Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/160

150 acres of school lands in the Cascade forest reservation, were one day presented at the state land office by the agents of the most notorious firm of land thieves. These applications for lands, if accepted, would take from the state at $1.25 per acre all the lands which it was about to secure the right to exchange for others to be sold at $2.50 per acre. These applications, too, were without doubt nearly all obtained through fraud, the signers of the applications, and of the assignments of the corresponding certificates of sale to be obtained from the state, having been given a dollar or two for their names. This constituted, of course, the grossest violation of the spirit of the law. Of all these things, which would seem revolting to any one, the officials were cognizant, and yet these applications were accepted; certificates of sale were issued which were later exchanged for deeds. And these lands thus secured in a job lot from the state were exchanged for some of the best timber lands in Oregon and neighboring states. 1 Land thieves who found that they could palm off on the Oregon land office officials names that cost them a dollar apiece would naturally try forgery next, and had forged signatures accepted on appli- cations covering more than 100,000 acres before detected. 2 This Oregon school lieu land situation bred yet another species of fraud. The certificates of sale issued by the state on the

1 "In 1898 Hon. T. W. Davenport, who was then State Land Agent, took up the matter^ (of securing to the state the right to exchange its unsold surveyed school sections in the Cascade Reservation as base for indemnity selections) with the Oregon delegation in Congress and was succeeding in having a bill passed allowing selections to be made in lieu of these surveyed lands. One day, while in the State Land Office, he found the agents of Benson and Hyde with an armful of applications covering the 40,000 acres of surveyed lands. He pro- tested against the sale and explained to the Board that these lands which were to be sold for $1.25 per acre could in a short time be used as base for selections which were selling for $2.50 per acre, but his protest was of no avail and the lands were sold. "These applications were nearly all bogus but they were accepted by the Board and certificates issued. The lands were later deeded to Benson and Hyde and exchanged by them for some of the best timber lands in this and adjoining States". Report of State Land Agent, 1905-1906, p. 16.

2 Marion County, Oregon, Grand Jury in its counsel to the state land board, April 28, 1905, said: "After an examination of the applications to purchase land (then on file in the state land office) we are of the opinion that those covered by the attached list and amounting 'to about 500,000 acres are nearly all fraudulent and should be fully investigated by your body before deeds are issued." (This matter had been brought to the attention of the grand jury at the instigation of Governor Chamberlain.) Report of State Land Agent, 1 905-1906, pp. 4-7.