Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

in the litigation.
In a 1938 edition of The New York Times, there was
an editorial on ‘integrity’ which was based on the
Jones County Calf Case. Even so, local citizens and
editors could not quite feel that the tenacious Johnson
had much integrity in his make up when he kept
‘courting’ the case all of those long years. Benjamin
Chaplin, who delivered the first mail through Jones
County, in buckskins, wrote to the Anamosa Eureka in
1882, declaring, "the people of Jones (county) have
stood by and permitted what I consider a shame and
outrage being perpetrated on some of the best citizens
of the county....having known some of the defendants
for 38 years, I have no hesitancy in saying that they are
all honorable, upright men, good law-abiding citizens,
and are held in high respects by all the people of the
county. I feel that this suit is only making our honest
men trouble and the taxpayers‘ costs for no just
cause".
And to enlarge upon the the philosophy of the
famous quote that a man is without honor in his own
country, the editor of the Eureka. in the middle of the
affair in I882, wrote ‘there is one compensatory fact
that must be a source of great satisfaction for the
defendants. and that is, that almost to a man, our
citizens have sympathized with, and emphatically
endorsed their position from the investigation of _the
famous calf-stealing suit down to this day.‘
J.H. Ramsey was the Jones county clerk of court
when the case concluded and he recorded the iinal
entries of the transcripted judgment from Blackhawk
county. Ramsey, 60 years later, prepared an article for
publication in the Palimpsest for the State Historical
Society of Iowa. In the article. he mentioned that the
defendants also kept the trial going. He wrote, ‘many of
the opinions rendered by the supreme court in Iowa in
this case blazed a new legal trail in determining the
application of law to actions of this character. The case
brought forth decisions which stood for the guidance of
the courts, not only in this state but in other states as
well....and certain procedures should be followed.
particularly a procedure to separate the questions of
law from the questions of fact.‘
Robert Johnson. “Jones County Calf Case“
(Submitted by Anamosa Historical Society)
Johnson repaid his debtors little by little, and
eventually earned the respect of the citizens of
Anamosa, who in 1909, elected him as mayor. He was
reelected for a second term. He died in 1914.
A Man's Character Restored
The Jones County Calf case involves three related
law suits. four calves. and the case was never tried in
Jones County. The first case was called the Note Case.
In June 1874, S.D. Potter returned to Jones County
from Greene County and told his friend, Robert
Johnson, that he was looking for cattle to buy. Potter
was going further east, and it was agreed that Johnson
would buy some cattle locally and have them ready for
Potter when he retumed.
At 11 a.m. on June 4th, Johnson and his brother.
Newt. went to Olin for supplies. While there, Johnson
asked the proprietors of the Coppes & Derr general store
if they knew of any cattle for sale. Then a stranger,
introducing himself as John Smith, inquired as to what
kind of cattle he wanted. Smith then told him he had
four calves on the commons to sell. The three then went
to Sargent‘s Bluffs to inspect the cattle. They found
three, dark-colored calves which Smith claimed were
his. He assured them the fourth was as good. Johnson
paid him, and they agreed that Smith would have the
cattle in Leonard Hines‘ pasture for Johnson to pick up
the next morning. Johnson then went to Stanwood,
where he engaged in other business. Later, Potter
returned. bought these dark-colored calves from
Johnson, and returned to Greene County.
On June third, John Foreman had four calves stolen.
Being unable to find them, he went to Greene County
submitted by Mary Shanney
and found his calves in Potter's herd. Potter told him
he'd gotten them from Robert Johnson. Foreman,
accompanied by Potter, went back to Jones County.
Then, Johnson, Foreman, and Potter went to
Mechanicsville to see a lawyer, Charles Wheeler, where
Johnson told his story:‘Charley. John Foreman here
lost four calves, and he has gone out to Greene County
and found them in Potter's herd, and Potter says he got
them from me. I got them off Clem Lane's son-in-law,
Smith. Now, what am I going to do about it?‘
Wheeler told Johnson that because he had handled
the calves he had to pay for them and then get his
money back from Smith. Johnson agreed, and insisted
they all go back to the Coppes & Derr store, where the
proprietors would verify his story. The store owners did
agree that the incident happened, but they were unable
to say exactly when it happened. Those who he had had
transactions with in Stanwood on the same day that he
bought the calves from Smith, said that it was not on
that day, but nearly two months later. Johnson then
gave Foreman a promissory note for $24, and Foreman
and Potter went home.
Johnson then went to the justice of the peace and
obtained a warrant to arrest John Smith. At Sargent‘s
Bluff, where Clem Lane lived, Johnson found that Lane
had no son-in-law named Smith. In later conversations,
Johnson claimed that when he drove the calves from
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