Waseca County, Minnesota - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 68 of those read), 1905

From Child's History of Waseca County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement in 1854 to the Close of the Year 1904, a Record of Fifty Years : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1905. 426 words, reproduced complete and unedited. Source changes inside the text are labelled in place.

2 sections

The section headings the book prints inside this chapter. Each one jumps to where it begins.

Waseca And Its Mayors
Commissioner Keelby Investigates

The text

426 words

Machine-read from scans of Child's History of Waseca County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement in 1854 to the Close of the Year 1904, a Record of Fifty Years : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1905. Nothing has been corrected: fixing what looks like a misspelled name is how an invented one gets published. Source changes are marked where they occur.

Waseca And Its Mayors

The official record book of Waseca, from the organization of the village to the year 1881, has been lost for a long time. How or when, no one seems to know. After considerable search, were found the following names and dates. Under the village charter there were three trustees, instead of aldermen, and one of the three was made president, who was in fact mayor or chief magistrate.

Commissioner Keelby Investigates

"We are informed that the record of the proceedings of the board of county commissioners, at their late session, did not contain all that was done. It is reported to us that the board appointed a committee of two of the county officers to examine certain books of the county, and that no record was made of their appointment. Our informant says that Commissioner Keeley, some time ago, commenced to investigate a little on his own account, being assisted by another. He found, first, that the law required all plaintiffs in district court, having jury trials, to deposit with the clerk of court $3; second, that the clerk of court is required, by statute, to "forthwith" pay over the same to the county treasurer; third, upon inquiry of the county treasurer and the county auditor, that no such fees had been paid into the county treasury for years.

These findings Mr. Keeley presented to the county commissioners and the county attorney at the late session. All of the commissioners, save one, were astonished; that commissioner, it is said, at first argued that the officer was all right. After considerable discussion by members of the board, the clerk of the court appeared before them, invited them into a back room, confirmed Commissioner Keeley's statement, and agreed to restore every cent as soon as he could borrow the money.

The commissioners then appointed the county attorney and the county auditor to investigate the books of the clerk of court and ascertain the amount of money withheld from the county, and to report at the next meeting of the board.

Subsequent investigations by the state authorities confirmed Mv. Keeley s findings, but the attorney general of the state held that since all this stealing had been done prior to the commencement of the clerk's term of office, Jan. 1, 1905, he could not be removed unless he should be indicted and convicted by the courts. The grand .jury of the county, at the March term of court, failed to indict the clerk, and IMr. Henry Keynolds continues as one branch of the court which, theoretically, is expected to have clean hands.

Provenance

Text from Child's History of Waseca County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement in 1854 to the Close of the Year 1904, a Record of Fifty Years : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1905, in the public domain in the United States and digitised by the Internet Archive.