Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-01-26
MEMPHIS. TENN. SUNDAY. JANUARY 90, 1878

Thomas q. Boyd, charged with pension
fraudsagainst the Government, occupied
the entire day in the Federal Court, yes.
terday. Boyd was in court and the
cynOsure of the curious crowd in the
courtroom. He gave an unweaTied at.
tentiOn to everything that transpired
and frequently prompted his counsel in
their crOss-examinatiOn of the witnesses
for the Government The counsel for
the Government, consisting of Att0r-
ney-GeneTal Andrews, and Messrs. John
Baxter and a. II. Pettibone, Esqrs., ex-
amined number of witnesses on theiI
side of the case. The negro woman,
Martha j. Upton, was examined in
/ the morning. Martha is astout negress,
about forty years old, and as she sat
/ facing the jury, on a chair on which the
Z cabalistic letters s'U. 81 were branded,
she was a fair specimen of the nations
wards. Martha testified that she never
was formally married, but that she
and Frank Upton had t'took up" and
/ lived together as man and wife for eleven
or twelve years; she had seven children
/ by Frank Upton, four of whom were
! living, two were horn dead, and one
lived day and night; had one child
now living by another man. She testi-
! fled to the receiving of moneys at Ger
tain times from Boyd as pension money.
| On crOss-eXamination, the witness
acknowledged receiving her pension
certificate from Boyd. She denied hav-
ing been told by Schwartz, a detective,
that she would not be prosecuted
for false swearing in the matter of the
pension if she would testify against
Boyd. She had sworn to her applica-
tion for pension before Squire Thomas
q. Harvey, but had never read the doe
ument nor heard it read. Boyd was not
present at the time. In the particular case
now being tried, Boyd is charged with
fraudulently obtaining pensions for six
children of Martha J. Upton, the Gov
ernment alleging she had but four The
counsel for the Government desired to
bring in testimony to show that Boyd
had made out other fraudulent pension
papers and received money thereon,
thus showing the quo amino in the Up
ton case. This motion was resisted by
the counsel for the accused, Hon. T. A.
R, Nelson and James r. Cooke, Esq.
A lengthy argument ensued on the mo-
ton but il was finally allowed by the
court, though the decision was earnestly
protested against by Judge Nelson, and
a sharp little scene ensUed between the
court and the senior counsel for the de-
fense. There were a number of witness
es examined by the prosecution, endeav-
oring to show that Boyd had forged pen
sion claims on which he had collected
money, in the names of persons who
were not entitled TO them and knew
nothing of them. Samuel Elliott and
George Rose were on the stand. Pension
papers, which the counsel for the prose-
cution identified as the handwriting Of
Boyd, had been made out, in which
Elliott and Rose were declared to have
been soldiers in the service of the United /
States and had been killed in action. |
The two with esses testified in Droprid 4
perSOH1 TO their present existence on 4
this mundane sphere. Other witnesses 4
to show fraudulent action by the prison.
er in pension claims, were also produced
and examined. The witnesses for the
prosecution were ali subjected to a Sc
we're cross-examinatiOn by James r.
Cooke, Esq, for the defense. The Gov
arnment having endeavored to prove
that no such men as Elliott and Rose
lad ever belonged to the company
Bryson's mounted infantry-Mr. Cooke
put the witnesses on their recollection
IS to the names Of all the men in the
company. The defense endeavOred to
how that the men Elliott and Rose,
Produced by the Government, were not
he men who had been killed in action,
md for whose widows and children the
pension claims were made out. The
ase for the Government had not closed
It the adjournment, last evening, and
viii be continued this morning.