Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 21, Number 1-4, 1953

Page 263

ELIAS SMITH JOURNAL OF A PIONEER EDITOR March 6, 1859—September 23. 1863* (continued) EDITED BY A. R. MORTENSEN

Tuesday [October] 2 [I860].—Held court for the trial of the case The People vs Deloss M Gibson for murder and spent most of the day in arranging a jury without completing the pannel There had [been] so many who had expressed opinions or been identified or connected with the case, first and last, it was a difficult matter to get twelve good and lawful jurors who were unexceptionable to one party or the other It was late at night before the News was ready for press Wednesday 3d.—The case of Gibson was before the Court; the Jurry [sic] was completed in the forenoon and the testimony heard in the afternoon, and at about Seven o clock in the evening, after being out about one hour and a half, the jury returned a verdict of "guilty of murder in the Second degree" and Sentenced him to ten years in the Penitentiary at hard labor. I was unwell in the morning and sick in the afternoon, but tried my best to overcome it, and kept at my post till the last, tho I had to leave the Court room two or three times for a few minutes at a time in consequence of sickness or pain, being attacked with cholera morbus violently, and after the case was disposed of by the verdict of the jury, I had to be taken home which act of charity was performed by R. T. Burton and Andrew Cunningham who took me in a carriage for which I was thankful indeed. I was very sick all night but not in much pain, that having left me after the administration of the elders which I solicited as soon as the Court room was closed by the departure of those who were in attendance on the Court J. W . Youngs freight train arrived in the evening, also E D Woolley's train. They had both been to the Missouri river and back this summer—the former with ox teams, the latter with mules "This installment of the diary covers the period October 2, 1860-August 31, 1861.


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