contained in the act in relation to new counties, except by the substitution of county commissioners for the judge of probate; and, if so, in what respect? Answer. I do not recollect. 23d question. What is your belief on this point? (Objected to by the counsel for Mr. Estabrook on the ground that it refers to his belief and not to matters of fact.) Answer. My belief would of course depend upon my recollection, and I have stated my recollection as nearly as I am able; but I now say, by way of explanation, that the principal difficulty seemed to be as to whether the judge of probate or the county commissioners were clothed with the power of ordering an election in the first instance for county officers. 24th question. Have you now any doubt that the "act in relation to new counties" was in all other respects aplicable (sic) to the county of Buffalo? Answer. I have already answered that question, substantially. 25th question. Answer it now directly, if you please. Answer. I do not see how I can answer the question more directly than I have, besides you are asking me what is my present opinion as to a matter of law, which it is neither your right to ask nor my duty to give. 26th question. State, if you remember, whether the return of proceedings, in pursuance of your directions, showed a compliance with this act? Answer. I have not looked at the returns since they were received, and then but hastily, nor do I think they showed affirmatively a compliance with the law, nor was it necessary that they should, nor did I, nor do I suppose that the returns would have been made to me at all, if it had not been for the expressed wish of the people that the officers chosen should be commissioned by the executive. A fact now occurs to me in this connexion which I omitted to state yesterday, that one reason for the desire that I should commission the officers was that this was a distant county through which a great many emigrants were passing and repassing, and it was feared that there might be difficulties and disturbances of the peace, and it was supposed that the officers of the law would be more respected if they had commissions under the seal of the Territory. |
27th question. Does the "act in relation to new counties," or any subsequent act with which you are acquainted, direct or authorize the governor to issue commissions to county officers? Answer. It does not to my knowledge, but the second section of the original act does say, in relation to the governor, that "he shall commission all officers who shall be appointed to office under the laws of the said Territory;" under this clause a great many persons think that he should commission all officers under the laws of the Territory. I do not think that it is necessary, but there is certainly the appearance of authority for it. 28th question. Have you in any other instance, or, so far as you are informed, has any one of your predecessors in office, issued commissions to persons chosen to office by the people? Answer. I don't know what my predecessors have done from personal knowledge, but my information is that they have, and I do know that I have in several instances. Apart from the territorial officers elected by the people who are commissioned by the governor, commissions have been issued to each one of the district attorneys, and if there is any territorial law positively authorizing or requiring it, I am not aware of it. 29th question. The question was designed to embrace county officers only; answer the question, if you please, as thus restricted. Answer. I do not know of any other commissions having been issued to county officers, but I would not hesitate to issue them if requested and I supposed it would answer any good purpose. 30th question. State, if you remember, by whom the oral application respecting Buffalo county, made to you in the first instance, as you have mentioned, was made? Answer. I think the first application was made by Dr. Henry, and probably one or two others. 31st question. Are you certain that it was made by any others excepting Dr. Henry? Answer. I am not certain as to that, but I am certain that at the time, I was not willing to take his word for it, or that of anyone else who applied verbally. 32d question. State, if you remember, by whom the subsequent application in writing you have mentioned was handed or transmitted to you. |
Answer. I cannot say; I found the paper in my office, I think, with a great many others that had accumulated during my absence at Nebraska city. 33d question. Were the signatures to that paper many or few? and about how many, according to the best of your recollection? Answer. I know there were several, but whether many or few I cannot tell; for I suppose I looked over whatever paper was in my office in connexion with twenty other papers that had accumulated during my absence from Omaha; but I wish it understood here that I took no official action in regard to Buffalo county until after the county officers were chosen by the people, or appeared to be chosen by the people. 34th question. State whether the paper to which you have referred purported to be the returns of an election held in Buffalo county; and, if so, whether it contained any evidence on the part of the commissioners of Hall county of their having ordered such an election? (Objected to by the counsel for Mr. Estabrook for the reason that it is not the best evidence that the nature of the case admits of.) Answer. I think I have stated that I never looked at the paper but once; at all events, that I have not seen it since about the time it was received, and do not pretend to give its contents fully. I do not think it purported to be election returns in the usual form, but a certificate that certain persons named in the paper were chosen by the voters of the county, each person and office being set down. I do not think that there was anything said in that paper about the commissioners of Hall county or any other county. 35th question. You stated, in your answer yesterday, that, after receiving the paper to which you have referred, you ordered commissions to be issued to the officers of Buffalo county: do you mean to be understood as having authorized any person other than yourself to issue commissions? Answer. Certainly not. I directed my private secretary to make them out, as I do in all cases. I have no doubt I signed them all; at least that is my usual practice. 36th question. Will you please to examine this paper. [here a paper was presented to the witness, purporting to |
be a commission to one of the officers of Buffalo county,] and state whether or not that is one of the commissions which you have referred to as having been issued by you? Answer. This commission is the commission to Henry Peck, probate judge of Buffalo county; and I recollect he was the person returned as probate judge for that county, This is one of the commissions referred to. 37th question. State, if you please, in whose handwriting that commission is filled up? Answer. In the handwriting of John McConihe, my private secretary, with the exception of the words "until his successor is elected and qualified." 38th question. In whose handwriting are the words "until his successor is elected and qualified?" Answer. That I am not able to say. 39th question. State whether you are acquainted with the handwriting of Charles A. Henry? Answer. I am not acquainted with it so as to testify on the subject. 40th question. State, if you please, whether the signanature (sic) is in your own proper handwriting? Answer. No, sir; the signature is in Mr. McConihe's handwriting; but I have no doubt he signed it by my authority, although in regard to this particular paper I do not recollect the facts. 41st question. Will you please to state whether that seal upon the paper is the great seal of the Territory of Nebraska? Answer. I believe it is. 42d question. Will you please to state whether the signature of J. Sterling Morton is in his own proper handwriting? Answer. It is not. I believe it is also Mr. McConihe's handwriting. In regard to Mr. McConihe, personally, I desire to make a brief explanation. I suppose there was probably less strictness in regard to these commissions than usual, because I considered them mere matters of form, and that they did not add anything to the right of the person elected to the office; Mr. McConihe, no doubt, signed my name by my direction and authority, and I presume Mr. Morton's name by his authority. Mr. Morton and he are very intimate. Whether Mr. McConihe is in the habit of signing Mr. Morton's name, I cannot say; Mr. Luce does frequently, and by Mr. Morton's authority. |
 MONDAY
MORNING, December 26, 1859.The examination-in-chief having closed on Saturday evening, I wish to state a fact in connexion with the Buffalo county commissions brought to my recollection by a conversation I have had with Mr. McConihe since the examination closed. On the 26th of July I was called in some haste to Nebraska city, I think by information that Mrs. Black was ill. I left Mr. McConihe some of these commissions, either filled up or in blanks, with my signature attached; enough for all the offices had not been signed, and I directed him to sign my name to as many as might be necessary to complete the list of the officers returned as having been chosen by the people; these (that is all those returned) included probate judge, sheriff, treasurer, justices of the peace, and I think even constables. SAMUEL
W. BLACK.
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by the judges, but there were two tickets put into the hands of the judges by a man by the name of Hudson, the postmaster there, for two men who were at the ferry at the time, about a mile or a mile and a half from the place. When Hudson put them into the hands of the judges, there were some objections made; the matter was discussed for a few minutes, when the judges put them into the box. 6th question. About how long had you been there before the day of the election? Answer. I got on to the reserve the 5th day of September. 7th question. What was your business or occupation there? Answer. I was working for James L. Gillis,30 the agent of the Pawnees. 1st question. Did you understand that
the men who sent their votes resided in that precinct? |
Answer. I do not know exactly. He bought some frame and log houses, some crops, and one thing or another, of the settlers. I do not know about his notifying them to leave. 6th question. How long, judging from the appearance of the houses and improvements, had that settlement been made? Answer. It is a little hard to tell by the appearance of the houses; judging from the ground they had broke I should think the settlements had been made about two years. 7th question. How near to Genoa did the south line of the reservation come, by the survey which you have mentioned? Answer. The settlement, I should think, was about three-quarters of a mile from the south line.40 8th question. Were not the people of the town and settlement considerably exasperated when they found that they were included within the reservation? Answer. The feeling was that they thought it was a hard case to have to leave after breaking up their land and laying out their town. 9th question. The two men that you speak of as working at the ferry did you see when you went on to the reserve in September? Answer. Yes, they were there. One of them lived at the ferry and the other had lived at the settlement, but moved to the ferry before the election. 10th question. At what time were the Pawnee Indians moved on to their reservation? Answer. The main body of the Indians came there a few days before the election, but about twenty of the head warriors had previously been there and selected the town of Genoa for their village. The agent, however, put them across Beaver creek and reserved Genoa for their schools and mechanic shops. Re-examined by counsel for contestant. 1st question. State, if you know, about
how far from Genoa is the eastern line of the
reservation? |
1st question. In what county is Genoa situated, and what day did you enter the county? Answer. Monroe county. I entered the county on the fourth of September, 1859. FRIDAY
MORNING, December 30, 1859.James L. Hindman, of lawful age, being first duly sworn according to law, makes the following answers to the questions proposed, to wit: 1st question. What is your age, occupation, and place of residence? Answer. Age, twenty-five years; occupation, farming; and residence at Shinn's Perry, on the Platte river. 2d question. State whether you have ever lived in Calhoun county; and, if so, when and how long have you resided there; and when did you leave the county? Answer. I have lived in Calhoun county; I first moved there in May, 1857; I lived there until the following September, when I left; but returned again in May, 1858. I left there for my present residence in the last of August of this year. 3d question. State whether you are acquainted with the settlements in that county; and, if so, where they are? Answer. I believe I am acquainted with all the settlers in the county. There is one settlement of two families in the northwestern part. There is another settlement, known as the Wauhoo, in the southeast part of the county; there are four families there. These are all the settlements in that county. 4th question. State, if you know, how many votes there are in each of the two settlements you have named, and give the names of the voters? Answer. There are but two voters in the northwest settlement, named Solomon Garfield and James Blair. In the Wauhoo settlement there are three voters, named Stambaugh., Totten, and John Aughey; besides a young man named Price, who, if twenty one years of age, is also a voter. I am not certain that he has attained that age. 5th question. State whether any election precincts have ever been established in that county, or any election ever been held there? |
Answer. I do not know of any precincts ever established there, or any election held there. 6th question. State what other settlement there was ever in the county; and what is the present condition of that settlement? Answer. When I returned there in 1858, I found a settlement there called Neapolis, in the north part of the county, in range 7 and 8, and township 17. The settlement was entirely abandoned in the spring of 1859--every settler left there. 7th question. About how many did that settlement consist of? and what has become of the settlers? Answer. From fifteen to twenty men were there laboring and making claims; they all left that county. 8th question. State whether Calhoun county has been the residence, until recently, of the Pawnee tribe of Indians? Answer. Yes; it was at the time I was there. At the time I left the county they were there back and forth; but they finally left in the fall of the present year. 9th question. What kind of locations or residence had the Pawnee Indians in Calhoun county? Answer. They were located convenient to the Platte river, in two villages, about four miles apart. Cross-examination. 10th question. Don't you know that
during the last summer and autumn claims have been taken and
settlements made along the Platte river by men from the east
as well as those returning from the mines? |
Answer. I always understood the main channel of the Platte river, from the third standard and upward, to be the line.41 I may have been misinformed. The main travelled road is through a portion of the county, but not on the Platte. TUESDAY
MORNING, January 3, 1860.John D. Neligh,42 of lawful age, being first duly sworn according to law, makes the following answers to the questions proposed, to wit: 1st question. What is your age, occupation, and place of residence? Answer. 28 years; occupation, running a saw-mill, of which I am part owner; residence, West Point, Cuming county, Nebraska. 2d question. How long have you resided in the Territory of Nebraska, and how long at West Point? Answer. I have been in the Territory two years last Christmas, and at West Point two years next March. 3d question. In what direction from Cuming county is the county of Izard? Answer. So far as I know it is west. It is so understood by us up there. 4th question. State about how far from West Point is the line dividing Izard from Cuming county? Answer. Ten miles from the centre of our town. 5th question. State whether your town is the farthest settlement west from the Missouri river in that direction; and, if not, what town or settlement is farther west? Answer. There are towns laid out near the line further west, but not inhabited. DeWitt is the furthest town west that is inhabited; this is five miles northwest of West Point. 6th question. State whether you have ever been in Izard county, and whether you have now or ever had any knowledge of any settlements there? Answer. I have been in Izard county. I have no knowledge of any settlements there. 7th question. What office do you hold in Cuming county? Answer. That of probate judge. 8th question. State whether, if in fact there were any |
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