The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1897-11-11

| mousse should be used for any other purposes
than those Of religious meetings and for q
school house, and, although they had, pre-
Vious to the finishing of the house. consented
for one election to be held there they had re-
fused to give their consent to the holding of
public elections in.this building. Therefore II
appears, however, Notwithstanding this refusal
the offlcer appointed to hold the election in this
precinct, or some one at his direction, broke
one of the windows of the building and opened
the door, and ,thcreupon over the protest and
against'the consent of the trustees the building
was used for the purpose of holding an election
and was very greatly abused, as tobacco Juice
was expectorated all over the walls and In pud-
dies on the floor, and as was stated, the window
was broken for the purpose of entry One
OF the parties responsible for this outrage was
the son OF one of the defendants in the cause.
This incident and the inslstence upon the right,
against the wishes of the trustees, to hold an
election in this building, brought about friction
and 1t Is apparent that the defendants had de-
| termined to take from the trustees who refused
to allow the building to be used for such pur-
poses, the control Of this building and in pur-
suance OF this purpose on or about the 18th of
Sept 1895. the defendants went to this build
nu while school was In session and took from
on the door the lock which the trustees had
put on it, and placed a new one on the door to
which they themselves carried the key. 1t ap-
pears, however, that there were three doors to
the building; the key to one OF which had been
lost, and another the trustees retained, These
defendants put on the new lock, locked the
door and carried away the key, and on the door
of the building they posted written paper in
the following words, viz:
| This Is public school building. decided and
dedicated to the public for that purpose Also
for the use of all orthodox religious denomina-
tions so as not to interfere with the school .ex-
cept by the consent Of the teacher and school
directors This is therefore to notify any and
oil denominations that we, as school directors,
who by law ore required to take care of and
manage and control public school property Of
this, the Third District, Of Uniooi county.
Tennessee, object and hereby express our oh
jections to the dedication OF this building by
any denomination whatever for their own par
ticular use," Dated Sept. is, 1925, and signed
A. T. Haynes, L, M, Cooper M. ]. Combs.
1t appears that this notice was put up there
in view of the fact that on the following Sunday
1t had been proposed to dedicate the building to
the worship OF God bya minister OF the Metho-
dist Episcopal church. 1t was not the purpose
to dedicate it as the property of that church,
and, as the record shows, for the general pur-
pose OF religious worshsp. The effect of this
notice was to prevent the holding Of the pro-
posed meeting, because It appears that bad
blood had arisen in the neighborhood over the
matter, and at a religious service held at this
church acts OF vandalism were committed by
parties unknown, or at least whose names are
not disclosed by the record, such as the cutting
of briddle reins, OF the grths to saddles, of
sturrup feathers, and so on, For the same
reasons, on account Of the conduct of parties
who were unfriendy to the trustees, and whoit
seems did not favor the protection of the build
ing, and on account of the bad blood started up
in the neghborhood, Sunday school was aban-
doned, and religious services have been largely
abandoned
1t further appears that after these directors
undertook to take charge of the property the
lady, who had been teaching the public school
eRdeavored to teach private school, but by
some vandals, the record does not disclose
whom, the windows Of the building were broken
tout, the curtains were torn. and bullet was
shot through the door This, however, was af-
ter or about the time the injunction was served
in this case. The result of which conduct was
that the school was abandoned as the teacher
was afraid to continue. Religious services
were also abandoned.
The defendants deny that they were RESPONSE
BILE for any of this conduct. But it is apparent
from the record that it was the effort OF the
PEBBLES Brothers and the trustees to promote
the welfare OF that community; that they furn-
ished almost practically at their own expense
the lot and the building, and the means of con-
tinuing, except for the salary Of the teacher
the school and for continuing and having re-