Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/30

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previously been surveyed, but not accepted, so there was no trouble in locating each party on the particular tract previously contracted to file on. The location consisted in laying the foundation for a cabin; four poles in the form of a square, and a notice posted on a tree. At the same time, each person made an examination of the quarter section he was to file on under the Timber and Stone Act.

The next proceeding was to build the cabins on the different quarter sections, calculated to be filed on under the Homestead Act. We hired two Swedes at $1.50 per day, each, and furnished them with a tent, provisions and tools, and set them to work constructing the shacks, or cabins, after which we initiated efforts in the direction of having the survey of the township approved by the government.

The facts in regard to the survey of this tract of timber land are as follows: Henry Meldrum, a United States Deputy Surveyor, who was later appointed Surveyor-General of the State of Oregon, but afterwards removed from office and convicted for his complicity in making fraudulent surveys, had surveyed this tract in 1889, under contract from the Government. MeldrumPage 24