Information Sheet

 

 

R         Ault, John S.

367                  Journal, 1883‑1887.

                                    One volume.

 

 

 

This is the journal of John S. Ault, collector and city marshal of Salem in Dent County, Mis­souri.  The entries concern the collection of fees for business licenses and fines for vio­lations, cita­tions for public nuisances, and arrests for disorderly behavior and public intoxica­tion.

 

John S. Ault was appointed on 3 December 1883 as assistant marshal and collector of Sa­lem.  He filled the unexpired term of the previous officeholder.  Ault was later elected mar­shal and col­lector, and in 1887 was admitted to the Dent County bar.

 

Ault’s journal contains entries from 3 December 1883 through 1 October 1887.  The vol­ume offers an entertaining account of the duties of a local law enforcement officer and city mar­shal, and also the rough side of society in a small rural county seat.  Although he had to deal with a wave of burglaries in June 1884 and arson in January 1885, most of Ault’s time was spent col­lect­ing fees for business licenses and fines leveled by the municipal court, and in the abatement of public nui­sances.  The latter included the inspection of sidewalks, chimneys, and privies, and the removal of dead animals.  Ault also suppressed fighting and other disruptive behavior, public in­toxication, il­legal liquor sales, gambling and bawdy houses.  He commented freely on the per­pe­trators he ar­rested, and noted whether the subjects resisted arrest or sub­mitted peacefully to in­carceration.  Of one repeat offender of the sobriety laws who jumped bail, Ault wrote “good ridance [sic] to bad rubbish.”  It would be hard to argue in this individ­ual’s case that Ault was unfair, but in March 1885 the board of aldermen heard charges of partiality in office against Ault and the mayor of Sa­lem.  Ault noted the incident in his journal but there is no evidence that the charges were upheld.

 

Ault was primarily concerned with less‑than‑exemplary conduct occurring in Salem, but he also noted occasions and gatherings when good order prevailed.  Among those events so noted were meetings of the Democratic and Republican parties, Independence Day celebra­tions, and per­formances by circuses and theatrical troops.  Ault wrote that, during a perform­ance of Peck’s Bad Boy by a traveling troupe, good order prevailed despite the show's being “a great humbug.”

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