The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-10-12
PreSentment of Grand Jury.
To HIS Honor James Aldrich, Presid-
ing Judge at October Term of Court
for year 1897.

IL Nlohu OulJ pcS lcuNG u
submit the following as their fnaI
presentment for this term of
court:
lst, We have passed upon all
bills handed to us by the Solicitor.
End. We have examined all of
the public buildings Of the county
and find them in good repair with
the exception of the floors of the
porches of the Court House, which
leak badly into the Offices below,
and We recommend that the Super
visor have same repaired SO they
will not leak if possible.
Bird. We further recommend that
the Supervisors and county Treas
urer's Offices be enlarged by
extending same out under the
North porch of the Courthouse.
4th. We have rs n committee
noticed that certain repairs re-
commended by the Grand Jury at
February term of court have not
been made. We now repeat the
recommendation and urge that same
w ublcll'cu W AZ OlCc
9Th. The committee appointed
by the Grand Jury at July term of
court, with instructions TO meet at
the Courthouse and employ all eX-
pert to assist them in q thorough
examination of all the county
Offices, report said duty performed
and hat they found all Of the
public records we'll and correctly
kept and all of the bonds of the
county officers sufficient, which re-
port is hereto attached as a part
of this presentment.
9th. We recommend and ask
your Honor to approve the claim
of j. w. Shell for twenty dollars,
as expert; also, per diem and mile
age for the committee as follows:
A. w. Sims, 4 days; w. M. Hun
ter, 4 days; B. A. Anderson, 1 day,
and II. Terry 1 day. Also to A..
w. Sims for 1 day and mileage for
coming to the Court House on
summons from the Comptroller
General.
18th. The Grand Jury have had
complaint that the following pub
lie roads are in bad condition and
in need of immediate attention of
the Supervisor and Commission
ers: the road from Van Patton's
Shoals to Madden's Ford, the road
leading from the Greenvillc line
out by Gilbcrt's Shoals, the road
running by Goodgion's Factory.
Also, the road leading from Wash
Sharp's to Enorec Mills.
Sth. In response to your order
all the Magistrates of the county
submitted their books for our in
vestigation and we have found
Magistrates w. M. McMillan,
j. C. Mcmillan, George p.
Woods, Joel Ellison and j. w.
Demons criminal docllets cor-
rectly kept, SO far as we were able
to Judge, and all moneys received
by them properly paid ove to
county Treasurer. Magistrate
Cook went into Office in FEBRUARY,
1897, and his Docket shows q
number of cases, but doesn't show
that any money whatever has been
collected by him as fines or costs,
and nothing paid to county
Treasurer. Magistrate Hudgens'
criminal docket has no record OF
any cases since October 18th 1895.
Therefore we were unable to check
it up or tell anything about it.
1t seems to the Grand Jury that
such a state of affairs should have
the attention Of the Solicitor. We
find that Magistrate Moore has
paid TO the county Treasurer fines
and costs of which he has no re-
cord on his criminal docket:
Dec. Both, 1896, William Cum
ningham, 40 cents.
April 5th, 1897, Will Madden,
S1.9a.
April 9Th, 1897, Ben Irby, 40
cents.
April 5th 1897, Wyatt and Will
Logan, $500.
May Bird, Martha Hill, $1.GO.
October 18th, Geo. Finley, 10
cents.
October 4th, Eta Davenport,
$3.50.
We find that Magistrate j. NJ.
Gray is short in the year 1903
five dollars not turned over to
county Treasurer, also, in 1894,
short one hundred and six dollars,
also, in 1895, sixty-fivo dollars,
also, in 1897, thirteen doll:.lc nnd
fifteen cents. He has no record
of any business in the year 1896,
except two cases in which both
were sent to Higher Court. We
find his records badly kept and
found several cases for which he
paid money to county Treasurer,
that were not recorded on his
Docket.
9th. In conclusion we desire to
thank your Honor and the other
officers of the Court for courtesies
extended to the Grand Jury dur
ing this term Of Court.
Respectfully submitted,
A. w, SIMS,
Foreman.