.
Lindsay had preserved abstracts Of
title to such lands as he was dealing
in 1t was TO his interest to have
the official records destroyed. This be-
ing true and Lindsay having brought
the majority of the county officials I'M
der his corrupt influence. the work Of
destruction was accomplished
At Eminence, the capital of Shannon
county, the courthouse had been burned
three times The lea guers had stolen
practically all of Shannon county The
destruction of the courthouse occurred
each time under exactly similar cir
cumstances, the fires starting at night
between II p. m and a. m, a time
during which the building and the
grounds around it We're deserted The
origin of the fire IN each case was
mysterious. and no one ever was pun
ished, owing to the great influence Of
the Ieaguers in preventing an ihvestiga-
ton.
In each of the other counties in which
the ring had operated the cOurthOuSes
had been destroyed in the same manner
and at the same hour of the night as
the Shannon county building Ia some
cases they had been burned twice
Courthouse burning came TO be such &
common occurrence 1t excited nJtIe
comment but throughout the section
there was a very distinct but well sup
pressed notion that the fires were of
incendiary origin and that the hre bugs
were working in the interests OF the
land league. When the government IN
vestiga ton started these crimes were
too old to be available in punishlnS
the criminals, even had 1t been possible
to esta blish their identity, but they
served TO show the lengths to which the
land Ieaguers would go. This whole
sale destruction OF records rendered II
practically impossible to trace titles
accurately in these counties
About this time I learned OF a scheme.
fathered by Robert Lindsay, to build 4
narrow gauge railroad from salem,
Dent county. through Shannon, Carter
and Ripley counties, to 1nterSecC the
Iron Mountain road at the Arkansas
line ElaborateIy engraved stock GER
ti6catess were issued and some Of them
sold. The road, as projected on paper,
was TO traverse a section in when Nhe
land was practically all in control OF
the Lindsay ring In connecting TINS
railroad promotion plan with the lana
tbefts reasoned two ways First,
with so much of the land Along the
line of survey in his control and avail
able through crooked methods. Lindsay
calculated on developing the district py
building the railroad; and, second, 10
advertise the construction Of the ROAD
in the near future would greatly en-
nance the market price of the lands ne
was unloading on the suckers
This price had ranged from 90 cent? TO
81 an acre It was clear that the lanoS
along the proposed road wolff IN
unediately Jump TO a much higher inquire
if the euIlible public could be con-
WINGED such a road was to be built, ana
I formed the opinion that the MISSOURI
e, Arkansas railroad would never get
bevOnd the paper stage of construction.
To the stock certificates of the CONF
pany. however, were signed TWO names,
those of Robert L Lindsay. president,
and Orlando Van Hise, secretary.
While there remained much detati
work to be done believed we had q
pretty good line on the activities OF
Lindsay In addition to the points
have mentioned, had learned from a
Colonel Grayson, banker. that James
Lindsay had a large number of old land
patents concealed in the safe Of an
IrontOn lawyer. There was no doubt
of the elder L.indsay's having cOnnived
at the removal from the land Office of
thousands of patents by his son while
Lindsay, sr., was registrar. and il is
still a question in my mind whether the
father had not been the actual origi-
nator of the steal and turned the
execution of II over TO his son. But
even had this been true the statute OF
limitations had run against his offense.
and there was no use In wasting time