are said to have been on the ground at various times. Choate, who is reported to have been a leader in the proceedings, is said to have visited the state and to have taken a direct hand in bringing about some of the fraudulent entries.
It is alleged that the original scheme of the coterie of capitalists was to acquire several immense tracts of valuable land, aggregating nearly 40 sections. The plan did not work out in its entirety, but even the partially completed operations are said to have brought them into control of about 160,000 acres of land. Some of the land is located on Jenny Creek, some on Lone Pine Mountain and a portion east of Klamath. All of the land is in Klamath and Lake counties, Oregon. The Eastern men are said to have come into possession of the land by inducing" Oregon people to file upon it and turn it over to them as soon as they obtained it. In many cases it is alleged the transfers were made the day the final proofs were received. All of the land was taken as homestead claims. Most of those who made filings were residents in the vicinity of Ashland and Medford, and these persons were used as witnesses before the grand jury.
Sumner J. Parker, of Ashland, is understood to have been the solicitor for the Wisconsin men. Through his agency it is alleged men and women were induced to take up the land with the understanding that it was to be turned over to the Oshkosh Land & Timber Company as soon as the final papers were received. The papers were filed with James H. Driscoll at Klamath Falls. Driscoll is accused of accepting fraudulent i)roofs of land and being a party to the general scheme to defraud the Government. With all of the wires carefully laid for their operations, it is said that the scheme was carried on smoothly and thousands of acres of Government lands seized before the proceedings against them were commenced.
No. 4857—Indictment returned May 5, 1906, against F. W. Gilchrist, Patrick Culligan, James G. MacPherson, Herman W. Stone, Edmund Dorgan, Francis J. Devine, John Joseph Collins, Charles M. Elkins, John Combs, Benjamin F. Allen, Malcolm McAlpin, Amond C. Palmer, H. Judd Palmer, Donald F. Steffa. M. E. Brink, C. A. M. Schlierholz, J. W. Hopkins, W. W. Brown, Ed. N. White, Thomas H. Watkins, John Doe, Richard Roe, Thomas Roe, Andrew Roe, William Roe and James Roe, charging them with a violation of section 5440, Revised Statutes, known as the "Michigan case."
The Oregon men involved follow: Charles M. Elkins and Jack Combs, of Prineville, and Benjamin F. Allen, of Portland, members of the firm of Elkins & Co.; Judge M. E. Brink. of Prineville; Donald F. Steffa, of Prineville, editor of the Crook County Journal; Almond C. Palmer and H. Judd Palmer, attorneys of Portland; E. Dorgan, Francis J. Devine and John J. Collins, members of the firm of E. Dorgan & Co., of Albany; Malcom McAlpin, merchant, of Albany; J. W. Hopkins, attorney, of Vancouver, Washington; W. V. Brown, attorney, of Seattle; Thomas H. Watkins, member of the former firm of Erickson & Watkins, Prineville, and Edgar N. White, saloonkeeper, of Portland.
The Eastern men whose names appear in the indictment are: F. W. Gilchrist, Ralph Gilchrist, Patrick Culligan and James G. Macpherson, of Alpena, Michigan; Herman W. Stone, of Benson, Minnesota, and C. A. M Schlierholz. of Little Rock. Arkansas. The latter is an ex-special agent of the General Land Office.
The charge upon which these men have been indicted is conspiring together to defraud the Government of great tracts of rich timber land in Lake, Crook and Klamath counties. According to the indictment the conspiracy is one of many ramifications, but in its essential features is a counterpart of that upon which the eight rich Wisconsin men were arrested a short time previously.
The leaders in the alleged plot were the Gilchrists, Culligan, Macpherson and Stone, who endeavored, and to a large extent succeeded, to come into the possession of thousands of acres of the public domain by procuring dupes in Oregon who were willing to take up claims by making false entries with the understanding that they were turned over to their employers for a stipulated consideration as soon as title should be secured.
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