Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-02-22

When the original application was
made it was customary u forward It
| to Washington. where a ratent was
made out and sent back to the land Of
flee of the district, where It was held
| until the applicant appeared with
| proofs of settlement and improve.
meut.
The graduation act was the out
growth of a peculiar physical condl-
| ton. All early settlements of new
| territory are made along its princi-
| pal waterways. In Missouri the first
settlements were made along the Mis-
| sissippi river in Cape Girardeau New
| Madrid and Ste. Genevieve counties,
the land titles in this district going
back to the original Spanish grants.
| The United States surveys of the ter
ritory lying west of this were made
| in 1S20-21, but the lands back from
the river had not proved tempting to
| the pioneer. For a quarter of a CEN
| tury they lay in their virgin condi-
ton.
Congress at that time reflected the
general desire for rapid settlement,
and as an inducement the "bit acre"
act was passed. AS far back as the
| passage of this act there were men
who saw the possibilities for land
grating under it. Greer w. Davis,
prominent resident of Missouri,
signed thousands of applications con-
trary to law before the war. and his
operations, with those of many others,
covered vast areas-so vast, in fact,
that large part of several counties
was covered The patents correspond
ing to these applications were sent
on from Washington to the land of
| flee then located at Jackson. In 1861
the land Office was moved to Ironton,
and with it thousands of patents is
sued on fraudulent applications.
Then came the civil war. In addi-
ton to the fraudulent applications
thousands of others had been made by
bona-fide settlers. Large numbers of
these applicants went to the war and
either were killed or settled elsewhere
when peace was declared. Their pat
ents were still pigeonholed in the
lronton land Office. 1t is undoubtedly
true that some of these patents had
been stolen by Gen. Prices raiders
about the time of the battle of Pilot
Knob but thousands of them remained
| unclaimed in the office. Such were the
physical and legal conditions in which
the greatest conspiracy of the genera
tion had its roots.
In the early part of 1880 | registered
at the primitive tavern at Ironton as
James Hall, of Chicago. Inquiry be-
fore my arrival had convinced me that
| there was one man in the district
whom | could trust implicitly, and he
was Bernard Zwart, United States
commissioner for the district, and as
''square-toed" a government official as
it ever has been my good fortune to
meet. To him | revealed my true
identity; to others l was the repre-
sentative of a Chicago land syndi-
cate.
You have a prodigious task before
you" was Zwart's Introductory re-
mark. Not only that, but you are
dealing with a clique of men who are
deep in the mire of fraud and who
will not submit tamely to being hauled
into the daylight by the government"
| realized this fully | asked Zwart
for such information as ne could give
81 first became convinced that whole
sale fraud was being committed" he
replied, when, several years ago. Rob
ert Lindsay offered to sell me all the
patents to 800 acres each | wanted at
ten dollars apiece. l bought none of
them, but have kept half an eye on
matters since. Recently Mrs. SAILS
bury, of Ironton, told me that she had
been hired by Robert Lindsay in the
writing of deeds in his office in that
city. AS nearly as | can learn Lind |
say has six or seven clerks employed
in making out deeds in his Ironton Of
fee. and | am convinced that these
deeds are not straight"
A survey of the situation showed |
me that when Grant in 1869 appointed |
James Lindsay pension agent at St |
Louis he made Carroll r. Peck chief |
clerk. The relationship between Lind
say and Peck was unusual in that |
Lindsay's second wife was Peck's sis
ter, and Peck's wife was Lindsays |
daughter, Peck. therefore, being James
Lindsay's brother-in-law and son-in- |
law and Robert Lindsay's brotherin
1nx