before me this 18th day of October ,
1883. I. J. STARBUCK ,
Notary Public.
WHAT MB. STABBUOK SAYS.
What follows Is an extract from the
statement of I. J. Starbuck , the attor
ney , and shows what was done by him
and effectually disposes of the charge
of favoritism by the land officers and
also throws some light on the "poor
homesteader" of the Herald. By the
way , where has the essence peddler
gone ? His lip service may be needed
again. Where Is the man with the
two tongues ?
Extract from statement of I. J. Star-
buck , of McCook , Nebraska :
"I was employed by the Hastings
men who made the entries on the 15th
day of June to prepare their applica
tions , and to perform other services of
a legal nature in their behalf. I saw
to it that they had every advantage
' that could fairly accrue to them from
a prompt and vigorous discharge
of my duty. I had no understand
ings secret or open with the
land officers that my clients should
have any advantage over any other
person. The treatment which they
received at the hands of the officers
differed in no wise from the treatment
of others. I was not inside of the
railing of the land office on that day ,
and had no other or different access to
or advantage of the records than any
other person. The attention which
my clients received at the land office
was not on account of any influence
exerted by any one. They were first
served because I brought "their busi
ness first to the attention of the offic
ers. If to secure legitimate advan
tages for the people who employ me is
wrong then I plead guilty. Let the
blame , however be mine , not theirs ,
or that of the land officers who were
simply acted upon.
"It is charged against the Hastings
men that they jumped the claims of
poor settlers , and so on , and a howl is
set up by the Herald and Bee that
James Laird through these people
sought to grasp and monopolize
the lands in controversy to
the detriment of others. This
is a lie. There were no claims jumped
by the Hastings men , and there was
no conflict of entry on that day ; no
other person offered or sought to take
the lands which the Hastings men
took. There was not a settler in the
sense the term is used by the news
papers on the whole creek in question.
Neither Hulbert or Moore had made
bny entry on these lands for any
settlement. Hulburt is not a settler in
these parts and never has been. He
is a crank claiming to be from Chicago ,
who came from no one knows where ,
and has now gone back. His princi
pal business while here was blowing
about his influence with the interior
department. The good people of
Nebraska need weep no tears for the
injury done to the actual settlers by
these men from Hastings. What
they did in making the entries and
what they have done since has been
in full compliance with the law. The
land on the Stinking Water is a
desert , so far -as all agricultural pur
poses are concerned ; and there has
scarcely been an acre of land within a
hundred miles of it that has been
successfully farmed. The only claim
that was jumped in that country
was a so-called timber claim ,
taken in the name of E. D.
Webster , and which was contest
ed some time after the Hastings men
made their entries , by a man named
Baldwin , not Galen , but another , an
actual settler in that country. Web
ster had bn holding the claim for
several years , but had never plowed a
furrow , or planted a tree or anything
else save the dry sticks of a ruined cor-
rall. He makes no pretense of having
complied with the law , and never did.
This may throw some light on the
poor settler , viz. , E. D. Webster. A
homesteader or pre-emptor ? Yes. A
homesteader and pre-emptor in the
vast fields of jrovernrnent pap. A free
and firm holder there ; a "settler"
from New York , holding a general
roving commission in the revenue
service of the United States , with
four or five thousand dollars a year and
expenses. He has hardly ever even
breathed the air of these plains where
these libellers fix his home. This is
the person wko , unknown to the pub
lic , postures in the columns of the
Omaha Herald and Bee , as the poor
settler ot the Stinking Water , but
who , when among us , grows pot-gut
ted with pride with his fifty or one
hundred thousand dollars worth of
"cattle on a thousand hills , " that is ,
until he grows oblivious of Stinking
Water by becoming lurid with fire
water.
The contest over this man's claim
was in no wise waged by or for the
Hastings men , and was certainly
without the knowledge of the man
who is cursed for it by his slanderers
in the press. I see it is claimed that
the Hastings men have entered from
sixteen to twenty miles of the creek.
Thi'ls ; false. "
GALEN BALDWIN ON THE STAND.
It is with great pleasure that we in
troduce to our "gentle readers" Galen
Baldwin. Galen , you know , Is to be
one of the principal figures in the
show and Galen is a good figure not
a good figure for a fashion plate , but
the figure of such a man as would
"trump death's ace" for a friend a
sort of Border Gavin Hamiltt n.
"I readily and freely grant ,
He donna see a poor man want ,
What's no his aln , he wlnna take It ,
What ance he says he wlnna break it. "
And Galen , since his infamies on
the Stinking Water have been expos
ed , has run for office and , strangely
enough , has carried everything by
storm republican , democrat t nd anti-
monop and has been almost unani
mously elected sheriff in his county ,
running , if not smelling , quite as well
as Kosewater. If the dukelike editor
of the Herald should chance to call
Galen's statement a lie , and then
should pay Galen a visit , he might see
considerable of that country , even if
he had sinkers in bis coat tail. Here ,
then is what Galen says ; read , reflect
and remain east of the 100th meridian :
Mr. Galen Baldwin being inter
viewed has the following to say in
regard to claims on the Stinking
Water :
What do you know about the
claims taken by parties from Hast
ings ?
Myself and Page Francis located the
claims for the men from Hastings.
Laird and Kelly had nothing to
do with the same ; the numbers
were turned in to the parties by my
self.
i Did James Laird hire or ever speak
to you in regard to building the
houses and doing the plowing and
making such improvements that the
law ' requires ?
No ; I made contracts with each
one of the parties personally and by
letter , and have the same in my
possession , and each one paid me for
the work done on his claim.
Did you ever hear James Laird say
anything in regard to purchasing the
claims ?
I never did , and I have been told by
some of the parties who have claims
that they have never had any talk
with Mr. James Laird in regard to
taking the claims and that they did
not believe James Laird knew they
were taking the same when they did.
Do you know anything in regard to
Mr. Moore and Hulburt being pre
vented from getting the land they
wished by the parties from Hastings
or James Laird ?
I do not ; but I can explain to you
how Moore and Hulburt were mistak
en in the land they made application
for at the land office. It was a mis
take on the part of Page Francis , the
surveyor , and was not made with any
intention on his part to deceive either
of the gentlemen , for he gave me the
same discription of the lands that he
did Moore and Hulburt , and he be
lieved he was giving the right num
bers , and I only found out the mistake
by inquiring of the party who held
land adjoining the land the parties
from Hastings wished.
Did any of the parties take any of
the claims belonging to Mr. Moore as
he charges in his affidavit ?
No , sir. None of those parties have
ever troubled any land that Mr. Moore
has ever asked for at the land office or
the land of any one else.
Was the land of Mr. Hulburt jump
ed by any of the Hastings party ?
No , sir ; they did not trouble any
claim that had ever been asked for.
Were you present at the time the
land office was opened at McCook ?
I was.
Did you see or hear the register or
receiver refuse to let Moore and Hul
burt have any claim they desiied ?
I never did.
Mr. Moore swears he has been living
near the land taken by these parties.
Do you know if this is true ?
I am certain tbat he never has lived
closer than sixty miles.
How long does a party have to get
on the land after he takes a claim ?
Six months.
How many of these parties have
been on their claims to your know
ledge ?
Eight out of the eleven of the claims
filed.
Do you know that these parties have
fulfilled the requirements of the law
up to the present time ?
I do ; I know they have.
I see the Omaha Herald insinuates
that James Laird paid * you five hun
dred dollars. Have you ever received
"
any such amount of "money from Mr.
Laird or has he agreed to pay you in
the future ?
I never have , and he does not owe
me a cent , and if I nave ever rendered
him or any other man any services
worth that amount , I will be
under obligations to the Herald
if they will inform me in re
gard to it , for I have a long winter
before me and this is the season of the
year that I round up.
TESTIMONY FBOM THE SETTUEBS.
The following made respectively/by.
Joseph Snyder , Geo. Cooper and A.
W. Davenport , are the statement of
representative men of the frontier
1country. 1 . They seem to have talked
with Mr. Laird when he was out there
and to know what * they say. They
are men of standing and character ,
whose information and veracity can
not be questioned and who are on the
ground and competent to judge and
speak.
Mr. J. Snyder , a stock man on the
Stinking Water , Chase -county , Ne
braska , being asked the following
questions , tells what he thinks in plain
words.
"Mr.Snyder , did you meet Mr. Laird
when he was looking over the country
for a good place for some of his friends
to locate some land on the Stinking
Water ? "
"Yes , I did , and Mr. Laird said he
had , at the request of several friends ,
come up to see if he could find a good
location , and one that would not inter
fere with the settlers already in that
country , and he asked me if I thought
there would be any objections to
parties taking the land and
stocking it with cattle , and I told him
I did not , and I have not heard any
( objections to what has been done , by
those living in the section where the
parties from Hastings located their
land. "
"What do you think of the charges
the newspapers are making against
Mr. Laird ? "
"I have not seen as yet that they
have made any charges. They may
make the people in the eastern part of
the state , who are not well informed
about the land business , believe them ,
but it is very thin reading to us , who
know Mr. Laird and the law and the
details of the land business. "
Geo. Cooper , an old stock man on
the Frenchman , near where the Has
tings parties are located , said :
I saw Mr. Laird the day he went
out to Stinking Water. He said that
some of the Hastings men talked of
coming out and getting a ranche , if
they could do so without interfering
with settlers and those in the stock
business. He talked to many of the
settlers as he did to me. He said the
people here , irrespective of party , had
always stood by him , and as the men
talking of coming out were all from
his town and friends of his , he did
not want them to come unless it was
satisfactory. I told him it was , and
that we would be glad to have them
come instead of strangers. He claimed
to have no personal interest in the
land. I see nothing in Mr. Laird's
course except what any honorable
man would have done , and I see no
reason why the papers of the state
should abuse him , or the Hastings
men , who certainly have as good
right here as men from Illinois. They
might as well abuse Bill Pax ton , of
Omaha , and scores of * other men in
different parts of the state who have
grown rich by herding on the public
domain.
H. W. Davenport , county commis
sioner ot Hitchcock county , and a
stock man , tells us what he knows ,
and he does not agree with his demo
cratic brethren of the Herald tbat
James Laird has caused to be made
any fraudulent entries of land on the
Stinking Water. Our interview is as
follows :
Mr. Davenport , did you jmeet Mr.
James Laird last June when he visit
ed the Stinking Water , and what did
Mr. Laird ask you in regard to the
same , if anything ?
I met Mr. Laird sometime last June ,
and he told me that some friends of
his wished to locate some land , and
that they were going into the stock
business , if they could find a good lo
cation , and one time did not interfere
with other parties in the same locality
and business , and he asked me if I
thought there would beany objections
to them locating on the Stinking Wa
ter , to which I replied there was none ,
for they had the same right that any
other party has to locate land and raise
stock.
Do you know if there were any fraud
ulent entries made , and if any one
living in this part of the state is ob
jecting to what has been done ?
I know nothing of any fraudulent
entries being made , and to the best of
my knowledge the parties who have
taken claims on the Stinking Water
are complying with the law , and as
far as I know there is no objections
among the settlers as to what they are
doing.
Have you ever seen any of the par
ties who have claims on the Stinking
Water ?
I have met several of them in Cul-
bertson going and coming from their
claims. I
From what you have seen ofi
them would you take them to be a lot
of bummers , as the Herald calls them ?
Far from it , and if the Herald calls
them bummers , I do not know who
they would call gentlemen , which I
consider them to be , and have never
seen nor heard anything that would
show they were not. They were a
sober , bright and manly looking lot
of men.
Do you know Mr. Hulburt , and Is
he an actual settler in this part of the
state ?
I do not know him and have never
heard any one claim that he lived in
the state , but have always understood
his home was in Chicago , 111.
Do you understand Jthat Mr. Hul
burt is the person that has made all
the talk about the claims on the
Stinking Water ?
The opinion of the most of people
I have heard express an opinion on
the subject is that he is not.
Who do they charge it to then ?
Why to some of Laird's good repub
lican brethrenwho wish to injure him
with the people.
THESOUBOEOPTHE STiANDERS.
The following is from a gentleman
in Hitchcock county , who for the
present shall be nameless. We hold
his sworn statement to some facts that
may herereafter become important.
The following appeared in an edito
rial headed " .A Little Plain Talk , "
which was printed in the Omalja
Herald , September 14 : "So far as
the source of the scandal is concerned ,
there is no secret , and the member
'from Stinking Water must be very
blind and deaf to what is going on
around him when he seeks to attach
the responsibility to certain innocent
gentlemen in this city , and accuse
him of 'throwing mud1 at him. "
If there is no secret about the source
cf the scandal , I would ask why it
was that the mames of the gentlemen
who wrote the affidavit that was pub
lished and got Mr. Moore to sign it
have never appeared ? And why
these gentlemen had a certain man
in McCook copy the affidavit so that
their writing would not give them
away ? I have good evidence that
the certain innocent gentlemen , as
fthe HeraTd calls them , are the ones
in connection with one or two others
who do not live west of Hastings
that the whole responsibili
ty rests on. Mr. Laird is
neither blind nor deaf , and
knows as well as I do that Mr. Hul
burt is not responsible for the mud
thrown at him , and I have good rea
son for believing that there is not a
man in Omaha that has known Mr.
Hulburt's address for the last two
months. I do not give these gentle
men's names for reasons of my own ,
but if the gentlemen will publish a
card over their own names denying
what I have said against them I will
give them the evidence against them
and show the public that the only ob
ject in publishing the articles was to
injure Mr. Laird with the people , and
that they had no other motive in
view. The Herald does not make any j '
charges against Mr. Laird , but uses
the words , "It is reported , " "It is
claimed , " to aid them in throwing
mud at him. The only ones that I
have been able to find that have reported -
ported or claimed that what the Herald
pas said about Mr. Laird is true are
the gentlemen I have referred to
above.
OMAHA BEE.
It will be remembered that the
Omaha Bee , in effect , charged that
James Laird , ( meaning the member
of congress ) filed an application and
deposited money for the survey of a '
township of land in northern Nebras
ka. We do not know but what this is
a legitimate thing to do , but the state
ment of the Bee by its evident animus
and malice thought it was charging a
fact that was dishonorable to that gen
tleman. An examination of the
records of the surveyor general's office '
will show that the only application of
this nature filed by a man of that
name was made April 14 , 1881. This
would be during the administration of
Hon. George 8. Smith , then sur
veyor general of Nebraska. His
statement hereto attached shows the
startling untrutlifulness of the Bee's
publication. Whoever learned of the
fact of this application must at the '
same time haVe learned that it was
not made by James Laird of Hastings
as will appear from General Smith's
statement. There seems no other ex
planation of this than that it was a
willful falsehood published with the
deliberate and malicious purpose to
injure. This is diabolical slander.
Here is the statement of Mr. Smith :
P.LATTSMOUTH , NEB. Oct. 25 , 1883.
Hon. James Laird : Answering
yours , I see you are charged with
having made deposit and application
for the survey of a township of govern
ment land in northern Nebraska ,
during my administration ; this is not
so , it was a James Laird claiming to
be from Wyoming territory , who
made said application and deposit , not
you. His signature bears no resemb
lance to yours whatever. You never
did any business with , or filed a paper
in the surveyor general's office of
Nebraska , during my administration.
GEORGE S. SMITH.
It will be further .remembered that
in the same issue of the Bee it was
impliedly charged against Mr. Laird
that he had for fraudulent purposes
participated in the organization of
Phelps county , and in some way
wrongfully profited thereby through
the bouds or warrants of the sauio.
The following letter to , and answer of
Hon. C. J. Dilworth proves the utter
falsity of that charge. It seems that
at the election for the organization of
that county , James Laird , of Hast
ings , or some other person of like
name was'voted for , for superintend-
'ent. Of this the James Laird , of
Hastings , never heard until several
'years after , so we are informed by
him , consequently that he never had
anything to do with the office or the
county , and was never in the county
until some six years after its organiza
tion , and has never visited the county
but three times in his life. Here is
the letter :
HASTINGS , NEB. , Oct. 25,1883.
Hon. James Laird : Dear Sir : I
have just received your letter of this
date , as follows :
HASTINGS , NEB. , Oct. 25,1883.
Gen. C. J. Dilworth : Dear Sir :
As it appears by the record that you
were present at the organization , and
elected county commissioner , of
Phelps county , Nebraska , at the first
election therein , will you be so kind
as to state the facts on the following
points :
Was I present and did I vote at said
election in said county , or have I ever
done so to your knowledge ?
Have I ever held any oilice in said
county ?
Was I in any way connected wither
or interested in the organization of
said county , or the administration of
its affairs ?
Did said county ever pay me any
sum whatever in its warrants or
bonds ?
Did said county ever have any
I bonds ? Very Respectfully ,
I JAMES LAIRD.
I Answering the same will say :
' First , I was appointed by the legisla
ture as one of the commissioners to or
ganize Phelps county , and was present
at the time said county was organized ,
and the officers for the same were
elected. And I know as a matter of
fact that you were not present in said
county at its organization , and I think
had never been in the territory that
composed that county until some years
afterwards.
Second , That you have never held
any office in said county or voted
therein , and have been in nowise con
nected either in its organization or ad
ministration of its affairs.
Third , I know of no transaction in
which you have received any pay from ,
said county , either in warrants , bonds
tor otherwise : and I am satisfied from
, my knowledge of said county that
nothing of the kind has been done.
Fourth , Up to within the last two
years there never had been any bonds
issued by said county , unless it be
some precinct bonds voted for mill
purposes in one of the precincts of
said county , but in those bonds you
were in nowise connected.
Very respectfully ,
C. J. DILWORTIT.
During the libelous war waged by
the Bee on Mr. Laird , it will have
been noticed that frequent slurring al-
lusionS'have been made to his connec
tion with what is known aa the Kne-
vals land cases , such as "we do not
now charge that he ( meaning Mr.
Laird ) has received fifty cents an acre
from Knevals on the land settled for ,
had he kept his dirty fingers out of it ,
it might have been settled for $1.50
per acre , " and so on. We have Mr.
Laird's authority for denouncing all
these things as absolutely and misera
bly false , all of which will appear in
due time.
In reflecting on the course of these
journals , who commend themselves to
jthe community by malice , cowardice
and falsehood , substituting the open
ness of men for the secrecy of asssasina
and spreading the pestilence of slan
der as though it were a blessingweare
led to ask , are there men so morally
dead and fitted for damnation , so
monstrously prepared for hell as that
they are incapable of the truth ?
Strangers to honor , enemies to the
human race , who , lacking the merciful
warning of the most poisonous reptile ,
ought to be infamous alike t "good
and bad.
CONCLUDING INTEROGATORIE3.
Will the Omaha Herald state from
what person or persons outside of
George Hulburt and C. B. Moore it
obtained any information regarding
frauds i n the entry of these lands ? Will
the Herald state who procured the af
fidavit of C. B. Moore published
by it ?
Will the Omaha Bee state who is
its authority for the charge of fraud
by James Laird in connection with
the organization of Phelps county ?
Will the same paper state who was its
authority for the charge that James
Laird applied for and deposited
money for the survey of laud in
northern Nebraska ? And will the
same paper state who is its authority
for the statements reflecting on James
Laird in connection with the
cases ?
