defaulter, but lost the suit by reason of the statute of limitations having run against the claim. George W. Davis was removed from office on August 1, 1895, and W. H. Odell appointed to fill the vacancy.
During the latter's administration of affairs—covering a period from the date of his commission until January 1, 1900—there were comparatively few transactions connected with indemnity lands, as by this time the basis had practically become exhausted, and what little was left was handled exclusively by the State Land Agent. The ring, however, continued to deal in the 16th and 36th sections, whenever opportunity offered, as the latter class of lands remained at $2.50 an acre. This condition of affairs continued until sometime in 1898. when we all awoke to a realization that we were not half so smart as we thought we were. It appears that there were still some 44,000 acres of unsold surveyed State school sections within the limits of the Cascade Forest Reserve, which had been established September 28, 1893. After the passage of the lieu land Act of June 4, 1897, it was thought that the State had no power to make selections using as base the unsold surveyed portions of the 16th and 36th sections embraced in a forest reserve. So firmly was this idea fixed in the minds of the State officers in fact, that at the instance of T. W. Davenport, State Land Agent, United States Senator George W. McBride (former Secretary of State for Oregon) had introduced a bill in Congress granting the State such a privilege.
It was at this juncture that F. A. Hyde and John A. Benson, the California operators who have long enjoyed a complete monopoly of indemnity land business in that State, and who are now on trial in Washington, D. C, for their part in fraudulent land transactions, conceived the idea of invading Oregon in search of pastures new. In 1898 Hyde came to Portland personally, accompanied by one Joost H. Schneider, a sort of "Man Friday" for the California schemer, whom he sent to Salem to do a little missionary work. One day Schneider appeared at the State Land office in Salem with an innocent-appearing application, calling for the purchase of a half-section of school land in the Cascade Forest Reserve. Meeting with no opposition to its filing, and having received the deed from the State, Schneider took his departure, but in a few days returned, armed with a sufficient number of similar applications to cover 44,000 acres, or practically every foot of vacant State school land left in the reserve.
As may be surmised, there was general commotion in the State Land Office when the full force of this contemplated raid dawned upon the State authorities. G. G. Brown, at that time a deputy under Odell, and at present Clerk of the State Land Board, was in the office when this incident occurred, and objected to filing such a large number of applications calling for such a vast quantity of school land, and summoned Mr. Davenport into consultation with him upon the subject. The latter likewise demurred to such a proceeding, but Hyde's agent was not to be denied, citing the filing of the single application heretofore referred to as a precedent to sustain his contentions, and insisted that, inasmuch as the lands were for sale, and the applications in proper form, they should be accepted and deeds issued accordingly. He accentuated this request by tendering the full purchase price of the lands, and demanded the deeds on pain of a suit against the State in case of refusal. Under these circumstances, the applications were accepted and deeds issued, conveying to the firm of San Francisco grabbers an immense domain, for which the State received $1.25 an acre, or approximately $50,000. It developed afterwards that Hyde and Benson, through Schneider, had secured "dummies"' in Portland and vicinity to make the filings, and this feature of the proceedings is embodied in one of the counts in the indictment against them charging them with conspiracy to defraud the United States of its public lands, it being alleged that the base thus fraudulently obtained was used in the selection of other tracts belonging to the Government, under the Act of June 4, 1897, as the lands purchased from the State at the time indicated were later conveyed to the Government in exchange for other lands.
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