Meldrum was formerly United States Surveyor-General of Oregon; Kinnaird was a Government examiner of surveys; Waggoner was chief clerk of the Surveyor-General's office under Meldrum; Winton and Klaetsch were contractors for Government surveys, while Stipp and Dungan are alleged to have taken fraudulent acknowledgements in connection with the survey of certain townships, both being notaries public. Meldrum was convicted on twenty-one counts of an indictment returned by a previous Grand Jury, and is now doing time at the Government prison on McNeill's Island.
No. 2915—Indictmont returned February 13, 1905, against John H. Hall, Henry Ford, Harry L. Rees, A. P. Caylor, John Cordano, J. H. Hitchings, John Northrup and Charles F. Lord, charging them with a violation of section 5399, Revised Statutes, in endeavoring to intimidate an officer in a United States court in the discharge of his duty.
Back of this indictment there is an interesting story. It is claimed that the defendants entered into a conspiracy to bring disrepute upon Heney by having him involved in a scandal with Marie Ware. Her friend Alice White was selected to carry on the negotiations with Miss Ware, but the two women lost no time in apprising Heney of the situation, and the indictment was the consequence. Hall was the Ex-United States Attorney whom Heney was instrumental in having dismissed from office; Ford is a private detective of Portland, Ore.; Rees was a crooked clerk in the paymaster's department of the United States army, who had been courtmartialed for some of his delinquencies; Caylor was a professional dead-beat; Cordano a deputy sheriff at the time; Hitchings, a police court lawyer; Northrup a hotel keeper, and one of the two jurymen who had hung the jury at the Sorenson trial, and consequently was supposed to be burning for revenge on account of the tongue-lashing he had received at Heney's hands upon that occasion, while Lord was also a local attorney of more or less reputation. The case has never been brought to trial, and the proceedings against Lord have been dismissed.
No 2909—Indictment returned February 8, 1905, against George C. Brownell, charging him with a violation of section 5393, Revised Statutes, by instigating Fred Sievers and John A. Howland to perjure themselves before the Federal Grand Jury at the time of the investigation of facts bearing upon survey contract No. 732, for townships 34, 35, 37 and 38 south, and ranges 28, 29 and 30 east, W. M.
Brownell for many years was one of the political leaders of Oregon, and a lawyer of no mean ability. At the time of his indictment he represented Clackamas county in the State Senate, and at one time was president of the body, and mentioned prominently as the successor to John H. Hall as United States Attorney at the expiration of Hall's first term of office. It is alleged that Hall "killed him off" by professing to have knowledge of some crooked land transaction in which Brownell is alleged to have figured, hence Senators Mitchell and Fulton, both of whom were under many political obligations to Brownell, advised the latter to keep out of the race. Their letter upon the subject is printed elsewhere. The case was dismissed on Heney's recommendation soon after the Hall trial, the Government prosecutor being satisfied that Brownell was "innocent of the charges."
No. 2911—Indictments returned February 10, 1905, charging Winlock W. Steiwer, Hamilton H. Hendricks. Clarence B. Zachary. Adelbert C. Zachary. Charles A. Watson, Clyde E. Glass. Binger Hermann. John H. Hall. Edwin Mays, Franklin P. Mays, Clark E. Loomis and Edward D. Stratford with a violation of section 5440, Revised Statutes, being conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States by preventing and obstructing free passage over certain public lands in townships 5, 6 and 7 south and range 19 east, and townships 5, 6 and 7 south, range 20 east, through the maintenance of an illegal enclosure formed out of a line of illegal homestead entries.
This is what is commonly known as the "Butte Creek Land, Livestock & Lumber Company" case, and invokes several important personages. Steiwer is a man of considerable wealth and prominence in the community where he
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