Report of Investigating Committee to April Term, 1911, as to the Offices of Clerk & Master and County Clerk for the Past Ten Years
Clerk & Master, Chancery Court
We your committee appointed at the January Term of this Court to investigate the Office of the Clerk & Master for the last ten years submit the following report to-wit:
We made an examination of the books of the above named office and then well kept. The Clerk & Masters Cash Book is complete and shows the amount of funds received and the proper distribution of same. The Clerk & Master at each term of the Chancery Court makes a report to the Chancellor of the amount of money on hand and the notes loaned under the order of the Court in his possession, which is audited by a Committee appointed by the Chancellor and approved by him.
We found however uncalled for costs in this office amounting to practically $15.00 to which we called the Clerk & Masters attention and same will be turned into the County Treasury.
From the well kept books in this office we found the funds received and distributed easy to trace and the Clerk & Master is to be commended for same.
Respectfully submitted, C. E. Harris, R. T. Zirkle, J. J. Coile -- 4/3/11
County Court Clerk
We the undersigned Committee appointed at the January Term of the County Court to investigate the office of the County Court Clerk submit the following report to wit:
The length of time required to investigate this office will be understood when you are made acquainted with the condition of the office as it exists.
We found no system of Book Keeping in use in this office. It appears that the former Clerk attempted to use the Execution Docket for all purposes including his cash account. The Cash Book shows a few accounts opened which are usually left incomplete and not indexed. The various case tried in this Court are entered on the docket usually without date, explanations of purpose or result of litigation. In order to audit and fully investigate this class of individual accounts your Committee was forced to take each case from the filing of the Original Bill and trace it to the final decree. Depending almost wholly on the files in each case, the Execution Docket & Cash Book failing to show in almost every instance the distribution of the funds as ordered by Final Decree of this Court. The Clerk in many cases failed to charge himself with the fund received by him or to enter the dates of issue or payment of the various notes or evidence of indebtedness due in the various cases. It is at once apparent that your Committee limited to the Records as they appear would have been given an impossible task.
We have received but little assistance from the former Clerk except in turning over to us the checks executed by him in payments of the various claims due by him. Many of these checks are not entered on the record, therefore many claims appear unpaid when in fact some have been satisfied.
Our investigation of the Revenue Docket is limited by reason of the clerks failure to take file and preserve the bond required before the issueing [sic] of a Merchants license. We find on file only 203 of these bonds, forty one of which were issued by the present Clerk leaving 547 merchants licenses issued as shown by the Revenue Docket for which no bonds are on file. This Docket shows or should show a correct distribution of the various revenues collected by the clerk as directed by the levy made at each January term of this Court, while this hav[e] not been done the total amount collected being nearly correct. (The error appearing in the distribution of said fund) the County being saved harmless the committee did not think it necessary to make correct distribution.
One source of Revenue in this office is from the probate of deeds. There is only one way by which this can be traced and that is by the registration of said deeds in the Registers Office. It is the opinion of your committee that this would hardly pay as it would require months to make this investigation, and the expense of same would far exceed any Revenue unaccounted for, which we might find. You will find the various amts. with which Clerk Holt is chargable [sic] Entered in Double Entry Book marked Exhibit #1 to this report.
Commencing with the year 1901 we examined the Records in the office of S. M. Holtsinger County Court Clerk and find that he accounted to his successor in office J. F. Holt Clerk for the various sums due in various cases. See Receipts dated Sept. 5 1902, Inv. (?) Min. Book #6 Pgs. 450-451 $1169.02 and we found that this was the correct amount due from Clerk S. M. Holtsinger.
J. T. Holt County Court Clerk
We find the Clerk chargeable in the following cases and the following amts. to wit:
[list of causes and amounts follows]
A similar committee in September, 1886, found some irregularity in the manner of bookkeeping which make it obtruse [sic], and somewhat difficult to trace, therefore we find it almost an impossibility to arrive at a definate [sic] conclusion in regard to the true condition of the office, but in our Judgment, we find no intentional errors."
[Transcriber's Note: At one point, the Trustee was sued by the County Court for mishandling funds.]
