Don't sell diseased meat

At the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center, we are forever in the process of updating each index to make our files more accessible, or to better comply with the law. Such is the case with an index of Justice of the Peace criminal cases. It named victims of sexual assault and, by Missouri law, that's no longer allowed, so archives assistant Tiffany Fleming has been working to redact victim names.

One item she came across that didn't have anything to do with assault came up as "stealing diseased meat." I don't know about you, but my first thought at that was, "How did they know the meat was diseased, and why would they steal it?"

So I went into the stacks and retrieved the file.

Sad to say, the charge was "sell diseased meat," not steal, but I still thought the story was interesting.

It happened in 1898. Defendants Peter and Mary Presnell were accused by the State of Missouri of knowingly selling 50 pounds of meat from a hog that had died of disease.

A state warrant signed by Justice of the Peace George W. Miller, dated March 15, 1898, stated that upon the oath of John Waller, Peter Presnell had sold diseased meat to him on or about March 10 of that year, in Whitewater Township, in the county's western portion.

A 1901 map at the Archive showing landowners in the county does not show Presnell or Waller as property owners (if they didn't own much property, it wouldn't have shown on the map, and neither man shows up in the county's probate record either), but does show George W. Miller as owning land directly south of Millersville.

As often happens with criminal case files, the outcome is not included, nor does it state how Waller came to know the meat was diseased, but the case file does indicate that a jury was called and paid to serve.

In January 1899, two sets of witnesses were called to appear in the JP's office in Whitewater Township.

The accusation from the file: "Peter and Mary Presnell ... on or about the 10th day of March A.D. 1898, willfully, unlawfully and knowingly did sell to one John Waller for the sum of three dollars fifty pounds of the flesh of a certain hog, which said hog died by disease and not by slaughter, or which was slaughtered when diseased ... the [Presnells] then and there, well knowing that said hog did not die by slaughter, but by disease, or was slaughtered when diseased, the nature of which disease is unknown to this prosecuting attorney, contrary to law and against the peace and dignity of the this state." This was signed by prosecuting attorney J.D. Hines.

In this index, we came across no other instances of selling diseased meat, but that doesn't mean it was necessarily a rare occurrence. This particular case rose to the level of prosecution and gives an interesting window onto the justice system at the end of the 19th century.