Binger Hermann (February 19, 1843 – April 15, 1926) was an American attorney and politician in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. A native of

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, he immigrated to the

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with his parents as part of the Baltimore Colony. Hermann served in both houses of the

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and as a Republican in the

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. Hermann served as the Commissioner of the General Land Office for a period of about five years. His written directives known as the Binger Hermann Policy, caused mineral claimants of several lode mining claims (Ex: Lucky Strike Gold Mining Co.) to suffer from what is referred to as "cadastral mayhem" Many locators looking for a cure had to wait until August 8, 1904, when Paragraph 147 of the Mining Circular was revised under the authority of the Act of April 28, 1904. In 1904, Herman was also caught up in the Oregon land fraud scandal and brought to trial for alleged land fraud. The jury failed to agree and Hermann was never retried. Hermann was posthumously exonerated by the administration of

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

Early life

Hermann was born the eldest of eleven children in Lonaconing, Maryland, in 1843 to immigrant parents: Henry Hermann, a German-born physician, and Elizabeth Hopkins, an English immigrant. He graduated from the Independent Academy (later called Irving College) in Manchester, Maryland.

Baltimore Colony

In the late 1850s, a group of Baltimore citizens, including Hermann's father, began to make plans to start a new life in the

. Dr. Hermann and his son met with Oregon's territorial delegate Joseph Lane to obtain letters addressed to prominent people already in Oregon who would assist the settlers. The younger Hermann wrote in his diary that he was fascinated by the politics and politicians his father brought him in contact with during that trip. In April 1859, led by Dr. Hermann, seven families and several single men, known as the Baltimore Colony, left to build a new life in Oregon's Coquille Valley. The Hermanns chose a homestead on the South Fork of the Coquille River where Broadbent is now located, growing tobacco, sugar beets, flax seed, and raising honeybees. As Dr. Hermann found out information on Oregon's resources, he wrote articles for East Coast newspapers to inform other interested settlers. Shortly after arriving, Binger Hermann nearly drowned trying to save a drowning child, before being saved himself by his father. He also witnessed a man accidentally shoot himself. Hermann later wrote in ''The Story of a Busy Life'': "Discouraging as the accidents were, they only tended the more to inspire each one with new zeal and more determination to face the future." Hermann would eventually open the first school in the Coquille Valley in 1860, and also taught in Yoncalla and in Canyonville.

Political career

Hermann studied law and was admitted to the

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in 1866. That same year, he was elected to the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the upper house being the Oregon State Senate. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of ...

. He served one term in the Oregon House, and then served one term in the

Oregon State Senate The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the State legislature (United States), statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. Ther ...

from 1868 to 1870. Hermann also served as deputy collector of internal revenue for southern Oregon from 1868 to 1871 and receiver of public moneys at the United States land office in Roseburg from 1871 to 1873 and was a colonel in the Oregon State Militia from 1882 to 1884. He was instrumental in area river and harbor appropriations and for the establishment of lighthouses along the Oregon Coast and was the author of the Indian Depredation law, which provided payment for property damage committed by hostile Indians during the Indian Wars. In 1884, Hermann was elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

for Oregon's at-large congressional district. The Republican defeated Democrat Robert A. Miller in the 1890 election to win another term, meanwhile Democrats picked up 78 seats in the U.S. House in that election. In 1893, after Oregon was granted another congressional district based on the 1890 census, Hermann continued to serve in Congress, representing Oregon's 1st congressional district. Hermann did not seek reelection in 1896, and was appointed by President McKinley as

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

of the

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in Washington, D.C. He soon clashed with Secretary of the Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock over land matters. When Hermann's successor in Congress, Thomas H. Tongue, died in 1903, Hermann resigned his post and returned to run for Tongue's seat. He won the

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

to complete Tongue's term, and was reelected to another term in 1904, defeating Democratic challenger Robert M. Veatch.

The Binger Hermann Policy

Binger-Hermann-3125-mineral-survey-patented

Mineral-Survey-12577-amended-Binger Hermann

Binger Hermann policy Field-Notes-Mineral Survey

The Hon. Commissioner of the General Land Office in 1899 (March 27, 1897 to January 25, 1903) was Binger Hermann. The policy did not take the form of a formal GLO circular issued by the Commissioner's office. It was initiated by a GLO Departmental letter "N" (mineral division) regarding a survey that showed a prior official survey in a position that did not conform to its record.Cfeds.org
/ref> Mr. C.C. Goodale The U.S. Surveyor General for Colorado in his zeal to comply with the Commissioner's "directive" created mayhem. The new policy was that a prior official survey, in conflict with the mining claim being surveyed, must be shown on the plat in its patented position rather than where the monuments on the ground marked it to be. The policy was not well documented. A brief note on page 117 of James Underhill's book ''Mineral Land Surveying'', 1906: General Land Office Departmental Letter "N" indexed 2980, dated May 20, 1899, signed by Binger Hermann, Commissioner: The surveys referred to are the Portia, Silver Pine and Edison lodes, Sur. No. 12577, approved August 13, 1898; and the Hood Lode, Sur. No. 540, original survey approved July 24, 1875, amended survey approved March 16, 1881. Note: The Departmental Letter "N" takes the Colorado Surveyor General to task that he does NOT have the authority to "amend an approved survey upon alleged errors therein, reported by another deputy surveyor…" The GLO Commissioner required a careful examination of the two surveys and report, "in full as to what would be the result of an amendment of Sur. No. 12577 so as to locate the Hood, Sur. No.540 as approved… A sketch showing the plat of Sur. No. 12577 as it now exists, and what it would be if it were made to show Sur. No. 540 as patented, would probably best illustrate the possible errors herein suggested." The 12577 amended Mineral survey is the first survey to suffer from the Cadastral mayhem instilled within the Binger Hermann policy, that being the sanctity of patent descriptions over original, undisturbed monuments or their perpetuations.

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Excerpt of

Departmental Letter "N" indexed 3125, dated June 17, 1899. This letter responds to the report submitted by the Colorado Surveyor General (dated June 5, 1899) required in Departmental Letter "N" (indexed 2980). Note: This is the infamous June 17, 1899 GLO Departmental Letter "N" that is the basis of the five+ year policy referred to as the Binger Hermann policy. The Binger Hermann policy continued beyond 1904, as it is known to have reached other mining districts outside of Colorado. Records of the

containing Mineral Surveys, covering the various mineral districts of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and every other mining State and

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, showcase conditions which obtain varying degrees to land sections. As provided by the '' Mining Reporter'' on February 4, 1904, seemingly endless examples of mineral survey misconstruction already existed, compromising the

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claims. Ground which is actually unpatented and open is construed to be patented to claims which occupy entirely different tracts. Excerpt taken from the annual report prepared by Edward H. Anderson, Utah Surveyor General dated, June 30, 1901: "The Department of Interior holds that courses and distances once incorporated into a patent must be recognized in all subsequent conflicting & adjacent surveys, notwithstanding actual conditions on the ground to the contrary. This means a perpetuation of the error, if any exist, in the former patented survey, and the deputy who makes the latter survey is compelled to falsify his returns to conform to such error. The courts hold that the monuments and markings on the ground govern." Mr. Anderson included the same paragraph in his 1902 and 1903 reports to the GLO Commissioner. Mr. Anderson's statements are a stark reminder that the Binger Hermann policy is Cadastral vandalism of the official field notes, approved plat and patent.

Oregon land fraud scandal

During his second stint in Congress, Hermann was accused by Hitchcock of fraud against the government, claiming that information on land fraud in Oregon had been sent to Hermann and had been ignored, and that Hermann might have removed or disposed of several files and letters from the General Land Office concerning certain fraud investigations. This scandal, which included nearly all of Oregon's congressional delegation, came to be known as the Oregon land fraud scandal. Hermann was found not guilty of destroying public documents in 1907, but remained under indictment for collusion of a land deal in the Blue Mountain Forest Reserve in Oregon. A trial was held on that charge in 1910 and ended in a hung jury. U.S. District Attorney Francis J. Heney declined to refile charges. In 1932,

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

's Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes, exonerated Hermann of any wrongdoing.

Final years

Hermann returned to Roseburg, where he resumed his law practice and engaged in literary pursuits until his death. Binger Hermann died April 15, 1926, two months after a surgical operation, from which he never fully recovered."Death Comes to Binger Hermann, Oregon Leader,"
''Oregon Statesman''

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vol. 76 (April 16, 1926), pg. 1. He was 83 years old at the time of his death. In June 1943 the Oregon Shipbuilding Company launched its 210th

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...

, the ''Binger Hermann,'' named after the former Oregon congressman."Binger Hermann Launched Today"
''Oregon Capital Journal'', June 30, 1943, pg. 11.

Works

''The Louisiana Purchase and Our Title West of the Rocky Mountains, with A Review of Annexation by the United States.''
Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1898.
"Early History of Southern Oregon,"
''Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society,'' vol. 17, no. 1 (March 1918), pp. 52–68. —Address to Oregon Historical Society, October 28, 1917. * ''The Baltimore Colony and Pioneer Recollections.'' Coos Bay, OR: Baltimore Colony Centennial Committee, 1959.

Footnotes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hermann, Binger 1843 births 1926 deaths American people of English descent American people of German descent Republican Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives Republican Party Oregon state senators Oregon lawyers Politicians from Roseburg, Oregon People from Lonaconing, Maryland Commissioners of the United States General Land Office Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Oregon 19th-century American lawyers 20th-century Oregon politicians 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly