Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-07
THRIFT ON CHICAGO RANCH
Stockholders Charged for Meals and
information Was Scant.
sHANT1Es WERE NEVER OCCUPIED
Houses Built and Moved TO Section,
but Not Used--LRnd Men Re-
fused Entrymen to Make
Their Wills.

That the Chicago Ranch company was a
thrifty concern and had an eye single to
the main chance was shown I'm the testi-
mony of Norval Osborn. the first foreman
OF the ranch. who had been employed in
that capacity by w. r. Coleman, as presi-
dent, and f. s. Baird, as vice president of
the ranch. Visitors to the ranch house,
which was located three or more miles
from the town of Wayside, were. under the
instructions of the management, to be given
as little formation as possible. Stock
holders and entrymen who visited the ranch
house we're to be charged up with what
meals they ate. tickets being provided for
the purpose, and the ranch foreman was
to be provided with a punch to punch the
tickets, and he was to submit a regular
report of his transactions.
Plats were furnished Foreman Osborn
whereby the ''filers'' could be properly To-
Gated and for the locations Of the claim
shanties, which were built at wayside and
then taken out to the claims. The ranch
was about fifteen miles square. 1t appeared
upon the REORGANIZATION Of Foreman Os-
born that his services with the company
were brief, extending but little over a
month. The reason he severed his relations
with the company grew out of a report filed
against him by one Kniffen, who Osborn
characterized as crazy then and as being
at the present time an inmate of som in
sane asylum.
During his administration as foreman Mr..
Osborn was directed to set back some of
the shanties 100 feet from the section lines
so that they should be at least 200 feet
apart.
shanties Were Not Occupied.
Other witnesses Of the afternoon were NJ.
l.. Bennett of Chicago, an old soldier, who
testified similarly to Mr.. P~aranton. The
final witness Of the afternoon was William
Brown, who succeeded Osborn as foreman
of the ranch, and continued as such for
about a year. Brown built most of the
fence around the ranch and was also en-
ployed to change the location of several
of the signifies to different sections. There
were about twenty shanties on the ranch.
None Of them was ever occupied. They
were Sx10 feet, with one door and window.
He was also employed in repairing fences
that had been torn down.
He finally quit the employ of the COM
pany because of poor pay. He brought
suit against the company for settlement,
and the settlement was made through Mr..
Baird as attorney for the ranch company.
Mr.. Brown said he had at one time been
admonished by letter from Treasurer ]. N.
Hostetter for making too accurate a report
of the times that some of the entrymen
had been on their claims and what they
had done while there. He was advised to
make a record of the general work of the
ranch, but not to make too close a record
of the boys who had claims, but rather
let them take care of themselves.
The court adjourned at 5 p. m. until. $3.50
this morning.
Entrym4n Made VIII.
when we returned to Crawford after
filing on the lands at the Alliance land
office we went into a small room with
Baird. King and others, where Baird made
out papers, purporting to be a lease, leas-
Ing our claims to Patrick ]. King. I was
asked to sign the lease and did. 1t was
understood that the property was to go to
King for an indefinite period and for all
time TO the heirs Of P. ]. King. We were
then handed another paper to sign, which
was a will. l asked II we had to make
our Wills, too. Baird said yes, and that the
Wills were made in case anything should
happen to u.s.
Such was the statement made by the first
witness, Michael Paranton of Chicago. who
went on the stand in the F. s. Baird land
trial In the federal court Tuesday morn
ing.
At the opening Of the morning session
the attorneys for both the government
and defense filed a stipulation of facts
relative to the land office records Of the
several entries of the parties named in
the Indictments. This stipulation does
away with the tedious monotony Of read
ing from the records in detail all the forms
pertaining to the filings.
The first witness Of the forenoon was