Show iila U 3 CHURCH FUNDS USED TO GIVE L WILLIAMS employment geo S peters aad P L williams blaim each the examination before beferie into the question of the compensation of receiver dyer and his counsel was continued tuesday evening receiver dyer was the first witness called and in answer to queries propounded by mr P L williams ho said in substance I 1 am the receiver in the case of the united states vs the late corporation of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints was appointed to such office on the ath day of november 1887 and qualified within a few days was required to civo bond in there were eleven or twelve men on the bond J behave was approved sometime in november I 1 had intended to make out a detailed statement of all my work as receiver but having been away from home some time and having reached here wednesday morning my statement will not bo as full as it otherwise would have been soon after my appointment I 1 went on with my duties and found certain persons in possession of the temple block gardo house and historians office I 1 made a demand for these properties and in a few days they were surrendered tho tithing office gardo house and historians office I 1 afterwards leased to mr winder and others the temple block was also leased to them bonding the outcome of the suit for the nominal sum of L this was done by tho advice of my attorney who had the idea that it would event 1 bally so back to the church under the saving clause my business was done only with mr winder preston and burton not being found in december I 1 went to the presidents office and took charge of all the property I 1 found there the seizing of these books proved valuable to us because they afforded a clue to tho ownership of the church farm and were the connecting link with the ownership of considerable property that wa afterwards discovered belonged to the church three suits established in ogden and seven lit salt lake the result of these suits and the evidence brought out before the examiner enabled us to get at the evidence of fraudulent transfers of nearly all the property held by the church people who held this property in trust contradicted themselves and placed themselves in such a light that they afterwards deemed it better to give up the property held in trust by them notably there was the gas stock which it was alleged had been transferred to james jack on the ad of march but it subsequently developed that the transfer was made after that time I 1 then made a personal demand on mr jack for the stock and soon afterwards I 1 obtained it mr jack acknowledging that he had merely held it in trust for the church the par value of the stock is per share but it is hardly worth as much as that this block of stock recovered from the church is worth between and later I 1 investigated the ownership of the street car acock which mr armstrong claimed he had purchased for and the result was that the stock was turned over to me the amount being I 1 believe about another suit was brought against john C cutler to recover as the property of the church several shares in the provo woolen mills suit was also brought against Z C M I 1 to recover a like amount of shares in the fame company these suits were both dismissed on the payment of the money in settlement he then went on to relate the recovery of real estate known as the wells corner amounting to about the constitution ution building and grounds worth about the property known as the church Farm which he now holds without any opponent and continued therb was also a piece of ground east of the deseret news corner worth I 1 also found that angus 11 cannon held in trust for the church certain pieces of property near coal cheso wore surrendered to me as receiver and I 1 now hold them they are valued at about tewo berj also vast numbers of sheep as near as I 1 could get ab it about head I 1 received orders for the delivery of these sheep to mo and found that they were scattered in small bunches throughout the entire length of the territory from kanab in the south to a point beyond lost creek in the northeastern of utah indeed some were as far away as hilliard wyoming I 1 kept from one 0 o seven men steadily i engaged in the field gathering in these sheep which were found in fifty seven different lots J gave this matter my personal attention and it occupied the greater portion of the time between august and october ath I 1 leased the sheep out to different parties at different rates the major part of teem however went to W L pickard of this city for 20 cents per head per annum he agreeing to return me as good a lot of sheep at the end of the year as he had received from me this would amount to about 10 per cent of their value I 1 also found that there had been scattered throughout utah about worth of hay grain etc but as most of this had been consumed at the appointed J compromised with the church for T also found that considerable of the stock of the elj com pany had b oon transferred to the bait abw literary bad scientific association and was held by it this amounted to abent and in consideration of the stock being allowed to remain where it was tho church paid me this amount I 1 also received shares of the Deseret telegraph company stock which was held by the various stakes throughout tho territory the actual value of this stock is from to it costs a great deal more than this however the line extends generally throughout the territory also into nevada and idaho I 1 also spent some time in the northern part of the territory taking with me my orneys clerk shorthand reporter and others the church farm has been estimated by competent persons to bo worth from to per acre or upwards in all since my appointment as receiver until the present time the office has claimed the greater part of my attention and I 1 have made one visit to washington where I 1 consulted with the attorney general on the matter the aggregate value of the properties now held by me is about deducting worth of property which was turned over to me there is a balance of which was obtained through my efforts assisted of course by my attorneys tor whose addico I 1 have always followed in the matter I 1 forgot to that the salt lake theatre was also one of the properties owned by the church andthil and this stock has absen transferred to certain some of it on due in march next these notes are gilt edged and can be collected when due parley zi williams was my principal attorney in the case but finding there was a great deal more business than he could attend to I 1 also employed george S peters later on X employed marshal hoylo to bring the suits in the matter of the wells corner real estate and when the money was paid over to mo for this property they rendered me a bill for which I 1 paid I 1 also employed one or two other attorneys in small matters P L williams testified that he was employed by th receiver as his attorney of the bill of marshal boyle for services sor vices in tho wells corner suit mr williams thought was a very reasonable figure that 1000 would not have been too much asked concerning what amount was fairly due to the counsel of the receiver mr williams thought each or in all was about the right thing he thought it a less figure than would be demanded bv attorneys had they done similar work for private parties and were allowed to fix their own fees ten thousand dollars each was a very moderate compensation at this point the hearing was adjourned tul this morning at 9 30 |