ISBN: 9781156225141

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: … Plus…

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Abraham Walter Lafferty (June 10, 1875 - January 15, 1964) was a U.S. Representative from the state of Oregon. Lafferty spent the majority of his career both as a legislator and as an attorney attempting to have millions of acres of land previously owned by the Oregon and California Railroad come under Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Abraham Walter Lafferty (June 10, 1875 - January 15, 1964) was a U.S. Representative from the state of Oregon. Lafferty spent the majority of his career both as a legislator and as an attorney attempting to have millions of acres of land previously owned by the Oregon and California Railroad come under Oregon state control, rather than the control of the U.S. federal government. Lafferty grew up in the U.S. state of Missouri. He was born near Farber to Abraham M. and Helen Kinney Lafferty. He attended public schools in Pike County and went on to study law at the University of Missouri, graduating in 1896. He was admitted to the bar that year and commenced practice in Montgomery City. He served as prosecuting attorney of Montgomery County from 1902 to 1904. He also served three years as a captain in the Missouri National Guard. In 1905, he was appointed special agent for the United States Department of the Interior's General Land Office in Portland, Oregon. He served in that position for a year before resigning to open a law practice in Portland. In 1907, Lafferty took a case that would define the rest of his career: representing 18 western Oregon counties against the Oregon and California Railroad to claim timber revenue from, and possession of, lands formerly granted to the railroad by the U.S. government. In 1870, the United States government had granted the railroad three million acres (12,000 km²) of land to build a line from Portland south to California. The railroad was to sell land to settlers at $2.50 an acre, but widespread abuse resulted in developers, aided by politicians, acquiring large parcels through fraudulent means in what became known as the Oregon land fraud scandal. Then in 1903, the Southern Pacific Railroad, which had. More: Books, , People-From-Audrain-County-Missouri~~Books-LLC, , , , , , , , , , General Books LLC<