USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county together with sketches of its pioneers > Part 15
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WHEREAS, The committee on county officers have reported to the Board, that they find that Reuben Yeisley has received $459.37 more than his salary for the year 1865-also find that Geo. S. Bacon has received $519.71 more than his salary for 1866, and $753.28 more than his salary for the year of 1867; that A. W. Ford has received $674.57 more than his salary for the year A. D. 1868. Now therefore be it
Resolved by the Board of Supervisors, That said Yeisley, Bacon and Ford be and are hereby requested to pay the above amounts into the county treasury between this and the first of January, A. D. 1871."
The recorded vote on this resolution was as follows, viz .:
Yeas-Brainard, McGavren, Meech, Harvey, DeCou, Wallace, Williams and Hutchison-8.
Nays-Goodenough, Ellis, Wills, Church, Johnson, Milliman, Cobb and Jed Smith-8.
This left the measure before the body a tie, when the chair- man of the Board cast his vote "Yea," and the resolution stood adopted. The Chairman at this time was Dr. J. S. Cole.
This resolution was never heeded by Yeisley, Bacon or Ford, and the same stands to day on the records as unpaid.
As to the merits of this finding or resolution, each reader is left to formulate his own conclusions as to the merits of the respec- tive parties; however, I am constrained to say that the persons
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
who constituted this Board were of the very best talent of the county, and men whose judgment would not be warped by either fear, favor, fraud or affection.
In justice to Messrs. Yeisley, Bacon and Ford I am in duty bound to state, that the seeming difficulty in these sums arises by reason of the vague and uncertain verbiage of the statute with reference to the fees to which the different Treasurers were entitled in the matter of Treasurers' tax deeds.
On the night of the 17th of February, 1868, the County Treas- urer's safe met with just such a " scald " as was experienced at the time the county offices, records and money were consumed by fire, during the " Cooper" administration in 1854-gutted. At this time there was more money in the hands of the treasurer than there would be at any other period of the year, so occa- sioned by the payment of taxes, for after the 1st of February, on all taxes which were not paid by or during the month of Janu- ary, penalty began accruing, and further, the middle of the month of February was just the time when the Treasurer was supposed to have cleared up the receipts for money paid during the month of January. Whoever planned the robbery set the job for the time when the Treasurer's safe was in the most pleth- oric condition, and struck it to the tune of nearly $14,000, but which at the present time has by the statement of some, been reduced to only $11,000.
The artistic work in the manner of the breaking of the safe was most bunglingly performed; in fact so much so as to give a thought that the workmen were amateurs, and had it not been for the quantum of funds extracted, the opinion would have received reasonable credence. Some persons living in the immediate neighborhood of the old court house reported on the following day, or pretended to say, that they heard the noise of the pound- ing, but presumed that this noise arose from some horse or other animal which had wandered into the hall-way of this old temple of justice; and was stamping around there at night, to while
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
away time. By 9 o'clock of the 18th the town was all agog with the news of the robbery, and there were as many theories as to the persons perpetrating the act as there were dollars stolen. The safe in which this money is said to have been kept was not blown open, but partially sprung apart by the use of iron wedges, and the money drawn through these crevices by using wires or some such appliances.
On the 24th of the same month the Board of Supervisors con- vened and the result of this meeting was the appointment of a committee to ascertain the amount of money taken, and from what funds; the committee being the Chairman of the Board, D. E. Brainard; the Clerk of the Board, John W. Stocker, and the then Treasurer, A. W. Ford. This committee, so far as the records of the proceedings of the Board show, never reported their findings, and those who now inquire as to this matter are compelled to seek hearsay evidence in lieu of record testimony.
The committee of the Board at their report at the January term, 1869, when reporting on county officers, state that the fol- lowing sums were stolen and locate the different amounts as of the following funds, viz:
Bridge Fund $1,085.64
Teachers' Fund. 1,692.42
County School Fund 1,302.87
School House Fund 1,245.23
Road Fund. 789.57
District School Fund
165.70
Insane Fund
513.98
Poor Fund. 8.27
State Fund. 2,862.66
This last only being obtained from Chapter 41, acts of the Sixteenth General Assembly, passed on the 4th of March, 1876, whereby this county is credited with this amount while no part of the amount was ever paid.
The balance, whatever it may have been, must have been from
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the county fund, for at this time there was not a cent left of all the moneys derived from the sale of the 121,000 acres of swamp lands; and there could not have been much of the county fund, for at the time the treasury of the county was turned over to the then Treasurer, viz .: on the 1st of January, 1868, the amount of this fund so turned over to Ford by Captain Bacon, reached the enormous sum of two cents, besides at this same time there were half cords of county orders outstanding, the same hawked on the market at sixty cents on the dollar.
The current of opinion seemed to center on Michael Rogers, and a gang which was under his leadership, as the perpetrators of the robbery, while at the same time there were a few who on this subject were like doubting Thomas, would like to have put their fingers into Mike's side (pockets) before being convinced Rogers was indicted but never caught, and in the course of time the case of "The State of Iowa v. Mike Rogers" was dropped from the docket and the whole transaction dismissed from the minds of the tax-paying public. Neither the Treasurer nor his sureties were ever required to make good the losses, the same being regarded as a public rather than a private calamity.
This brings the reader down to the present and compels state- ment to be made as to the defalcation of Mr. I. P. Hill. Mr. Hill was elected at the fall election of 1875, and was his own successor during five terms, having held the office for twelve ' years, when, upon turning over the same to Mr. Lew Massie, on the first Monday in January, 1888, greatly startled our usually quiet citizens, by making the statement that there was a short- age of funds to the extent of $20,000 to $25,000.
The author of these hastily crystalized thoughts has known Mr. Hill for a period of thirty-two years, and from this long acquaintance would be sluggish in forming the belief that one who has always been Harrison county's most trusted guardian is criminal. But should it appear that there is a defalcation, and that Mr. Hill has been the trusted friend of the county and can-
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
not make a showing as to the present finance which has been paid him by the hard worked, and, as I might say, "over taxed peo- ple," then let stern justice be meted out to him without stint or pity. Each individual who assumes the duties and responsibilities of an office should know whether or not he pos- sesses the proper qualification in order to discharge the duties thereof, and at this day when taxes assume the dignity of rent, it will not suffice to say, "I was incompetent," more especially, when twelve years of honesty and ability have been sounded through the entire county as the passport to position and trust.
At the present, while there is an indictment pending against Mr. Hill, and, especially while experts are busily at work in examining the last half of his terms of office, I deem it impru- dent to say aught but this: "Let justice be done to the public and the defendant Mr. Hill, though the heavens fall."
THE IMPEACHMENT OF I. P. HILL, TREASURER OF HARRISON COUNTY, AT THE INSTANCE OF JOHN HUIE AND A. C. GILCHRIST.
This matter was brought before the District Court of the State of Iowa for Harrison county, at the August term, 1879. The accusers were men of excellent standing in the county at the time of the inception of the case, and it was brought about through the instance and superintendence of Mr. Issacher Scho- field, then member of the Board of Supervisors, and a resident of Dunlap, who was elected to, and did at that time, represent the second supervisor district of this county. Mr. Schofield took his seat at the incoming of the year of 1879, and soon pre- sumed to have good reasons to believe that the accused was deal- ing unfairly with the people of the county, or in other words, was favoring a few of those to whom he was under especial obligations and giving the cold shoulder to very many who were equally entitled to share alike with the favored few last named, and hence the accusation against the defendant, which was in the following words, viz .:
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
The accusers ask that the accused be removed from the office of Treasurer of the county, for the following reasons:
For habitual and willful neglect of duty in this-
1. By failing to apportion consolidated tax each month;
2. By failing and neglecting to report to the County Auditor the apportionment tax for the year 1878;
3. By failing to keep the different funds separate;
4. By paying warrants drawn on one fund out of the cash of another and different fund; .
5. By holding $6,000 in county warrants and refusing to can- cel the same, as provided by law;
6. By depositing county and other funds intrusted to his care in banks as his own private funds, and drawing interest thereon;
7. By loaning out public funds for private purposes;
8. By holding county warrants and refusing to cancel same, or permit cancellation;
9. By paying out county orders which had been taken in and paid by him;
10. By refusing to report to the County Auditor, weekly, the county orders received by him as Treasurer, and neglecting to endorse thereon the word "paid," as provided by law;
11. By showing partiality in office in this, viz .: by paying to certain parties cash on county warrants and refusing others;
12. By holding tax receipts and tax certificates for friends and not requiring the full amount at date of delivery, when no money had been paid thereon at the date of receipt of certifi- cate;
13. By holding county warrants purchased by friends at great discount, and paying the same out of other and different funds than those upon which said warrants were drawn-the fund on which the warrants were drawn being exhausted;
14. By failing to produce and fully account for all public funds at inspection or legal settlement with the Board at the January meeting in 1879;
-
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
15. By exhibiting bankers' certificates of deposit in lieu of the money representing the public funds, belonging to the county and State.
A joinder of issues was completed on the above charges, and the case came to trial at the August term of the said court in 1879, in which cause the State was represented by attorneys J. H. Henderson, of Marshalltown, and S. H. Cochran, of Logan, and the defendant by J. W. Barnhart and W. S. Shoemaker, of Logan, and Mr. Monk, of Onawa.
The jury selected to determine the facts were as follows, viz .: William Elliott, A. Jewel, Thos. F. Vanderhoof, Henry Weed, N. B. Wadsworth, D. A. McDermot, G. W. Noyes, jr., James Norman, J. A. Deal, John A. Reel, G. W. Smith and H. P. White, who, after patiently listening to the evidence introduced, and the argument of the representative counsel, and being instructed by the court, only tarried in their consultation room a short time when they returned into court with a verdict: " We the jury find the defendant not guilty."
Perhaps I might state that there never was a case tried in the courts of the county which elicited so much interest for the moment as this, for the fact that the prosecution was instituted at the latter part of the second term of office of the accused, who, being a personage having grown up under the eye of the public, the party to whom he had attached his political faith and worshiped with, were bitter in denouncing the accusation as being more for political purposes than pro bono publico, and again among his adherents there were numerous personages who had a mercenary purpose in refuting the charges, irrespective of guilt, for by so doing they were accommodating their own private and personal interests.
Charges 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 were passed over because, if the charges were true, the commission of these acts had been indulged in by former county treasurers so long back that the memory of man ran not to the contrary; and it was especially
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1
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
urged on trial, as a matter of justification, that when Hill's pre- decessor went out of office, there were large amounts of county warrants, approximating nearly $11,000, turned over to him in settlement with Mr. Wood, or rather by the Board of Super- visors in settlement with Mr. Wood as cash, the same, though nearly four years had intervened, these remained uncancelled, and nothing but the full fledged honesty of the present incum- bent prohibited this large amount of negotiable paper from being again thrown upon the public as a circulating medium of value. That the presence of this bundle of honesty was proof positive of his innocence, etc.
Specifications 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 were regarded by the jury as not sufficiently proven, while the charges 14 and 15 were not in any substantial manner relied on by the accusers. The greater stress in the entire case was based on those charges alleging that the public funds had been placed in the banks of the county contrary to law, and that interest had been collected . thereon by the accused, and this interest appropriated by the accused to his own use.
From the present light which has been, within the last six months shed on this case, there would be little hesitancy in saying that, had the accusers centralized their prosecution on the 14th and 15th charges, and pushed the case vigorously, the result of the verdict of the jury might have been materially different, yet with this opinion I have little sympathy, for should the same elements now combine and foreordain that an acquittal should be had, the result might be a verdict of similar import as that copied in the foregoing remarks.
The prosecution had no faith in maintaining charges 14 and 15, or else they would have pushed the accused to the wall on the same, but in this they were like a blind steer in a forty- acre cornfield, simply wandering about hoping to find their way to a conviction.
The present Board of Supervisors now claim that the accused,
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
at the January settlement of 1879, was short of funds to the extent of $2,131.78; that at the June settlement of 1881 there was a deficit of $3,200; the same at the January settlement of 1882; $4,000 at June of the same year; $4,800 at January, 1883, $5,000 at June, 1883; $7,500 at January, 1884. At the January meeting of 1884 all funds belonging to the county were produced and counted by the Board, while at the January meeting of 1883 the $4,800 was obtained by executing a promissory note of I. P. Hill to the Harrison County Bank, and this note was taken up by the Treasurer immediately after the settlement of that month.
The settlement of the January session of 1885 was balanced up by using $7,200 of checks held by the Harrison County Bank, which bore date of the 21st of January, and was taken up as shown on the 22d of the same month.
At the June meeting of 1885 the settlement was made by using $1,300 of cash put in on the 17th day of June and drawn out on the same day by the Harrison County Bank, and $6,500 in checks on the Harrison County Bank, these bearing date of the 17th day of June and drawn out on the 19th of the same month.
January settlement of 1886 was a cash counting term.
At the June settlement of 1886 the Harrison County Bank was represented by $10,500 in checks of date of the 22d of June, and the same drawn out on the 24th of the same month.
On the 18th day of January, 1887, I. P. Hill executed his promissory note to the Harrison County Bank for $9,000, and the same was paid by Mr. Hill three days thereafter.
At the June session of 1887 Mr. Hill was behind in funds to the amount of $14,500, and the deficiency held in abeyance by the Board counting as funds in the hands of the Treasurer, $7,000 in checks held by the Harrison County Bank; $2,500 in certificates of deposits at the Cadwell Bank, and at the same time counting as cash a check held by Cadwell's Bank drawn by the County Treasurer on the Harrison County Bank calling for $5,000.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
Mr. P. Cadwell held on deposit at that time the sum of $2,500 belonging to the funds of the county, and this $2,500, added to the check of the Treasurer on the Harrison County Bank of $5,000, made a showing of $7,500, from which these balances were made.
There can be no question but that the Cadwell Bank acted in this matter with the utmost good faith and that there was no other thought in the mind of the Cadwell Bank but that the check of the Treasurer on the Harrison County Bank was in good faith and represented the cash as stated, viz .: so much money of the funds belonging to the county which had been deposited in the afore- said bank.
It must also be remembered that at this time Mr. Cadwell was one of the bondsmen of the County Treasurer, and would not even squint at any crookedness on the part of the principal whom he was securing.
No character of gossip every startled the people of the county like unto that of the statement made at the meeting of the Board of Supervisors in January, 1888, when it was made known that Mr. Hill was a defaulter in the sum of $20,000 to $25,000, but the reports of the Treasurer and Auditor would not balance by this amount above spoken of, and hence, when the outgoing Auditor told that Mr. I. P. Hill was lacking that amount of funds to come up even with the tally sheets in his office, there. was no longer any doubt as to the truth of the statement.
It might be profitable for those who bank on the funds belong- ing to the county to go upon the bonds of the County Treasurer, yet this little escapade has settled a fact in the minds of some few of Harrison county's best citizens,-that if the greater share of the public funds are to be used by the firm not holden on the Treasurer's bond, the sooner relief is had from the bond the more wisdom the parties would manifest.
Parties and persons may settle the thought as to where the deficiency first began by accommodating their own fancy, but
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
this truth must not be forgotten. When the Board of Super- visors settled with Mr. Hill's predecessors, why was not the $11,000 of warrants then turned over, cancelled and placed be- yond the reach of ever afterwards being counted or even estimated as cash ?
The Boards of Supervisors who have held that position since the 1st day of January, 1879, are quite as much to blame as any party to the defalcation, in not requiring at each settlement re- quired by law, semi-annually, to demand even peremptorily, to see that the money representing each fund be brought into the Supervisors' court and then and there counted. While it is true that on the incoming of each year of a new term of office, Mr. Hill was promptly on hand with cash balances, yet had they demanded the payment of these certificates of deposit or even the checks, at any or all the intermediate settlements, " some American citizen of African descent would have been smoked out of the fuel pile."
This propping arrangement would not have survived more than one term, and as a result, the incompetent or dishonest would have been at an early day estopped in plying their game at the expense of confiding bondsmen. On whom rests the burden of guilt in this case, is left to each person to form opinions for himself, but this fact is fixed beyond doubt, that they who are the bondsmen of the subject of these remarks, have, both in and out of season, persistently proclaimed the honesty of Mr. Hill.
Another fact may be stated: it is one which will bear the most severe ordeal, and it is this: there has never been a time in the political history of the county, when the banks of the county united on a candidate for County Treasurer, but that the person of their choice was elected by most handsome majorities, and the further fact may be truthfully stated, that Mr. Hill has been
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
could not be censured for giving him a united support, unless this party was cognizant of the fact of his dishonesty or incom- petency, but there have been numerous persons in the party which opposed Mr. Hill, who, forgetting their own nominees, and for mercenary and personal purposes, have thrown very many good Republicans into political fence corners, because they had tried and proved Mr. Hill, and had found in him a friend who was ever ready to supply funds for pecuniary purposes, not- withstanding the funds so furnished belonged to the public. This incumbent had been in office since the 1st of January, 1876, and who would " swap " a good, well-tried trick " hoss " for one not accustomed to the collar or even broken to lead? Hence the numerous political graves, freshened every odd year by party, suicidal, political hands.
The records now plainly show that Mr. Hill had become quite serviceable to a limited number of the Republican party, who were ever pushing him to the front, recommending his honesty and ability and if aught was said against him, were crying " persecu- tion," but these were either serving their own pecuniary purpose or turning the political grindstone for some one who expected to reap a rich promised or anticipated reward.
At the time of the trial of the accusations of 1879, and from that time up to and until the 1st of January, 1888, there never was a time when aught derogatory to the character and standing of Mr. Hill was noised abroad, but all the ex-County Treasurers of the county (excepting Judge King and Judge Brainard) would shield the person of the accused by a solid embankment of body so and characters, that it was impossible for the spears of honest, well meaning accusers to touch the sacred person of the money- collecting friend.
Formerly, it was said: "Not all who cry Lord! Lord! shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven;" so, at the present day, it is not universally the case, that they who pump political wind
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
with the greatest persistency, and assume a rich politico-sancti- fied look, have the best interests of the public at heart.
Much has been said in regard to the investigation ordered by the Board of Supervisors, in June of 1879, at which time Mr. J. C. Milliman, of this county, and E. H. Hibben, of Marshall- town, were selected as the experts to examine and report the condition of the Auditor's office.
These men, after careful examination made report to the Board as to the condition of the records of the office to which their attention was directed, viz .: the Auditor's, and it was impossible for them to make a showing as to the condition of the business and status of the books of the Treasurer's office, from the fact that they never were clothed with authority to investigate the status of the finance of the County Treasurer.
The fault, if fault there be, lies largely at the door of the Board of Supervisors, for had they acted on the 1st of January, 1879, and semi-monthly thereafter, as the law directed them to act, viz .: to count the funds in the hands of the Treasurer, and not take the certificates of deposits of bankers as money or con- sider as cash a draft drawn by the Treasurer on a bank, not even seeking to inquire of the bankers if such draft would be lion- ored if presented, the defalcation of the present would not have assumed the magnitude of $25,000.
The law presumes every man to be honest until the contrary is proven, and the different Boards of Supervisors adopting this theory have been careless of duty, supposing that it would be sufficient time to determine an indvidual dishonest after the act constituting the dishonesty was perpetrated.
It is an old maxim, "An ounce of preventive is equal to a pound of cure," and had the preventive been rigidly applied, there would have been no necessity for any curing appliances.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS.
The first personage to adorn this exalted position was Mr. William Dakan of Jefferson township, he being elected at the first election held in the county, which occurred, as before stated, on the 7th day of March, 1853.
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