In 1905, Attorney Abraham Walter Lafferty was appointed special agent for the Department of Interior’s General Land Office in Portland, and opened a law practice a year later. In 1907, Lafferty took on representation of eighteen Oregon counties over the Oregon & California Railroad land fraud scandal, a cause with which he continued to be involved for the rest of his life. This talk by Tam Moore will cover the O&C Railroad land fraud scandal, and the series of litigations that followed, focusing on Lafferty’s involvement and his life outside of the cases as well.
Tam Moore has spent many decades as a journalist and TV reporter in Southern Oregon and served on the Jackson County Board of Commissioners in 1975-78. He is President of the Jackson County Heritage Association and a longtime volunteer with Southern Oregon Historical Society.
The monthly Windows in Time lunchtime lectures feature well-known writers and historians and bring alive the people, values, and events that shaped our southern Oregon heritage. Lectures are jointly sponsored by the Southern Oregon Historical Society (SOHS) and Jackson County Library Services. Programs are presented in Medford (first Wednesdays, in-person and online) and again in Ashland (second Wednesdays, in-person). Registration is only required to attend the Zoom version of Medford’s program. Recordings of Medford presentations are available on the JCLS Beyond YouTube channel.
