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The same court, on
April 30, 1849, ordered that "one-sixth of one per cent be levied as ad
valorum tax on all taxable property in the county of Ashley; also 75 cents for
each white free 'mail" inhabitant over the age of twenty-one and under the
age of sixty years of age."
The first
proceedings in chancery in Ashley County were instituted in a suit in partition
for a division of the Boycroft estate. The
order was granted. In the first circuit
court there were but two cases before the court in the case of Hugh M. Gary,
plaintiff, and Henry C. Dade and Isaac I. Newton, defendants. Gary secured judgment to the amount of $250
and costs; the case of E.L. Strange, plaintiff, and Robert Trammell, defendant,
was dismissed at the cost of the plaintiff.
The grand jury came into court and by their foreman reported that they
found no indictments, and that there was no business before them, thereupon the
prosecuting attorney stating he had nothing to lay before them, they were
discharged. It was then ordered that
court adjourn until court in course.
This court was held on the first Monday after the fourth Monday in March,
in the year 1849, at the house of Isaac Denson, at Fountain Hill.
Ashley County is in the
Third Congressional District, and the Tenth Judicial Circuit. The present circuit judge is C.D. Wood, of Monticello, who was elected
September 6, 1886, his term to expire October 30, 1890. The prosecuting attorney, C.R. Fuller,
resides at Princeton. He was elected
September 3, 1888, and his term expires October 30, 1890. Court is held twice a year commencing on the
first Mondays in February and August, and lasting two weeks. This county was formerly in the Second
District. The judges who occupied this
bench included such well known individuals as Josiah Gould, John C. Murray,
T.F. Sorrels, John C. Murray, J.F. Lowery, and W.H. Harrison. Among the prosecuting attorneys were T.F.
Sorrels, W.P. Grace, S.F. Arnett, D.W. Carroll, C.C. Godden, and W.F.
Slemmons. Since included in the Tenth
Circuit, Judges H.P. Morse, D.W. Carroll, T.F. Sorrels, J.M. Bradley and C.D.
Wood have presided, the prosecuting attorneys being J.McL. Barton, H. King
White, M. McGehee, J.C. Barrow, M.L. Hawkins and R.C. Fuller.
The resident
attorneys are M.L. Hawkins, Norman & Wooldridge and W.S. Lawson, Van H.
Manning, afterward in Congress, from Mississippi, was at one time a member of
the Ashley County bar, as were also Judge James B. Wood, now on the bench in
the Seventh Circuit; George W. Murphey, of Hot Springs, Ark., and also the
present presiding judge.
Legal penalties for
crime have been administered in this county, as the following facts show: In
1853 a Negro man and woman were hanged for the murder of their master, a man
named Davis. October 20, 1872, Frank
Cobb was hanged for the murder of Dr. W.L. McKoin, a most atrocious crime, Cobb
having waylaid McKoin, and shot him off his horse. H.P. Morse was the judge to pass sentence, and J.P. Harbison,
sheriff.
October 22, 1881,
Boge Jackson and Henry Hill were hanged for the murder of Rube Jordan. This
affair grew out of a difficulty at a Negro dance, all the parties concerned
were Negroes. Jackson was the principal
and Hill received his sentence, as being accessory before the fact. T.F.
Sorrels was then judge, and Thomas Stilwell, sheriff.
On the night of July
7, 1877, George Jackson, being incarcerated in the county jail charged with
rape and murdering his victim, was taken by a mob and hanged. Sam, a brother to George escaped and was
gone seven years, but was finally caught and brought back, and on the second
night, August 1, 1884, he too was hanged.
The county has had its share of tragedies in the past, but nowhere in
the State can there now be found a better class of society nor more orderly
law-abiding citizens.
At the April term of
the county clerk, 1850, S.F. Maines was appointed commissioner to let the
building of a county jail, "to cost #1200, the lower story to be built of
double logs, ten inches thick, lined with inch plank, nailed with six inch
spikes, drove every four inches, the floor to be of one foot square
timber". The upper story was not
quite so substantial in its construction.
At the October term of court, 1850, S.F. Maines, A.J. Hays and E.H.
Moore were appointed commissioners to let the building of a clerk's and
sheriff's offices, at a cost of $200, the building to