Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-11-27
DONE IN DAKOTA.
Aa Outrage Perpefrated IN the Name and
Forms of LatU---C0Mnty Bonds to Be-

,careef.
SCOTLAND, Dak., Nov. 21.-By giving
place in your columns to the following
history of the organization and manage
ment of Douglas county, Dakota, you
will publish chapter with which people
dealing in our county warrants, and 9TH
er evidences of public Indebtedness open
to equitable defenses, should be famil-
lar:
Under the laws Of the territory, when
ever fifty or more voters reside in an un-
organized county, and they desire its or
ganization, they may petition the COVER
nor to that effect, and thereupon it is his
duty to organize the same by the appoint
ment of three commissioners from among
its residents. In February last a petition
was presented to Gov. Ordway, bearing
what appeared to be more than fifty genu-
inc signatures, and alleging that the
signers were legal voters of Douglas
county, and wanted the county organ
lied by the appointment of three persons,
named as residents, to the Office of
county commissioner. The petition was
verified by the affidavit of one Brown,
who presented 1t, and on its showing the
governor organized the county, and, as
prayed in the petition, appointed Brown
one of the commissioners.
Shortly after it transpired that the
voters of the county knew nothing of the
proceedings to organize it; that there
were not more than twenty voters in the
county, and it was alleged that the names
of nearly all of these had been forged 20
the petition; that the other signatures to
it were those of non-residents or fictitious
persons, and that Bum and another of the
commissioners resided in an adjoining
county. and the third, Hoyet, had but an
opened Bum, with a half-dozen others,
went into Douglas comfy and established
a sscounty- seat" near the line Of the reser-
vation of band of Sioux Indians, about
twenty miles away from any of the set
tiers of the county, in spot so well con-
cealed that it required search of weeks
to discover their hiding place. There
they commenced operations, it is said, by
dividing among the members of the gang
the offices of county treasurer, probate
judge, superintendent of education,
clerk, sheriff and surveyor, providing a
liberal compensation for each regardless
of the value of his services. While the
record shows that during this time Hoyet,
the Quaker commissioner, was present
and acting, it is alleged that Brown
alone constituted the county board,
and having appointed himself its
chairman and his son county clerk, so
that the business of issuing warrants
could be carried onfn the family ,and being
served with writs of prohibition and quo
warranto, he filled the vacancy caused by
the failure of the nonresident commits
sioner to quality, and dropped Hoyet
from the record thereafter
Notwithstanding the law allows the
creation of no debt, even by de jure COM
missioners, except such as can be paid by
current taxation, in Douglas county,
Brown s. Co. are known to have issued
warrants of Indebtedness against the
county for $4,000, for which it has
nothing of value to show; and rumor
in financial circles puts the amount
at $4,000, which were sent to st.
Paul and other eastern cities fer negotia-
tion Prohibition and quo warranto cases
are pending against the usurping officers
of the county, but as this county, for ju-
dicial purposes, is attached to Charles
Mix, county on the Missouri river,
about forty miles above Yankton, chiefly
occupied by few dozen half-savage
Indians, and less number of
more savage white men-and as the
power to say whether or not a
term of the district court shall be
held in that county is practically in the
hands of its commissioners, and they have
notified Chief Justice Shannon that they
want no court held there, and no change
Of venue can be taken IN vacation-the
quo warranto cases can not be tried on
their merits, and there is no remedy for
the wrong but resort to mob law or an
appeal to- congress.
The people of southern Dakota have
suffered much from the raw
ages of the grasshopper, h the
witherlng effect Of drought, the
submerging of their houses, lands and
crops by the floods, and the intense cold
of winter, accompanied by scarcity of
fuel; but all these, and kindred hard
ships, dwindle into insigniicance in the
presence of evils existing in some of its
localities, of which the Douglas county
outrage is an example.