The Great Timber Land Swindle
A Seattle man is held on $300 bail after a witness confessed to filing multiple fraudulent land claims using fake names.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
United States Commissioner Eben Smith was engaged all day yesterday in the preliminary examination of Wm. Jamieson, Wm. Winters, and Peter Daly, who were charged with forming a conspiracy to fraudulently and unlawfully obtain large tracts of Government land in Chehalis county. A number of witnesses were examined. One of them, named William Adam, testified that he had filed on four different claims, all under fictitious names, and for each filing he received $25 from Mr. Jamieson. He made one filing under the name of James Stone, one as John Williams, one as James Smith, and one as Wm. Clark. Each of these filings was for 160 acres of timber land, the deeds to which he turned over immediately after making application to purchase the land and before any notice of intention to purchase had ever been published. He signed the proof papers in blank at the time of filing on the land. At the conclusion of Jamieson's examination, he was placed under $300 bonds to appear before the next grand jury. The necessary bond was furnished with L. H. Andrews and John Keenon as sureties. The examination of Winters and Daly was continued until today. C. H. Hanford represents the United States and A. K. Jener and Joe. F. McNaught appeared for the defendants.
“He testified that he had filed on four different claims, all under fictitious names, and for each filing he received $25 from Mr. Jamieson.”
This 1885 scandal of timber land fraud echoes the long history of exploitation surrounding Washington's natural resources. Much like modern battles over land use and housing development in Seattle, this case highlights how 'paper claims' and creative loopholes were used to privatize public wealth, a struggle over who owns the land that continues to define the Pacific Northwest.
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