USA > Missouri > Scotland County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 41
USA > Missouri > Lewis County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 41
USA > Missouri > Clark County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 41
USA > Missouri > Knox County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 41
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Ulysses S. Grant, Rep
874
" O'Connor, Dem.
22
1876 Samuel J. Tilden, Dem 1,464
Rutherford B. Hayes, Rep 1,060
1880 Winfield S. Hancock, Dem
James A. Garfield, Rep. 1,405
689
Gen. Weaver, Nat.
479
1884 Grover Cleveland, Dem
1,526
James G. Blaine, Rep 1,077
" St. John, Prohibition. 27
POPULATION.
The population of Scotland County, at the close of the several decades, has been as follows: 1850-white 3,631, colored 151, total 3,782; 1860-white 8,742, colored 131, total 8,873; 1870- white 10,541, colored 129, total 10,670; 1880-white 12,377, colored 131, total 12,508. By reference to the foregoing it will be seen that the white population more than doubled between 1850 and 1860. This increase was due mostly to immigration, but since 1860 the population has had a moderate and natural increase. The colored population has always been small, and has decreased since the year 1850 instead of growing larger.
RAILROADS AND RAILROAD BONDS.
At the August term, 1860, of the county court of Scotland County, a petition signed by sundry citizens of the county, was presented, praying the court to order an election to be held for the purpose of ascertaining whether a majority of the citizens of the county were in favor of taking $100,000 stock in the Mis- sissippi & Missouri River Air Line Railroad. Whereupon the Court ordered (Justice Thompson dissenting) that an election should be held on the 17th day of September of that year, at the several voting places in the county for the aforesaid purpose. The election was accordingly held, and the Court found that a
454
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND COUNTY.
majority of the votes cast were in favor of the proposition to sub- scribe the amount of stock as aforesaid, and thereupon ordered that the sum of $100,000 be subscribed by the county of Scot- land to the capital stock of said railroad company, and that Henry M. Gorin be appointed agent for the county to represent its interests, to subscribe the stock, vote for it and receive its divi- dends. That the said stock should be subscribed, upon the con- dition that said railroad should be constructed, and a depot locat- ed and built within one-half mile of the courthouse in the town of Memphis, and when said railroad should be completed and the cars running thereon to the county line between Clark and Scot- land Counties, and should have graded ten miles of said road in Scotland County, from the east line thereof in the direction of Memphis, the said Gorin should deliver to said railroad company the bonds of the county for the sum of $25,000, payable two years after date; and when the said road should be graded to Memphis and the cars should be running on the first ten miles within the county, the said Gorin should deliver to said company the bonds of the county for $25,000, due and payable in three years from date. Then when the road should be completed, and the cars running thereon to the town of Memphis, and six miles of it should be graded west thereof, the said Gorin should deliver to said company the bonds of the county for $25,000, due four years from date; then when the balance of the road should be graded to the county line between Scotland and Schuyler Counties, and the cars running six miles west of Memphis, said Gorin should deliver to said company the bonds of the county for a like sum of $25,000, due five years from date. None of the bonds thus authorized were to bear interest until after they were due.
Afterward, on the 15th day of October, 1860, Mr. Gorin reported to the court that he had suscribed $100,000 to the capital stock of the said railroad company, in compliance with and subject to the conditions contained in the aforesaid order. This railroad was never constructed, and the company failed entirely to comply with the conditions set forth in the foregoing order of the county court, and consequently no bonds were issued; and the subscription having become void by reason of limitation, the county court, while in session, in December, 1872, ordered " that
455
STATE OF MISSOURI.
the subscription made by the Scotland County Court of $100,000 stock to the Mississippi & Missouri River Air Line Railroad, dated October 1, 1860, and changed by agreement August 10, 1868, to $80,000 be and the same is hereby cancelled and revoked. And it is ordered further that the clerk of this court certify a copy of this order to the president or chief officer of said railroad company, and that the county papers be requested to notice the proceedings of the court in this matter."
THE MISSOURI, IOWA AND NEBRASKA RAILWAY BONDS.
At the August term, 1870, of the county court, Charles Mety, H. H. Downing, H. H. Montgomery, David Gwynn, R. P. Way- land and divers other persons, to the number of 1,365, all being tax payers and residents of the county, presented a petition pray- ing the court to subscribe the sum of $200,000 to the capital stock of the Missouri, Iowa & Nebraska Railway Company, pay- able in county bonds due twenty-five years from date, with inter- est at the rate of 8 per cent per annum, payable annually, com- mencing at the date of the compliance of the contract on the part of said railway company. And at the same time Levi J. Wagner and others presented to the court a remonstrance against the granting of the prayer of said petition. The remonstrance, it is alleged, was signed by nearly the same number as that of the petition. Several individuals who first signed the petition after- ward signed the remonstrance. As to the latter instrument the record is silent. Some excitement prevailed at the time, as both petitioners and remonstrants were earnest in the advocacy of their respective causes. After considering the matter, the court made the following entry upon its record: "Now therefore in consideration of the prayer of said petitioners, and in pursu- ance and by virtue of law, and the power therein given to the court to subscribe in said railway company, it is ordered by the court that the county of Scotland, in the State of Missouri, do hereby subscribe the sum of $200,000 to the capital stock of the Missouri, Iowa & Nebraska Railway Company, payable in the bonds of the county, of the denomination of $1,000 each, due twenty-five years from date of issue, and bearing 8 per cent interest-the interest payable annually in the city of New York
-
456
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND COUNTY.
on the terms and conditions to wit: $100,000 of said bonds to be paid to said railway company when said road shall have been graded, bridged and tied, the track laid, and the cars running thereon from Alexandria, Mo., to a permanent depot located within one-half mile of the courthouse in Memphis in said county, and the remaining $100,000 of said bonds to be delivered to said com- pany when said company shall have thus co pleted their said line of road from Memphis to the west 01 2 th line of said county, and the cars are running over the same through said county. Provided that if said railroad shall be so located as to miss the west line and strike the north line of said county, it shall do so at a point not exceeding four miles east of the north- west corner of said county.
" Said railroad shall be so built, and the cars running thereon as aforesaid, within two years from the date of this order, other- wise said subscription shall be null and void. And it is ordered further that Henry M. Gorin be and he is hereby appointed agent for said county of Scotland, to subscribe the stock of said county upon the books of said company, to represent said county at the meetings of the stockholders of said company, to cast the vote of said county, and to receive its dividends.
" And in order that the interest of the people may be fully guarded, the court doth appoint as trustee, Charles Mety, of said county, whose duty it shall be to receive from the clerk of the county court of Scotland County aforesaid the above mentioned bonds as soon as the same are issued, and to have the custody of the same. And as soon as the said railway company shall have complied with the stipulations above set forth the said trustee shall deliver the aforesaid bonds to the treasurer or other authorized agent of said railway company, and shall, at the same time, receive from said treasurer or other authorized agent of said company an equal amount in certificates of stock which the said trustee shall deposit in the hands of the treasurer of Scotland County taking his receipt for the same. And it is further ordered by the court that the county attorney of said county shall proceed to have said bonds printed and lithographed, and that the presiding justice of the county court of said county shall sign the same, and the clerk of the county court of said
457
STATE OF MISSOURI.
county shall make the proper attestation of his signature, and that the said bonds shall have interest coupons attached, and the trustee shall, when he delivers said bonds to. said railway com- pany, detach any and all coupons, for interest that may have passed maturity, and cancel and return the same to the treasurer of said county. * It is further provided that said railway company shall pay all the expenses of lithographing and printing said bonds."
In accordance with the foregoing the said bonds were pre- pared, signed and issued September 1, 1870, and on the 25th day of September, 1871, Charles Mety, trustee as aforesaid, reported to the court that the railroad was completed to the town of Memphis, that the cars were running thereon to a per- manent depot in said town, that he had delivered to an authorized agent of said company the sum of $100,000 in the bonds of said county and received a certificate of stock from said company for the same and turned it over to the county treasurer.
On the 11th of December, 1871, the court changed the condi- tions as to the delivery of the last $100,000 in bonds. Upon the filing of an indemnity bond, by the railroad company, conditioned that on the 31st day of said month the road should be completed to the western boundary of the county, and that no interest should be paid by the county on the bonds up to that date, the court ordered that said bonds should be delivered to the company at once. Accordingly, on the following day, December 12, Charles Mety, the trustee, reported that he had delivered the remaining $100,000 in the bonds of the county to the M. I. & N. Railroad Company, and received in return certificates for 1,000 shares of the capital stock of said company, which certificates he had delivered to J. S. Fullerton, the treasurer of Scotland County, and that he had deposited with the clerk of the county court 100 coupons for the interest on said bonds for the year 1871, num- bered from 101 to 200 inclusive. The court then ordered said coupons to be canceled and destroyed.
Prior to the delivery to said railroad company of any of the aforesaid bonds, an injunction suit was brought by Levi J. Wag- ner and others against Charles Mety and other officers of the county to restrain and prevent the proposed delivery of the .29
458
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND COUNTY.
bonds. The case, however, was not brought to issue and a decision reached until long after the bonds had been delivered. It was continued from term to term until April, 1873, when, on petition, a change of venue was granted from the Scotland County Circuit Court to the Shelby County Circuit Court, where it was afterward tried before Judge John T. Redd, who decided it in favor of the plaintiffs-that the bonds were illegal and void, and ordered them to be returned to and destroyed by the Scot- land County Court.
The attorneys of the railroad company then appealed the case to the supreme court of the State of Missouri, where it was found that the M. I. & N. Railroad Company never had an existence until 1870, and that it was the result of an alleged consolidation of other companies. The court held that:
First. If a railroad company fails to comply with the conditions on which a county subscription has been made to its stock, injunction will lie to prevent it receiving bonds agreed to be issued in payment, and to compel the surrender and cancellation of any already issued; and this remedy may be invoked by any one who is a citizen and taxpayer of the countv.
Second. The privilege conferred upon a railroad company, by a charter granted in 1857, of having subscriptions made to it by county courts, without the sanction of a popular vote, was not a vested right, and if the company became consolidated with another, this privilege did not pass to the consolidated company so as to authorize such a subscription to be made, after the constitution of 1865 took effect, without such sanction.
Or, in other words, that under the constitution of 1865, and the laws passed in pursuance thereof, the subscription to the capital stock of the railroad com- pany could not be legally made by the county court without the sanction of a vote of the people. The decision of the lower court was sustained. - Missouri Reports Vol. LXIX, p. 150.
At the February term, 1873, of the county court, John D. Smoot, prosecuting attorney for the county of Scotland, filed a motion, praying the court to set aside, vacate and hold for naught certain orders of the court theretofore made in regard to subscription by the county to the capital stock of said rail- road company, and also to declare the bonds issued in payment of said subscription to be fraudulent, null and void for the reasons: First-That the county court in the counties in which the Alexandria & Bloomfield Railroad Company (now the M., I. & N. Railway Company) had their railway located, or were authorized to locate the same by act of February 9, 1857, or sub- sequent acts thereto, never had any privilege, right or franchise,
459
STATE OF MISSOURI.
or authority to subscribe to the stock of said railway company, without a constitutional vote of the people in all or any of such counties. Second-There never was any vote taken in said county of Scotland. authorizing said county court to subscribe stock in said railway company. Third-The petition presented to said county, and embraced in said order, in no way authorized or empowered said court to regard the same as a vote of said county, and that it could in no way be taken as a vote in said county." The court, after consideration of the matter, ordered that the collector of the county of Scotland be notified and in- structed not to receive any coupons of the bonds issued to said railway company upon any account for taxes or assessments that might be due to said county, and that the treasurer of the county of Scotland be notified and instructed not to pay out any money then in his hands, or that he might thereafter receive, to any person for interest coupons of the aforesaid bonds, until further advised by the court. Judge Cooper dissented to this order.
In the case of Thomas vs. The County of Scotland, which was argued and adjudged in the supreme court of the United States, at its October term, 1876, it was held "that the fourteenth sec- tion of Article 11, of the Constitution of Missouri, adopted in 1865, which declares that 'the General Assembly shall not au- thorize any county, city or town, to become a stockholder in, or to loan its credit to any company, association, or corporation, unless two-thirds of the qualified voters of such county, city or town, at a regular or special election to be held therein, shall assent thereto,' prohibits any subsequent legislative grants to any municipal corporation, of authority to become a stockholder in, or to loan its credit to any company, except upon the pre- scribed conditions, but it does not purport to take away any authority already granted." It was further held, "that the power of the county to subscribe for stock in the Alexandria & Bloomfield Railroad Company, was the right and privilege of the company, and passed, with its other rights and privileges, into the new condition of existence which it assumed under the consolidation. And that the subscription made by the court was the act of the county, and binding upon it, and that the bonds so issued are valid."-U. S. Reports, Vol. XCIV, page 682.
460
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND COUNTY.
In the case of Hill vs. Scotland County, which was afterward brought and tried in the circuit court of the United States, for the eastern district of Missouri, to enforce the payment by the de- fendent, of certain interest coupons then due, it was averred in defense that on the 11th of September, 1871, while the bonds were in the hands of Charles Mety, trustee as aforesaid, Levi Wagner and others, citizens and tax payers of the county, brought suit against him (Mety), the justices, of the county court, the county treasurer and the M., I. & N. R. Company, to enjoin Mety from delivering the bonds to said railway company, and to have them declared void, and canceled for want of authority in the county to subscribe to the stock of the company; that all the defendants were served with process, and appeared in the suit; that a preliminary injunction was allowed as prayed for, and that the final decree in this suit declared the bonds null and void. It was further averred that Mety delivered the bonds after the injunction suit was commenced, and the preliminary injunction granted, and that Hill and other holders of the bonds took them with full notice of the pendency of the injunction suit. Issue was then taken, and the county offered in evidence the record in the Wagner suit. To the introduction of this evidence the plaintiff (Hill) objected, on the ground "that the bonds were de- livered to the railroad company before any injunction was issued, and that the bond was a legal act of the county, and valid in any- body's hands." This objection was sustained. The county then offered in evidence a bond executed by the railroad company to Mety on September 12, 1871, to indemnify him against all damages, costs and expenses, which he (Mety), as trustee of the county, might incur in the injunction suit. Objection was also made and sustained against the introduction of this evidence. The county then offered to prove by the said Mety that he and the holders of the bonds had actual notice of the pendency of the injunction suit at the time he delivered the bonds. This was also objected to, and the objection was sustained. The decree in the Wagner case was set up as a bar to the action, on the ground that the liability of the county for the coupons was res judicata between the parties. After trial the case was decided in favor of the plaintiff, Hill, whereupon the defendant, the county, ap- pealed it to the supreme court of the United States.
461
STATE OF MISSOURI.
The latter court, after reviewing the case, held that the evi- dence offered by the county as aforesaid was improperly excluded, and thereupon remanded the case for a new trial. A. J. Baker and F. T. Hughes, attorneys for Hill; Henry A. Cunningham, attorney for Scotland County. [See "Supreme Court Reporter, U. S.," Vol. V, page 93, October term, 1884.]
The case was again tried before Judge Treat, of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Missouri, and the aforesaid evidence, which was excluded on the first trial, was admitted, and a decree again rendered in favor of the plain- tiff. An appeal was then taken by the county to the supreme court of the United States, where the case is pending at the pres- ent writing. The principal grounds on which the citizens and tax payers of the county expect to obtain relief from the payment of the bonds are that the owners of the bonds had full notice of the pendency of the injunction suit when they received them, but that the final decree of that suit which declared the bonds null and void was final and set the matter forever at rest.
According to the decision of Judge Treat in the case of Hill vs. Scotland County, it became the duty of the county court of said county to levy taxes on the taxable property of the county for the purpose of raising the necessary funds to pay the interest on the aforesaid bonds. The members of the court, however, believed that under the laws of the State they were not authorized to make such levy, and to test the matter they applied to Judge Turner, of the Scotland County Circuit, for orders, and he refused to grant them the privilege to levy the tax. A mandamus was then issued by Judge Treat, of the United States District Court, at St. Louis, to compel them to make such levy. Failing still to make the levy a notice was served on each member of the court to appear before said court on a certain day in May, 1881, to show cause why they should not be punished for con- tempt of court. Accordingly the justices of the court complied with the citation, but not being able to show cause to the satis- faction of Judge Treat why they should not be punished for con- tempt they were placed in the county jail at St. Louis, and there confined for a period of three months. The county court at this time was composed of Justices B. F. Bourn, E. E. Sparks and
462
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND COUNTY.
Riley Gale. For the names of the justices of the county court at any period the reader is referred to the chapter on courts else- where in this work.
FINANCES.
The following is an abstract of the aggregate taxable prop- erty, and its valuation in the county of Scotland, on the first day of June, 1880, as set out in the assessor's book for the year 1887:
REAL ESTATE.
Number of acres, 277,015, valued at. $1,601,250
Number of town lots, 1.065, valued at 152,180
Total value of real estate.
$1,753,430
PERSONAL PROPERTY.
Number of horses, 7,805, valued at. $ 272,770
Number of mules, 870, valued at .. 33,450
Number of asses and jennets, 35, valued at. 2,790
Number of neat cattle, 24,493, valued at ...
277,860
Number of sheep, 12,268, valued at
12,180
Number of hogs, 20,427, valued at.
34,755
Other live stock.
25
Moneys, notes, bonds, mortgages, etc. 339,835
Corporate companies
53,400
All other personal property.
149,490
Total value of personal property. $1,176,555
Total value of real estate. $1,753,430
Total value of personal property. 1,176,555
Total taxable wealth $2,929,980
The foregoing statement is a part of the record of the county court at its February term, 1887. And at the following May term the. Hon. Joseph G. Best, the late clerk of that court, presented a state- ment of the condition of the county finances, showing the indebted- ness on bonds issued to the M. I. & N. Railway Company, now in litigation and being contested in the courts, the amounts paid on judgments, and the balance outstanding, together with a statement of indebtedness of the county, recognized as valid, and a detailed account of the receipts and expenditures of the same for the year ending May 1, 1887, as follows :
Statement of the county bonded indebtedness, in litigation to the 31st day of December, 1886: To 165 bonds issued to the M. I. & N. Railway Company, due December 31, 1895, $165,000. Then follows a specified list of the coupons, and the interest due on the same, making the " face value of
463
STATE OF MISSOURI.
the bonds and coupons outstanding, and the interest on the coupons since maturity, $385,620.80." Then follows a list of payments of judgments obtained against the county, and the interest thereon, to the amount of $87,884.46, which being taken from the $385,620.80 leaves the outstanding railway bonded indebtedness at $297,736.34 at that date. The county bonded indebtedness proper was reported as follows:
To 11 compromise bonds, due September 1, 1897, of $500 each. $ 5,500 00
To 11 compromise bonds due September 1, 1897, of $100 each. 1,100 00
To amount of bonds given in favor of the school fund, 16,629 40
Total . $23,229 40
April 30, 1887, by amount on hand, with the county treasurer in sinking fund, 1,132 56
Balance of indebtedness outstanding and unprovided for ..
$22,096 84
Then follows a detailed statement of the county revenue funds, and of the special funds, the recapitulations of which are as follows, for the year ending April 30, 1887:
COUNTY REVENUE FUNDS.
Receipts.
Overdrawn.
Disburse- ments.
Balance Over Warrants Issued.
Officers' salary fund ..
$ 6,641 49
$ 4,570 04
$2,071 45
Road and Bridge fund.
4,294 05
1,025 37
5,319 42
Pauper and insane fund.
2,893 75
1,744 55
1,149 20
Contingent fund ..
2,713 27
1,373 84
1,339 43
Jury and Election fund.
2,187 14
1,513 18
673 96
Poor farm fund.
1,827 12
1,547 58
279 54
Interest on back tax book.
961 41
583 33
378 08
Totals
$21,518 23 $1,025 37 $16,651 94
$5,891 66
SPECIAL FUNDS.
Receipts.
Overdrawn.
Disburse- ments.
Balance in Treasury.
Road district fund ...
$ 4,853 70 $
18 33
4,789 68
$ 82 35
County interest fund.
5,227 56
4,525 88
701 68
Road fund (old).
167 46
68
00
99 46
Road revenue fund, "74 to '78.
102 18
50 00
52 18
Sinking fund.
1,206 70
152 88
1,053 82
R. R.j'gm't levies,"78 to '81 and '85
5,832 63
5,121 98
710 65
Expenses in bond litigation
25 35
25 35
Road and canal fund .. ..
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