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About Heppner herald. (Heppner, Or.) 1914-1924 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 1923)
IF YOU WANT VOLUME X SEVEN-YEARJSENTENGE JVIir HOIJS THAT CHARGE OF A60AVLT 18 PROVE Ckarga Badaced Frot Intont to Kill to Aasaalt With Dangeroaf Waapo The as of Alvin B. Strait,' in- dieted last week by the grand Jury n a charge of assault with intent to kill, went ta, trial Thursday morn, ing in circuit court and was given to the jury at noon Friday, a verdict I la and will prove of inestimable ad of guilty being returned about six ! vantage to, both counties. It is un o'clock that evening. The jury, how-' derstood the state highway commis- ever. reduced the charge from In- tent to kill to that of assault with a dangerous weapon. At 7:00 o'clock thfi same evenine Judge Phelps pro- iiounced a straight sentence of seven years in the penitentiary without in- determinate qualifications. Tha case was the outcome of a mo,i. Tvinvph 9fith w hv Tpn- uty Sheriff Tom Chidsey, Paul Mc- Duffee. 19-year old son of Sheriff! McDuffee, and S. E. Notson, district attorney, on an alleged moonshine . tnat 6a results wm TOme trom ea-, plant in a prong of Juniper canyon terday's meeting. in the northern part of the county. I - A gun fight took plac during the Instead the fellow replied, "Drop raid in which, it waa alleged, Alvin and fired at McDuffee. Several Strait fired several shots at young shots were exchanged before Chid McDuffee and also took a shot or sey arrived. He grabbed Notson's two at Deputy Chidsey. ' It was on rifle and exchanged a few shots with the charge of shooting at McDuffee the supposed moonshiner. McDuffee that the recent trial was based. I ld not identify the gunman pos- j ! n itively as Strait but believed it to McDurfee returned tne fire until . ,, j , have been. him. bis stock of ammunition failed and Chidsey, who by that time had Chidsey was called and after de reached the scene, also took part in scribing the battle about as McDuf. the scrap until he also ran out of fee had done, positively identified cartridges, when the posse were the defendant as the man who fired forced to seek " cover and the two at him, testifying that he had known moonshiners escaped. Chidsey rec- Strait for at least 18 months and ognized Alvin Strait as the man who for most of that time had been did the Bhootlng and positively iden- "keeping pretty close cases on him." tlfied him, while McDuffee and Not-! Mr. Notson also corroborated the son were not positive in their iden- testimony given by the preceding tification. Strait made good his es- witnesses, but he also declined to cape and' crossed over into Washing- positively identify the man who did ton, going to Benton City, where, ac the shooting as the defendant, cording to evidence broughj. out in 1 Mr. Scoggins, who operates j.he the trial, he secured work from one ferry at Arlington, was also called C. E. Dawson, a civil engineer who and testified that on or about the was In charge of construction work date of the shooting he crossed a on a new flume being erected by the Dodge car; without a top (answering Coa3t Culvert & Flume Co. of Port-, land. Xtnrrnvr rountr officials were on the lookout for Strait all summer , but it was not until about two! A. .v. o- t v.n,vr. where he was arrested, extradited and brought back for . . . I Tho trim opened Thursday morn-1 ing, District Attorney Notson hav- ing associated with him George Neuner, of Roseburg, one of the best known prosecutors In the state, whn wnn considerable distinc- tn .n hi. imp m nrosecutor of the )o,n. nr. Rrunfield case at Rose- 4 . Th Hp. fence was represented by F. A. Mc-; Menamin, formerly of this city but wee secuon u.an , vUUlt lm now of Portland. Considerable time, stand to corroborate the1 Straits' tes was consumed in selecting a jury and ; "mony, but he ould only fix the the defence almost exhausted his date as. being on a Sunday in March, preemptories before filling the box Then the defence brought out his to his liking. The jurors finally e ! alibi witness in the person of C. E. lected were: J. S. Baldwin, Oscar , Dawson, the civil engineer from Ben Edwards, (Miss) Lulu Hager, K. L. ton City. He swore that the defen Beach W S. Smith, W. W. Brannon, j dant came to him in the forenoon W w' Beckhold, R. E. Duncan, Geo. of March 26th and asked for work Evans. Geo. N. Peck. A. A. McCabe and that he returned the following . . day at noon and went to work. Mr. and M. Allyn. The sheriffs posse had visited , Dawson produced his time book, . . . j. ,,,i ,n which showed that the defendant xae cauiy icw ua; , . . - -. they found three barrels of mash .cleverly concealed in a pit and cot-ei-ed with sage brush. The mash seemed almost ready for the still and the officers, deduced that on or about Monday, the 26th, the plant would be in operation and acting on that belief the raid was made on that 4ate. Paul McDurree was the first wit ness for thet state. He told of how the posse approached the camp, he . "being armed with a rifle. Chidsey with a revolver and Notson was al so carrying a rifle. McDuffee was on higher ground and somewhat In advance of the others when he saw two men approaching at a distance of about 60 yards, one of them car rying a rifle. He raised his gun and ordered the man to "stick 'em up." ALL THE NEWS OF MORROW COUNTY WHILE HEFPN COMPLETION OF 0.1 County Judge Campbell, County Commissioner Benge and S. E. Not son, went to Pendleton yesterday morning on an invitation from the oounty court of Umatilla county, where a conference was held with tha object of devising ways and means for the completion of the un finished gap in the Oregon-Washington highway between' Jones hill and Vinson, a diatance of about 20 miles. The completion of this gap will finish the entire highway from Heppner Junction to Walla Wal- sion looks with favor on the corn- pletion of this section as it will di vide the heavy traffic now going ov,er the Columbia River highway. and make the upkeep of that artery of travel less ofp, problem than it has been the past year. About 15 nliles of the unfinished , road is in this county and the rest in Umatilla county. The party returned late last evefx- inS and report all concerned believe the description of Strait's car) with one passenger about dusk, but his recollection of the exact date was not conclusive. Tne state then rested and the de- fence put on Amos B. Strait, a brother of the defendant, who oper ates a ferry across the Columbia near Castle Rock. Mr. Strait swore that he crossed his brother, Alvin B Strait, from the Oregon side to the Washington shore on Sunday, March 25th and that his brother told him he was looking for work. Mrs. Amos a's lou 'B slttuu lu te he rhusband's statement in an attempt to show that the defendant could not have been at the moon- shine cam. on the following day. A went to work at noon on March 27th and the time book was filed as an exhibit in the! case. The state, how. ever, contended that Mr. Dawson might hare been honestly mistaken in the date when Strait first applied for work that it may have been on the morning of the 27th, the same day he went to work at noon. Friday forenoon was consumed by arguments by attorneys Neuner and McMenamln and when the case went to the jury at noon it was evident that the outcome lay mostly between the testimony of Chidsey for the state and Dawson for the defence. After six hours' deliberation, a ver dict for the state was returned and an hour later Strait was sentenced to seven years in the state peniten tlary at Salem. ER HEPPNER, OREGON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1923 Big Grizzly Bear Here is the record grizzly bear killed In Vancouver, and the hunting guldo whose trusty rllie brought down the monster. STRICTER RULES FOR CONDUCT OF PEDESTRIANS NECESSARY The National Motorists' associa-- tlon has asked the co-operation of its 350 or more affiliated automo bile clubs in the work of helping the pedestrian keep out of the way of motor cars. Pointing out that "the pedestri an's problem is tho. motorist's prob lem, " Fred R. Caley, executive sec retary of the N. M. A., declares that "no motorist can feel reasonably safe or comfortable so long as the pedestrian is an ever-present hazard to him, and it has thus become a fea ture of automobile safety to have safe pedestrian regulation.". "The cities have failed to regulate the pedestrians," says Caley, "so the walking public has set out to 'walk for Itself.' Therefore it remains for the automobile clubs throughout the country to handle the situation as an automobile problem and1 repeat their successful efforts with respect to au tomobile reglation. "Considering the remarkable num. ber of cars on the streets and the rapidity with which the automobile has come into use in the narrow streets of crowded cities, automobile traffic is exceptionally well handled. Much of this is due to the efforts made by automobile clubs to advo cate proper enforcement. "The clubs have also educated the driver to a better understanding of the problem of traffic, and have en couraged the1 development of a great er sense of personal responsibility. "The one hope for the present muddle and the solution to the in creasing number of traffic accidents, is for the automobile clubs to apply their experience to the pedestrians. "IIi:auestionably this would have been done long ago had any one an ticipated that the inability of the po. lice :o regulate the pedestrian v M 1 For the Holidays: Best of everything in Fish, Flesh and Fowl Christmas Turkeys a Specialty THE CENTRAL MARKET G. B. SWAGCART, Prop. IT IS NEWS, READ THE HFRaI id and His Slayer it. ib become a direct menace to those Tho conscientiously endeavor to drive their cars safely. "It was generally supposed that the traffic officers would be i able to guard pedestrians who attempted to cross at crossings or otherwise fol low the ordinances to the letter.' But the facts show that the average traf fic officer has all he can do to take care of vehicular traffic, let alone look after pedestrians. "Pedestrians appreciate this and their present habit of crossing ac cording to their own ideas is readily appreciated. "Secretaries of clubs affiliated with the N. M. A. report that in many localities the motorist is frequently given more consideration than he de sires. For example, he is directed to plow through a group of pedes trians merely because he has the right of way and because the officer is provoked at. the way the pedes, trlans disobey him. Under such cir cumstances the motor car operator finds his path overstocked with haz ards, and in nine cases out of ten he would rather wait than take a chance on injuring some one, regard less of whether he might not be to blame technically." ED AD KINS RECOVERS CAR A Ford car owned by Ed Adkins, which was held for confiscation by the state last July when the car and two men with a Quantity of con traband llauor was arrested near Parkers Mill July 4th, was restored to the owner In circuit court last week, when Mr. Adkins showed that he was not in the car at the time and had no knowledge that It was being used for an unlawful purpose It pays to advertise in the Herald. HEPPNER HERALD. WE RQYlNR CARD A ELKS More than 150 Elks attended the regular lodgp meeting, of Heppner lodge last Thursday evening, mem bers and Tlsitors gathering from nearly all parts of the lodge's juris. diction. Big delegations were pres ent from Arlington, Cecil, lone, Lex ington and Butter Creek and the, meeting was an event in the lodge annals. The first meeting night in each month has recently been set aside as "initiation night" and Thursday night a class of ten new members trod the flowery trail that leads to Elkdom. Several applications for membership were also received dur ing the session, showing that the lodge is in a healthy condition and growing at a satisfactory rate. Following the regular lodge ses sion a smoker was held, when a rat tling good card of boxing events was given for the edification of the brothers. The show opened with a hot lit tle three-round match between Ralph Moore and Vic Groshens, two local boys in the 125-pound class. The youngsters put up a hot scrap whli it lasted, going three one-mlnute rounds to a draw. Gene Doherty and Francis Moore, another brace of promising local boys who tip the beam, at about 135, followed with another warm three round match going to a draw in fine form. The two Moore boys are brothers and boxing seems to run in that family. Emery Goodman, of Eight-mile, and Young Schwartz, of Heppner, two more school boys, but both crowding the heavy-weight line, went three rounds with some live ly-slugging., .Goodman, had the Nad' vantage in weight, but Schwartz was quicker with fists and feet and the decision went to him. Doherty then went back against Earl Merrltt, another handy local boy and there was no foolishness In the exhibiton they put on. Doherty is a rangy kid and while Merritt is stocky and well muscled, the Irish man had too long a r,each for him and the decision was his. Then came the two main events of the evtning: Brighton Finch, of Heppner, toolc on Chuck Gordon, of Vancouver Barracks for four 1W minute rounds. The Vancouver man was in the pink of condition, hard as nails and cool as a cucumber on ice, and Finch, who was without any real training for the match, was winded and forfeited the match near the last of the second. Finch showed plenty of speed, science and punch while he lasted and had one of His swings in the first round landed the story might have bepn different. Another match has been arranged for the men to take place in February and the Heppner man expects to go jnto training for that event at once. The big event, of .course, came last, when Joe Marcus, the pride of Arlington, and Billy Winters, a fa vorite at Vancouver Barracks, went on for six three-mlnue rounds, for a $100 purse cut 40-60. These men are both well known In their class, weighing in at about 135, and there was no dull minute while that part of the show was on. Tho Arlington boy bested Winters in a hot match last March, but on this occasion Marcus showed lack of training and while he put up a game fight at once faBt and furious, the soldier boy was too hard for him from the start. Marcus went down twice In the first but cany) back in the second, which was his round. The soldier got two more falls on Marcus in the third and again in the fourth the river town boy put tip the bent fight, tho both men were showing the effects on hard work. The fifth went to the end with bbth men pretty well wind ed and in the sixth Marcus was get ting groggy and the decision went to the soldier. The entire program was one of the best evjer put on In Heppner and tho social committee promise plenty of similar sport during the winter. The sale and bazaar given by the Ladles Aid society of Bethel Chapel last week was a great success, the nm of 1219.00 belnsr realized for I J their treasury. PRINT IT FIRST NUMBER 34 EOF 15 E OREGOX ACME . EXTENSION IS STILL IS FIELD Hope to Arrange for Early Develop. ment in Morrow County Mr. Philip D. Northcraft, who ia connected with the Oregon . Acme Extension oil company, was a visitor here Saturday afternoon and was a pleasant caller at this office, whera he talked briefly of the company's plans for development in this coun ty. It will be remembered by readers of The Herald that Claud D. Baker, representing the same company, was a frequent viBitor here last summer and that tt was expected at that lime the company would have two or three rigs in the field before this time and that active work would be under way. Mr. Baker, however, qualified his statements with the proviso that certain blocks of terri tory would have to be under leaso -before drilling operations would start and It seems that the same conditions still exist. Naturally, tha company wants assurance of having a certain area, under lease and ready for development should the first drilling operations prove successful and the hesitanlcy af land owners in giving leases seems to be holding' back development. Mr. Northcraft has been stopping at lone for a short time and is now busy looking over the field and be coming acquainted with conditions. He Is associated with Mr. Baker, who Is now in Seattle, but expects him to arrived here within a few days, when in all probability more definite information regarding future plans of the company will be given out. Mr. Northcraft is of the opinion that there is little if any doubt that natural gas will be found In commer cial quantities and while Indications for oil are considered favorable, only drilling will tell to what extent it may be found. Mr. Northcraft expects to be in Morrow county for an indefinite period and as soon as he becomes familiar with the field he will de cide where to establish his head quarters, which may be in Heppner. He hopes to see arrangements mado that will permit development work to start at an early date. ROUXETT PLEADS GUILTY TO FOUNICATIOX CHARGB Dick Robnett, who was indicted by the grand jury on aharge of forni cation and who entered a plea of not guilty in circuit court Tuesday morn ing, changed his plea to guilty on Wednesday morning. He was sen. tenced to 15 months in the peniten tiary Thursday morning. The caso Involved a young girl of Heppner. who Is now In custody of a home for delinquent girls In Portland. She was brought here last week to ap pear before the grand jury. THREE INDICTED IV CONDOV KIDNAPPING CASK Rev. G. A. Chaney, formerly pas tor of the Condon Congregational church and admitted organizer and leader of the Ku Klux Klan In that city, Howard H. Stiles, reputed Burns detective, and R. W. Sinclair, of Pendleton, where he Is also known as a klan leader, were indicted hy the Gilliam county grand jury last week on the charge of kidnapping Frank Smith from the Wllklns ranch last Bummer and taking him to Pen dleton, where he was alleged to hara been placed in jail and given tha "third degree." L. E. Fry and Floyd Dunlap who were also held for the grand Jury on tlu) same charge, were not in dicted, It being understood they turned states evidence and testified against tho other men. Dunlap, who Is only a boy, was induced to swpar to a complaint against Smith and Fry, who is a garage owner in Con don, drove tho car when the alleged kidnapping took place.