In 1893 William Helman, a lumber and coal dealer in Arapahoe, sent a letter and some petitions signed by "some of the oldest and best citizens" in the Arapahoe and Cambridge areas to the governor of the state of Washington, asking for the release of Francis Cushing. I've posted the document and a transcription ( http://cushings.com/roots/data/cushings/Hellman_petition.htm ) to my genealogy web site. Signers were from Furnas and Frontier counties. I've tried to identify the signers from census and directory records, to make sure I transcribed their names, often difficult to read, correctly. I have not identified many of them. If you recognize a signer, please send me a name, residence, and occupation and I'll add it to the transcription.

Mike Cushing
http://www.cushings.com/roots/