Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-04-10
c. e. WHEELER, LAST SURVIVING
ATTORNEY OF FAMOUS JONES
co. CASE, is IN CITY.
RUINED SIX FARMERS
Case Lasted Twenty-one Years-Cost
Over $4,000; Was Tried to 144
Jurors and Nineteen Judges
in Iowa.

Tried before 144 jurymen, by nine
teen judges, lasting twenty-one years
and entailing court costs, aside from
attorneys fees. aggregating about
100000, the notorious Jones County
Calf Case" which originally arose in
1874 over the alleged misappropriatio
OF four calves worth probably six dol
lars apiece, has about passed into his
tory.
The fame of the case has spread
practically from coast to coast; it has
been sung and told in nearly every
home in Iowa; written up in book
form and magazine articles, and as
each new writer on the subject has
attempted to embellish some point
just little more artistically than his
predecessors, the true version of the
story has at times been twisted sadly
out Of shape. The men who were
originally associated in some manner
with the case are very few in number
and now widely scattered.
G. E. Wheeler of the firm of Dawley
& Wheeler, attorneys Of Cedar Ran
ids, is in Ottumwa trying case
against the Chicago, Milwaukee & ST.
Paul railway. He is one Of the few
survivors Of the famed case and he
accommodatingly assented to giving a
correct version of the affair last even
ing in his room at the Ballingall.
Arose In 1874.
The calf case, SO called, arose
among some farmers, all prosperous,
who in 1874 lived in the southern part
of Jones county, Iowa-the only ey-
ception to this being man named
Potter who had lived in the neighbor-
hood, but who had moved to Green
county, Iowa.
The controversy involved four
calves, worth Sc apiece, which pass
ed into history and beef long before
the law suit which they started was
ed the seventh of having stolen the
calves. All were fighters and trouble
began. This finally resulted in the ac-
cused farmer being acquitted, and
then he began a suit for damages
against the other six. charging that
they had prosecuted him maliciously
and without probable cause.
| This last suit after being in the
courts of Iowa twenty-one years, was
finally decided in favor Of the plain
tiff. Long before this, all the parties
were bankrupt, most Of them were
dead and those that were not, wished
they were.
! Wheeler Got Bald Headed.
Wheeler says that when the trouble
began he had just get his sign eX
posed to the weather; when it ended
he was bald headed. The case was
tried to LA jurymen, nineteen judges
and, as before stated, lasted twenty
one years. The court costs, aside from
attorneys fees, aggregated about $50,
900. 1t deprecated the price Of rea
estate within a radius of ten miles
Of the neighborhood in which the par
ties lived, at least $40 an acre. Il
interfered with the schools, broke III
the churches, bankrupted the parties
and wrought devastation like an in
vading army.
Wheeler is the only one of the orig
inal lawyers who is still living. His
client, Bob Johnson, is also living ant
was just elected mayor of Anamosa
Jones county, Iowa. Most of the bes
lawyers in eastern Iowa appeared II
the case at one time or another, In
Guiding Ex-Governor Boies, Judg'
Hubbard, Colonel CLARK, F. F. Daw
ley, AL Mccoy, Wolfe and Landt, n
c. Carr, w. A. Foster and host 0
others.
Wheeler asked his old client, John
son, within the year, where he though
his dead enemies were, expecting tina
4 Johnson would say something bitter
but instead of that Johnson said h
didn't think that any Of them ha
gone to the bad place. He said "Lool
what I did to 'em!"