The Fort Worth gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-189?, 1891-05-28
A Story Full of All the Elements
of Romance and Adventure.
A MOST REMARKABLE HISTORY.
A Missouri County tCass) Which is in Open
Defiance of the Orders of the
United states Circuit Court-The Judges
Imprisoned for Con.empt-Fraud,
Robbery, Suicide and Mob
Violence Abounds.
Special TO the Gazette.

! county Is Oul one more cndpuef N the To-
mantle history Of the bond question, which
! has been vexins the people of Cass county
| for the past seventeen years. For that
/ length of time the judges Of the county have
| been N contempt of the court Of the United
| States. For seventeen years the bond
| question has been fought over and over
| again by shrewd lawyers through all the
| legal processes known, and still the holders
| Of the bonds have nothing to show for their
acton except the county's promises 70 pay
/ and the judgments of the court.
/ The history OF the bond troubles of Cass
| county is remarkable one III many re-
! spectS. The story Of the bonds themselves
| is dry and prosaic, but the adventures and
| incidents attending their issuance and the
! subsequent persistent refusal to pay, de-
| spite the decree of the national court, is Il
story which bears all the elements of
| romance adventure and crime. The history
covers fraud, robbery, suicide. mob vio-
! lence and murder. Judges elected for the
purpose of resisting United States officers
have been
TRUE TO THEIR TRUST,
and have been fugitiyes from justice, hiding
like criminals in the brush and hidden by
the citizens of the county while they were
fleeing the deputy marshals; they have
languished in jails and the penitentiary
rather than betray the people who placed
them on the bench for the express purpose
of defying the writ of the courts of the
national government; they have paid heavy
fines TO the courts for contempt, which
fines the citizens have promptly repaid.
While the bonds nave been handed down
from successor TO successor IN the corpora
tons and the judgments have been kept
| alive by the heirs in trust, SO have the
successive Judges handed down the tradi-
| tons and the people of the county have
been persistent in their obstinacy While
the bonds are acknowledged to be legal in
every respect, and while their issuance was
directly in pursuance of the completion of
contract by both parties thereto, yet the
people have determined for seventeen years
TO repudiate the obligation and in this effort,
have spent more than double the value of
the bonds.
To fully understand the situation of the
case II IS necessary TO go back to the days
when the people were pioneers; to the days
when the traffic west of the Mississippi
river was carried on in prairie schOOners'
drawn by OK teams and when Western Mis-
souri, was the seat of 'border ruffianiSm."
The farmers were prosperous, crops were
large and prices high; the farm land of the
prairies along the frontier tier of counties
responded abundantly 10 the efforts of the
husbandman and the country was rich
But with all the pros perity there was one
disadvantage: Markets were far away
and difficult of access. Railroads We're
feeling their way carefully into the new
territory aud the cost of transportation was
so great that the immense crops awaited
nothing to the farmers.
RAILROAD CRAZE.
This condition obtained for many years.
and then came agents of railroad builders
who talked of the advantages of direct
communication with St Louis and Chi
cage. The people, however. were slow to
grasp the opportunity, and the progress of
these agents was marked with 4 gradually
i
ing had its effect after many months, and
at last where there had been apathy there
came such intense desire that one road was
not deemed sufficient and the people fairly
went wild with the craze.
On paper the county was gridironed with
tracks, and had all the roads been built
which were proposed there would not have
been enough land left on which to farm.
Every township in the county took up the
excitement, and every farmer was sure
that his farm was to be the site of depot.
Then followed the bond propositions.
Dozens of offers were made to the citizens
until it became a serious question as to
which were the best ana which should be
voted upon. The representatives of the
schemers who were fostering the idea of
bonds did their work well. and the people
were anxious to be feeced for the benefit of
the corporations.
AWAY BACH IN THE FIFTIES
the Clinton and Kansas branch of the Tebo
and Neosho road was projected and propo-
sition was made to CaSs county to issue
5000 600 in bonds in aid of the road This
was granted by the county court, which at
that time had the power to issue bonds
without the formality of an election. Fol
lowing this bonds were issued to the Lex
ington, Lawrence and Gulf, the Pleasant
Hill and Lawrence and the St. Louis and
Santa F'e roads in succession and the county
IL a,,ifa t,l iit.Na Tlnt,
came the war and its attendant horrors,
which were particularly severe in this
county and the building of railroads was
stopped.
Two hundred thousand dollars in bonds
had been issued TO the Missouri Pacific
road, but before the contract could be com
piled with the war prevented the work and
the bonds were held at Harrisonville Dur
ing the war many raids were made through
the western part of the state by bands of
bushwhackers and predatory Unionists
These bands would fight each other and
were driven backwards and forwards by
the varying fortunes of battle During one
of these raids the courthouse was looted by
the Unionists and the signed bonds were
carried off. They were recovered from the
vandalS by regular Union army officer at
Leavenworth and held in trust. These
bonds afterwards found themselves into the
hands of tie Missouri Pacific railroad, and
their history formed bloody chapter in
the annals of the county.
THE TROUBLE BEGINS.
The other bonds which had been issued
to the various railroad companies before
the war now began to crop out. After the
rebellion was over and peace again came to
the border the bond trouble arose. The
people had recovered from their excitement
over the railroads and as they had borne
the brunt of devastation they rTere on the
verge OF starvation and BANKRUPTCY and de-
termined to resist payment on the bonds
which had been of no benefit to their county
The holders of the bonds took the matter
into the state courts, but those tribunals
from the lowest to the highest decided that
the county was right and refused TO give
Judgment in favor of the bondholders. So
the matter went until the last court of re-
sort in the state had made its decision and
then the holders made overtures for COM
promise. Two elections were held in the
county on the matter, but in both cases the
people gave an overwhelming majority in
the negative. This carried the matter down
to 1882 when the bonds were sold to parties
who lived outside of the state, and then
suit was brought before Judge Krekel of
the United States court which resulted in a
decision against the county, and the judges
We're ordered to make the levy to pay the
bonds, which by this time had accumulated
interest until the total amounted to
81. Sc, 6S1. lax o. Ia at..5
The county Judges were c. S. Hockaday,