American Historical Ephemera & Photography

"The State of Texas / County of Calhoun." Z.K. Fulton, Appellant vs. M.W. Alexander, Appellee, from District Court Calhoun County, Fall Term 1857. Indianola, TX: 1856-1858. 54 manuscript leaves, legal-sized sheets, ribbon tied at head, affixed with the seal of Calhoun County, previously folded, light wear at edges, occasional patches of staining.

A contemporary manuscript transcript of a fascinating appeal case that took place in Texas District Court on the Gulf Coast in the late 1850s. Z.K. Fulton appealed an earlier judgment against him, which found him liable for not delivering money to New Orleans, for M.W. Alexander which he had agreed to do in 1855 without payment, because of a yellow fever outbreak there. Instead, he fled the city and entrusted the delivery to a financial firm, J.W. Dodd & Co., that promptly went bankrupt and failed to make delivery. The appeals court presided over by Judge Fielding Jones in the now-defunct town of Indianola, this time ruled in favor of Fulton, stating that, "A bailee without hire is responsible only for good faith and ordinary diligence, that is, such as an ordinary prudent man would exercise in matters of his own business; and this to be determined by the jury under proper instructions from the court." The present manuscript contains relevant documents from the original case, heard in 1856, as well as the record of the proceedings from the appeal.

In the early 1850s, New Orleans suffered from repeated and horrific outbreaks of yellow fever and other mosquito-borne illnesses during the summer seasons, with an average mortality rate of ten percent of the population. The judge in the case, Fielding Jones, was from Victoria, and three years later would be the town's representative at the Texas Secession Convention.