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Chapter 17: Early Justices of the County, Court, Part One |
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In presenting information on the lives and works of the men who served on the Butler County Court, we are reminded of a line from the writings of Father Abram Joseph Ryan, "the Poet of the Confederacy." Father Ryan had a deep understanding of the need for men to remember the proud moments of the past.
He expressed it this way, "A land without memories is a land without history." We believe this sentiment. If we forget or refuse to keep alive memories of the men who worked unfalteringly to build a civilization in a wilderness County, we lose our history. The yesterdays become a vast emptiness.
Of course our County progressed through the work of all its citizens but the organization and direction of County Policy had to come from the County Court. We now pay tribute to them and their work. Today the members of the County Court are referred to themselves as "Justices."
The first set of County Court members was appointed by the Governor of the State as directed in the "Act" organizing Butler County. They were John Stevenson, Jonathan Sandlin and Solomon Kittrell, with Stevenson as the first President. All were able and successful men. In chapter 9 we gave biographical information concerning Sandlin and Kittrell so will not repeat it here. The Census of 1850 lists a John Stevenson, 43 years old and born in North Carolina. In his household were Nathan Hendrickson 24 years old, born in Iowa and Samuel Stevenson, 21 years old, born in Arkansas. Then on December 31, 1856, a John Stevenson sold to Micael Higgins of Humphrey County, Tennessee. "All the farm upon which I now reside." This farm was eighty acres on Black River near the present station of Wilby on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. We suppose Mr. Stevenson was a single man, possibly a widower, as a wife is not listed in the census and the land transfer to Mr. Higgins is not signed by a wife. We believe the above was the John Stevenson who was a member of the First Butler County Court. Seemingly he moved from our County soon after he sold his farm. We wish we knew more about him.
Before reviewing the accomplishments of the County Court we wish to pay tribute to the energy and spirit with which the Justices approached the task of establishing a government in a new county. In spite of the prodigious amount of labor necessary to support a family in pioneer Butler County, the Court members immediately went ot work and gave their time and energy in the civic problems at hand. Frequently they met at eight o'clock in the morning and seldom later than nine o'clock. Some of the members lived fifteen or more miles form Poplar Bluff. The roads were but littler more than trials, and the rivers and creeks had to be forded. In bad weather some of these Justices must have left home at four or five o'clock in the morning to arrive in Poplar Bluff on time. They pay was two dollars per day served in court. There was not an allowance for travel or horse feed.
The first set of court members met for the first time June 18, 1849 and closed their work August 13, 1850. In this period of fourteen months the Court attended to a large amount of routine business and had eight major accomplishments to it credit, as follows: (1) purchased a County Seat site, (2) Founded a County Seat—The town of Poplar Bluff, (3) Opened five new roads through the forests, (4) Divided the County roads into districts and appointed road overseers for the same, (6) Organized the County into four townships, Beaver Dam, Epps, Butler and Mud Creek; (6) Adopted seals for the County and Circuit Court, (7) Established judges for the first election to be held in Butler County, and (8) appropriated money to build a courthouse in Poplar Bluff. We believe this is a very worthy record.
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