1: Where do you live Mr. St Clair?
Here in the city.
2: That is here in the city of Independence, Missouri.
Yes sir.
3: How long have you lived here?
It will be ten years this spring. It will be ten years the 27th of March since I came here, for I came here in 1882.
4: Do you know the property in controversy in this case?
I do.
5: How long have you known it?
Ever since I came here.
6: Do you know when the fence was built around it? First I will ask you this question, – were there any improvements on it when you came here first?
No sir, – none at all.
7: State when the first improvements were put on that property?
In 1883 they commenced digging post holes and fencing it, and I was down there several times when they were doing it.
8: That is when they were fencing it, you were down there?
Yes sir, several times.
9: When did they finally finish the fence?
Well it has been repaired several time, – I don’t know what you call finishing it, – but the fence was around it that fall, for I know I was next up on the lot in September and about the 15th. I was on the temple lot, and I went there to hunt the place where they supposed there was a stone sunk, but I couldn’t find it and at that time the fence was guilt around it, so far as I know.
10: When were the next improvements made on the property?
I don’t remember when that little church was bilt there, but it was some time since, – something like three years ago that was built I should say. I don’t just remember the date of that however, but I know when I first came here there was no fence around it, and there was a circus there and I went to the circus, and that is how I remember so distinctly that it was not fenced at that time.
11: When were the trees planted there, if you recollect.
I think it was in the fall of the same year, I think some trees were put on it in September, – it might have been later than that, but it was the same fall that the fence was put around it, – that is in the fall of the year that
planted there. The fence was put around it in the spring I think, and the trees were put there in the fall.
12: That was in the fall of 1883?
Yes sir. I don’t remember so much about the trees, as I do about their putting the fence there and digging the post holes.
13: What year did you come here?
Il 1883.
14: Did you ever see the ground prior to that time?
No sir.
15: When did you say there was not a fence around it?
I don’t know. I know there was not a fence around it at the time I first came here, – that I know.
16: You do not pretend to say it had never been fenced prior to that time?
No sir, I do not say that it had never been fenced, before that, but I do say that it had the appearance of never having been fenced at the time I first saw it.
17: Under whose charge was the fence being built at the time you first saw it being built?
Well Daniel Bander was up there, and he seemed to be in charge of it. I know he cut the hay off it that season and the next season too for that matter.
18: What seasons were these?
That was in 1883 and 1884 that he was cutting the hay off it that I know of.
19: How could there be hay on it if it was outside unfenced property in 1883, – how could he cut the hay off it if that was the case in 1883?
They put the fence around it in the spring of 1883, and of course the hay or grass grew on it that year, for the fence was around there early enough in the season for that.
20: Was there plenty of time to sow the grass that season and have hay from it?
No sir, they did not have to do that, for at that time it was fenced it was sodded.
21: Is that what the hay grew from?
Yes sir.
22: What sort of sod was it?
I don’t know, but I suppose it was blue grass, – most of it.
23: Was there any timothy hay there?
Yes sir there was timothy there, and probably some blue grass, and some red top, and probably some clover. I don’t know what was there, but it is likely that these grasses were there.
24: Were those voluntary grasses, – that is grasses that grow spontaenously from the soil?
No sir, – not all of them.
25: Were they not sown there prior to that time?
I can’t say, – they were like the balance of the grass that grows around the city.
26: Do you find timothy sod around out City?
Yes sir.
27: And clover?
We do.
28: We do?
Yes sir.
29: Where it is not under fence?
Yes sir. We find them mixed, – all kind of grasses and we call them tame grasses too. The seed gets scattered around, we don’t know how, but it does some way or other, and they grow, and we find them all around.
30: Do you say that had been sown on that lot?
I don’t know hether it had ever been sown on there or not. I wouldn’t certify to that.