Page:06-24-1920 -The Story of the Jones County Calf Case.pdf/7

 County Calf Case. That case lasted, together with the other two cases, approximately a quarter of a century. It was tried wall over eastern Iowa pretty nearly. Changes of venue were taken, and this and that, and it was the real case of the three.

Before I go into the story proper of the loss of the veal, I want to say a word to you about the plaintiff, and the seven defendants. They all lived in the same neighborhood in southern Jones County, and were all farmers, well-to-do for prairie farmers, and all reputable men. All of the defendants but one lived there. One of the defendants, by the name of Potter, lived then in Greene County. He had lived in Jones County. They are all dead, gentlemen. I used to think, of course, that the defendants were the most wicked men that ever lived; that they were scoundrels and outlaws and that they ought to be hung. And I believed it so thoroughly, it was so soaked into me, that I believed it until after they were all dead. Looking backward, I know now that, with perhaps just one single exception, the defendants were all reputable men, and probably believed Bob Johnson had stolen the calves.

Now, going to the real case, the last one, the case for damages, the story in outline is something like this:

Bob Johnson and one of the defendants by the name of Potter had been raised together in the State of Ohio and were friends. They came west about the same time and settled in the same neighborhood. Later Potter moved out to Greene County. In 1874, (this month, in June, 1874) Potter came down from Greene County to buy some calves to take them west to his place in Greene County, and he stopped over night with his friend Bob Johnson. He told Bob what his mission was down there, and said, "Now, I am going on down to Big Rock (a little ways east of there) to pick up some calves; and, Bob, if you can find any calves up here that are all right, you buy them for me and when I come back on my way home, I will take the calves that you have bought for me." Potter went on down east, down towards Big Rock.

The next day Bob and his brother, Newt Johnson, went up to their little neighborhood town of Olin, in Jones County, to