To say that the Oregon school land ring was sore when it found out the artistic manner in which it had been done up, would be putting it mildly. They saw in the transaction the dissipation of a bright dream of wealth, because the lands were purchased from the State at $1.25 an acre and converted immediately into forest reserve scrip, which then had a market value of at least $5.50 an acre, making the net profits of these frenzied financiers fully $150,000 from this one deal alone.
On January 1, 1900. M. L. Chamberlain succeeded General Odell as Clerk of the State Land Office, his appointment dating from the time that T. T. Geer was inaugurated as Governor. F. I. Dunbar was Secretary of State and Charles S. Moore. State Treasurer during the Geer administration, and L. B. Geer, the Governor's half-brother, was named as State Land Agent to succeed T. W. Davenport.
During the period that Odell served as Clerk of the Land Office, although he had been afforded no opportunity for participating in any of the deals of the ring, he had not been idle, and in one way or another had discovered that there were splendid chances for making considerable money through State indemnity base. Actuated by this idea, he lost no time in inducing Governor Geer to appoint him an assistant to the State Land Agent, clothing him with full authority to deal in this commodity. General Odell was given desk room in the office of State Land Agent L. B. Geer, and the two entered into the "base" business with a vengeance. Intrenched behind a show of official recognition, Odell advertised extensively that he had an unlimited quantity of base for sale at $1.50 an acre. Desirous of selecting a tract of timber land containing 640 acres, and learning that State Land Agent L. B. Geer had several thousand acres of available school indemnity base, I applied to him accordingly, and was assured by Mr. Geer that he would furnish the base at the price indicated. I to pay the State for the land embraced in the selection. In conformity with this arrangement, I paid State Land Agent Geer $960, taking his receipt therefor, and filed my applications with Clerk M. L. Chamberlain, at the same time depositing with the latter the twenty per cent requisite on the purchase price of the land. In a few days the certificates were sent to me, indicating that the selections had been approved by the local United States Land Office.
It was soon apparent that the business being conducted by State Land Agent Geer and General Odell was well-named. Never before in the history of the State had such base methods been adopted as those resorted to by this pair. It was a case of where "base met base," and, as usual, the public got the worst of it. Inasmuch as I had put in several years dealing in State basis, and was well posted regarding the quantity of indemnity to which the State was still entitled, it puzzled me to imagine how I could have overlooked the basis designated by Geer in the selection of my land. However, as he was the Agent of the State, and with Odell had made a careful search of the records, I felt no apprehension on the subject, and besides reasoned that on account of his official position, in case the selection failed to pass muster in the General Land Office, it would be amended.
In a few months it developed that the list containing my selections had been rejected by the Commissioner on the ground that the base named therein, with the exception of forty acres, had already been used years previously. Upon learning this fact. I insisted that Geer should substitute new base, and was informed that there was none available, the supply having already been exhausted. I thereupon demanded the return of my money, which was also refused, and in order to protect my selections, I was obliged to substitute base purchased from other dealers, at an expense of $4 per acre, and have never to this day been reimbursed in the amount I was flim-flammed out of by Geer, all of which he had converted to his own use. General Odell later went into the adjudicating business in Eastern Oregon lands, and would have succeeded in having several thousand acres adjudged as mineral were it not for the fact that in his greed toPage 330
