Chapter XXVI
By Horace Stevens.
IN THE Spring of 1899, intense excitement was created throughout the southern portion of Cahfornia by the discovery of vast quantities of petroleum oil in the Kern River fields, adjacent to Bakersfield. At this time the conditions there regarding titles were rather peculiar. The lands upon which the oil was found had been surveyed by the Government many years previously, and returned as agricultural in character. As a matter of fact, no other return could then have been made, as there was nothing to indicate the presence of any kind of mineral in the soil, while on the contrary, there was everything to show that the land could properly be classed as agricultural, for the reason that it annually produced good crops of luxuriant grass, and was regarded generally as excellent range for various kinds of livestock.
Only during certain seasons of the year, however, could it be thus utilized, alfileria, the native grass, having a tendency to dry and disappear after reaching maturity. For this reason the land did not appeal to the homeseeker, as it was practically valueless without the aid of artificial irrigation, and there were no known methods of conducting water thereon. Therefore, although in most cases the several townships had been surveyed as early as 1855, the title to nearly all the land embraced therein was still vested in the Government, even in the face of the fact that the various vacant tracts were lying at the gates of a prosperous city of several thousand inhabitants. True, all the odd numbered sections of each township belonged to the Southern Pacific Company by virtue of inclusion within the grant limits of the railway corporation, but the other portions were as barren of claimants as the desert of Sahara.
This was the peculiar situation when oil was first found in the southeast quarter of Section 3, Township 29 South, Range 28 East, Mt. Diablo Base and Meridian. Instantly there was a rush from all directions to acquire title to lands adjacent to the point of discovery in the hope that the holdings thus secured might fall within the proven territory and enrich the owners. Railroad lands that had gone begging at $2.50 an acre suddenly achieved fabulous valuations, many transactions ultimately involving from $1,000 to $5,000 an acre, according to location, and derricks were springing up on all sides as if by magic. No wonder it was enough to inflame the imagination and cause men to do all sorts of things in order to obtain a foothold where the returns were so certain and phenomenal.
Titles to the various vacant tracts were sought in two ways: First, by applicants through the placer mining laws of the United States, in claims of twenty acres each, and almost simultaneously by claimants under the forest reserve lieu land Act of June 4, 1897. The latter were called "Scrippers," while the others were commonly known as "Mineral Locators." According to the mining laws as they had been construed by every Court in the land up to that time, no placer mining location could be made validly unless the entry was based upon an actual discovery of mineral, while the Scrippers, so called, were required to set forth in their affidavits that the land was "vacant and unoccupied" at the date of selection. Naturally, a question not only of law. but of fact became involved, one of the chief contentions of the Scrippers being that the land was vacant and unoccupied at the time of its selection, while the mineral locators alleged actual possession, and it is generally admitted that in most instances since the origination of the controversies over title to the lands, oil has been found thereon in paying quantities.
The present holding of the Interior Department is that a person who has made a selection under the Act of June 4. 1897, acquires no title thereto, although the land taken was "vacant land, open to settlement."' and in the condition prescribed by the statute, unless the selector at the time of selection made affidavit that the land was wholly unoccupied. It was the contention of the Scrippers that land was subject to selection under the above Act, notwithstanding it was occupied, unless the occupant had some legal right to the property, but that, even if wrong in this view, they contended that the selector acquired a good title if the land was in fact unoccupied when selected, although no affidavit to that effect was filed at the date of selection.
It would thus seem that the inception of the trouble between the mineral locators and Scrippers was due to the fact that the mining claims were required to be filed in the United States Land Office of the district where the land was situated instead of in the County Recorder's office. By the latter process the claimant in the land office did not become cognizant of any conflicting entries, because the records there showed the tract to be vacant; and the mineral locator was kept in equal ignorance of the situation, because there was nothing in the County Recorder's office showing the existence of any bona fide title to give him notice that the land was not subject to mineral entry.
It would appear that the logical remedy under the circumstances would be to make it obligatory that all claims of whatsoever character affecting title to the public domain should not only be filed in the local land office, but also placed on the records of the County where the land is situated. The forest reserve lieu land Act of June 4, 1897, has since been repealed, although the cases affecting the issues involved are still pending in the Courts. I shall only discuss them hereafter as they apply to the salient features of my story, as the details are too intricate to be properly considered in the space at my command.
Suffice to say that among those who became interested in the acquisition of title to these oil lands by process of forest reserve lieu selections were William H. Crocker, a prominent capitalist of San Francisco; William Singer, Jr., of the Southern Pacific law department, besides Charles F. Gardner, Harry V. Reardan. George E. Whitaker, a trio of San Francisco attorneys, and Wellington Gregg, Jr., and George T. Cameron, the two latter acting in the capacity of agents for Crocker, who was always a silent partner in matters of this kind, although it was common knowledge that he was the financial backer of the scheme to secure control of much of these lands by the "Scripper" process.
Through Charles E. Swezy, a land lawyer of Marysville, Cal., this combination had filed on several thousand acres of presumed oil land in the Kern River field under the "scripper law," and in each instance it produced a conflict with some mineral entry. In consequence a great many animosities were aroused, with the result that threats of violence were made frequently against the so-called "Scrippers" by the oil men.
It was during this acute stage that I was engaged by the associates of Crocker to go into the affected district and take possession of the northeast quarter and north half of the southeast quarter of Section 4, Township 29 South, Range 28 East, Alt. Diablo Base and Meridian, upon which a forest reserve lieu selection had been filed. This tract embraced 240 acres of the most valuable oil land then known in the Kern River fields, and a portion thereof was being operated by Joseph A. Chanslor and Charles A. Canfield under a lease from the mineral locators of the "June Bug" claim. They had installed a Standard rig on the ground, and were preparing to drill for oil, and in order to prevent them 
Accompanied by a hired man, I reached Bakersfield on the night of January 4, 1900. On the same train going south was George E. Whitaker, who was interested with Crocker and his associates, and who continued on to Los Angeles for the purpose of filing the injunction suit before Circuit Judge E. M. Ross. The next morning after arriving in Bakersfield, I purchased a cook cabin, that had been constructed on wheels, and was of the type in use among grain threshing crews. It was late in the afternoon before I had everything in readiness for the trip to the land, so that it became necessary for me to camp out on the way on account of darkness, and to move onto the disputed tract early in the morning of January 6.
In discussing this feature of the situation afterwards, one of the Bakersfield papers stated that I took possession of the land "in the gray of the early dawn," but this statement was a stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, the roads leading into the oil fields at that time were exceedingly crude, and the cook-wagon, being of unwieldly design, and liable to upset on the slightest provocation, it would have been unsafe for me to have proceeded further that night, especially in view of the Egypt-like darkness pervading the "kopjes" that distinguished the oil fields. It was after 10 o'clock that Saturday morning before I reached a point on Section 4 where I knew that I was in actual possession of the tracts embraced in our forest reserve selection.
In the meantime, Whitaker had returned from Los Angeles armed with the temporary restraining order from Judge Ross, which was served upon the crew of the drilling rig by a deputy United States Marshal. I accompanied them back to town in their bugy with the idea of securing another vehicle and loading it with provisions for our improvised residence, the calculation being to return there that night.
I was on my way back when I met two men in a buggy, one of whom inquired if the cook wagon belonged to me. Upon my answering in the affirmative, he continued:
"Well, are you camping on the ground temporarily, or are you there permanently?"
"Why, I am going to settle permanently," was my rejoinder. "It is a nice looking country, and I have concluded to make it my future home!"
The speaker, who proved to be Frank Lindsay, of Fresno, grew furious at my nonchalent manner, and ejaculated:
"I am one of the mineral locators of that land, and myself and associates have leased the ground to Chanslor & Canfield, and they are coming down tonight from Fresno with fifty armed men to put you off!"
"The h—l they are!" I answered in assumedly surprised tones. "Are their lives insured?"
This reply angered Lindsay to such an extent that words were inadequate to express his indignation, and he drove off in the direction of Bakersfield at a rapid pace, leaving a stream of blasphemy behind that resembled the phosporescent glare from the tail of a meteor.
When I reached the cabin. Joe, the hired man whom I had left in charge during my absence, assured me that the same two men had called upon him, and had made similar threats about armed men putting us off. At that I concluded it was about time to take some kind of notice of what they had said, as I had considered previously that they were undertaking a game of "bluff." After Joe and myself had partaken of our evening repast, I told him it was nothing more than right that I should apprise Whitaker, one of our attorneys, of the situation, and as his train did not leave until 9 o'clock that evening, I thought it possible to intercept him before he left Bakersfield for San Francisco. The horse was still hitched to the buggy, and as I got in to drive away, Joe asked me if I intended to return that night. "I shall if I am alive," was my rejoinder.
"Then we had better agree on some countersign," he added, significantly, "as you might get shot if you prowled around here without my knowing who it was."
As he had formerly been a resident of Elmira, we agreed upon that as the password, and under this understanding I drove away. Although there were plenty of firearms in the cabin, I did not deem it expedient to take any kind of weapon with me into Bakersfield. In the first place, I was on a peaceful mission, and have always been opposed to committing any act that might involve the shedding of human blood. Again, even if I felt disposed to resist by armed force the attack of any group of enemies, it would have been folly for me to have done so, as I was greatly outnumbered, and a conflict of the sort could only have resulted disastrously to me in the end, no matter how successful I might have been at the outset.
Upon my arrival in Bakersfield I found Whitaker preparing to take the hotel 'bus for the train. I hurriedly informed him of what had occurred, and he decided at once to defer his trip until morning. We held a conference on the subject, and discussed various features incident to the condition of things. It was finally resolved to lay the matter before Superior Judge J. W. Mahon, and with that object in view we called upon him at his chambers, as per arrangement by telephone.
Judge Mahon stated that he was powerless to prevent them from carrying their threats into execution in the absence of any criminal charge, but advised us to call on Sheriff Henry Borgwardt, Jr. The latter could afford us no relief, either, but volunteered the suggestion that I had a perfect right to defend my property.
"Even to the extent of taking human life?" I inquired.
"Yes," was the answer of Sheriff Borgwardt. "You would be justified in shooting to kill if they undertake to attack you!"
I was mad all the way through by this time, and it had occurred to me that there must be something radically wrong with the eternal fitness of things when the laws could afford a citizen no protection as against the threatened onslaught of an armed mob, and that flimsy legal technicalities might result in the taking of human life.
"Then, if that is all the satisfaction I am able to secure from the lawful authorities of this county," I retorted with considerable spirit, "I want you to distinctly understand, Mr. Sheriff, that I am going back to my cabin tonight, and that whoever comes there upon an errand of violence is going to smell gunpowder."
This had a rather soothing effect upon the Sheriff, and it was evident that he was preparing to sidestep any proposition that involved the chance of trouble. I could see, too, that politics actuated the law officer in his conclusions more than any sense of justice, because the Scrippers were decidedly unpopular in the community, and the voting element was strongly in favor of the alleged "poor man's method" of taking up these oil lands through mineral locations. As a wealthy syndicate afterwards secured control of nearly all the tracts embraced in the placer mining locations, it is obvious that the scheme to arouse public sentiment against the Scrippers was part of a well-laid plot to use the local residents as catspaws.
Sheriff Borgwardt fell back on his only recourse after his attention had been directed to the possibilities of serious trouble; he passed us up to the District Attorney, and this official we found, after considerable search, enjoying a play at Scribner's Opera House. In answer to Whitaker's card requesting an interview on important business, District Attorney J. W. Ahern sent out word that he would see us immediately after the performance, so Whitaker and myself had to rest our souls in patience until such time as it suited the convenience of the public prosecutor to talk business with us.
We were both somewhat disgusted with the turn of events by this time, and 1 told Whitaker candidly that, having- given the county peace officials ample notice that our lives were in danger, so that in case of any subsequent Court proceedings it could be shown that we were acting upon the defensive, 1 was in favor of returning to the cabin forthwith and preparing for the expected attack. My plan as outlined to Whitaker was for all three of us—Whitaker, the hired man Joe. and myself—to take up separate positions in the form of a semi-circle around the cabin at a measured distance of 200 yards, so that if necessary we could concentrate a triangular fire upon any would-be assailants. I felt satisfied that no attack would be made that night, as it was bitterly cold, besides too dark for them to proceed in our direction with any degree of caution, knowing, also, that they were aware that we had received warning of their proposed coming. My idea in suggesting a defense at such a long distance from the cabin was based upon the fact that I had had considerable experience over the 200-yard range at target practice, while a member of various rifle clubs, and knew that it would give me an advantage, should the worst come to the worst. I felt satisfied, also, that if any attack was made, it would be about daybreak, in accordance with Indian methods, and that if we put up a game defense, it would have a tendency to disconcert our assailants.
Whitaker opposed such measures, contending that we ought to exhaust every process of securing legal protection rather than adopt any course that was liable to result in bloodshed. While we were deliberating upon a plan of action the 'bus drove up in front of the Southern Hotel, and a number of passengers alighted. We saw the Deputy United States Marshal hand a paper to one of those who had just registered, and guessed that it must be Canfield who was being served with the restraining order from Judge Ross.
"Let's go in and ask him if he really intends to resort to violence in ousting you from .Section 4," suggested Whitaker. I agreed to this, and we walked up to him in the crowded lobby of the hotel.
"Is this Mr. Canfield?" inquired Whitaker. "It is," was the gruff response.
Whitaker handed him his card and continued: "We understand, Mr. Canfield, that you have brought down an armed force from Fresno for the purpose of putting Mr. Stevens here off from Section 4—is there any truth in that report?"
"If Mr. Stevens is on my land I shall certainly resort to force to put him off!" replied Canfield, with a determined expression. He was a square-jawed individual, and I should imagine was a person of considerable bravery so long as the odds were strongly in his favor.
"What land do you claim?" I asked.
He drew a map from his pocket and spread it on the table. "Our lease covers this portion of Section 4," he said, pointing to some tracts that had been colored red.
I looked and saw that it related to the west half of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter, and the west half of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 4, Township 29, South, Range 28 East, Mt. Diablo Base and Meridian. The strip was an eighth of a mile wide and half a mile long, running north and south, and contained 40 acres.
My cabin was very near the center of the section, in the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter, and more than an eighth of a mile from the western line of the Chanslor & Canfield lease. I had placed it there purposely, as there was a deep gorge separating us, and besides all that was necessary for me to hold possession of the whole northeast quarter and the north half of the southeast quarter—which included the Chanslor & Canfield lease—was to get my cabin on any legal subdivision embraced in the forest reserve selection, and this I had done. I indicated with my pencil the exact location of the cabin, whereupon Canfield responded rather loftily:
"You are not on my land, Mr. Stevens, so there is no use in discussing the matter any further."
At this juncture a man stepped up to Canfield and said; "there is a committee of about twenty persons desirous of seeing you right away up on the corner," and the famous oil operator left us in rather brusque fashion.
"I think it is all a bluff about any committee wanting to see him," remarked Whitaker. "Let's go up there and find out."
We followed after Canfield, but had barely reached the street corner upon which the Southern Hotel is situated before we were accosted by William H. McKenzie and Robert Rader, two Fresnoites, whom I then knew slightly. They engaged us in conversation relative to my alleged "jumping" of the land in Section 4, and the argument was waxing rather heated on both sides when Whitaker and myself were suddenly surrounded by fully one hundred excited persons, all clamoring like a lot of magpies, and evidently considerably put out about something. Their sudden appearance reminded me very forcibly of the scene from Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake," where the signal from Roderick Dhu
"garrisoned tho glen
With full five hundred armed men!"
In all my experience I had never encountered individuals half so skilled in the use of blasphemous expressions. They seemed to be pastmasters in the art. and what impressed me most was the array of ponderous jaws, all turned in my direction. In fact it resembled a sea of upturned jaws, and for a few seconds I would have sold out my interest in Section 4 and about everything else worth having at a very cheap figure.
There did not appear to be much humor in the situation, and I cannot comprehend what possessed me to do it, but I told the crowd a funny story, and some of them were kind enough to laugh at it. and then I knew that the danger crisis was passed. Whitaker and I had become separated, and I saw him expostulating wildly with a bunch of the square- jawed fraternity fully twenty feet away from me. Gradually, however, they left him. and concentrated their energies on me.
They undertook to harangue me concerning the relative rights of the mineral locators and scrippers to the lands, and I knew that as soon as they started into talking we had them. We argued the proposition in all its phases from 9:30 at night until 1:30 the next morning—four hours of solid discussion—and finally reached what each side viewed as an amicable adjustment of the difficulty. It was arranged that ten of their number should accompany me to the cabin on Section 4; that I should remove my personal belongings, lock the door of the establishment, and that I was not supposed to know what happened afterwards.
Some of the mob demanded that both Whitaker and myself accompany them to the cabin, but he refused absolutely to agree to any such proposition, but I was willing to go for several reasons; in the first place, it would not have been fair to Joe, the hired inan, to have left him there alone and let the crowd come in on him without any warning. He would most likely have opened fire on them as soon as they undertook to disturb the cabin, and while he might have injured some of them, they w^ould eventually have killed him. Besides, the proceeding was in the nature of a forcible ejectment from the land, and my legal rights were in no way impaired thereby. I was not particularly infatuated with the idea of living out there in the cabin in the first place, and this "forcible ejectment" idea furnished an excellent solution of the whole thing, as I could thereafter live in comfort in town, while, from a legal point of view, I was still a resident of the bleak and desolate Section 4, and figuratively speaking, my cabin was yet on the land.
It did not take us long to act after we had reached the conclusion indicated. A two-seated rig was secured, and accompanied by four men, I started for the cabin. Following us was a four-horse wagon, in which were six or eight additional men, the idea being for them to attach the tongue of our four-wheeled cabin to the larger vehicle and haul it off the land. It was pitch dark when we reached the vicinity of the cabin, and I called a halt, telling them that I would get out and go on ahead so as to apprise Joe of our coming.
"He is subject to heart disease," I said, significantly, "and if he is rudely awakened by this crowd, it might have a disastrous effect upon his nervous system."
My companions appeared to see the point, so I went on ahead and gave Joe the countersign. He had been asleep, but as soon as he heard my voice he was outside in an instant with a shotgun in one hand and my favorite rifle in the other. In his half-drowsy condition he v.as liable to shoot me or anybody else, and it was some moments before he properly understood the situation. It was easy to perceive the wisdom of my accompanying the crowd.
After we had taken our personal belongings from the cabin, and locked its door, I signalled the others to come on, and as the two-seated rig drove up, Joe and I piled into it and were driven hurriedly back to town. That night the others hitched the cabin to their four-horse wagon and hauled it onto the south half of the southeast quarter of Section 4, which was patented land, and therefore not subject to disturbance of title by reason of any adverse occupancy.
When the injunction proceedings came up for hearing before United States Circuit Judge Ross, he directed that a test well should be drilled on Section 4 to the same depth wherein it was claimed a discovery of oil had been made simultaneously with the mineral location, and upon which alleged "discovery" the claim was based. The original locators had set forth in their filing that they had reached petroleum oil at a depth of 118 feet, and Judge Ross held that if a test well corroborated this contention, he would dissolve the injunction; otherwise he would make it permanent, so he appointed William R. Rowland and H. E. Graves, two prominent oil operators of Los Angeles, as Commissioners to have 
A word or two in regard to this original "discovery" well: When it was announced that Judge Ross had ordered a test well to be bored, corresponding in depth and general characteristics with the alleged "discovery" well, it was the first intimation I had of the existence of the latter, so in company with Charles E. Swezy, I undertook to find it. After considerable search we came across a dry hole near the southern boundary of what was known as the "June Bug" claim, upon which Chanslor & Canfield had their lease. Swezy and myself were equipped with a long, heavy cord, and prepared to take soundings of any well we might encounter. The locators of the June Bug claim had declared that at the depth of 118 feet they had struck a strong flow of petroleum oil, which had risen several feet in the hole, so Swezy and I proceeded to make sure about it.
We attached a heavy piece of bar iron to the end of the cord, and let it down into the well. It came up perfectly dry, and we thereupon sat down and wrote out a report of our findings in order to be on the safe side. Just before the Commissioners were expected to arrive, we concluded it would be a wise idea to make another inspection of the well, and much to our surprise, upon sinking the bar of iron down as before, it came up thoroughly saturated with oil, and investigation developed that there was at least 20 feet of petroleum in the well. So hurriedly had the well been "doctored" in fact, that the oil was freshly splashed all over the sides, and when the Commissioners came and saw what had been done, they tested the oil and pronounced it "dead"—that is, oil that had been in a barrel a long time before being poured down the hole. "Live" oil, just from the earth, is readily recognizable on account of its tendency, to bubble when first brought to the surface, and to develop "rainbow" hues.
I represented the "Scrippers" while the test well was being bored, and as only a small hand-rig could be used, and the weather was very cold, all were glad enough of a chance to work at the drill and keep warm. While we were thus engaged, a crowd of drillers who had been in town the night before having a good time, and were pretty much the worse for wear in consequence, drove along the ridge above us, and as the crisp morning atmosphere conveyed every sound, we were greatly amused to hear one of them call out to his companions in contemptuous tones:
"See them damned fools down there trying to strike oil with a hand-rig."
As the distance we had to drill was but 118 feet, and to have installed a Standard rig on the ground would have involved a great deal of extra expense, it is obvious that a hand-rig was the most available contrivance for our purpose. The drilling operations consumed several days, and as the hole progressed to the depth demanded by the order of the Federal Court, I took every precaution to see that there was no repetition of the "doctoring" process. It was even asserted in the Bakersfield papers that I slept over the hole, but my anxiety was not quite that acute, although I sealed the well at night in such a way that if there had been any tampering with it I should have known it at once.
The day following the departure of the Commissioners I took a reporter of the Bakersfield Morning Echo named Merrill out to the well and had him make independent soundings with a view of ascertaining whether there had been any signs of petroleum found in the hole. He attached a soda water bottle to a heavy fish cord and sunk it in the liquid that was encountered at the bottom, and it came up filled with clear water. There was not even the slightest sign of rainbow hues so common to this kind of oil, and Merrill expressed himself as satisfied that there had been no trace of oil found.
"Then are you prepared to say as much in the Echo tomorrow morning?" I inquired.
"No," responded Merrill, "it would be as much as the life of the paper was worth to say anything favorable to the Scrippers, no matter how true it might be!" 
And all this during the year of our Lord, 1900, when the people of the United States were supposed to be independent, and it was not thought that shackles of any kind manacled the liberties of the press!
Well, it may be said to Merrill's credit that he did the best he could under the circumstances, and in a roundabout way made it appear that the Commissioners had not found petroleum oil of any consequence in the test well.
It came, therefore, as a great surprise to those directly affected, when Commissioners Rowland and Graves reported to Judge Ross that they had found unmistakable evidence of the existence of petroleum oil in the hole, thus sustaining the contentions of the oil men that a "discovery" had been made at a depth of 118 feet. Half a thousand wells have been drilled in that vicinity since and not one has found oil under 300 feet, and if the Commissioners would go back to Kern county today and announce that oil could be reached at the depth of 118 feet on any portion of Section 4, Township 29 South, Range 28 East, M. D. M., kind hands would lead them gently away, and with tender emotions safely consign them to some friendly lunatic asylum.
The records of Kern county show that immediately after the report of Commissioners Rowland and Graves had been made to Judge Ross, a deed was placed on file from C. A. Canfield, conveying to the two Commissioners the south half of the northwest quarter of Section 29, Township 28 South. Range 28 East, M. D. M., and containing 80 acres in the proven territory, which, with its improvements, was sold by them in less than eighteen months for an amount aggregating considerably more than $100,000. The consideration named in the original transfer from Canfield to Rowland and Graves was about $20,000.
William H. Crocker and those interested with him in the scripper land became disgusted with the findings of the Commissioners, and disposed of their holdings in the Kern River field to a syndicate composed of Riverside and Los Angeles capitalists, of which Shirley C. Ward, a leading attorney of the latter place, and J. R. Johnston and H. T. Hays, both of Riverside, were the controlling spirits. They continued my employment as general superintendent of their affairs in that district, and prepared for an aggressive legal campaign against the mineral locators.
Crocker afterwards expended fully $200,000 drilling various "wildcat" wells thereabouts, but misfortune seemed to have followed all his footsteps, although his operations were carried on in a conscientious manner. He eventually withdrew his casing from numerous "dry" holes, and retired from the field, a sadder, if not a wiser man.
It was but a short time after Ward and his associates had assumed charge of the litigation affecting the forest reserve selections that Judge Ross astounded everybody by rendering a decision in the case of the Olive Land and Development Company against Olmstead, et al., which was in the nature of a complete victory for the scrippers. The Court held in this proceeding (103, Fed., 568, decided July 9, 1900) that "the location as an oil placer mining claim of public lands upon which no discovery of oil has been made, vests the locators with no rights in such lands as against the United States, or as against one subsequently acquiring the title thereto or rights therein from the United States by any legal means prior to any such discovery."
To add to the discomfiture of the situation, Commissioner of the General Land Office Binger Hermann, about this time held in similar cases coming before him. that there could be no valid mineral location prior to a discovery, and that the discovery should not merely reveal indications of mineral, but should be based upon the finding of mineral in paying quantities. In consequence of these rulings, the spirits of the Scrippers became wrought up to the highest pitch of exuberence, while those of the mineral locators were correspondingly dejected.
About this time the Cosmos Exploration Company began simultaneous actions in the Federal Court and the Land Department against the Gray Eagle Oil Company, involving title to the west half of Section 30, Township 28 South, Range 28 East, M. D. M., while the Pacific Land and Development Company brought similar suits against the Elwood Oil Company, affecting the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 4, Township 29 South, Range 28 East, M. D. M. The plaintiffs in both instances were corporations of the Ward-Johnston-Hays syndicate, claiming under forest reserve selections, while the defendants were holding under mineral locations. Precisely the same issues were involved as were at stake in the Olive Land and Development Company case, hence the scrippers felt very sanguine of results.
While these two suits were pending before judge Ross and the Laud Department, during August and September, 1900, it was announced with a great blare of journalistic trumpets, that Binger Hermann, the immaculate Commissioner of the General Land Office, was coming West for the purpose of studying conditions affecting the issues between the oil men and the scrippers. According to the statement contained in the dispatch conveying this information, Hermann was not satisfied with the reports he had received from special agents and through other sources, but wanted lo be on the ground and investigate for himself. "Out on the firing line," as he proclaimed afterward.
It is necessary for me to enter into details concerning some of these occurrences, in order to show the close connection between certain events about this stage of the game, and in order to fortify what I am about to relate covering other phases of different matters.
No sooner had it been announced that Commissioner Hermann was personally going to visit the Kern River oil fields, than the big oil operators began to develop a tremendous vein of activity. More than $25,000,000 worth of property was involved in the suits between themselves and the Scrippers, and it was a case of desperate ends requiring desperate measures. What followed is best shown in quotations from the Los Angeles newspapers of the period, wherein it appears that Mr. Hermann was well treated during his brief stay on the Coast. He was met at Albuquerque. New Mexico, by a private car containing Charles A. Canfield, Edward L. Doheney, A. B. Butler and Congressman R. J. Waters, of the Eighth Congressional District of California, and escorted with all due pomp and ceremony on his so-called tour of inspection of the oil fields.
The Los Angeles Herald, of August 27, 1900—page 3, second column — contains a dispatch from Bagdad, Arizona, to the effect that Hermann had reached there the preceding day, and was accompanied by Congressman Waters, whom the report stated met him at Albuquerque, and that the two had visited several forest reserves while en route. They expected to arrive in Los Angeles August 27, and would spend the day inspecting the local land office.
The Los Angeles Times of August 28, 1900—page 12, Column 4—prints an account of Hermann's arrival in a private car, accompanied by Congressman Waters and wife, C. A. Canfield, "and others," including Edward L. Doheney and bride.
Los Angeles Herald, Tuesday, August 28, 1900—1st page, column 1, 2, and 3, and page 3, columns 6 and 7—also had an extended report regarding Hermann's movements. Wallace L. Hardison, the proprietor of the paper at that time, was a heavy oil producer, and heartily in sympathy with the mineral locators. He therefore had a large-sized axe to grind in showering attentions upon the Land Commissioner. The Herald of this date announced Hermann's arrival in a private car on the Santa Fe Overland, escorted by Congressman Waters. They were met at the depot by a committee from the Chamber of Commerce, in addition to Forest Superintendent B. F. Allen, A. J. Crookshank and Arthur W. Kinney, register and receiver, respectively, of the Los Angeles land office. It was likewise stated in black-face type that it was Hermann's intention to visit the Bakersfield oil fields that morning.
Los Angeles Herald, August 29, page 9, column 3, contains a dispatch from Bakersfield in its "News from the Oil Fields and the Mines," department, telling about the arrival there of Commissioner Hermann in a special car, accompanied by United States Surveyor-General Cleaves, Special Agent Jay Cummings. Congressman Waters, and C. A. Canfield, E. L. Doheney and A. B. Butler, three of the principal oil producers of the State. The dispatch stated further that the private car was pulled direct on the spur track to Oil City, the shipping point of the Kern River fields, where they were met by teams provided (by the oil men) and taken all over the fields.
During Hermann's visit to the oil fields he came in contact with no person not in sympathy with the mineral locators, and on all sides his head was filled with tirades against the Scrippers.
F. Roper, vice-president of the Kern Valley Bank, and one of the most respected citizens of Bakersfield, was an old friend of the Land Commissioner, having known him in Oregon, but on account of Roper's well-known sympathy with the Scrippers, he was not allowed to come within trumpet call of him, there being a constant guard of oil men around Hermann to see that the Scrippers' side of the story did not reach his ears.
Hermann submitted to an interview at some point while returning to Washington, and made the declaration that he had found positive evidence of the existence of petroleum oil "leading up to the derricks" in every portion of the Kern River fields. According to his statement in this respect, oil seepages were visible upon every hand, and this condition had prevailed at the time the first mineral locations were filed. As a matter of fact, the only known seepage in the Kern River oil fields exists at the point of original "discovery," in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 3, Township 29 South, Range 28 East, M. D. M., and aside from that insignificant outcropping—which really had no bearing whatever upon the existence of petroleum in the vicinity—there was nothing to show that the lands were fit for anything except grazing purposes at the time the rush to acquire titles first began.
At all events, Commissioner Hermann lost no time after his return to Washington, in deciding the two contest cases of the Cosmos Exploration Company against the Gray Eagle Oil Company, and the Pacific Land and Improvement Company against the Elwood Oil Company, in favor of the defendants, and completely reversing himself in former rulings.
On top of this came the decision of Judge Ross relative to the injunction proceedings pending before him in these two cases, in which the Court swept away whatever props Hermann had left for the Scrippers to lean on.
I had been in constant attendance during the arguments of counsel in the cases before Judge Ross, and had taken an active part in securing evidence for the Scrippers. I had sent in thirty-three affidavits, in addition to my own, of well-known citizens of Kern County, showing that the lands in controversy never had any signs of petroleum oil on them prior to the filing of the mineral locations, and that they had been used for fifty years past as grazing lands; also that there were no improvements on the west half of Section 30, Township 28 South, Range 28 East, M. D. M.,( claimed by the Gray Eagle Oil Company) in December-, 1899, when the forest reserve or "Scrip" selections were made, nor in fact until January, 1900.
Opposed to this array of testimony were the affidavits of C. A. Canfield and Edward L. Doheney, to the effect that they had seen a Standard rig in operation on the west half of Section 30 as early as November, 1899, and the affidavits of Frank Pitney and O. B. Phelps (both of whom were also deeply interested in the success of the mineral locations), that the formation bore unmistakable evidence of petroleum deposits. Pitney had formerly been a local fish dealer, and Phelps had never seen an oil well before coming to Kern County. Neither had any more intimate acquaintance with the geological conditions affecting the formation of the Kern River fields than a pig has about astronomy, and yet Judge Ross accepted their unsupported statements as gospel truth, and turned down the disinterested testimony of some of Kern County's best citizens!
The decision of Judge Ross in the case was one of the most remarkable documents I ever perused. Prominent lawyers of Los Angeles, who attended the arguments and familiarized themselves with every phase of the situation, declared in emphatic terms that the attorneys for the Scrippers had made much the best showing, and that there was no possible excuse for Judge Ross to decide against them. Everybody on our side felt the same way because the oil men had certainly made a lamentable showing.
My first misgiving came when W. E. DeGroot, a Los Angeles pawnbroker, who was heavily interested in the Reed Oil Company, of Bakersfield, and one of the leading factors in the warfare against the Scrippers, offered to wager heavy odds that Judge Ross would decide in favor of the Gray Eagle and Elwood Oil Companies. This was before the cases had even been submitted, and while the arguments were still in progress.
On September 24, 1900. Judge Ross made his now famous decision in the two cases, completely demolishing every vestige of title set up by the Scrippers to the lands. Not only that, but the findings of the Court ended with the suggestion that the United States Grand Jury, then in session, should take official cognizance of the variance in the two sets of affidavits that had been presented for consideration, hinting that myself and others had committed perjury when we swore that the land had any agricultural value, and that the west half of Section 30 was not in the possession and occupancy of the Gray Eagle Oil Company at the time the forest reserve selections were made.
Frank P. Flint (since elected United States Senator from California), was then United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. Incidentally he was also one of the leading attorneys for the oil men, and decidedly opposed to the Scrippers in every way. It therefore came with exceedingly good grace for Mr. Flint to do all in his power to have us indicted, on account of the terrorizing effects of such a proceeding, and he lost no time in adopting the Court's suggestion.
Indictments were accordingly prepared against myself and the thirtythree others who had substantiated my statements, and I was advised that I had better get busy and secure bonds if I wanted to keep out of prison. It was at this critical stage that I met Milton McWhorter one day on the streets of Bakersfield. He had been the contractor for the Gray Eagle Oil Company and for C. A. Canfield, and in such capacity had drilled the first oil well, besides erecting the initial improvements on the west half of Section 30, over which all the trouble was about.
It struck me as rather peculiar, as soon as I saw McWhorter, that he had not been called as a witness by the oil men, so I determined to ask him the reason, as we were quite friendly.
"Mac," said I. "why didn't Canfield and the Gray Eagle people get you to testify for them in those Scripper cases?"
"Oh, I guess they did not want me very badly," he replied with a significant expression of countenance.
It was like a drowning man grasping at a straw, and I pressed him for an explanation. This he at first refused to give me, but finally said that if it could be of any personal benefit to me he did not mind giving me the facts, but otherwise it would only tend to create enmity, and hurt him in his business.
In the most earnest manner at my command. I informed McWhorter that they were trying to indict myself and associates for telling the truth about Section 30, and that if he was aware of any evidence that would help us out. it was his duty to supply me with the information.
"Well," he declared vehemently, after reading a copy of my affidavit, "they will never put you behind bars for w^hat you have sworn to here if I can help it. and I guess that I can, too, because everything you have said here is the truth. In fact, you have not put it strong enough. I have documentary evidence that they never hauled a load of lumber on Section 30 until after January 8, 1900. for the reason that the bill was not purchased from the Wendling Lumber Co. until that date. I drilled the first holes out there, and none of them were put down until after the lumber was purchased and the derricks were erected, which was some time subsequent to January 8."
McWhorter then conducted me up into his office and showed me his account books as kept by John Rader, his bookkeeper, and said that if necessary 
he would not only accompany me to Los Angeles and appear before the Federal Grand Jury with his evidence, but would also have Rader go with us so as to substantiate everything contained in his books.
This conversation occurred about noon, and within the next hour I had wired Shirley C. Ward, our attorney at Los Angeles, a complete statement covering the evidence secured, and had received instructions to proceed to Los Angeles with McWhorter and Rader, together with their books, bills for material and other documentary evidence, as fast as steam could carry us.
Upon our arrival in Los Angeles, we went direct to Ward's office and exhibited the convincing proof we had brought with us. He was overjoyed at the sight of the evidence, and accompanied us to the United States Attorney's office and asked permission to have McWhorter and Rader go before the inquisitorial body and give their testimony.
Mr. Flint objected to the introduction of the evidence to the Grand Jury, and in this position he was sustained by District Judge Olin M. Welborn, whose son, Charles Welborn, was the attorney for E. L. Doheney, whereupon Ward resorted to the only available method of acquainting the organization with the nature of the proposed evidence by writing a letter to the foreman of the Grand Jury and requesting permission from Judge Welborn in open Court to have this communication delivered.
This request was also refused by Judge Welborn, just as Ward expected it would be, but the episode did not escape the eagle eyes of the newspaper reporters present, exactly as the astute lawyer had planned, with the result that every paper in Los Angeles printed the text of what had been written to the foreman of the Grand Jury.
Ward had practically made a brief of what he expected to prove by McWhorter and Rader, and as soon as the jurymen read the papers they summoned McWhorter and Rader before them, Mr. Flint to the contrary notwithstanding. The straightforward statements of the two men, made doubly impregnable by the mass of unimpeachable documentary evidence they had brought with them, produced a profound sensation in the Grand Jury room, and had the effect of causing the body to ignore the indictments previously formulated, and prepare new ones, charging Charles A. Canfield and Edward L. Doheney with the crime of perjury in having made false affidavits that the west half of Section 30 was in the possession of the Gray Eagle Oil Company as early as November, 1899, and that they had seen a Standard rig in operation there at that time.
Thereupon Mr. Flint awoke to a sudden realization of the fact that he was something more than the mere attorney for the oil men. and in his official capacity as United States Attorney, pointed out to Judge Welborn that inasmuch as Judge Ross had held in his decision heretofore referred to that he had no jurisdiction over the cases at bar, consequently no crime could have been committed in any proceeding before him. no matter how glaring the perjury might have been, and it has always remained a mystery why Mr. Flint did not think of that when he was laying the iron fist of the Government down upon a lot of so-called Scrippers. When Mr. Flint's term of office expired, he was not reappointed, although making a vigorous effort for the place. He has since been elected United States Senator from California, defeating Thomas R. Bard, one of the most honorable men that ever represented the State in the upper branch of Congress, and it is claimed that Mr. Flint was greatly assisted in his election through the influence of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, which had no use for Bard.
Immediately after Judge Ross had rendered his decision in the Olive Land and Development case, wherein the contentions of the Scrippers were sustained at every point, the oil men of Bakersfield boasted quite freely that they were raising a campaign fund for the purpose of neutralizing the effects of these findings. They made no secret of the matter at the time, and in the course of a civil action tried in Bakersfield during 1902. Judson Elwood, one of the active spirits among the mineral locators, admitted on the witness stand that a large sum of money had been raised to fight the Scrippers. and that he had personally subscribed $1000 towards this fund, although he was nothing more than one of the small frys in this immense kettle of fish. Just what amount was secured by process of assessment upon each person whose interests were identified with the mineral locators may perhaps never be fully known; but that it must have aggregated an immense sum is evident from the sensational developments following closely upon the footsteps of the Court's adverse ruling.
Rumors were rife all along after Judge Ross decided the cases of the Cosmos Exploration Company vs. the Gray Eagle Oil Co.; and the Pacific Land and Improvement Company vs. the Elwood Oil Company, in favor of the defendants, that everything was not as it should be, but it was not until 1904 that I came in possession of tangible evidence that Judge Ross had a sordid motive in reversing himself.
Somehow or other the Government found out that I entertained grave suspicions on the subject, and May 20, 1904, I received telegraphic instructions to proceed to Los Angeles and investigate every feature of the situation as far as possible. I had gone away from Bakersfield in the summer of 1902, and for several months was employed on the Los Angeles papers when engaged by the California State Mining Bureau upon some special service that shall form the basis for a separate chapter. I was in San Francisco at the time of being commissioned by the Government to run down the ugly rumors that were afloat connecting the names of Binger Hermann, Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the scandals incident to Hermann's visit to the Kern River oil fields in a private car provided by the oil men, and of Judge Ross' acrobatic ruling in the last Scripper cases that came before him. I lost no time in going to Los Angeles upon the errand designated, and after spending several days there gathering information upon the subject, made a report to the Government substantially as follows: Stevens' Report to the Government Concerning the Disappearance of Henry J. Fleischmann, and His Connection with the Scripper Cases.
Pursuant to your telegraphic instructions of May 20, 1904, I proceeded to Los Angeles on the 21st instant, and the next day, as well as the following Monday, was in consultation with Shirley C. Ward, one of the leading local attorneys for the Scrippers, and J. R. Johnston, president of the Cosmos Exploration Company and the Pacific Land & Improvement Company, from whom I gathered much valuable information relative to the sensational flight from justice, in the latter part of 1900, of Henry J. Fleischmann, cashier of the Farmers' & Merchants' Bank, of Los Angeles.
According to Johnston, who was an intimate acquaintance of Fleischmann, on the Wednesday night preceding the decision of Judge Ross on the following Monday in the Scripper cases, and shortly after Commissioner of the General Land Office Hermann had visited the Kern River oil fields, he (Johnston) was sitting near the large open window in the lobby of the W^estminster Hotel in Los Angeles, when Henry J. Fleischmann passed by, accompanied by a female companion. He excused himself to her for a moment, and came inside, accosting Johnston in an excited manner with this exclamation:
"Well, you have been sold out in those cases all around, and you are beaten! There is no show on God's earth for you to win!"
Johnston asked him what he meant, and Fleischmann replied:
'T haven't time to tell you now, and besides, we are exposed to view from the street; but come down to the bank early tomorrow morning, and I will explain everything."
Johnston was ailing at the time this conversation occurred, and that night his condition became rapidly worse, so that he was obliged to retire to his room, where he was confined a week. As soon as he was able to be out, he repaired to the bank and heard Fleischmann's story. In the meantime Judge Ross had rendered his famous decision adverse to the Scrippers.
The first question that Fleischmann asked Johnston was, "Are you a Mason?" Being answered in the negative, Fleischmann continued:
"Well, I've known you a long time, anyhow, but if you were a Mason, I would tell you a great deal more."
He then went on to relate that Judge Ross' decision was read in the private office of the bank at least ten days before it was rendered, to a group of persons consisting of Charles A. Canfield, J. A. Graves (brother to H. E. Graves, whom Judge Ross had named as one of the Conmissioners to drill the test well on Section 4, Township 29 S., R. 28 E., M. D. M.), President I. W. Hellman, of the Farmers' & Merchants' Bank, and himself, and after Canfield and Graves had expressed their approval concerning the salient features of the decision, that Judge Ross had thereupon borrowed from the Farmers' & Merchants' Bank, on his unindorsed note, the sum of $20,000, with which he purchased stock in the Canfield Oil Company at 15 cents per share, and which were repurchased by Canfield immediately after the decison in question had been handed down for 55 cents per share, giving Judge Ross a net profit of more than $55,000 by the transaction, and that the records of the bank would exhibit the whole thing.
Fleischmann arranged the chairs in the room in such manner as to indicate to Johnston where each participant sat during the entire proceedings. He had previously told H. T. Hays, of Riverside, California, and his attorney, Edward A. Meserve, of Los Angeles, all about it, and had intimated that another high Federal official was involved.
Johnston, Hays and Meserve went to Fleischmann in a body and implored him to expose the whole affair in the interest of justice. Fleischmann replied that' if they would throw out a dragnet, as he expressed it, so as to apparently entagle him in its meshes—meaning that if they would have all the different cashiers of the various local banks subpoenaed, so as to make it appear that he was an involuntary witness, and that his testimony was being forced out of him—he was willing to go on the witness stand and tell the whole truth. This was agreed to, whereupon Johnston, Hays and Meserve incorporated Fleischmann's statement in an affidavit which they signed and filed with the Department of Justice at Washington. D. C.
At this stage of proceedings Fleischniann suddenly disappeared. and the amount of his alleged defalcation was currently reported to be in the neighborhood of $90,000, but in a letter written to Meserve from Peru subsequent to his flight, Feischmann made a clean breast of everything pertaining to this phase of the situation. He declared that he was given $500,000 in bills of the denomination of $1000 each, and fled first to the City of Mexico, where he was joined by a trusted friend, at that time a resident of Los Angeles.
It was arranged between them that Fleischmann should take $10,000 of this money, leaving the balance in his friend's keeping, with the understanding that the latter should join Fleischmann in Peru and deliver the $490,000 to him there; but it developed that this presumed friend (whose name Fleischmann revealed to Meserve, but whose identity neither Ward nor Johnston would disclose to me at the present time) played Fleischmann false, and as soon as the absconding cashier had left Mexico, returned to the United States, where it was reckoned that Fleischmann would not dare to follow, and is now living in luxury on the ill-gotten gains. Meserve has ever since maintained a correspondence with Fleischmann, and no longer than last Saturday (May 21, 1904), received a letter from the fugitive, in which he deplored the conditions, and expressed considerable chagrin concerning fate and human treachery, at the same time expressing a wish to return and face the music, and declaring that the bank officials would not dare to molest him.
Meserve is convinced that it is his absorbing desire now to sneak into Chicago and kill the individual that robbed him, and then expose the scheme of official graft and corruption in its entirety, while Ward and Johnston are satisfied that if Fleischmann did not mean Commissioner of the General Land Office Binger Hermann when he made reference to "another Federal official," that Hermann was bribed by Edmund Burke, a sort of Poo Bah of the oil men while the fight with the Scrippers was on in Washington, and that at all events the bank records should exhibit everything in connection with the transaction, as the money to pay Hermann must have come through that source, Canfield being one of its principal patrons.
This man Burke, who is a sort of speculator and member of the local bar, with offices in the Byrne building, Los Angeles, is alleged to have become quite confidential with Johnston rather suddenly, and upon the occasion of a recent trip up from Long Beach, admitted to Johnston, in the presence of the latter's wife, that he had been paid a salary of $5,000 a year and expenses to go to Washington and lobby in the interests of the oil men, but that his job was finished with them, and that now he was willing to engage with the Scrippers upon the same terms.
Johnston said that Burke was much in evidence around Commissioner Hermann while in Washington, as was also a man named A. P. Maginniss, the Santa Fe Railway Company's right-of-way man, who had likewise been employed by Edward L. Doheney up to the time the latter disposed of his oil interests to the Santa Fe. Maginnis made his headquarters in the law office of Britton & Gray while the fight was in progress before the Land Department.
Col. J. B. Lankershin, a wealthy and reputable citizen of Los Angeles, was a heavy stockholder in the Farmers' & Merchants' Bank, and when the flight of Fleischmann was first announced, without invitation attended an executive session of the directorate of that institution, and demanded from President I. W. Hellman the privilege of inspecting the books of the concern.
This request Hellman declined to grant, and a heated controversy on the subject arose between the two in the presence of all the other directors, culminating in Lankershin pointing to Attorney J. A. Graves, who was also vice-president of the bank, and saying:
"I will leave it to your own lawyer if I have not got the legal right to do so." Hellman appealed to Graves for his opinion, and the attorney coincided with Lankershin, who immediately left the bank and returned to his office, with the avowed intention of at once setting an investigation on foot. He had no sooner reached his office, however, when Hellman called him up over the telephone, and asked him how much he would take for his stock.
Lankershin at first declined to sell, but upon being implored to do so, finally named a price which he afterwards declared to a friend "would raise you out of your boots if you knew what it was."
Within ten minutes thereafter, he was notified to call at the bank, and received a check for the full amount asked.
Last Thursday night, J. A. Graves responded to the toast, "Morality of Banking," at a public banquet in Los Angeles.
A. J. Crookshank, Register of the United States Land Office at Los Angeles, who met Hermann at the Union depot there, is authority for the statement that the Land Commissioner was then in the private car of E. L. Doheney, Charles A. Canfield and A. B. Butler, and that they so accompanied him on his trip to the Kern county oil fields.
In order to satisfy any possible public curiosity as to Fleischmann's reasons for being on confidential terms with the attorneys for the Scrippers, I shall take occasion to state that he was interested with them in forest reserve selections conflicting with oil locations in Kern county, and naturally had a motive in rendering all the aid he could to their cause, although neither the bank officials nor the oilmen, so far as I am able to ascertain, were aware of this fact at the time.
His close relationship to the Farmers' & Merchants' Bank as its trusted cashier, together with his ties of kinship to L W. Hellman, its president, probably threw them off their guard, and the presumption is that he used his knowledge of the transaction recited in my report not only as a measure of expediency in looting the bank, but as a leverage to shield himself from subsequent prosecution. At all events, although a great hue and cry was apparently made by the bank officials concerning his embezzlement of their funds, no earnest effort was made to apprehend him, and if any warrant for his arrest was ever sworn out, I was unable to find any record of it at the time of making my investigation for the Government at Los Angeles.
Fleischmann was the favorite nephew of Banker Hellman—had been reared in the latter's family, so it was said, as a petted child of fortune ever since the death of his parents, so that when it became known that he had absconded, various ruses were adopted to hush the matter up. It was given out that he had taken merely a paltry $91,000, and that he had left behind him sufficient property to cover the extent of his stealings. This report was obviously circulated for the purpose of allaying the minds of the stockholders, because, had it become generally known that Fleischmann's flight involved a loss to the bank of half a million dollars, it would have had the effect of producing such a run on the institution that no prophet could have foretold the outcome.
It may be asked why the Government did not investigate the details of the defalcation at the time of its occurrence. The answer is embodied in the fact that during this period the concern was not a National bank, hence the Federal authorities had no more right to question its conduct in that respect than it would in prying into the private affairs of an individual. It was incorporated under State laws, and was under the jurisdiction of the California Bank Commissioners, although I believe it has since acquired a National charter.
I have never been advised as to the situation respecting Fleischmann's present whereabouts, but at the time I made my investigations, the attorneys for the Scrippers were endeavoring to induce him to return and place the Federal authorities in full possession of the facts, and if promised immunity by the civil authorities, there is hardly any reasonable doubt that he would come back and endeavor to make good upon his serious charges.
When the case of the Cosmos Exploration Co. vs. the Gray Eagle Oil Co., and that of the Pacific Land & Improvement Co. against the Elwood Oil Co. reached the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, two of its members—Judges Hawley and Morrow—sustained the lower Court in its ruling, while judge W'm. B. Gilbert, of Oregon, rated as one of the most able jurists in the Federal service, rendered a strong dissenting opinion. The two cases came up before the United States Supreme Court in 1903, that tribunal handing down a decree that gave neither side any particular advantage, and resulted in sending all the issues back to their original starting point, the local Land Office at Visalia, California, where a fresh hearing was had January 18, 1904. The suits are still pending before the Land Department.
The following sworn statement, tabulated from the official records of Kern County, shows that in that county alone, within a year, 103 persons located 8,248 placer petroleum mining claims of 20 acres each, an average of over 80 claims, or 1,600 acres to the person, or a total of 164,960 acres.
In this list appear the names of 5 persons whose claims number between 200 and 250; 7 between 150 and 200; 13 between 100 and 150; 41 between 50 and 100; 37 between 30 and 50.
This list shows the following number of claims located by single families:
Three of the Jameson family located 220 claims, or an average of 73 each; 6 of the Prewett family located 565 claims, or an average of 94 each; 7 of the Richardson family located 885 claims, or an average of 126 each, and 4 of the Wrampelmeier family located 292 claims, or an average of 73 each.
Those holding less than 30 claims each are not shown in this list.
64
54
153
31
47
64
58
86
46
234
75
43
39
75
48
43
31
54
43
42
46
75
31
65
185
36
35
59
137
65
81
71
33
40
45
52
123
30
228
160
42
34
58
73
31
62
40
117
52
55
76
49
47
36
74
34
65
134
54
245
229
57
82
67
96
121
95
98
137
74
80
37
37
139
Ill
122
130
124
98
163
37
182
34
40
115
58
73
71
56
34
31
31
181
34
48
73
73
73
73
223
30
160
137
|
Total number of claimants
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
103 |
|
Total number of claims
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
8,248 |