Omaha daily bee., 1906-10-03
our LETTER SoX.
Tale Of the Chicago Ranch.


CHICAGO, Sept. 29.--ro the Editor OF
The Bee / write this to you demanding
a square deal in answer to your publica-
ton of Tuesday, September IS, 1905. and
request that this letter be published In
full, as It states the facts, and your pub
lication referred to above does not state
the facts. The facts are as follows:
In May, 1904. previous to the going into
effect of the Kinkaid act, / was employed
by several different persons who were
DESTROYS of procuring homesteads under
the Kinkaid act. The first of them that
spoke to me about the act was Mr.. Cole
man. afterward president of The ranch
company, and shortly afterwards / was
called TO a meeting at his house, where l
met four or FIVE of his friends and ac-
quaintances, all of whom were in the
employ of the La Trobe Steel and Cou-
pier company. The result of that meet
ing was another meeting at which more
of his friends were present to the num-
Der of substantially ten, as / now recol-
lect it. They all being busy at their
work on salary, and not having the time
to go themselves to look UP a location,
and all desiring to file as near together as
possible, they each and all agreed to en-
ploy me to go out to Nebraska, visit the
different land offices. examine the lands
and recommend to them two or more Local
lions, If possible, that they, might ex-
anime, where they might all file together.
They collectively paid me sufficient TO
cover all expenses and 1 went to Me-
braska about the middle of May and Wis
tied Valentine, Crawford, Harrison and
Alliance, examined the records in the land
offices, hired livery rigs and examined
and recommended two locations, one near
Harrison and one near Marsland Others
then were anxious to get homesteads, re-
sulting in their making a contract with
me, each one to pay me locating fee,
to go with them and point out the land
I had recommended and assist them in
making out and filing their papers at the
land Office.
one week before June 2S, that being the
time when the law went into effect, !
went with the parties TO Nebraska, show ed
them the land near Harrison and through
a local party we were shown the land near
wayside, which they, upon inspection, de-
cided was satisfactory. We then went
direct TO Alliance and waited until the
opening of the land office. The livery man
who drove the parties to the Wayside land
informed them that he believed they would
not he able to hold their land, pointing
out to them where a sheep man had been
driven out of the country and his building
burned. The parties, while at Alliance.
were a number OF times warned that they,
being strangers in the country, would not
be allowed TO hold land and were also ad-
vised by parties there that they would not
be able TO get in line to file on the land,
! and advised that they better go to the
, county seat, where the land was, and mai!
| their papers down. The parties. however.
! stayed in Alliance and organized the line
,farl,y hafor md In, lipa all ,fobt
and were the first TO file on the morning
of the 18th. Fifteen filings were made, all
In body.
A majority of them returned to Chicago,
and some of them remained in Nebraska
and have been there ever since. After their
return to Chicago they held a meeting, de-
termined to hold their land against the
cattle men, and they agreed to stand to-
gether and help protect each other and
fence their land all into one body and buy
some stock and put on and hire a man to
take care of the stock and keep the fence
up. l advised them that In the event OF
their so doing, each would be liable for
all debts that might be contracted; that
the best way was to organize a stock COM
psny under the laws of Nebraska and each
man subscribe for a certain amount OF
stock, which would be the limit of their
personal liability and two month after
they filed they formed a corporation known
as the Chicago Ranch, paid In their money
and fenced their land by running a fence
/ around the outside of 1t all, and each man
leased to the company all OF his land, ex-
| cepting twenty acres which each reserved
upon which to build his house and put his
| improvements, the lease covering a period
of Ave years with a provision that the
| company could take of buildings or i'm
provements, which they might put on the
land during the leasehold, at the ex-
| piration OF the lease, the company agreeinl
to take on the improvements and surrender
| possession 10 the homesteader at his ex
pirstion of the five years. The lease also
provided that as payment OF rent for sale
land the company would issue 10 the land
owners 500 worth of stock I'm the Ranch
company. Each homesteader paid for hi
house and improvements on his own lane
and paid In an assessment OF $3.50 Del
month 10 pay a man for watching the fenc,
and protecting the property.
While the fence was being built malicious
parties deliberately cut and destroyed Il
so much 80 that the parties employed I,
build the fence spent more time repairing
it than they did in originally building IL
One OF the houses was burned to tn
ground and three others were at othe
times set on hre.
A large amount OF money was spen
during the last year in repairing IN
fence. which was constantly being de
stroyed. and this spring and summer place
from a quarter to a third OF a mile Ion
! have repeatedly been torn down and