East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1914-01-07
TROUBLE IN C0PPERFIElD
DATES BACK TO FOUNDING
AS MATTERS STAND NOW. PEACE
SEEMS ABOUT TO BE DE-
CLARED THERE.
Within the Law In Ordering Militia
TO End Iawlcssness-Will With
draw Men IT Civil Authorities VIII
Enforce Order.

Within the Law LII Ordering Militia
10 End Iawicssness-Will With
draw Men IT Civil Authorities VIII
Enforce Order.
SALEM. Ore, Jan. From this
point peace seems near in Copper
field and environs. Having been in
formed by Colonel Lawson that Sher-
iff Rand was willing to make over
lures, the governor telegraphed the
colonel to act for him.
eff the authorizes will agree to en-
force the law. and am assured that
IL will be done. the controversy vir-
tually is settled. declared the gov
ernor 'That is what this office has
insisted upon from the start and that
is what we are going to have.
Colonel Lawson's telegram was as
follows:
Through Snodgrass have seized all
gambling and slot machines. No
opposition. all qiuet. Rand here in
consultation. He will go to Copper
field with me. Rand wants you to
turn his case over to me"
In sending instructions to Colonel
Lawson the governor sent him copy
of the following telegram. which had
been sent to Sheriff Rand earlier in
the day:
whenever you will assure this Of
flee that you will cooperate with US
in putting a stop to further viola
tions of the liquor laws of your coun-
ty and in closing all houses of pros
titution. we are ready to withhold any
further activities on the part of the
militia. AS pledge of cooperation,
we ask that you appoint F. II. Snod-
grass as deputy sheriff for so days
without pay to assist our officers in
performing the above duties. An
early reply will be appreciated.
governor West removed Samuel
White. Judge advocate general of his
military staff. on charge that the
officer had been guilty of furnishing
gratuitous advice to the alleged law
breakers of Copperfield.
'.Instead of giving those people ad-
vice and sympathy" continued the
governor. "he should have reserved
them for the benefit of the guards
men,
Mr. White Is one of the leading
democrats of the state and was ap-
pointed by the governor soon after
he assumed the duties of his office.
West Declared Within Law.
SALEM. Ore. Jan 1.-Governor
West said that lawyers whom he has
asked to investigate the legal phase
of the Copperfield controversy had
advised him that his right to declare
martial law could not be questioned
by injunction or any other legal pro-
cedure. He was informed that the
! only remedy of those opposing him
was to start a recall movement or to
refuse to reelect him. Not being a
candidate for reelection. the COVER
nor said that did not worry him a
particle.
The governor also received tele-
gram from The Dalles, giving the in
| formation that committee of 100,
| representing 400 voters of that town,
approved his action in Copeprfield and
other towns in the state regarding the
LIQUOR traffic Governor West said
| he had received similar Endorsements
from Portland and other cities.
COPPERFIELD. Jan. THE law
lessness which ended with the ship
| ment of liquor and gambling machines
out of Copperfield dates back to the
! founding of Copperfield some five
years ago, when the Snake River
branch of the Oregon Short Line and
the Idaho Oregon Power & Light
company began construction of tun-
nels through the Oxbow of the Snake
river. The Oxbow is a tremendous
double bend in the Snake, by tunnel
ing through which the power COM
pany carries water some 400 feet
cutting off distance of over three
miles traversed by the river.
While this work was going on
about 1900 men were employed in the
immediate vicinity of Copperfield. In
addition there are several important
mining districts in both Oregon and
Idaho from which prospectors fitted
out at Copperfield.
Wild and Woody 5 Years Ago.
Five years ago the little town in
the Snake river canyon was typi-
cal frontier camp, with eleven sa-
looms. as many disorderly houses,
gambling dens and all the trimmings
of town beyond the law. 1t was no
uncommon thing to see a dozen fights
going on along Independence avenue,
the single street of Copperfield. At
one time drunken men lay in snow.
Then the bottom fell out of the town,
the tunnels were completed, the 1900
'hohunks" who had been working
there and spending their wages in
Copperfield sought new work and
Copperfield dwinded away until it
had only four saloons for its S4 peo-
pie.
Then it was that politics began to
creep out. II. a. Stewart one of the
early settlers of Copperfield, and
Tony Warner, another early settler,
owned a saloon. So did William VIE
gand. the town plutocrat. and like
wise Tom Ingram and-it's a very i'm
portant "and"-Martin Knezevich.
Martin came to Copperfield in its
heydey and being a Montenegrn, in
other words a fellow "bohunk' of
the men in the tunnels. his place soon
got most of the trade. In addition
Martin seems to have been generous
with his customers and his place soon
became the mecca Of the cattlemen OF