USA > Georgia > Dodge County > History of Dodge County > Part 10
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In that year A. G. P. Dodge, William Pitt Eastman, William Chauncey and others organized the Georgia Land and Lumber Com- pany, under the laws of New York, and established an office in Geor- gia, at Normandale, so named for Norman W. Dodge. The president of the corporation was William E. Dodge, the father of A. G. P. Dodge, George E. Dodge and Norman W. Dodge. Born in Connecti- cut, he had become a wealthy merchant of New York, and about this time purchased the famous country estate of John Couper at Can- nons Point, on St. Simons Island. He was a Republican in politics and had represented New York in Congress.
Dodge and his associates proposed to develop on a mammoth scale the timber resources of the lands purchased by Eastman in Telfair, Laurens, Pulaski and Montgomery Counties.
The coming at this time of these capitalists was hailed by the war-impoverished people of this section as the harbinger of an era of peace and prosperity. A village was called Chauncey. A town was laid out in the heart of the pine belt and named for William Pitt Eastman. A county was created, and the Legislature, in 1870, added to the gilded roll of heroes, statesmen and benefactors memo- rialized by the counties of Georgia the name of William E. Dodge. (A letter communicating to William E. Dodge the action of the Georgia Legislature was couched in the following language: "Ap- preciating your successful efforts, as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, in inducing Congress to remove the burden of taxation from the great staple of our State and of the South;
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mindful also of the great interest taken by yourself and friends in the commercial prosperity of our State, Georgia has, by an Act of her Legislature, given the new county your name." Mr. Dodge erected at his own expense a court house at Eastman, the county seat, and presented it to the county authorities.)
The lands in question were formally conveyed to the Georgia Land and Lumber Company, and the great development began. Gigantic sawmills were erected on St. Simons and supplied by timber rafted down the Altamaha. Others were built on the re- cently completed Macon and Brunswick Railroad, and logs were brought in on tramways extending for miles out into the forests. Large distilleries were constructed for the production of turpentine and rosin.
At once claimants under tax deeds sprang up in every direction to dispute the title of the corporation. The State of Indiana had failed to pay its taxes for the year 1844. A fi. fa. against the Geor- gia Lumber Company had been issued by James Boyd, Tax Collector of Telfair County. It had been levied upon the entire acreage formerly owned by the company, and hundreds of lots had been sold, many at private sale, the usual price being about six cents a lot.
For relief the Georgia Land and Lumber Company, a foreign cor- poration, in 1876 appealed to the United States Court at Savannah. Through Richard K. Hines, as solicitor, a bill was filed against Josiah Paine and twenty others. Paine was claiming thirty-one lots under a tax receipt of $1.93. The defendants were represented by John M. Guerard and W. W. Paine. Two other similar suits were filed, one being against W. W. Paine, who, himself, was claiming sixteen lots. On final hearing the tax sale was declared void by Judge Erskine.
At the next session of the Legislature, in 1877, an act was passed requiring all foreign corporations holding more than five thousand acres of land in Georgia to incorporate under its laws within one year. Two days before that law became effective, the Georgia Land and Lumber Company conveyed all its lands to George E. Dodge, a citizen of New York, but a natural person. The title remained in George E. Dodge, and his successor, Norman W. Dodge. also a
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citizen of New York, but the development continued to be carried on by foreign corporations.
The turpentine and lumber industry were now assuming large proportions throughout southern Georgia, and hordes of squatters poured into all those sections where grew the long leaf pine.
Dodge sought the State courts, the small amount involved in the individual cases not being sufficient to give the Federal court juris- diction. Beginning in 1877, more than two hundred and fifty eject- ment cases were filed in five counties. His local attorney was John F. DeLacey.
Appearing for the defendants, frequently, was Luther A. Hall, of Eastman. He had been a school teacher, was a lawyer of ability and skilful in ejectment practice. Opposing a New York plaintiff, before a local jury, Hall was seldom at a disadvantage.
In this litigation, Dodge relied upon what was known as his "short chain of title." An important link extending from 1834 to 1875, consisted of deeds from the executor and heirs of Peter J. Williams to William Pitt Eastman, conveying the same lands sold by Williams to Colby, Chase and Crocker.
Oliver H. Briggs, from Massachusetts, a clerk in the office of Dodge's land agent, knew that the deed from Colby, Chase and Crocker to the Georgia Lumber Company had been lost, that it had not been properly executed and was not entitled to record. This information was imparted to Henry G. Sleeper, a lawyer, also from Massachusetts, but then living in Eastman. Hall himself had dis- covered, as he thought, many defects in Dodge's recorded title, and also believed that the State of Indiana could not hold lands in Georgia.
Hall, securing the co-operation of Briggs and Sleeper, ferreted out the heirs of Colby, Chase and Crocker and procured from them deeds conveying their supposed interest in the Dodge lands to Silas P. Butler, of Massachusetts, a clerk in the office of J. L. Colby, a son of Abram Colby. The three hundred thousand acres of Silas P. Butler were then advertised for sale at low prices and on liberal terms. The slogan employed was "Homes for the Homeless." Eager buyers thronged the land office opened in Eastman by Butler's land agents, Briggs, Hall and Sleeper. Luther A. Hall became the hero
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of the hour, and at the crest of his popularity in 1883 was elected to the Legislature by the people of the county named for William E. Dodge.
The rival title drove Dodge to his long chain of conveyances, but at the same time delivered his adversaries into the equity jurisdic- tion of the dreaded Federal court.
In 1884 George E. Dodge filed his bill in the United States Circuit Court at Macon. The defendants were Briggs, Hall and Sleeper, fifty persons who had purchased from them, the heirs of Colby, Chase and Crocker, and Silas P. Butler.
The plaintiff set up his title through Williams, Colby, Chase and Crocker, the Georgia Lumber Company, and the State of Indiana, and prayed that it be declared valid, that the deeds to Butler be cancelled, and that the defendants be perpetually enjoined from asserting the rival title or in any way interfering with plaintiff's possession and ownership of the lands in dispute. The plaintiff was represented by Robert S. Lanier, Clifford Anderson, and R. K. Hines, the principal defendants by Hall, Sleeper, C. C. Kibbee and John H. Martin.
John Erskine was District Judge, but the early orders were signed by Judge J. W. Locke of the Southern District of Florida. Before the final hearing John Erskine retired and Emory Speer succeeded him as judge. The hearing extended over five days. The volu- minous testimony, taken by deposition, showed that the lands had been purchased from Williams by Colby, Chase and Crocker, as agents and with the money of the promoters in Maine, who subse- quently organized the Georgia Lumber Company. It was held by the court that title vested in that company regardless of the defec- tively executed deed.
In disposing of the contention that the State of Indiana could not hold lands in Georgia, Judge Speer said:
"It must be understood that when the State of Indiana bought these lands, it came as a subject and not as a sovereign. If the State of Indiana is to be regarded as an alien, it is laid down in Washburn on Real Property that an alien may purchase and hold lands against all the world except the State; and Briggs, Ha'l and Sleeper may not say with Louis XIV: 'I am the state.'" (27 Fed. 160).
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On April 5, 1886, a final decree was entered granting the relief sought by the bill and perpetually enjoining the defendants, as prayed.
Alex. N. Sexton, the land agent of Dodge, had printed thousands of handbills, and Ed McRae, just entering his long service as woods- man, traveled throughout the five counties posting and distributing the circulars proclaiming that Dodge had the true title and quoting the injunction order signed "Emory Speer, United States Judge."
The bill in this case was the beginning of the Dodge litigation in the Federal court at Macon, but the final decree was not to mark its end.
A few months later, on the ground of local prejudice against the plaintiff, Dodge vs. Dodson, et al., was removed to the Federal court from the Superior Court of Dodge County. Luther A. Hall was attorney for the defendants. Judge Speer, by decree, rendered in 1886, declared defendants' entire chain of title to five lots a forgery, cancelled the deeds, and enjoined the Clerk of the Superior Court, a defendant, from recording certain deeds forged by Dodson.
Among the important cases filed in the Federal court during the succeeding eight years were Dodge vs. Vaughn, Dodge vs. Wood- ward, et al., Dodge vs. Laurens Lumber Co., et al., Dodge vs. Powell and twenty others, Dodge vs. Cadwell and eighty-nine others.
The litigation was not confined to the Federal court. In many cases the State court was of necessity the forum. There Luther A. Hall contended that the final decree of the Federal court was not admissible in aid of Dodge's title, as against defendants not parties to the decree. The weakness of Dodge's "short chain" had already been exposed by Hall. It was impracticable in each case for Dodge to rely upon his long chain of conveyances and submit the elaborate proof, upon which the final decree of the Federal court was based, in order to show a perfect equity himself as plaintiff. The serious difficulty confronting Dodge was soon removed by a decision of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Upon the trial in 1889 of Dodge vs. Spiers, ejectment in Telfair Superior Court, the plaintiff introduced his "short chain" of title, which included a deed from the heirs of Peter J. Williams to Wil- liam Pitt Eastman. Spiers, through his attorney-at-law, Luther A.
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Hall, tendered a copy of the deed from Peter J. Williams to Colby, Chase and Crocker, thus breaking plaintiff's chain. Plaintiff in re- buttal offered the decree of the United States court in Dodge vs. Briggs, Hall and Sleeper, the heirs of Colby, Chase and Crocker, et al. Judgment was for the defendant Spiers. It was reversed, the Supreme Court saying:
"The court below held that this record and decree of the United States Court did not show title in Dodge; and this ruling we think was error. We think the effect of the decree was to put into Dodge a perfect equity, and as to the heirs of Colby, Chase and Crocker his equity was complete; so that he could maintain and recover upon his equitable title." (85 Ga. 585).
Dodge's title had been recognized by both the State and Federal courts, but the fight against him continued. Parties to the suit of Dodge vs. Briggs, Hall and Sleeper, and bound by the decree of the Federal court, did not long cease their activity. Luther A. Hall, the chief counsel for the defendants, became the leader of those defying the court's injunction. At the instance of John C. Forsyth, agent of Dodge, rules for contempt were issued. A sensational trial was had before Judge Speer in March, 1890. Dodge was repre- sented by R. K. Hines, Hill and Harris, and Lanier & Anderson, while for Hall appeared as counsel Marion Erwin, Alexander Proud- fit and James A. Thomas. Hall was adjudged guilty and sentenced to five months' imprisonment in Chatham County jail.
Growing out of the contempt proceeding was an indictment by the grand jury of the United States court charging Hall with per- jury. He was later tried and convicted, but sentence was deferred. The prosecution was conducted by John L. Hardeman, special United States Attorney, the defense by Bacon and Rutherford and Dessau and Bartlett. (U. S. vs. Hall, 44 Fed. 864.)
Released from jail, Hall again announced as a candidate for the Legislature. In the active campaign he posed as a martyr who had suffered imprisonment in the cause of the people. He denounced Dodge, his agent, Forsyth, and the Federal court.
There were some eight or nine who had gotten themselves so deeply involved in the land troubles that they seem to have come to the conclusion that something desperate had to be done to over- throw Mr. Dodge in the successful assertion of his rights, or they themselves would be overwhelmed when their trespasses on the
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Dodge lots were brought to light. Hoping that by striking terror into the hearts of Mr. Dodge and his agents the former would be forced to abandon the prosecution of the rules then pending in the Federal court, desist from further proceedings to carry the decree in favor of his title into execution, and make terms and concessions at their dictation, sprang the most diabolical, cold-blooded conspir- acy and murder that has ever blackened the annals of our State. John C. Forsyth, Dodge's agent, was the victim. These men hired for this dastardly deed a negro by the name of Rich Lowery or Rich Her- ring, a notorious outlaw and desperado who had come to this section from North Carolina to work turpentine. He belonged to a peculiar mixed race of people who have their principal habitat at a small town or village in North Carolina known as "Scuffletown" from the characteristic disorders of the population. They are said to be a mixed race of white, Indian and negro blood and are usually desig- nated as "Scuffletonians." "Lowery, when employed to kill Forsyth, did not know him by sight. During the period he was at the home of one of these plotters waiting for the word to go on his mission, it was learned that Forsyth would be at Chauncey on October the first. The farmer loaded up a wagon with a supply of eggs, butter and country produce and, in company with Lowery, set out for Chauncey. Before reaching there the Scuffletonian separated from him and they went into town apparently as strangers to each other. The farmer found Forsyth, and going up to him, made some remarks in the nature of pleasantry and touched him on the arm. Lowery, who was standing near, understood the signal, the victim was known, and the object of their visit was accomplished."-Marion Erwin, in Land Pirates.
On the evening of October 7th John C. Forsyth was in his com- fortable home at supper, his wife and children about him. (This home was in Normandale, now Suomi, and the home is the large two-story residence near the highway and is at present owned by Mathias Burch.) Having finished the meal, he arose and, lighting a cigar, walked into the living room, where he sat down in an easy chair. Outside a gentle rain was falling. The dark Scuffletonian stood peering through a window, and leisurely aimed his gun at the designated victim. Startled by the report, young Nellie Forsyth rushed to her stricken father, then braving the near presence of his
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assassin, ran out into the night for a physician. Within a few hours John C. Forsyth was dead, and the immediate object of a great conspiracy had been accomplished.
The identity of the murderers for a time remained a mystery. A month passed, when a relative of one of them casually and unwit- tingly divulged the details of the conspiracy and the names of the assassins to one whom he thought knew much of the murder and was in sympathy with its purpose. After consulting his father and his friend, Judge W. L. Grice, this man communicated the informa- tion to R. Oberly, the agent of Dodge, although in so doing he ran counter to his business interest and imperiled his personal safety.
The first man arrested was taken to the office of the District At- torney in Macon. Overcome by remorse, this man confessed his part and told all about the plot, naming those who had taken part in it. True bills were returned by the grand jury of the United States circuit court against ten. A large reward was offered for Rich Lowery, who had fired the fatal shot, but he could not be found. Marion Erwin, in his account of the conspiracy trial, says that after the murder Rich Lowery went to Montgomery County, deposited two hundred dollars with an old colored man, and "sport- ing a new suit of clothes and a fine gold watch, he cut quite a swell among his fellows," that he was engaged to carry a raft down the river. and returning stopped at Jesup where, in a barber shop, he saw a copy of the Macon Telegraph giving an account of the arrest of the men involved in the conspiracy, that he made his way back to the colored man in Montgomery County, received his money, and "plunging into the thicket he disappeared, and that is the last au- thentic account we have of Lowery."
Indictments framed under 5508, Rev. Stat., charged that a con- spiracy had been formed by the defendants to injure, threaten, op- press and intimidate Norman W. Dodge who had succeeded George E. Dodge as owner of the lands in question, because he had exercised and was exercising his right to prosecute in the United States court rules for contempt for violation of the injunction granted by the final decree in Dodge vs. Briggs, Hall and Sleeper. It was further charged that in pursuance of the conspiracy Lowery had murdered Dodge's agent, Forsyth, and that the other defendants were acces-
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sories before the fact to the murder. (See U. S. vs. Lancaster, 44 Fed. 885.)
The defendants at once moved in the Supreme Court of the United States for permission to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the matters charged in the indictment did not make an offense cognizable by the circuit court. The motion was denied. (137 U. S. 393.)
The trial began at Macon on December 8, 1890. The court room was crowded. One hundred and forty witnesses were in attendance. Four hundred jurors had been summoned. Friends of the prisoners from five counties struggled for a look at the trial or a word of the proceedings.
The prisoners were in a group. Near them were their attorneys, A. O. Bacon, Washington Dessau, Charles L. Bartlett and C. C. Smith. Hugh V. Washington represented the one who accompanied Lowery a part of the way when he went on his murderous mission.
At the desk of the District Attorney was Marion Erwin. On the second day of the trial he was joined by the special counsel of the Government, Fleming G. duBignon, who had just completed his service as President of the Senate and shortly before had ended a brilliant term as Solicitor-General of the Eastern Circuit.
The gravity of the offense charged, the novelty of the jurisdic- tional questions involved, and the widespread public interest the case had aroused, were to stir to the highest pitch of effort, all these eminent counsel engaged. Not attorneys in the case, but represent- ing Norman W. Dodge, were Walter B. Hill, later to become Chan- cellor of the State University, and his law partner, N. E. Harris, a future Governor of Georgia.
Judge Emory Speer was on the bench. Distinguished as a lawyer and speaker, as a prosecuting officer in both the State and Federal courts, and as Congressman, now in the prime of his splendid mental and physical vigor, for five years he had been District Judge.
All preliminaries disposed of, the fight now centered on the jury.
The first important witness was young Nellie Forsyth, whose de- scription of her father's death was calculated to give to the prosecu- tion's case from the outset a tone of tragedy. Coming into the court room she was somewhat confused by the gaze of so many men. and
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seeing two girls, she took her seat beside them. They were the motherless daughters of one of the prisoners. This accidental asso- ciation of the innocent victim of the crime and the equally innocent victims of its consequences perhaps diminished the dramatic effect of her appearance as a witness. But on the stand, her modest demeanor and the simple story of her awful experience created a profound impression, and as she walked away there seemed to follow a wave of sympathy that so winsome a girl should have been or- phaned in so tragic a manner.
Witness after witness was called during a period of sixteen days. The attorneys were constantly on the alert and no vantage point escaped them. Always an interested audience keenly followed the proceedings. Three days were consumed in arguments to the jury. Marion Erwin opened for the prosecution. Hugh V. Washington, Charles L. Bartlett, C. C. Smith and A. O. Bacon followed for the defense, and Fleming duBignon closed. The facts and circumstances were variously assembled and presented according to the genius and skill of each of these masters of forensic oratory and fused by the fire of eloquence into an image of the truth as he beheld it. The concluding argument of duBignon has been termed the most eloquent jury speech of his career. As he marshaled the evidence and went from one flight of oratory to another, it was easy to perceive that he was fast brushing from the minds of the jury all lingering doubts of the guilt of the accused. He was interrupted. An attorney for the defense, after squirming under the onslaught, arose and made some objection. The courtly duBignon, turning toward the ruffled attorney. raised his hand and, as he let it slowly fall with a move- ment of graceful agitation, said, "The wounded pigeon flutters." The angry scene and the subsequent apology have been forgotten, but duBignon's cameo-like profile, exquisite poise and elegance of gesture have converted that trifling incident into an enduring memory.
In concluding his able and comprehensive charge, Judge Speer deprecated those ad captandam observations of counsel which "drop the poison of prejudice into the mind of the unsuspecting juror and thus palsy and paralyze his best and most honorable efforts in the direction of a stern and inflexible performance of duty." (44 Fed. 896. )
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All the defendants on trial were convicted except one, and all those convicted were sentenced to imprisonment in the Ohio State Penitentiary. One was given ten years, three were sentenced to imprisonment for life, and one received a sentence of six years.
It was commonly believed that Rich Lowery would never suffer for the crime he had committed, but years later the truth became known that, far from escaping punishment, he had been the first of the guilty to meet his doom. Some of the conspirators, mistrusting and fearing the hired assassin, had again turned murderers. This time they did their own work and under the black water of a stagnant pool deep in a cypress swamp they left the body of the Scuffletonian.
The criminal cases having been disposed of, attention was again directed to the many civil cases pending in the courts.
The easy current of that litigation in the State courts however was obstructed in 1894 and diverted to the Federal court. On the 29th of August of that year the Supreme Court of Georgia, in Bussey et al. vs. Dodge, 94 Ga. 584, argued at the October term, 1893, in effect overruled its former decision in Dodge vs. Spiers, and virtually sustained the contention made in the latter case by Luther A. Hall, on the occasion of perhaps his last appearance as counsel in Georgia's highest court.
Dodge had filed in the Superior Court of Dodge County a suit against Bussey et al. and relied upon his title traced through Colby, Chase and Crocker and the decree of the Federal court. The de- fendants were represented by E. A. Smith. There was a judgment in favor of Dodge. This was reversed by the Supreme Court, and it was held:
"If the case of Dodge vs. Spiers was correctly decided, it was because the defendant therein, by introducing and relying on the deed to Colby, Chase and Crocker subjected himself to be treated as in privity with their heirs, who were parties to the decree and against whom the decree itself established a perfect equity by requiring them to convey to plaintiff.
"Except in so far as that case is supported upon this distinction between it and the present case, it cannot be adhered to or followed."
This decision was to afford no comfort to the many persons tres- passing upon and setting up claims to Dodge lands, for after Bussey vs. Dodge had been argued and two months before it was decided, Norman W. Dodge undertook in one proceeding in the Federal court
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