COMMUNIA, IOWA 271
The records of the district court of Clayton County for the
September term of 1858 show suits filed against Weitling by A.
Peick for $607.32, by F. Peick for $117.12, and by Louis Arnold
for $187. All suits were for the recovery of loans made in 1854,
except in the case of Arnold, who demanded pay for "work and
labor done." When the sheriff reported that the defendant could
not be found in the colony, a notice of the action was printed for
four weeks, as required by law, in the Guttenberg newspaper. In
the same term, another suit was filed by Jacob Ponsar and Ben
jamin F. Weiss against the Workingmen's League; Rudolph
Kreter, treasurer; Weitling; and several others. It demanded an
accounting of the colony's assets and liabilities and partition of
whatever property might remain after all just claims had been
met.
Dennis Quigley and John Garber were appointed receivers for
the colony, and Garber filed a report with the district court of
Clayton County on May 30, 1857. The court order instructed the
receivers to take possession and dispose of all personal property of
the colony and to rent and administer its real estate, because it
"is now in the custody and control of no responsible parties and
... is in danger of waste and damage." Garber collected a fee
of $100 "for 35 days' service, expense and mileage."
His report provided a detailed inventory of the colony's prop
erty and showed real estate to the amount of 1,290 acres, of which
only 174 acres were under cultivation. The real estate was tempo
rarily leased, with the sawmill and equipment, to private persons
by direction of the court, and the rental of each farm included
livestock and chattel property. The latter included not only farm
tools and accessories, but such things as "sythes," lye barrels, two
syringes, one "night chair," a secretary's stamp, and a "Taylor
table." The inventory for the store and storage room listed dry
goods, groceries, one guitar, three pounds "allum," a "barrel Sour
Crout," two boats on the Volga, a "large Baking Trought," a
coffee burner, "47 papers chewing tobacco, 3 papers smoking
Do," and a supply of ledgers and minute books. The receiver