Alexander Jester, alias, W.A. Hill
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Alexander Jester, alias, W.A. Hill
 Debbiann
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Posted: 17 May 2009 1:28AM GMT |
Classification: Query
Surnames: Jester, Hill, Doudebush, Wilkins, Gates, Forrest, Reynolds, Brown, Evans, Eilman, Roark, Copp, Bates
ALEX JESTER CHANGED NAME - Known in Oklahoma and Texas as W.A. Hill. - His Efforts To Secure A Pension. - Story Of His Life Told In Records. - Never Admitted He was JESTER Till Year Ago.
New London, Mo., July 20.-It was 9:17 o'clock this morning when Alexander JESTER walked into court and took his seat, the only chair with a specially prepared cushion in it. Jester was in his shirt sleeves, his cane in one hand and his morning mail in the other. He read his mail in court.
George W. Doudebush, one of the special examiners of the pension bureau, was placed on the stand this morning. He testified the certificates and applications for pension made by Alexander JESTER, alias W.A. Hill.
W.F. Wilkins of Norman, O.T., clerk of the Second district court, testified he knew the prisoner as W.A. Hill, and had assisted him in getting a pension and also a divorce.
It will be remembered that when JESTER was first arrested at Shawnee, O.T., he denied his identity. He claimed that he was not Alexander JESTER, the man who traveled through Kansas and Missouri with Gilbert W. Gates. He stated that he lived in Denton county, Texas, in 1871, and not in Missouri.
Attorneys for the prisoner made a fight to keep out these pension papers, as they prove conclusively that JESTER had been known under two names. In arguing for the relevancy of the important evidence, attorney Forrest said it was admissable because it went to show that the prisoner at the bar had been trying to separate himself from the Alexander JESTER who traveled with Gates, ever since he broke jail in 1872, and that he never admitted it until shortly before he was taken from Mexico to Paris last year.
The prosecuting attorney read the letters JESTER had written to the pension department pleading for a pension. He said he had not applied for a pension until compelled to do so on account of his inability to work.
The jury was excluded from the room while these letters were read to the judge, and he heard attorneys on the admissibility and inadmissibility of this evidence. When the lawyers had finished the judge called for the jury and admitted the evidence and the letters JESTER had written to the pension department and the application he made, which shows his duplicity, were read.
It was a decided victory for the state and made the old prisoner look sad.
The pension papers which were read to the court by Attorney Forrest were a series of surprising facts and gives some of Jester's history. Taken in connection with a divorce proceeding in Oklahoma it appears from the papers read that he was married to Delilah JESTER, in early time, probably in the '50's. She went to Kansas and died in 1878. On June 18, 1870, he swears he was married to Julia Reynolds in Texas, who had borne him three children, and from whom he secured a divorce at Norman, O.T. on Nov. 24. 1894.
On May 24, 1896, he was married to Margaret E. Brown.
In a series of questions submitted to JESTER by H. Clay Evans, the commissioner of pensions, he claimed that he had three children, when in fact he had at least eight living at the time the statement was made. In the same series of questions he made mention of only one wife, while the court records shows him married three times at least, and at the time of his arrest he was engaged to be married again.
Garnett Eilman of Mason county, Illinois, testified that in 1871 he worked for Henry Hofferkamp in a livery stable in Springfield, Ill. Jester and his team stopped in this stable. He had a buffalo calf and a shepherd dog. He left the dog there and he was afterward called "Buffalo Jack," because JESTER had told how the dog had helped to capture buffalo salves out in Kansas.
The state has now reached Texas on Jester's trail. Captain J.E. Roark of Denton, Texas, testified that he had lived within 200 yards of the prisoner in 1872 or 1873. This was after JESTER broke jail in Mexico.
The witness said he knew JESTER by the name of W.A. Hill and that he (JESTER, alias Hill) had worked for him. Jester at one time sold books and the witness bought a book off him. Mr. Roark told the correspondent that JESTER also preached and that he called himself a "new light" preacher.
W.S. Copp and Charles Bates of Denton, Texas, also swore that they knew the prisoner in Texas as W.A. Hill.
Source: The Quincy Daily Whig, Quincy, Illinois, Saturday, July 21, 1900; Pg. 4
New London, Mo., July 20.-It was 9:17 o'clock this morning when Alexander JESTER walked into court and took his seat, the only chair with a specially prepared cushion in it. Jester was in his shirt sleeves, his cane in one hand and his morning mail in the other. He read his mail in court.
George W. Doudebush, one of the special examiners of the pension bureau, was placed on the stand this morning. He testified the certificates and applications for pension made by Alexander JESTER, alias W.A. Hill.
W.F. Wilkins of Norman, O.T., clerk of the Second district court, testified he knew the prisoner as W.A. Hill, and had assisted him in getting a pension and also a divorce.
It will be remembered that when JESTER was first arrested at Shawnee, O.T., he denied his identity. He claimed that he was not Alexander JESTER, the man who traveled through Kansas and Missouri with Gilbert W. Gates. He stated that he lived in Denton county, Texas, in 1871, and not in Missouri.
Attorneys for the prisoner made a fight to keep out these pension papers, as they prove conclusively that JESTER had been known under two names. In arguing for the relevancy of the important evidence, attorney Forrest said it was admissable because it went to show that the prisoner at the bar had been trying to separate himself from the Alexander JESTER who traveled with Gates, ever since he broke jail in 1872, and that he never admitted it until shortly before he was taken from Mexico to Paris last year.
The prosecuting attorney read the letters JESTER had written to the pension department pleading for a pension. He said he had not applied for a pension until compelled to do so on account of his inability to work.
The jury was excluded from the room while these letters were read to the judge, and he heard attorneys on the admissibility and inadmissibility of this evidence. When the lawyers had finished the judge called for the jury and admitted the evidence and the letters JESTER had written to the pension department and the application he made, which shows his duplicity, were read.
It was a decided victory for the state and made the old prisoner look sad.
The pension papers which were read to the court by Attorney Forrest were a series of surprising facts and gives some of Jester's history. Taken in connection with a divorce proceeding in Oklahoma it appears from the papers read that he was married to Delilah JESTER, in early time, probably in the '50's. She went to Kansas and died in 1878. On June 18, 1870, he swears he was married to Julia Reynolds in Texas, who had borne him three children, and from whom he secured a divorce at Norman, O.T. on Nov. 24. 1894.
On May 24, 1896, he was married to Margaret E. Brown.
In a series of questions submitted to JESTER by H. Clay Evans, the commissioner of pensions, he claimed that he had three children, when in fact he had at least eight living at the time the statement was made. In the same series of questions he made mention of only one wife, while the court records shows him married three times at least, and at the time of his arrest he was engaged to be married again.
Garnett Eilman of Mason county, Illinois, testified that in 1871 he worked for Henry Hofferkamp in a livery stable in Springfield, Ill. Jester and his team stopped in this stable. He had a buffalo calf and a shepherd dog. He left the dog there and he was afterward called "Buffalo Jack," because JESTER had told how the dog had helped to capture buffalo salves out in Kansas.
The state has now reached Texas on Jester's trail. Captain J.E. Roark of Denton, Texas, testified that he had lived within 200 yards of the prisoner in 1872 or 1873. This was after JESTER broke jail in Mexico.
The witness said he knew JESTER by the name of W.A. Hill and that he (JESTER, alias Hill) had worked for him. Jester at one time sold books and the witness bought a book off him. Mr. Roark told the correspondent that JESTER also preached and that he called himself a "new light" preacher.
W.S. Copp and Charles Bates of Denton, Texas, also swore that they knew the prisoner in Texas as W.A. Hill.
Source: The Quincy Daily Whig, Quincy, Illinois, Saturday, July 21, 1900; Pg. 4