Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-03-03
A VERY DEEP DIVE
Into the Affiirs Of the County by an
Investigating COmmitte with Rather
Startling Results.
The Errors Made and Papers Missing,
and the Difficulty of Getting at
the Gist OF Things.

The report Of the committee examining
the Office of the chairman OF the County
Court has at last been received. The exami-
nation has been necessarily delayed, because
Of the chaotic condition of the affairs OF the
| Office. One of the committee informed an
APPEAL reporter that no order was apparent
in the preservation Of papers; that very fire.
guently they had to fish them from the dust
! and dried tobacco-saliva of by-gone years.
All these things contributed the delay.
| The following Is the report in full except the
| exhibits, which are merely the statistics Of
| what is contained in the report and are, be-
| sides, too long for publication:
MEMPHIS. Tenn. February ., Iss2.
To the Hon. L. B. Horrgan, Judge OF the Criminal
Court Of Shelby County.
SIR-The undersigned committee APP
pointed by your Honor October q, 1881, to
make an examination of the books, records
etc, OF the office of the chairman and inan-
cial agent of the county, have finished the
examinationsof the same and beg leave to
submit the following as our report:
In your Honor's charge We were instructed
to make the examination thorough and com
plete; also to make any recommendations as
to the books and the system OF keeping them
that we deemed necessary and beneficial.
This charge we have endeayored to follow
strictly and to the letter, and we are conf.
dent the financial statement which We pre-
sent (see eIhibit) is as correct as the data
furnished US will allow. We found very
shortly after we commenced the examination
that the notes OF the special grand jury,
charged with the investigation OF this office,
were of no use to us, and that we would be
Obliged to commence at the beginning and
not where they left off. This is not what we
anticipated, and made our work entirely
separate and distinct from theirs. The COM
mittee not being aware of the extent of the
Il - l. OF ST. Of
the opinion that it would be ompleted in
three or four weeks, so we decided that We
would make the examination from the COM
mencement OF Esquire Holeman's term u an
uary /, 1874 up TO November l, 1881, it be-
ing necessary TO have definite date to work
to; therefore our examination only extends
to that time.
The first work OF the examination, as
stated in our partial report, was the check
ing of the warrant registers and papers per-
tanning thereto. To expedite matters, and
that we might work to the best advantage,
this was parceled out two of the committee
examining the general warrant registers and
two the jury warrant registers. The result
is fully set forth in its proper place. We
had scarcely completed this part oil the work
when we made our partial report After this
had been finished, and the errors of every
kind noted, we commenced upon the general
books and the papers pertaining thereto,
consisting of revenue reports from all the
various officers, CLERKS OF the courts and
magistrates for the last eight years, and in
addition we carefully examined and counted
8443 railroad bonds, coupons and certif
Gates, issued by the county, which had
been redeemed and taken in settlement
by the chairman during this period.
This part of the work, contrary to our
expectations, was the most severe and diff
cult, and consumed a much longer time than
we supposed it would require. In our ex-
animation of the general books we had no
papers with which to check the opening en-
tries on each journal, which are the founda-
ton on which the system is based. The
chairman's clerk stated to us that he had
copied them from entries made by Mr.. Gro
min in his books, when he (Cronin), under
the direction and supervision of James
Reilly County Court clerk, and in accord
ance with an order of the Quarterly Court
made statement OF tn financial condition
of the county on June /, 1874, and that prior
10 this time no connected system of book
keeping had been in use in this office. Not
having any data to examine them, we were
compelled to accept them as correct Except
a few priBld fdcia errors, which we corrected).
A few of the earlier reports of the revenue
officers could not be found, but we verified
the journal entries made from them by the
trustees receipts, as shown on his settlement
books. The compilation and proper arrange
ment of the voiuminous notes which lad accu- |
INFLATED during our examination was no |
small undertaking; but we have endeavored |
to present them in the simplest and most |
concise form, so that they could be most cas- |
lily understood, and at the same time that |
the extent and magnitude of our labors |
could be shown.
Below we give the result of our examina-
ton of the warrant registers, stubs and |
warrants redeemed The record book 10 the |
office of the County Court clerk, which pur-
ports to be true copy of the certificate for |
jury service, gives copies of the following, |
but the certificates themselves are missing: |
Warrant No. 2l04, for s., issued in Febru-
Juror in the Fret Circuit Court, and an en-
tire jury list from the First Chancery Court,
warrants Nos. 2I9 to 229, inclusive,
for $4 so each, issued February %, 1877. |
We could not find any certificate or other
for warrants Nos. 1S4 and 1876, in
elusive, for 81 each, issued on January 90,
1875, TO sundry parties for jury service in
the First Chancery Court. There are other
certificates missing, for which zee exhibit Z.
The warrant stub is IN the form of re-
ceipt, and the party to whom the warrant is
issued should sign it. This is not only nee
essary as a receipt for the warrant, but when
it is omitted the stub does not show to whom
the warrant was Issued. Notwithstanding
this fact, we found 139 warrants issued, and
most of them redeemed, for which there was
no receipt given on the stub, viz:
Quarterly Court. 154 warrants .........s70 61s IS
criminal Court, 13..-.-.---....-......---. 1853 90
First Circuit Court, I--.-. l29 90
Second Circuit Court, 14.................. l56 90
Bartlett Court, 1...-.-.... 800
Warrant No. "a Issued in December 1874.
10 w. E. Craver for jury service in the First