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quently occured as to the ownership and identity of stock. To remedy this difficulty as much as possible it was provided by law that the owner of stock might choose any particular ear-mark not already registered and after that no one else was allowed to use that particular mark. Of course it was equivalent to theft for any individual to to put his ear-mark on any stock which did not belong to him and such an offense was punishable by heavy penalty. After an ear-mark had been registered with the board of commissioners, it was prima facie evidence of ownership when found on a horse, cow, hog or any other animal. Deeming this explanation sufficient we proceed to give a number of ear-marks as registered.

"TERRITORY OF IOWA,

"MARION COUNTY. (

"ANNY JONES, recorder of ear-mark.

"On the sixth day of January, 1846, Anny Jones made return of her earmark for hogs, cattle, etc., to be recorded, which is as follows; to-wit., a swollow-fork in the left ear.

"L. W. BABBITT, "Clerk Board of Commissioners.

"JOHN JONES, recorder of ear-mark. "On the sixth day of January, 1847, John Jones made return of his earmark for hogs, cattle, etc., to be recorded as follows; to-wit., an under-bit in the left ear and a slit in the right ear.

"L. W. BABBITT. "Clerk Board of Commissioners.

"JOHN M. JONES, recorder of ear-mark. "On the sixth day of January, 1846, John M. Jones made return of his ear-mark for hogs, cattle, etc., to be recorded, which is as follows; to-wit., a swallow-fork in the left ear and a square-crop off the right ear.

"L. W. BABBITT, "Clerk Board of Commissioners.

LANDON J. BURCH, recorder of ear-mark. "On the fifth day of February, 1846, Landon J. Burch made his return of his ear-mark for cattle, hogs, etc., to be recorded, which is as follows; to-wit., a smooth-crop off the left ear and an under-bit in the right ear.

"MARTIN NEEL, recorder of ear-mark.

"L. W. BABBITT,

"Clerk Board of Commissioners.

"On the first day of April, 1846, Martin Neel made return of his earmark for cattle, hogs, etc., to be recorded, which is as follows; to-wit., a crop off the right ear.

"L. W. BABBITT, "Clerk Board of Commissioners."

It seems that Mr. Babbitt was not only a county official but also a stockbreeder, he not only registered ear-marks, but was likewise an owner of earmarks, as witness the following:

“L. W. BABBITT, recorder of ear-mark.

"On the fourth day of April, 1846, L. W. Babbitt made return of his ear

mark for cattle, hogs, etc., to be recorded, which is as follows; to-wit., an upper-bit in each ear.

"L. W. BABBITT, "Clerk Board of Commissioners."

Another part of the business of the commissioners was the licensing of groceries and ferries. The term "grocery" had a specific meaning in early days. A license to keep a grocery carried with it the permit to sell whisky. Groceries were usually licensed for a period of three months at a time and a fee of two dollars was charged.

In those days there were no bridges and in crossing the larger streams the traveler had to depend on ferries. It not only required considerable capital to equip a ferry, but necessitated quite an outlay to maintain it. In order to protect the owner of a ferry froin ruinous competition and the traveler from exorbitant charges it was customary for the board of county commissioners to license a certain individual, giving him the exclusive right to operate a ferry at some important point and prescribed the rate of ferriage to be charged. A ferry license usually cost two dollars and the schedule of prices to be charged were generally as follows:

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By this manner of supervision the county realized considerable revenue from licenses and the traveling public were protected from avaricious and grasping ferrymen. Some of these more important ferries along the Des Moines River in the county still retain the names of their former owners. Among others we mention the following: Wilson's Ferry, Keables' Ferry, Horn's Ferry and Durham's Ferry, the last being on the direct road from Knoxville to Oskaloosa.

SECOND ELECTION.

The first officers of the county, as has already been intimated, were chosen at a special election and held their positions only till the next regular election. This occurred August 3, 1846, consequently the first county officials served less than a year for their first term of office. Prior to the time for holding this election, on the fifteenth of July, L. W. Babbitt, clerk of the board of county commissioners, wrote the following, addressed to the various judges and clerks of election; it will be seen by perusing the document that Mr. Babbitt did not presume much on the knowledge of the persons addressed:

"To the judges and clerks of election:

"When the hour arrives for opening the polls, if all of the judges are not present those present will appoint a justice of the peace to act as judge, but if there be no justice present then the judge or judges will appoint some discreet person or persons, having the qualifications of electors, to act as judge or judges. He will then take and subscribe to the oath on page seven of the poll-book. The oath will be administered by some person au

thorized to administer oaths, if there be any such person present, but if there be no such person present then the judges will administer the oath to each other. The person administering the oath must sign the certificate on page seven of the poll-book and attach thereto his official capacity. If the oath be administered by one of the judges to the other judges and the clerks, one of the judges so sworn must administer the oath to the judge who administered the oath to him, and another oath and certificate must be written out, the oath must be signed by the judge to whom it is administered, and the certificate must be signed by the judge administering the oath. In signing the poll-books the judges and clerks must, in all cases, attach their official capacity. The clerks will be appointed by the judges. They must have the qualifications of electors, and must be sworn. The judges will cause the blanks in the heading of the poll-books to be filled with their names and the names of the clerks. The judges will then cause the polls to be opened by proclamation. The polls will be opened at nine o'clock in the morning and closed at six o'clock in the afternoon. Half an hour before the closing of the polls the judges will cause it to be proclaimed that the polls will close in half an hour.

"All electors who have resided in the Territory thirty days next preceding the election are entitled to vote. If the vote of anyone is challenged by an elector who has previously voted, or by one of the judges, such a person will not be allowed to vote unless he shall take the following oath-here follows the prescribed oath. Immediately after the polls are closed the judges will proceed to count the votes cast at the election. The clerks will write down the names of all persons voted for under the head of 'persons voted for,' and carry out the number of votes each person received in a line with his name, under the head of 'tally of votes,' and write down the office for which such person received such vote or votes, under the head of 'offices,' on page four and five of the poll-book. After the votes are all counted the clerks will write down the name of every person voted for, the office for which such person received such vote or votes, and the number he did receive, written out at full length, under the form on page six of the poll-books. The judges will then certify the statements therein made to be correct and sign the same and the clerks will attest and sign the same. After the votes are all counted and the returns made out as hereinbefore required, the judges will enclose and seal one of each of the poll-books under cover, directed to the clerk of the board of county commissioners of Marion county. The judges will then appoint one of their number or one of the clerks to convey the packet thus sealed to the clerk aforesaid, and to deliver the same to said clerk at his office within nine days from the closing of the polls. The other poll-books and papers will be deposited with one of the judges and by him safely preserved for a period of forty days, during which time the same will be subject to the inspection of any person who may wish to examine the same.

"Knoxville, July 15, A. D. 1846.

"L. W. BABBITT
"Ex officio Clerk."

At this election the county was subdivided into eight election precincts, similar to those which were designated by the commissioners at their meeting in March, as already given, with the exception of English precinct, whose boundaries had, in the meantime, been slightly changed so as to take in a small portion of the county which had been inadvertently left out; the name of the precinct also was changed to that of Liberty.

This being the first regular election we deem it of sufficient importance to give a brief synopsis of the vote and election officers in each precinct, as follows:

KNOXVILLE PRECINCT.

Election held at the district court room; Judges, G. W. Clark, Landon J. Burch and Moses Tong. Clerks, Isaac H. Walters and George G. Rose. Number of votes cast, 64.

The vote for the several candidates was as follows:

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Election held at the house of Benjamin Bowman; James Chesnut, Charles Sharp and Allen Tice, judges; J. S. West and J. W. Hayes, clerks. The number of votes cast was 79, distributed among the various candidates as follows:

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