Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1905-06-23
ORIGINAL RECORD.
Record of First District Court
Held in Benton County.

In past years provision was not
made for the fling of county
and other important documents
that were accumulated at the
office of the county clerk. To-
day, we have a most up-to-date
system of files in the large vault
at the clerks ofhce-but it was,
not always so.
Formerly there were no files
worthy the name and boxes were
used to considerable extent. When
there was a scarcity OF boxes, such
boxes as were already full of pa
pers were placed across a corner
of the vault in such fashion as
to form pen. In this pen was
supposed to be placed papers of
little or no value, and rubbish.
In time this pile came to be con-
sidered wholly as rubbish.
Such was the state of affairs
one day in the fall of 1896, when
. v. E. Waters, then county clerk,
and v. P. Moses, his deputy,
took it upon themselves to clean
things up bit and do some FL
ing, as they had received facili.
ties for the work. In one corner,
supposed to be largely devoted to
rubbish, they found the original
record of the first term OF circuit
court ever held in Benton county.
1t is a remarkable document in
many ways and in after years will
be considered very valuable by
the people of this county. II
bears the date of April S, 1859,
and is in the hand writing of O.
c. Pratt, district judge at that
time. The writing is very clea,
and legible and Judge Pratt was
no mean penman, a fact that con
: tributes not a little to the docu.
ment On the records are many
we'll known to all possess.
ing an acquaintance with the his.
tory of those who redeemed Ben.
ton from wilderness.
One of the most interesting
items ofarecord is the admission
of William Wyatt to citizenship
Mr.. Wyatt's witnesses were H
c. Buckingham and Wavmar
Stellar.
The people of those stirrin,
times appear to have had wa
with the drink habit, and this as
sertion is bat ked by the appear
ance of four cases on the record
There were two cases agains
Chas. Sanborn and two agains
Henry Norton. The offense wa
selling whisky without license
Each case resulted in fine {
$50 for the offenders. on top {
which was tackled the regulatio
item of cost.
It will be interesting to not
those who composed the frs
grand jury, as follows: Franci
Writsman, VIM. F. Dixon, Nor
roe Hodges, James Watson, Sils
M. Stout, G. w. Bethers, S. "
Starr, John Stewart, John Lloye
D. D. Davis, Elijah Liggett, S
K. Brown Tolhert Carter, Jams
Gingles, Robert Russell, Jes:
Belknap, H. c. Lewis, Grin Be
knap, Nahum King, and Wa.
man StClair. The petit jul
was composed of II. G. Buckin,
ham, Alfred Rinehart, J. A. Bel
nett, o. G. Motley. Rowlar
Chambers, R. B. Hinton, job
Trapp, Lazarus Vanbebber. Lul
Mulkey, and J. c. Alexander.
There being no district alto
ney Of the United States in a
tendance, R. P. Boise was a
-pointed to prosecute on behalf
the United States tor and durii
said term of court.
On motion of M. T. Deas
Esq, Andrew I. Bah, of Nilsson
was admitted to practice as :
attorney.
It was ordered that the cler
A. 6. Hovey, issue summo
for Nicholas Owenby to appe
before the next term of court a
show why he should not be fin
for contempt Of court. The sal
order was made in reference
one Arnold Fuller.
William Metzger was admit
to citizenship with A. M. With