Palestine Texas December 9th 1867
Office District Clerk

Mr McRea

Respected Sir[,] I am in receipt of
your letter of the 22d of Nov and in reply I have to
inform you that the five Freedman [sic] that were sent to
the Penitentiary from this county were convicted at
the spring term of 1866 by jury and for the period of
two years[.] I cannot find the papers in their cases
although I have searched diligently for them and am
verry [sic] certain that they are not in the office. Consequent-
ly I am unable to give you all the information required.
I see on the Docket only four of their names and the word
“Theft” written opposite the column of Offences and
also the verdict of the jury stating the term of time
they were sent for. However I have obtained some inf-
ormation by inquiring around among the attys etc[.]
[T]hey tell me that neither of them had stolen the amt
of $10. Dollars [sic] worth. George Barnett was accused of
stealing two or three lbs of wool that had been taken off
of a dead sheep and layed in a fence corner. [H]e
acknowledged in Court that he had taken the wool but
did not think that any person wanted it or that
he was even doing wrong to take it. Sam Butler &
Ran Kimbrough was [sic] said to have stolen five or six
bushels of wheat worth about one dollar per bushel. [A]lthough
one of them was perfectly innocent of that. M. Hallums [?]
crime was for stealing 20 lb of cotton. Jacob Falk &
Aaron Leary I can’t learn a syllable about only that
the offence was theft and [they were] sent for the same length of