Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-04-17
LAND MEN MUST PROCEED
Lose Motion that Jury Be Instructed to
Return Verdict Of Aoquittal.
DEFENSE is GIVING ITS TESTIMONY
Tom Huntington at Length Denies
Fraud or COnspiracy-Frank
Currie and Charles
Weston on stand.

/
] Thomas M. Huntington were the features
of the land trial before Judge Thomas c.
Munger Of the United States district court
| Tuesday.
Huntington, the principal defendant. was
| the chief witness called Tuesday forenoon
and was on the stand practically the entire
forenoon. His evidence throughout was a
denial Of any criminal intent or conspiracy
| with Bartlett Richards, w. G.. Comstock
Charles c. Jameson, Aquilla Triplett, Fred
| Hoyt, Ami B. TODD, or any one else, d.
| rectly or Indirectly to defraud the govern.
ment out Of use, possession or title to any
land
My business" he said, is that of
surveyor. banker, land locating and real
estate. have been resident OF Gordon
} since 1893 and have engaged in surveying
and locating lands in Sheridan and Cherry
counties since that time. I have located
ranches ali through that section and made
many locations under the Kinkaid act,
which went into effect June g. 1904. This
act included all lands not then taken up
, in Sheridan and Cherry counties The
country Is known as the Sand Hill country
and the land is used only for grazing pur-
poses. It is OF white sand, generally rough
and there are about seventy-ive ranch out
Ats in the country that Craze over 1000
head Of cattle.
Helped Locate Soldiers.
II did something toward locating old SOL
dIers on desirable tracts in that country
under the Knkaid law, but It was in the
legitimate course of my business as land
locator. Before this law went into effect
James Hull and l were trying to locate
/ farmers in the country. but a great many
of these. when visiting the country,
said they would not live on the land five
/ fo- Z Tty,,V hill nd ed
OF the matter of locating old soldiers on
the lands because Of the short time that
they would have to live on the lands to
make final proof, with the time credit for
their service in the army. Hull thought
the value OF full section would run from
$500 to $40 Then we talked on the PROPOSE
stion of leasing the land for grazing pur-
! poses. Practically all Of the land in Sheri-
dan and Cherry counties was grazing land,
and in my talk with Hull I said If we
/ could get the old soldiers to file 1 would
take the leases Of the land and offer the
/ leases to the cattlemen, especially those
lands lying between ranches. and that l
would undertake the responsibility of sell
ing the leases II he would get the filings
and reimburse myself from what I could
sell the leases for and we would divide the
profits. These leases were all drawn up
alike, for $50 per year for the section, and
we could sell them to the cattlemen for
500 per section. All the profit we were to
get out of the leases was from the first
500 after the payment Of the actual ex-
penses of filing.
No Deal with Big Guns.
II never made any arrangements with
Comstock or Richards to secure leases or
land for them. All of the leases ran d.
! 20 I ~ Cd 70 ali
did sell the greater part of them. These
leases were disposed of to all of the cattle
men in the country, practically. / disposed
of some to Jeffries Bros, Metzger Bros.
the Harris ranch Nebraska Land and
Feeding company, Overton ranch, Spade
ranch and Char ranch, and knowing the
country Very well located the filings &C
cordingly. Whoever purchased the lease
was TO assist the entrymAn in making the
Improvements in order to comply with the
law. After disposing Of the lease / had
nothing further to do with the land or
entry.
In reference to the changes in the names
in the declaratory statements, where my
name was substituted for that of f. NJ
Walcott as a locating agent 1 made the
change myself Ii was done for the reason
that an agent could file but one declara-
tory statement and that had to be fled by
the agent in person. During the big rush
at Valentine l could not get all of the de-
claratories for which / was an agent into
the office in time and l suggested oval
colt that 1 would go to Merriman and
die, where there was not so much Of a
crowd. He asked me to take some declara-
tories for which he was agent and file them
there and l did so. He also filed some for
me at Valentine, There was no attempt
at forgery nor thought of such thing"
Usual Motion Is Made.
At the close OF the testimony for the
government Monday afternoon before Judge
|. T. c. Munger, the usual motion was made
by the attorneys for the defendants that
the jury be directed to return verdcts of
acquittal for each OF the three defendants
on 1.-THE ground that no evidence had been
produced connecting them with any con-
spiracy or connecting their names with
any unlawful transaction with Comstock.
Richards, Hoyt or Triplett. Judge Munger
took the motion under Amusement, and at
: the opening OF court Tuesday morning
overruled II to each defendant.
District Attorney Goss then stated to the
court that the government conceded that
: in closing its evidence no testimony had
: been introduced to support the eleventh.
l twenty-third, twenty-elghth and thirty
sixth counts OF the indictments and that
the jury should be instructed by the court
to return a verdict Of not guilty. as to these
counts; also that evidence having been
offered in support OF the alleged overt acts
I'm the matter Of L. r. Gates. I'm the twelfth
count. Marguerite HageTty. fifteenth count;
/ r. c. Knox, seventeenth count; ]. ]. Moore
nineteenth count; Daniel DOnaghue twenty
second count; j. d. Brown and J. F. Hunt
ley twenty-fourth count; B. F. Culp,
w. Grsham. and Jessie B. Thornton,
twenty-seventh count; Franklin l. Mead
H. M Watts, c. NJ. Wyman, George Wash
ington, Cyrene Johnson, J. ]. Brady, jacob
Magan and Walter Richards, thirty-hrst
count; Charles Cleveland, j. F. Huntley
thirty-second count; /. r. Gates, John d.
Brown, Clark Wilcox thirty-fourth count
W. H. Emery, thirty-ffth count; Guy G.
Patton. b. F. Culp, W. T. Grisham. James
| A. Weyant and ]. b. Thornton, thirty
seventh count that the defendants be not
convicted on these counts and that the
defendants were not on trial on the thirty
ninth and fortieth counts.
Another Motion Lost.
Mr.. Gurley, counsel for the defense, ther
asked the court 10 direct that the jury
withdraw from its consideration the evil
| dence OF certain witnesses for the reason
| ~. tbafr evidence did moi in