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William A. Richards returns a letter and pamphlet produced by W. A. Reeder and critiques Reeder’s argument as unconvincing. Richards disagrees that undue influence is held by corporate interests over the General Land Office and feels Reeder slanders the people with whom he disagrees and naively suggests federal oversight where it is not needed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-19
William A. Richards is only prepared to answer the charges against him related to the coal entries. If there are other charges, he asks President Roosevelt to grant him time to prepare and to keep matters out of the newspapers in the meantime.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-28
Commissioner of the General Land Office Richards writes to Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock regarding permit applications to cut timber. The Board of County Commissioners and residents of Johnson County, Wyoming, put in the applications, yet Special Agent Hintze found reasons to reject the applications.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03
Financial statement from William A. Richards of the General Land Office in reference to Sioux Indians ceded lands.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-28
William A. Richards recommends sending John McPhaul to New Orleans to teach agents how to detect and investigate fraudulent applications.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-21
William A. Richards, Commissioner of the General Land Office in the Department of the Interior, requests that John J. McPhaul check on several homestead claims for fraudulent activity.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-23
William A. Richards writes that the leave of absence requested by Alexander B. Kennedy, the receiver of public money in New Orleans, has been revoked because Walter L. Cohen, registrar of the U.S. Land Office, has requested the same period of time off.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-05-18
William A. Richards tells President Roosevelt that, in acting upon the recommendations of M. A. Meyendorff, who was investigating land fraud in Colorado, he transferred special agent Max Pracht from Pueblo to Durango, Colorado. Pracht sent Richards a confidential letter, and took exception to Richards’s reply. Now, Pracht intends to come to Washington, D.C., to “place himself right,” and has told his political backers in Oregon “that he will resign as a special agent and then proceed to do some terrible things which he only hints at.” Richards forwards Roosevelt a copy of the offending letter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-09-09
Charles A. M. Schlierholz, Special Agent in the Department of the Interior, has been suspended pending an investigation of charges that he has misappropriated government money.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-04-18
Commissioner Richards provides instructions to General Land Office agents on how to handle “unlawful inclosures and obstructions” on public lands. The relevant act from 1885 and a proclamation by Grover Cleveland, serving as president during the act’s passage, are attached to the instructions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-29
William A. Richards gives a detailed explanation of the reasons the land office is located in Cass Lake, Minnesota. He believes that the recent petitions to have the office moved to Bemidji, Minnesota, are motivated by those who are only interested in the success of the town of Bemidji.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-09-09
William A. Richards addresses Mr. E. F. Crawford’s concerns about the political conflict between Congressman Halvor Steenerson and Congressman Clarence Bennett Buckman regarding the proposal to move the land office from Cass Lake to Bemidji, Minnesota. Richards does not believe Crawford’s arguments to be valid and does not wish to express a preference for either congressman.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-09-10
William A. Richards informs Max Pracht that Pracht’s letter about the closure of the Pueblo office and special agent conduct was received.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-08-24
William A. Richards writes to Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock to recommend that William O’Neil be appointed as Superintendent of Logging in the Chippewa Indian Reservation of Minnesota.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-08-20