The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-08-15
BIG RAILWAY OIL
GRAB TO Be AIRED
Finder Of So, ooo,o 900 Prop.
erty Alleged To Have
Been Swindled.

Washington, Aug. i2.-An astounding
story Of duplicity and fraud. in which
q poor prospector, 1t is alleged. was
betrayed by a secret agent of the
Southern Pacific Railway company and
deprived of oil lands now worth at
auction more than $5.000.o00. will be
told in a suit which Attorney General
Wickersham has directed Special AS
sistant Attorney General Willis N. Mills
to file against the railroad company.
according to a telegram to the New
York American.
The discovery was made while TAX
ing testimony in the SIS, 000,0 900 action
now pending against the Southern Pa
cifc, the Kern Oil and Trading COM
pany, and the Equitable Trust com
pany, Of New York. for the recovery
of 6,l0o acres OF oil lands in the Kern
eiver district in California. 5S
The facts, as charged by the depart
mem OF justice, are these:
In 1911, John Jeans. an oil prospec-
tor, discovered an oil seep in the Elk
hills in California, where the sands
were so im~pregnated with oil that they
could be lighted with a match n left
burning for days.
confided to Friends.
The odor of gas was SO strong that
Jeans could spend only a few minutes
at a time on the scene of his discovery.
Excited by the prospect for an immense
fortune, Jeans took q few friends into
his confidence. They were L. g. Sar-
now. Division Superintendent Burs-
haller, Of the Southern Pacific at Bak-
ersfield, and J. B. Treadwell. an oil ex-
pert.
Although Jeans did not know it at
tho {{x,n Trno Iyx,alt vryoo tho anornf oil
agent and expert OF the Southern Pa
cific Railroad company. He had on de-
post in three different banks In Cali
fornia more than $50 900, furnished to
him by the Southern Pacific to cover
the expense OF his secret oil operations
In the railroads behalf.
jeans discovery was in township 30
"a, about four miles east Of What is
now Eastlands, in the McKittrick dis
trict, Adjoining it there Is now a pro-
ducing well of the Associated Oil COM
pany, which is declared to be the great
est oil well yet found in any country
His Bonanza Grabbed.
AT the suggestion of Treadwell
Jeans tool him and Sarnow to the
scene Of his bonanza. Treadwell, in hi.
own handwriting, prepared location no.
tices, and claims were filed in thu
names OF B~urkhaller, Sarnow. Jeans
Treadwell and Treadwell's wife
auQ SOI1llidW ana ALQG SOIL
inlaw's daughter.
Location and assessment work wa.
begun by the lo%cators, each paying 6
pro rata OF the expense. They con,
tinued their work until the amour
necessary to give them patent rights
was completed and they were ready tt
apply for inal patents.
Through Treadwell the Southern Pa
ciic knew of the find and it's value
n while the propspectors were en-
gagged in completing their title to tn
lands under the mineral laws, tn
Southern Pacific slipped through tn
land office at Washington patents o.
the lands under the agricultural indem
nifty clause of the land grant act O
1866.
Obtained Surrounding Land.
1'readwelPs dupes continued worl
and expended money on the lands 70
weeks after the railroad patents wer
granted, in ignorance of the fact The
their fortune had been wrested fron
them.
In addition to the lands embraced Il
the Jeans discovery, at the same tim
the Southern Pacific obtained agricul
tural patents on other sections of Of
land in the same district, adjoining tn
ground worked by Jeans and his asso
ciates.
All the foregoing is stated by tn
department Of justice officials to b
based on documentary and other rec
ords giving the fullest proof of tn
facts charged.
In addition, it is declared tina
Treadwells name appeared on nearl
one-half of the land locations on tn
even numbered sections in the Ker
river ana other California oil field
n that wherever his name appeare
the real owner was the Southern Pa
ciic.
Under the land grant act of 1866 tn
railroad received no interest in tn
even numbered sections along tt
right of way. whether agricultural {
otherwise.
Special Assistant Attorney Gener;
Mills Is now preparing the complain
in the new action, and it will be file
shortly in California.