This affiant Hurbert Stanton being duly sworn says:

In the month of December 1875 I commenced working for Sanford Lyon in Pico Canyon on the premises as described in the complaint, my business being to take care of and pumping the Lyon well, which well is situated on the Pico claim No 1, less than 200 feet from the Pico wells worked by the California Star Oil Works Company and is the well reserved to Lyon in the Denton lease described in the complaint in the above entitled action. I continued working at said well for said Lyon pumping and in charge of said well as aforesaid from December 1875 to June 28th, 1878, with the exception of the months of March and April 1876. Said well has during said time been controlled under the authority of said Lyon, and he has for more than one year last past been selling the oil from the same to F.B. Taylor & Co. Said well has never, since I have known it, been pumped continuously or at night except experimentally for a time, but has been pumped as a rule twice a day for about half an hour each time.

I have made many experiments for the purpose of ascertaining how I could best obtain the greatest amount of oil from said well, and have found that I could get as much by pumping it at said intervals or, as it is called, “by heads” as any other way. At one time I ceased pumping for four days and found when I resumed that I got as much oil at one pumping as I would have obtained during the four days. This fact was ascertained from actual tank measurement and I saw no indication of any injury to the well or diminution to the production of oil by such four days stoppage. Sanford Lyon although so very anxious to save all the oil possible that he would dip up the oil escaping from Pico Springs and save it in tin cans, and although almost every day at the well, and knowing perfectly well the way in which it was pumped, has never required me to pump it oftener or insinuated that it ought to be pumped continuously, and I never heard any one say that the Pico wells should be pumped continuously until the controversy growing out of this litigation was commenced.

The cabin where I have resided during the above mentioned time is with five hundred feet of all the wells mentioned in the complaint in said action, and I have had unusual opportunities for knowing how the wells under charge of C.A. Mentry have been operated, and I assert positively that they have been worked and operated by him in a proper workmanlike and skillful manner. I know that Mentry has exercised great care in the management and operation of said wells during all the time I have known about them as aforesaid, and believe him to be the most skillful well driller and manager in California.

The pumping wells have been as a rule pumped twice a day or oftener and they have been in fact much better pumped than the Lyon well. As for more than eighteen months last past, Mentry has had the best kind of steam machinery for pumping, while the Lyon well was pumped by hand. I am satisfied that no oil, except the inconsiderable quantity that must be lost in handling large quantities of oil, has been lost or in any way wasted by the defendant corporation, with the exception that as all have heard, Mentry let some oil out last winter when the road was impassible and also with the exception of a small amount of oil which may have escaped when he was drilling and came unexpectedly on oil deposits, but for nearly two years he has used “oil savers” and but little oil could have escaped.

I have never seen any of the wells plugged or stopped up so as to impede the flow of oil, and do not believe that such a thing was ever done. There was always a pipe or pipes leading off from the oil savers or casing head large enough to carry more than ten times the flow of oil from any of the wells. For more than a year last past no oil has been saved by Sanford Lyon or collected form the Pico spring, or by any one, and the same has run to waste and collected in the bed of the creek in pools during the dry season, and has passed off during the wet season down the creek when the same was filled with water by the rains.

This oil spring runs oil more or less all the time and as very little oil makes a great show when spread out on the top of water, an ignorant person possessing no knowledge of oil or its characteristics, could be easily deceived as to the quantity, and would be likely to imaging that there was much more than there really was.

On June the 14th, 1878, I went down to Los Angeles with B.B. Lockwood in his wagon in pursuance of directions sent me by said Lyon. When I arrived in Los Angeles, I found that Lyon was already there. He was indebted to me at the time in quite a sum of money for work at his well and I sent him word that he must pay me the amount he owed before I would make any statement to Baker’s lawyers. I did this because I knew that he was greatly biased in favor of Baker and prejudiced against Mentry and his company and I believed that he would want me to swear to things that I could and would not, and that when he found out what my statement would be, he would refuse to pay me what he justly owed me and I would have great trouble in collecting the debt. Lyon then came to me and said that Mr. Baker, whom he had arranged matters with, would pay my account next day. I then went to Mr. Baker’s attorneys and talked with them and told them Mentry was a good man and had worked the wells properly. Mr. Lyon and A.L. McPherson, who were present, tried to get me to remember some things of which I had no knowledge, and I told them so, and the matter was then adjourned over until the following Monday.

On Monday morning I say E.F. Weed who has, as I understand, given his affidavit in this case in behalf of Mr. Baker. He told me if I would go up and swear as they wanted me to, that I would be paid my account as soon as my evidence was taken. He further said that they wanted to get R.C. McPherson as Receiver of the four Pico wells; that Mentry and Bently would be discharged and McPherson would take his own crowd there and they would produce more oil, that they would need a night watchman and he intimidated to me that it was probable I would get the job. I told him that I could only swear to what was truth and justice.

I went to said attorney’s office after this and made an affidavit stating substantially that the wells had been pumped at intervals, that Mentry was a good man and I am informed that my affidavit has not been used in this case. Afterwards, My Lyon gave me an order on R.S. Baker for the amount of his (Lyons) account, but the same has not as yet been paid, Mr. Baker being absent from home. I know that the said Weed, Lyon, and A.L. McPherson and R.C. Mcpherson have taken a very active interest in this case in behalf of Plaintiffs. I have been on several occasions told by Lyon that if McPherson was appointed the Receiver for the Pico wells, he (McPherson) would deepen his, the Lyon well, and would probably get a large flow of oil and put F.B. Taylor and Co. to a heavy expense to get tankage for it, they having contracted to take from Lyon all the oil produced from the Lyon well.

I have seen the affidavit of M.S. Loomis given in this case and have heard his statement about the flowing of Pico well No 1. I remember the occasion to which he alludes. He was sleeping in my cabin at the time and we were awakened by the noise of escaping oil and gas. Neither of us got up and I am confident Loomis did not at that time see the well. They had been drilling the well during the day. I have seen this well flow on several occasions, but never saw the oil go higher than twenty feet, and then only for a single spurt, which would last but a few seconds. Mr. Loomis is also mistaken about this oil going to waste in the Pico Canyon. Mentry had a reservoir to catch it and an arrangement to pump it up in the tanks.

I know that the evaporation of the Pico oil is very great and have often heard Lyon complain that F.B. Taylor and Co. did not gauge his oil often enough and that he lost heavily by evaporation. F.B. Taylor and Co were in the habit of taking the gauge every 15 days. I do not pretend in the above to give the exact words used by the parties, but I do give the substance.

I have no reason to believe that Mr. Baker’s attorneys had or have any knowledge of the attempts of Lyon and Weed to get me to testify on behalf of Baker by promises to have my account paid or to give me a job as above stated. I have no interest in this controversy and am not in the employ of any parties to it.

H. Stanton

July 11, 1878