Letter to John Taylor, 15 December 1879
Prest. John Taylor
Dear Brother,
We were served with a notice this morning by
letters from the United States Land Office at Prescott
to cease cutting timber on the public lands and to
settle for what had been cut. And we herein send
you a copy of the letters that you may see our position
in the matter
Prescott A.T.
Dec 10th 1879
Wm C. McLellan Esq.
Superindendant Saw Mill Brigham City
Sir: Pursuant to instructions of the
Hon. Comr Genl Land Office bearing date
of Nov 13th a copy of which is herewith transmitted
you are hereby notified to cease trespassing upon the
Public Timber Lands and furnish this office
with information as to the amount of Timber
taken time and place verifying the same under
oath
Very Respectfully
Your Obedient Servant
William R. Kelly
Register
hands. We have no U.S. Statutes in this Settlement
upon the subject. If stumpage has to be paid how
much a thousand feet. I can not believe that our
Government as foolish as they are in some things have
left the Laws so that no body can cut timber for
domestic use, yet we wish to know what the Law is
and would like you to tell us what we can lawfully
do and what not in the matter. Of course by prosecuting
us they can make us trouble but we wish to escape
trouble as far as possible. We do not wish to answer
the Commissioner before we get your answer, so
we would laike an answer as soon as possible.
We are starting msome more Missionaries
for the Meadows this morning
Since writing the foregoing we have examined
the Deseret News No 4 of Feb 26th 1879 on timber and
stumpage and if our timber that we are cutting are
declared not mineral Lands and we and all our
people have to pay triple for all timber cut and
imprisonment one year or even $500 fine and six
months imprisonment it becomes a very serious matter
