claims in 11-7, and they were prepared to testify that the Government surveyors had seldom, if ever, deviated from the section lines, consequently a cabin could have been within a stone's throw of them without their seeing it.
We knew, as a matter of fact, that homesteaders rarely placed their improvements in close proximity to any section line, for the simple reason that by doing so they would attract the attention of anyone seeking a chance to inaugurate a contest, especially if, as was generally the case, the improvements did not meet the requirements of the homestead law. As a matter of fact, homesteaders in a community are naturally clannish, and stand together in the matter of proof, so that one will be witness for the other in proving up, and vice versa.
We had also arranged to have witnesses on hand from Detroit, Ore., the nearest point of civilization to township 11-7, who were willing to testify that they had seen the entrymen going to and fro at various times, and in addition to all this, we depended a great deal upon Special Agent C. E. Loomis, of the General Land Office, and Captain S. B. Ormsby, Superintendent of the Cascade Forest Reserve, both of whom had been appointed by the Government to investigate the validity of our claims in 11-7, and who had been well paid by us long before to make favorable reports thereon. We figured that because of having made these garbled reports, they would necessarily have to stand by us for their own protection as well as ours, but in this we reckoned without our host again, as Heney and Burns not only forced confessions out of them, but the Federal Grand Jury of Oregon has since indicted them for this and other offenses, and both officials lost their jobs besides.
With all our witnesses on hand, about 24 in number, including Professor F. J. Toland, the distinguished handwriting expert, we concluded that our preparation for the great legal battle had been carefully planned, and because of our fortified position, we anticipated nothing but victory.
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