The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-07-12
JUDGES RETURN
TOCOURTHOUSE
AFTER CONDUCTING COUNTY BUSI-
r NESS IN SWAMPS AND JAILS FOR
FIFTY YEARS. .-
From the Dearborn independently

After almost fifty years in which the
business of the county was trans
acted largely in the swamps and
wooded districts. the county court of
st. Clair county, Missouri, is meeting
regularly in the courthouse and its
members are elected to serve the county
by ministering to it's business needs
rather than going to Jail. One set of
county judges after another was elected
on the platform that its members would
go to Jail rather than pay railroad
bonds issued in 1871 to encourage rail-
road building.
As was the case in many Missouri
counties the bonds were voted, issued
and sold to third person-an innocent
purchaser. Then the company build
I ing the railroad went bankruptcy. But
of course the bonds stood against the
county and $4,000 of an issue of one
| quarter million dollars was paid.
Then the county decided to fight. 1t
had not received the railroad, therefore,
| it would not pay the bonds. Other
counties in a similar plight also re-
fused. The total in bonds issued by
Missouri counties was is million dol
lars. When payment was refused suits
were brought. Appeals We're taken and
the high court of the nation passed
on the validity of the securities. The
court held that, as the Drake cOnstitu-
! ton, then the basic law of the state,
provided that counties could issue Sc
curitieS to an unlimited amount to en-
courage railroad building, the debt Was
legal and must be paid.
In some counties the bonds w ere paid
in full. Other counties compromised
But st. Clair county voters declared they
never would pay the debt that was
founded on what they declared was
sWindle.
Candidates announced for the county
court declared they would go to all
before they would order payment of
the bonds. These men We're elected.
Then began a game of hide and seek
in which the county judges were sought
by the officers of a federal court and
the sheriff, who desired to place them
in Jail as the result of contempt of
court orders. The judges hid in
swamps, meeting and transacting such
matters as came before them. Even
tually they were caught and lodged in
Jail. That was the program after prac-
tically every election. One Judge,
Samuel T. Scott, is reported to have.
hidden seven months before the Of
ficers caught and imprisoned him. He
was known to the resident of his county
as 1.-THE Swamp Fox
These items from a ST. Clair county
paper are interesting:
Thomas Gill and Thomas D. NeviIl,
judges of the county court have Just
returned home from Kansas City where
they served seven months in Jail for
contempt of court.
Judge Gill is in poor health and
will remain at home. Judge Neyill will
return to Jail soon and with him will
go Samuel c.. Pedan, and David Walker,
newly elected judges"
Judge Nevill was reelected in 1899
A newspaper, telling of his re election,
said:
THE judge has gone to jail with
the last three courts and will return
III May"
Referring to the reelection o. Judge
Samuel c.. Pedan, newspaper said:
Judge Samuel c.. Pedan has been re-
elected to go to Jail in May" "A
The fight continued until last year
when John H. Overall, st. !.oui: at
torney who was left a block of the
bonds ~ his father, obtained Cbtinns
on the bonds held by others and sought
a cGmpr0r. Use. The interest, court costs
AMI other expenses had made tie or
iginal debt of one-quarter million al
mos; liz. million dollars. Overall Of
fe">h Il settle for S5S5,0O0.
The CLrnty did not accept ltlc ccm-
promise without struggle The mat
ter was made a campaign issuc and
Overall stumped the county telling OF
his Offer Due largely to his efforts
the compromise WAS ratified by ma
jOrity of 400 votes.
Then came the formal order of set
Element by the court and few weeks
ago three-year bonds for the amount
named We're delivered to overall
In some counties opposition to the
payment of such bonds took on an
aspect mre characteristic of the early
days. Some officials of lass cuonty
were indicted by grand jury for hav-
ing issued county bonds fraudulently.
Two of the county officials, James