1904 Casper Police Docket Full Of Prostitutes, Drunks And Horses On Sidewalks

Sometimes the past shows up in all the wrong places.

In January, someone dropped off a 120-year-old leather-bound Casper Police Department docket book to Casper-based Wyoming Rescue Mission’s Rescued Treasures Thrift Store.

The store’s assistant manager, Scauti Hillman, recognized it was worth investigating, the Mission’s Community Engagement Coordinator Adam Flack said. And when they learned what it was, the mission wanted to get it back to the police department.

“Who it was that donated it, we don’t know,” he said, adding they also don’t know “the motivation for donating it or if it was just with somebody’s belongings.”

Inside it are notations of at least four years of arrests, fines and a glimpse into the daily docket of minor criminal activity of the city court, such as “reckless riding” of a horse, “inmates of a house of prostitution,” “disturbing the peace,” and just being a “drunk.”

The 315-page book covers activity between 1904 and 1908 in the cursive penmanship of “Justice of the Peace Frank Jameson” on many pages, as well as others.

With black gloves on his hands, Casper Police Lt. Michael Ogden opened up the book for Cowboy State Daily. It was presented by the Wyoming Rescue Mission to recently retired Police Chief Keith McPheeters in a ceremony last month.

Peace Disturber

It’s first page, dated June 8, 1904, the book documents Officer J. A. Sheffner charging a man named John Fuller with disturbing the peace. He was fined $5 and didn’t have the money, but was let go for paying “costs.”

“With consent of city marshal, fine remitted and defendant discharged on payment of costs, $4.10,” Jameson wrote and then signed it as “Police Justice.”

According to the docket entry the “costs” were broken down as:

• Complaint - $1

• Warrant - $1

• Docket - 15 cents

• Ruling - 20 cents

• Trial - $1

• Judgment - 50 cents

• Taxing cost - 25 cents

Sheffner was back in action June 14 nabbing a Harry Iba for “reckless riding” on the street on his horse. He was fined $1 and assessed $4.10 in costs.

Some is known about Sheffner.

The Natrona County Tribune under city expenses listed Sheffner’s salary as $100 a month and his horse rental was $12.50. He served the east side of Casper and, according to another newspaper report, joined the Natrona County Sheriff’s Department in 1906.

House Of Ill Repute Arrests

What are referred to in newspapers of the day as “bawdy houses” and “houses of ill repute” — as well as their female workers referred to as “inmates” — also appear in the docket pages.

On Dec. 27, 1905, Police Justice W. E. Tubbs records that a pair of women called “Darling Dean” and “Snook Blanch” were arrested for being “inmates of a house of prostitution.” They were fined $5 each.

On Feb. 1, 1908, the police docket reflects a roundup at a house of prostitution with 23 arrested. Three names — Nellie Pillar, Marjorie Williams and “Cap & Ball” — all pled guilty before Tubbs for “keeping a house of prostitution.” They were fined $40 each.

“Cap & Ball” may have been a reference to the house itself.

A Natrona County Tribune story nine months earlier on May 15, 1907, recounts how two young women ages 22 and 19 from Sioux City, South Dakota, went to the Natrona County prosecuting attorney with a story about how a couple and another man from Casper met them in Sioux City and “represented to them that they had secured for them a situation in a Casper hotel and railroad tickets were furnished them.”

The paper reports that when they arrived in Casper they were taken to the “Captain Ball, a place of ill repute and a house of ill fame.”

Another 19 women named pleaded guilty to “being inmates of house of prostitution” and made to pay $5 each, netting the city $95. An inflation calculator website shows the total $215 collected that day is worth $6,812 today.

Ogden in looking at the book, noted that to be drunk in 1908 would get someone a $5 fine, which today could be up to $750 if a person is driving while drunk.

The day after the prostitution roundup in 1908, police brought in Harry Castle for being drunk and assessed him the $5 fine.

On Valentine’s Day of that year a Joe Seriors was arrested for imbibing too much while Jack Allew was arrested for assault, which cost him $10, the docket shows.

Special Find

Ogden said the discovery of the docket represents something special for the police department.

“We’re going to encase it in a glass case,” he said. “It’s really cool to have it back.”

While the department has a few glass cases full of historical items from its past in a hall inaccessible to the general public, Ogden said when the department moves into its new location that is being remodeled a block away, plans call for putting its police memorabilia in a public space. He believes the docket book likely will be among those items.

Flack, who said he’s managed a thrift store in the past, said that over the years the mission stores have seen other items donated with historic or other value that may not have been understood. Or, the donor just did not know, having placed in a wrong box or piece of clothing sent to the store.

“There’s different things like that jewelry that have sentimental value that if we got to it soon enough, we could get it back to them,” he said. “I think at one point, someone donated, accidentally, their engagement ring.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.