Part two
During territorial days and the early years of Minnesota statehood, minor legal disputes were most often settled in townships by a justice of the peace, an appointed or elected magistrate. Some handwritten records from the 1860s and 1870s survive from the court of Justice James Kelly in Yucatan Township, Houston County. There was one case of an indelicate nature, but most issues involved money.
A summons was issued by the justice of the peace and delivered by a constable to the plaintiff and the defendant usually a about a week or so before they were to appear before the justice of the peace on a certain date at a specified time, usually at 1 p.m. in Yucatan.
Usually, both parties appeared when required. Plaintiffs prevailed. Only once in these records did Justice Kelly rule in favor of the defendant when he sustained a motion to dismiss for “want of jurisdiction.” And there was one rare occasion, in 1878, when neither the plaintiff nor the defendant showed up. Therefore, Justice Kelly ruled against the plaintiff for court costs, which amounted to $1.25.
In August of 1868, Kelly ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Clawson Brothers of Rushford, for a nearly five-month-old unpaid bill of $36.68. The defendant, who appeared and “confessed judgment,” was ordered to pay $40, which included interest plus $2 court costs.
In an 1869 judgment concerning two past-due bills, the defendant was charged interest of 12% for one debt and 7% for the other.
Most complicated was an 1874 case involving a renter (of a house in Black Hammer), who had agreed to leave the same number of acres plowed at the end of one year as when he had taken possession. The plaintiff said the defendant had plowed 17 acres fewer than promised and asked for $1.40 per acre compensation. Cattle and a dead horse were also considerations in this complicated case. Both parties agreed to a trial without a jury. Justice Kelly eventually ruled in favor of the plaintiff for $28 plus costs for a total of $30.30.
One plaintiff asked for payment of $11 owed to him for a rifle gun and an undefined quantity of white beans, coffee (and an illegible item) that was sold to the defendant a month previous. The defendant appeared but “made no answer.” The judgement, with damages and costs, came to $14.05.
To satisfy one judgment, the defendant’s “thrashing” machine was seized and sold. Another plaintiff, who was owed $83, appeared in court stating “he had reasons to believe that the said defendant fraudulently conveyed or disposed or he is about to dispose of their property and effects so as to hinder the payment” of the debt.
One lady claimed in 1877 that she had agreed to perform housework for $1.50 a week when working inside the house and $2 when doing chores outside the house. She husked corn in the field for a day and a half for which she was to be paid 75 cents per day. She claimed to have earned $40 and had been paid three times but only for a total of $20. Justice Kelly ruled in her favor for $20 plus court costs of $2.65.
One 1869 defendant appeared, who fearing prejudice and seeking impartiality, was successful in having his case transferred to another jurisdiction. The case was transferred to the court of Alexander Simpson, a justice of the peace in Black Hammer. In 1874, another change of venue was granted with the case transferred to Mr. H. Birdsall, a justice of the peace in the town of Houston. In both instances, the court record in Yucatan referred to the receiving jurisdiction being “an adjoining elective district.”
That indelicate case was heard by Justice H. Persons in 1876, maybe a different justice due to the nature of the case, when an unmarried, but pregnant woman appeared. Reading between the lines, the named father of the yet unborn child was evidently not interested in marriage. She sought redress, requesting that the father “be arrested and dealt with according to law.” This is a rare case where no judgment or resolution was included.
Source: “The First Trials of Yucatan,” as collected by the Yucatan Township Board in 1997.